The Presidents

So I've heard from many people that once you've seen Mount Rushmore, you've seen Mount Rushmore.

The thing is, I had never seen Mount Rushmore.  It had to be done!  

We left Crazy Horse and zig zagged our way through the Badlands to the find the presidents.  

I had to buy an annual pass to park for $11.  So if my car ever arrives there again this year, it would take my cost per use down to $5.50, but that won't happen.  Too bad.  

Parking was disastrous.  I don't know, maybe I was doing it wrong, but they had different parking levels so I picked one, but there were no spots available there, so you would have to leave the park in order to return and try parking again (put that annual pass to good use!).  So I just drove around and tried to park in places that were too small for my beast of a car and then yelled at a few people until finally someone left and I swerved toward them and into a spot and probably made a bunch of people mad.  This is America.  

Once we got in, it was a lot less stressful.

We walked in and there they were!  Much smaller than Crazy Horse!  Those guys are way up there!

We had planned to be there for the evening lighting ceremony.  It started at dusk, but they didn't actually light anything until after dark.  It was a long day for us!

We listened to some presidential trivia and some other stuff.  I couldn't even tell you what she was saying, because it had been a long day for us and I just wanted to see these guys all lit up.  They showed a video (from the Discovery Education site- I'm pretty sure I can get it through my Discovery Education account but I haven't looked...just a side note for my teacher friends).

Finally it was getting dark out, so they did the ceremonial lighting.

The coolest part was the end of the evening, when they invited all the former and current service men and women to come forward for the taking down of the flag.  All kinds of people swarmed forward!  They took down the flag and then each of them introduced themselves.

It was very cool.  

We were beyond exhausted by the end, so we booked it out of there and I beat everyone to my car and tried to swerve around them as I zipped out of the parking lot.  Just kidding, it was very safe.  

Now I've seen Mount Rushmore.