Oh, how I loved our mornings at Under Canvas. I loved waking up in that luxurious bed after a morning sleeping in the fresh air and hearing the sounds of my people sleeping on all sides of me. I loved tip-toeing out of there, throwing a blanket around my shoulders and walking the gravel path to the main lobby for a cup of coffee. I loved the sounds of nature - the woodpecker looking for breakfast just down by the fire pit, the cute little chipmunk's shadow crawling up and around the top of our tent, the quiet morning conversations of cute pajama'ed kids in search of hot chocolate or a bagel after a good night's sleep. While we still had a lot of exploring to do in South Dakota, my heart would have been pretty content just hanging out at this magical little place all day long.
But adventure called us away on our second day of exploring, first starting at Bear Country USA to see some wildlife up close and personal. If you're not familiar with Bear Country, it's basically a drive-thru zoo where you get to see a lot of wildlife in a more natural environment than a small cage at a zoo. They send you right on in to the same field as antelope, reindeer, mountain lions, and dozens of black bears, and at times, they get a little too close for comfort, especially if you forgot you had a bag of Doritos in the back of the truck. ;)
Next up was a visit to the Crazy Horse memorial. This was a timely stop for me because I had just finished a super good book called Where the Lost Wander, a book all about the Oregon Trail and early relationships between the white settlers heading west and the Native American tribes who were already settled there. I actually found a portrait of the Native American chief from the book! It was pretty interesting seeing the manicured magnitude of Mount Rushmore, followed by the unfinished work of this memorial. Finished or not, both could be appreciated for the work, the story, the symbolism, and the history, full of good and bad parts. We can't rewrite it, but there's sure a lot we can learn from it.
We spent the afternoon right outside our Under Canvas property having a wonderful time at Rushmore Tramway Adventures. We thought the kids might want a break from the driving, nature, and history parts of our trip and I just knew this would likely end up being one of their favorite parts. We did it all - the alpine slide, the chair lift, the tube slide, and zipline. Cruz loved zip-lining for the first time, but the alphine slide was our favorite part. Except for the first time when we thought Mila was old enough to go down herself. She was a little too cautious and inched down at a snail's pace, causing a bit of a traffic jam behind her! Poor thing didn't figure out how to push in the brake to accelerate and I swear it took her fifteen minutes to make it down! So the next time, I took her and gave her the thrill of her life! She screamed the entire way down and then immediately asked to go again.
And then we made sure to get back to our tent to make the most of our last night at Under Canvas. The weather could not have been better, we hauled a bag of board games, coloring books, and all the fixings for pb&js for the kids, and made them a picnic lunch while Beau and I dined on our own date night spread. We stayed on the patio through dinner, played a little Bingo, and then spent our last night around the fire with s'mores, the guitar, and the most beautiful sunset gift.
South Dakota was definitely surprising us with its beautiful landscape, but our stay at Under Canvas definitely added a special element to our trip. I sure hope our paths cross with another Under Canvas in the future - maybe next time with one of those stargazer tents. :)
