Summer Vacation of 2015

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I am starting this thread so we can share our pictures of our vacations or Holidays.

My husband (Gerry) and I went out west with my Brother in-Law (Jim) and Sister In-law (Diane) for 9 days at the end of August beginning of September. Gerry and Diane did most of the planning and made the reservations.

The first day was the traveling day.. We have not been on a plane since  2009 so we got to the airport 2 hours before our flight. I am glad we did as our gate was on the other side of the airport. I got to sit by the window. It was a nice flight to Rapid City, South Dakota. The hotel had a van there to pick us up and take us to the beautiful Hilton Gardens Inn. We check-in and went to our rooms. Then we all went for a nice walk to a restaurant for dinner. Then walked back to the hotel after stopping at a store for drinks, cooler and ice.

The second day after a great breakfast we caught a ride on the Mount Rushmore tours. They sent a van to pick us up from the Inn and took us to Fort Hayes. There was old building like a little western town. I liked the post office as it had stamps on the walls. ( see the picture) 

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This is the bus and we had a great driver/tour guide. His name was Matt and he was very knowledgeable about the area and was very funny. It was a 9 hour tour. We stopped at the favorite restaurant of Matts. He said that a few of our US presidents had dinner there. I had the Buffalo pot roast. (it was outstanding) 

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Gerry and I

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We really enjoyed the Mount Rushmore tour. I have seen pictures of it but seeing it in person was awesome.
After Mount Rushmore we went to the Crazy Horse Monument. Then we went back to Fort Hayes for a dinner and show.
The food was great, chicken, baked beans, baked potatoes and chucky applesauce. It was a long day so we were are tired when we got back to the Inn. But we had to pack up because the next morning we were renting a van to go to Yellowstone park. We stopped at The Devils tower and Little Bighorn.

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Gerry and his Sister Diane.

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We went to a gift shop and I saw this sign... made us all laugh!

[Philatarium]

There's a lot of wisdom in that!

Could equally apply to home, online, etc.

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We went to Little Bighorn. I am very happy we got to visit this but the pictures and paintings of the battle were very disturbing.

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This is the picture of our Mount Rushmore tour guide, Matt. We went though 5 tunnels and I must say they were a tight squeeze. Matt told us he was going to stop the bus in the tunnel and the people on the other side would think we were stuck. The look on the people's faces made us all laugh.