Saladin 7 Adventures

One of our favorite stops from our Out West 2017 trip was the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The Memorial campus has a lot to offer including the Welcome Center, Indian Museum of North America, Cultural Center, and the Laughing Water Restaurant. We arrived late afternoon which allowed us to see the last performance of a Native American dance.  The dancer was incredibly talented and athletic.  At the end of the dance, she invited all the children to the stage and demonstrated some of the techniques.  Anna, Mary, and Tabitha were all brave enough to try it out.  It was a lot of fun and the Memorial in the background made it a great place to view and take pictures. Our next stop was to have dinner at the Laughing Water Restaurant .  We enjoyed our dinner and their prices were very reasonable.  Some of us tried new foods while others stuck with some traditional American fare - but there were plenty of options including a full salad bar.  I tried

Mount Rushmore was another planned stop on our long 22-day Out West Trip of 2017.  We stayed in the Black Hills area for four nights so we had lots of time to appreciate all of the many awesome things in the area.  We coordinated it so that we could visit Mount Rushmore in the evening one day and then mid-morning the next day.  If you have time to do this, it's worthwhile.  The evening ceremony is a  must-see and the contrast of the Memorial at dusk and day is pretty cool too. We arrived a little after dinner and the line of cars to get in was fairly long.  There was a light mist/rain so that may have kept some visitors away.  Seeing Mount Rushmore for the first time is very awe-inspiring.  We had seen so many pictures of it before - but in person, WOW! The evening ceremony is held during the summer months between Memorial Day weekend and September 30th.  The ceremony includes a short film, singing a song (can't remember which patriotic song it was - maybe God Bless Am