A Second Honeymoon

Katy and I just returned from a 10-day trip to the Black Hills for an early second honeymoon. In November, we will have been married 12 years, and we wanted a chance to experience all the Hills have to offer that we didn't necessarily get to do the first time, as we only had a couple of days after our wedding left in the area.

This pic on the left is at Sylvan Lake, and doesn't do any justice to just how pretty the setting is for this place. We chose to revisit some of the places from our first two trips to the Black Hills, some that have special meaning for us or are just plain fun to do. 

The next pic is Carhenge in Alliance, NE. Yes, it is meant to be a car replica of Stonehenge and is just something you have to see at least once, or twice in our case. It's unique and interesting and a nice little stop on the way up.

We made sure to stretch out our drive up to Hill City, where we stayed, so we could spend time and not rush along the way. After this we stopped in Hot Springs to visit the Mammoth Site. Pics of that and many other are on my Facebook page, so if you haven't seen them yet, you can pop over there and view the rest of the photos I have shared so far.

Next I'd like to share a pic and some information about the place we stayed for the whole of our trip, the Holly House B&B in Hill City, SD. (http://www.hollyhouse.com)  Trust me when I say this is the place you should stay when you visit the Black Hills! Let me give you a little info on how we chose this place and why you should as well. This pic is a view off the back deck. Yes, those are three bucks coming to see if anyone has left them corn that day (Katy later did). They know the innkeeper and her husband and trust them. It's fascinating to see them up close like this. 

Rather than move around every few days, we settled on staying in Hill City as it's right in the middle of everything you want to see and do while in the Black Hills. Next was finding something reasonable in price because during tourist season up there, everything is jacked up well beyond what it should be. And to make it more fun, because it is such a popular destination, you have to book months in advance. I booked our B&B the last week of December, 2017 and booked it for nine days. As I checked motels and hotels and cabins in the area, the lowest price I was finding was $150/night. Off-season these same places go for even less than half that, but in-season? Well, this is how they survive the year and that's why the prices are so much higher and I'm OK with that, but it doesn't mean I can't try to find something better.

Katy and I wanted someplace that would provide a breakfast so we could save on food costs each day. After finding prices for hotels I didn't like, I decided to check B&Bs. I should have started there! I found Holly House and couldn't believe the pricing. Her rates, in season, at the high end (we paid for the Bridal Suite), are far lower than anything else around. We paid $135/night, again in season, and the other rooms were all far less. I know one of the rooms we had looked into was $105 and another was under $100, even. You can't beat that price in the Black Hills. You just can't, unless you want to tent camp, which we do not.  :)

Dawna, the innkeeper, and her husband David, are super sweet, super down-to-earth people. If you go, you'll really enjoy getting to know them during your stay. Staying at a B&B is interesting, because each morning you get to share breakfast with other travelers around the table. We had many very enjoyable mornings getting to meet so many other people come through, finding things in common, simply getting to have real conversations instead of being just by ourselves each day. It is a much more personal way to travel, and I highly recommend it, and I highly recommend Holly House if you go to the Black Hills. Feel free to reach out to me for more info or one of her business cards.  One thing to think of as well is that Dawna cooks absolutely AMAZING breakfasts for you each morning. The pic above is not great, but it shows a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast casserole, blueberry cobbler and hash browns. This is a normal breakfast. Oh my gosh was the food good. She is known for it in the area and with good reason. You will be so pleased with your decision if you stay with her.

While we were there, we did many, many things. Among them was a trip on the 1880 Train, which takes you from Hill City to Keystone and back. We booked a morning trip up with an afternoon return so we could spend a few hours shopping and getting lunch in Keystone. You can choose either a steam or diesel train to ride (based on day, they change). We wanted a steam engine and this pic here is of that engine arriving back in Keystone to pick everyone back up.

Another interesting thing to do is a visit to Bear Country, which we had never done before. While I was disappointed in the number of animals and the overall experience for the money (it's definitely overpriced), we did get to see a number of fun animals and this bear in particular cracked us up! You can see he is just sitting back in the water, like you'd expect one of us to be doing in the pool, trying to cool off on a hot day.  :)

One neat thing that was new to us was the Founding Fathers Museum. Katy saw the sign indicating you could shoot a musket and she was ready to go! Having never shot a firearm of any kind before, this was quite a new experience for her. The gun itself is not an actual musket, but a black powder rifle in the style of a musket, with a 49-inch barrel. They use a lighter load so they don't knock people off their feet (these aren't typical hunters paying for this experience, I bet).  Katy loved it so much she's now wanting to go to a shooting range to shoot more guns.  Woohoo!  I managed to catch this one pic of the smoke coming out of the rifle as she shot. She had targets to shoot at and managed to take out a couple of redcoats. Victory is ours!

A visit to the Black Hills really isn't a visit without stopping at Mount Rushmore. I've been there several times now and it's still interesting to do so. I even managed to catch several pictures this time from different angles, and this one was on a trail off to the right as you look at the monument, one I'd never walked before (heads toward the sculptor's studio). Apparently, Thomas Jefferson is credited with creating the first ice cream recipe in the U.S., so they even sell his specific vanilla ice cream in the restaurant. Was it worth it? Unequivocally, yes. It was very, very, very good ice cream. :)

This trip we decided, since we hadn't seen enough animals on the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, to stop at Old MacDonald's Farm, a petting zoo of sorts just south of Rapid City. Yes, it's made for the kids but aren't we all kids at heart? Among the many animals Katy and I got to pet and play with, this pic of her holding the baby goat was just super cute. Those things are so friendly. On my Facebook page I even have a video in my photo album of two baby goats head-butting one another as they played. We also got to hold baby chicks, just a few days old, and see one chick breaking its way out of its shell in the incubator. A worker even pulled the shell out as it was working on it. Overall just a real cute place to spend some time, and very good for little ones.

I think our favorite place to visit this trip was the Reptile Gardens. You can see a Snake Show, a Bird Show, numerous other reptiles and birds and, our favorite, watch a Gator Show. The pic I'm sharing here is the handler "wrestling" one of the alligators. How many were in there with him? Oh, about 20 or 30. And did they just sit by nicely and watch the entire time he did the show? Um, no. They were very interested in him, especially when he brought out raw chicken for a feeding portion. We saw the show twice, on separate days, with two different handlers. This guy was the funniest and our favorite, and I'd go see the show a dozen more times. Lots of fun and an absolutely beautiful park, too. If you are interested in beautiful gardens, this place rivals some of the best I've seen.  Just gorgeous.  Aside from the gator show, Katy got to scratch the head and neck of one of the giant tortoises a few times, which they apparently just love. So funny to see these huge things walk around and get loved on by all the visitors.

That's it for the pics, and like I said, many more are over on my Facebook page, so if you are on my friend list, you can see them there. We had a great time and will go back again, to be sure. And we will stay at Holly House again, to be sure. :)