Sculpture Milwaukee

Milwaukee's 2nd Annual Urban Sculpture Gallery 

21 world class sculptures on display outdoors

Ready to walk along Wisconsin Avenue to discover some of them on our way to Bastille Days?

OK, my cuties will lead the way!

LOVE 

Half Big Suit

Mood Sculpture

Great! We made it to Bastille Days in time to see street performers, living statues, lots of dogs, and of course the Eiffel Tower, only to be

photo bombed by burlesque dancers! :o

John's Lake

We finished our COLORADO SUMMER ROAD TRIP 2018 out with a splash and a sparkle at John's Lake

Tubing

Aaliyah, Ben, Abby, Lydia, Carter

Who started with making faces?

Schmidt Family Games

Lydia, Carly, Nora, Natalie, Carter, Audrey, Egan, Aaliyah, Evelyn, Ava

Sparklers!

Happy (early) 4th of July!

Dinosaur Park & Wall Drug

Dinosaur Park was a bit strange but actually really fun stop overlooking Rapid City, SD.

 Wall Drug was more than I expected (even after all the billboard hype)!

It's like it's own village.

 the jackalope

 With more kooky things to see and buy!

Custer State Park & Badlands National Park

 The visitors center had a really good short movie about the park and map with the 2 bison herds marked on it. We found one!

 Our closest encounter with wildlife (thankfully it was not with rattlesnake as some signs warned of those) but this fast and cool pronghorn antelope!

Many prairie dog colonies in these grasslands

 Ooh! Bison right behind us!

Another herd of buffalo greeted us at the entrance to Badlands National Park before we drove through (didn't cost us much time to drive through vs. the parallel I-90, but we could have spent more time stopping or hiking if it wasn't 90 plus degrees)

The landscape is dramatic and reminiscent of Grand Canyon

 With sharp eyes, we spotted big horn sheep

Mount Rushmore

 Driving into Keystone, it was interesting to learn that all the winding roads and tunnels were designed to give the driver views of Mount Rushmore

 It happened to be super hot, so we checked into our hotel, swam in the pool, had dinner in Hill City

Family selfie where we all got delicious steak!

Killing time in Hill City

So we visited Mount Rushmore in the evening when it was cooler and the lighting better. 

Inside, we watched a short movie. Abigail had a hard time believing there is no black rock in the eyes, just fancy shading work!

 We had to taste Thomas Jefferson's original vanilla ice cream recipe!

 Then we stayed for just the start of the evening show.

Getting up early again tomorrow for more driving (and it's starting to take its toll)...

The Mammoth Site

We started to see these kinds of buttes pop up in the WIDE OPEN SPACES as we drove up the side of Wyoming.

We stopped at The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD

 It was a very unique experience,

getting to see an ACTIVE DIG SITE!

Lots of tedious work for decades to come...

By counting tusk pairs, I think 33 Mammoths have been uncovered so far.

 Ben probably liked it the most.