South Dakota Days, Part I or "Our East Side Story"

When thinking about where a fancy, jet-setting family like ours should go for a summer vacation, there was only one logical choice... South Dakota! Jealous? Truthfully, my brother and his wife moved up there last year and I figured there's only about a 2-month window (i.e. July & August) of any given year when we could see their new home without fear of freezing to death. Easy now, I'm not saying it's a logical fear. Auntie C & I have birthdays in August and only a week apart SO, what better time to make a visit to beautiful SD than during our birthday week? The Kumquat, her daddy and I made the long drive there in one night. Except for one catastrophe little mishap involving a flat tire in the middle of a storm at 3 am about 30 miles from my brother's house, we made it up there without too much trouble. Many, many thanks to my friend over at Bubs & Chubs and to my 5 backyard friends for their parts in making a peaceful 10-hour drive with a 9-month-old possible.

Anywho...
We finally made it there and got a big taste of South Dakota right away! Sadly, our late, late night (early morning) arrival meant that we missed out on the pig wrestling, demolition derby & minnow races, but we got there just in time for Auntie C's birthday AND Pheasant Fest!
Pheasant is serious business around those parts. They boast some of the best pheasant hunting in the world (or so I'm told). So, for Pheasant Fest local businesses cook up pheasant in various ways & have a lovely little street festival where you can load up on all the pheasant and delicious homemade desserts you can eat for $6. I love small towns. :) We tried just about everything there. The pheasant pizza was pretty amazing, I have to say. I think I probably ate about as many desserts as pheasant, though. But it's Birthday Week, so that's how we do it!

Uncle D & the Birthday Girl

No pheasant for babies! Maybe next year. :)
She did enjoy her fruit & corn muffins, though!

Pheasant Tacos... nummy!

Main Street (of course) and the town hall. So cute, right??

Even the trash cans were so cute!

After our big day of South Dakota eatin', we went to the local country club the following day for a round of golf. I have to say that the place does give new meaning to the term "country club..."
It was very pretty, though, and a nice course. Or so I'm told.
I really don't know about these things. I took some golf lessons in Charlotte back when we lived there, but then I got so busy with work - oh, and pregnant - that golf kinda fell by the wayside. So, this actually was my first real round of golf. Yay! Being South Dakota, it was no problem to bring the Kumquat on the course with us. And K didn't seem to mind, either.

Auntie C & I did our best to class up the place.

Uncle D working on his swing.

After our highly competitive exhausting epic 9 holes, we had lunch in the rockin' clubhouse.

The following day, we took a trip to the thriving metropolis of Sioux Falls. It occurred to DKG & I that the footwear I'd packed for us wasn't really appropriate for hiking around Western South Dakota (what? no flip flops?)... especially where there are snakes and such. So, darn, we had to get some new kicks. Oh, and a new tire. Can you guess which one I was all about? While we were at the mall, Auntie C, Kumquat & I stopped by Wacky Bear (which totally makes me think of McDowell's from Coming to America) and Auntie C got a present for Baby K!
The Kumquat has a new BFF! Oh, and she loves the kitty, too. :) Unfortunately for DKG, the tire situation did not get resolved that day. So, the following day he headed back to SF (Sioux Falls, not San Fran, silly ones) and we just chilled at D & C's and prepared for our big adventure Out West the following day.
That evening, we drove to a nearby town and went to the driving range there. My sweet golfing Kumquat had lots of fun. Lately, balls have become one of her favorite toys. She played catch with her daddy for the first time about a month ago and it's been non-stop ball action ever since. Can you imagine what a driving range must be like for such a baby? She was over the moon! And a bit of a handful, since she desperately wanted to get all of the balls she could find. It didn't hurt that the range uses bright yellow ones. Thankfully, I'd brought along one of her own and Auntie C loaned Baby K one of her hot pink ones. Now that's good times. So, she hung out on her blanket while Auntie & I took turns playing with and taking pictures of our sweet girl.

See, Mama? You just need to bend your left wrist a bit more on the back swing and it'll go much better.Along with her love of balls, she has recently started doing the sign for "ball!" Exciting, huh? She's had a bit of a developmental explosion over the past 2 weeks, but I'll save most of that for another post. I thought I'd include this video, though, since it does include some of her new favorite things... :)

And after the driving range, we drove by the area's tourist mecca... The Mitchell Corn Palace. That's right. Corn Palace.


And it's not even Iowa. ;) To my dismay, I learned that the entire building is not actually made of corn. It is pretty amazing, though. The walls are all decorated with corn pieces (husks, I think) in a theme that changes each year. It's impressive to me that they take it all down and recreate it every year. So this year's theme is "America's Destinations." See the St. Louis Arch?
We didn't go inside, but I heard from the locals (aka Uncle D & Auntie C) that the outside is really the part to see. I'm not entirely sure what Baby K thought of it all, but I think it was something along the lines of "Silly South Dakotans!"
After our corny excitement, it was time to head home to get ready for our next adventure... A trip to the Badlands of the Wild West in search of the Gilded Golden Butterfly to see the Badlands, the Black Hills and these guys...