Home sweet home

Well we made it home!!!  We are now in Sioux Falls (Minnehaha County!) and will be in the area for probably a month or so.  We were reminded quite quickly how much we love this city (I thought it was a town but with a population of 124,000 I guess that makes it a city?).  We went out last night ~ probably no surprise to anyone.  Sioux Falls has a terrific downtown area with some terrific restaurants and shops.  We have fond memories of one of the "finer dining establishments" here, named Minerva's where we met some great people when we were here last September.  So we started our evening there last night.  Several places have outside dining now because it is such perfect weather here at the moment.  But I think I am getting ahead of myself here so I posted a couple pictures of our travel here yesterday ~ it just seemed I should put the entering Minnehaha County sign first!

When we were at the campground in Belvidere two nights ago (I don't think I did a post from there but can't remember).  We stayed in a KOA there for two nights - Belvidere was in the middle of nowhere for sure - the closest grocery store or restaurant was 30 miles away!  Guess you don't run out of bread or milk when you live in those parts!  I guess Belvidere's "claim to fame" is something called the 1880 town which just happened to be 1/2 mile down the road from the campground.  We didn't go to the 1880 town but I guess it's a bunch of buildings and their contents from the 1880's ~ costs $9.00 to get in.......  Anyway, from the campground I kept seeing this giant bug about a mile down the road up on a hill.  When we left yesterday we passed it on the highway - it wasn't a bug, it is the dinosaur pictured above chasing the "guy" ... I guess that was someones dream as well as 1880 town!  

Somewhere along the way yesterday we crossed the Missouri River, in the picture above.  Crossing the state of South Dakota was interesting miles and miles of flat flat farm land then we'd come across beautiful rolling hills like what surround the river.  Then back to flat flat land, not to mention the badlands and black hills in the western part of the state.  Lots of variations here!

Today, being the fourth, we went to the celebration in town.  Sioux Falls has a terrific parks and recreation department.  There are beautiful parks, several of them throughout the city.  They are all open to the public with no entrance fee.  The one pictured above and below is the major one here ~ Falls Park (there is a tremendous amount of history in this park, which I hope to get a better understanding of while we're here, probably Arlo and I will explore more deeply while Rick is in NH/MA) ~ with the Big Sioux River running through it, not to mention this is where the Falls of Sioux Falls are.  Today was the "Mayor's family picnic" which consisted of a free picnic and lots of music and celebration.  It seemed to me the epitome of small town America (only it isn't a small town!).  We really had a nice time and Sir Arlo was on incredibly best behavior.  He is a "show stopper" and handled it all quite well.  He has been sleeping for an hour and a half since we got home so I guess it may have "stressed" him out some!

Above, obviously, are Rick and Arlo with the Falls behind them and below is a picture of a small portion of Falls Park with the Falls in the distant background.  A lovely place indeed.  We are so happy to be here.