The "I must be crazy" Chonicles - South Dakota Edition - Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Here's what I can tell you about the Crazy Horse museum and monument.  The place is huge.  And I know you're thinking "Duh, it's a mountain.  Of course it's huge!" but I'm not talking about the mountain.  I'm talking about the museum.  Every time you think you've seen everything there's another hallway or stairway or door leading to another giant wing full of Native American artifacts.  It was fascinating and I'll always remember it as a very special place where Elle spent most of the time asleep, Jesse spent most of the time in the bathroom and I spent most of the time trying to find a place to sit down for few a minutes.

 Joseph was the only one who really seemed to enjoy the museum the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

You know what? I'm lying.  I told him to go and look in that case so that I could take a picture of him.  I wanted some kind of proof that the kids had enjoyed the Very Educational Opportunities that this vacation had provided them.

Mostly though this vacation really provided us with the opportunity to stand in front of things and get our picture taken.

And to look awkward.  If I had a nickle for every time I said "No you guys!  I said a nice smile!" I would have enough money to finance the completion of Crazy Horse on my own.

The part of Crazy Horse that the kids liked best was the place where you could put some money in a donation box and then pick out a rock.  Not just any rock, mind you.  A rock that had been blasted off the monument.  To my nearest recollection, the rock selection took about, oh, infinity.  In fact, if you were to go to Crazy Horse today the kids would still be there picking out their rocks.

The kids would pick out their rocks and then look at each other's rocks and then one of them would decide that the other one had a "better" rock and would have to select a new one prompting the other one to decide that they wanted a "better" rock as well.  It just went on and on and on.  But at least we managed to get the two very best rocks ever!

Fun Fact: "Go stand next to each other inside that tepee and look at me." is a physically impossible task to perform.  At least according to these little buggers.

I didn't get a lot of pictures at Crazy Horse.  This was partly due to the fact that I was lugging around a sleeping Elle most of the time we were there and partly to the fact we were rushing through the museum at a high rate of speed as we tried see everything they had and partly to the fact that I was in a pissy mood because Jesse didn't believe me when I told him the Post Office in the information center was a real, operational Post Office.  He thought it was like, I don't know, a display Post Office or something.  Because that makes sense.

As we were leaving Crazy Horse I managed to get a few nice shots of Crazy Horse.

I got this one while Jesse was performing his husbandly duty of Getting The Car.  Throughout the whole trip Jesse very considerately dropped me off and picked me up right near doors.  At time I thought he was just being nice because I was miserable and riddled with morning sickness.  In retrospect he probably just wanted to get away from me for a few minutes.  Those few stolen moments alone in parking lots probably saved his sanity during that trip.

As we drove away from Crazy Horse we caught a glimpse of George Washington.  He looked concerned.  He had every reason to be.  We were headed his way. Next up, Mt Rushmore!  As always, there are more pictures to be found on flickr.  Smile nice!

One year ago today our dishwasher was broken.
Four years ago today Joseph liked Double dare and my dad left the funniest comment this blog has ever received.