The Lee Family: Summer Vacation Day 3: Reptile Gardens and Dinosaur Museum

Today was planned entirely by the girls. We wanted to be sure they got to do some fun things that sounded good to them and so they looked over the map and different brochures we've picked up since we arrived and they decided that we should go to Reptile Gardens, located just outside Rapid City, then visit the Dinosaur Museum right next door and end our day with a visit to one of the many caverns in the area. But, the grand finale was our planned 2-hour horse back ride with Andy's Trail Rides. The girls have been desperate to go for a horseback ride, so yesterday morning I searched on Yelp and found Andy's Trail Rides just a few miles from us in Lead. According to the reviews, Andy was a great leader and it was "not your typical nose-to-butt ride through the trees." Apparently Andy was a big believer in trotting and galloping and the girls were beyond excited!

We started our day at Lotus Up with coffee, muffins and oatmeal and a chat with my new favorite Lead, SD local! After breakfast we headed toward Rapid City and Reptile Gardens, about 1.5 hours away. Reptile Gardens was actually really amazing and incredibly landscaped. It was really surprising. We first headed to the main building that contained a whole lot of snakes! There were turtles, iguanas and other reptiles, but really a ton of snakes! Olivia and I were a little quicker through the snakes than CK and Sofia, who took their sweet time looking at each and every snake. There really are some beautiful snakes but also so amazingly big and scary looking snakes! After the snakes and other reptiles, we headed over to see the giant tortoises, the bald eagle and prairie dogs. The girls were able to touch the tortoises and watch them lumber around which was pretty cool. The bald eagle was injured in the wild and no longer able to fly, so he now lives at Reptile Gardens. The prairie dogs had a little view bubble that the girls were able to look through as if they were with them. It was pretty cool. Throughout the entire visit, Sofia kept saying "Liam would love this place..." or "Liam told me about this snake and he knows so much about it..." She ended up taking a ton of pictures of snakes, the bald eagle, etc. to show Liam after we got home. At first she was sending them in texts to Mikaela, but I convinced her that maybe we should wait and show him after we get home. Liam would really love this place though! I just couldn't get over how beautiful the grounds are and before we left we got a pretzel and friend cheese curds, as a snack. Of course, we had to buy souvenirs "for Liam" and Olivia bought a little horse for Marisa. The girls also got a little turtle (Olivia) and snake (Sofia) for themselves. Originally, I wasn't terribly excited about our plan to go to Reptile Gardens, but it ended up being a highlight of our visit! What an incredible place!

We headed next door to the Dinosaur Museum, and Sofia was beside herself excited! She loved it from the minute we walked in and took another 50 pictures "to show Liam when we get home." The entire museum was indoors and felt a little dark and like the ceiling should be much taller, but it was a well-done museum and we were the only ones in there for most of our visit. Again, CK and Sofia stuck together and read every single placard of each dinosaur. Halfway through was a mirror maze that the girls just loved! They went through it several times and took a video of them going through it. I went through it with them and it was really difficult to see where the path was! At the end of the museum they had a little movie room that showed "Walking with Dinosaurs" which was a BBC documentary that Sofia LOVED! Even though she'd seen the particular episode being played, she was totally mesmerized and wanted to get back into Walking with Dinosaurs after we left the museum.

We were starting to run out of time and needed to get back to Lead to change and head out to our horse ride! So, we loaded up in the car and decided to grab a quick lunch on the way. We soon discovered that there wasn't really any fast food restaurants, so we ended up stopping at some weird little convenience store in the middle of nowhere. CK and the girls got peanuts and Oreos and I ended up getting a Lunchable, which I've literally never had before. The girls made fun of me because they know how much I hate lunchables and think they are complete crap food. It wasn't the best, but it was fine in a pinch. I ended up taking a nap on our drive home, so I was refreshed and ready for our trail ride!

We made it to Reptile Gardens!