On Thursday we set off early for the Capitol, with Joan as our expert tour guide and her grandaughter Jordan coming along to explore some of the mysteries of the building. The Capitol, built in 1908, is a magnificent building built in the classical style--very beautiful inside and out. The floors are tiled with very fancy little mosaic tiles and, if I remember Joan's story correctly, each of the original 55 workmen left one little blue tile as a reminder of his work - Jordan was continuing her search to see how many of these little blue tiles she can locate.
After the tour of the Capitol we went to the State Historical Museum, a relatively new building that lays out the history of South Dakota in a series of well designed exhibits. We were impressed with the frankness of some of the exhibits: the curators clearly decided not to gloss over anything "unpleasant."
On Friday afternoon, after Leslie and I explored Pierre's Main Street, Mary picked us up to go boating. Scott, a friend of Colin's, had suggested that we might enjoy seeing Pierre and surrounding areas from his boat. That was really thoughtful--thanks Scott! We had a great afternoon on the river with Scott, Colin, and Mary. Jordan also came along--she was eager to go swimming, and before long we were all in the river. What a great way to spend an August afternoon! The water was great, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that, contrary to its name of "Big Muddy," the water in the Missouri River is crystal clear. The biggest surprise, though, was that on a Friday afternoon/early evening we almost had the whole river to ourselves: there were a few boaters upstream, north of Pierre, but on a stretch of a few miles to the south we only saw one small boat of fishermen, one kayaker, and a large flock of western pelicans. South of Pierre the river, and its banks, must look very much they way they did when Lewis & Clark explored it.
Leslie and I had a great vacation in Pierre and the Black Hills, thanks to the hospitality of Mary & Colin and Joan & James (see photo of Joan and James, below). We loved all the meals that Joan served us: big breakfasts with lots of fresh fruit; good lunches and snack food (I really liked the venison sausage); excellent dinners with lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. For the "foodies" who are reading this, Joan and James prepared the best shish kababs I've ever had -- wonderful grilled vegetables interspersed with tenderloin of venison, better than any beef tenderloin I've had. Thanks for all you did for us!
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