Rock and reel

Our last day here in Custer State Park, so we made it an easy one. We saddled up the kids and drove into Rapid City to see "Bear Country USA." It's a drive through zoo basically, except there are no cages. You go along a road and the animals are just right there. They separate them into fenced off sections with cattle guards on the roads to keep them from entering another area. The stars of the show were the bears, hands down. They were everywhere, sunning, walking alongside the road, mating (and right when we entered the bear section, too.), and in the case of one bear, pacing the cattle guard to the next section. It was so cool to see them so close. They had a walk through baby section as well and we saw a lot of smaller animals like skunks and porcupines, but again, the baby bear cubs held everyone's attention. They were so playful and cute! This afternoon we spent at the campground. There is a small lake at the entrance and the girls wanted to go swimming, so we got them all into their swimsuits while Jeff, Selena, Jason and I did some catch and release fishing. I caught a small bass. It was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big. (the sad part is, if you took the actual length of that word and held it up to the fish, that's probably about how big it was.) Jason and I took the kids into Rapid City for dinner this evening and I grabbed some Starbucks for Selena and I so we could enjoy some fancy coffee at the campsite. She thought it was hillarious to be sitting next to a campfire sipping an upside down carmel macchiato. We stayed up late tonight to let the kids play, then we put them to bed and sat by the campfire watching the stars. It was perfect.