Trip to SD

Friday my mom and I took a trip out to South Dakota to visit my Uncle Marc and cousins. The last time I was there was for my aunt's funeral. We went out to visit and to check out the South Dakota State University campus as long as we were in Brookings. I worked all day at the library friday so we left around 7:15 friday night. We drove through a 15 minute downpour and then it was smooth sailing from there. We took my car because it gets good gas mileage. I have an awesome little Saturn that gets 36 mpg. We stopped for supper and coffee, but otherwise drove the 5 hour drive straight through. I drove most of the way and it was quite a pleasent trip. The weather was cool and the driving was easy. We got to my uncle's house a little after midnight. My uncle lives out in the country about 20 minutes from Brookings, my cousins Kelly and Wendy share an apartment in Brookings, and my cousin Kari came up from Kanses City, Missouri for the weekend. The girls stayed at their dad's house for the weekend.

When we got there we snuck into the house quietly, thinking we'd sneak to bed. We were just taking off our shoes when Kari came speeding out from the bed room. (All three of them were sharing their mom's bed) Wendy came soon after, and Kelly came out right behind her. Understand that my cousins are extremely jolly, upbeat people so there was lots of squealing, hugging, kissing, giggling, and laughing. We chatted for awhile and then went in to see if we'd all fit on my aunt's bed. Of course we didn't, but we had fun piling on top of eachother. We were up for about 45 minutes and then we went to bed.

The next morning we had a light breakfast. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and I took a stroll around the property and took some pictures. The entire place is landscaped just beautifully, with gardens, paths, ponds, bridges, etc. I took a couple pictures. Here is one, but it really doesn't give it any justice at all.


Then we went into Brookings for the annuel Art in the Park festival. It has hundreds of booths with artisans both local and from around the country. Plus lots of fair food and entertainment!! We bee-lined for the food where we got cheese curds and gyros. Then we began our tour around the booths. Wendy got a strand of hair wrapped with string in a very colorful, pretty design with a fairy charm hanging off the bottom. Then we watched a juggling show, which was very entertaining. The jugglers were very funny and really got the crowd laughing.

We continued to tour the fair after that, checking out the booths. I'm not a particularly artsy person so it wasn't a huge thrill for me, but I do like to browse. I actually did buy a t-shirt that says "Looking for a Cowboy (Must see horse first)" It's very cool. We also got cotton candy and fried Snickers bars. Yum!! We stopped into Uncle Marc's sister Karen's booth. She sold bright, colorfully decorated hand made furniture for kid's rooms. They had some really nice stuff.

This picture is one of my Art in the Park "atmosphere" pictures.

From left to right: Mom, me, and Kelly.

From left to right: Wendy, Kari, Mom.

Wendy and I got henna art done on our hands. They draw the design you pick on your hand with this ground up henna goo. It's brown and smells like cloves. You leave the goo on for several hours and it dyes your skin. The dye lasts for about a week. After we were done we went to Wendy and Kelly's apartment where we took this picture of our henna art.

Then we went to Shade' Winery where we did wine tasting (yes, me too!!) and bought a couple cases of wine. Most of it was pretty good, but some of it was pretty gross too.

Then we went back to Marc's house where we relaxed for a couple hours, tooled around on four wheelers, and drank iced tea. Kelly, Wendy, and Kari had gone through their mom's closet on friday and compiled a fabulously frumpy outfit. Kelly kindly modeled it for me!!

Then we drove down to Sioux Falls to eat at the Brazilian Festival Grill. It was quite the experience!! It had a wonderful, upscale atmosphere. We started off the meal with Brazillion pop and champagne, and then hit the salad bar. Most of the food wasn't that appealing to me, as much of it was sea food and I don't like sea food. (Octupus? Yuck!) I had a nice salad though. The rest of the meal was the interesting part. Each person had a dial by their plate with red and green sides. If your dial was on green then these guys dressed in some kind of Brazilian outfits came to you, each carrying a sword with hunks of meat on them. They would offer the meat to you and if you wanted some they would slice some off the hunk of meat on the sword. They had all sorts of styles of beef, pork, chicken, and sea food. I ate WAY more meat than I normally would (I'm not a big meat sort of person) but it was very excellent. Afterwards we got two desserts and split them. It was a VERY fun, VERY filling meal!!

Here's a picture of my cousins, Uncle Marc, and one of the many sword servers.

That evening we took a walk around the property. When mom suggested the walk and Kari, who was very hyper, started leaping around and yelling "YES, LET'S DO IT, LET'S DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!" Afterwards we hit the sack.

Today was a pretty layed back day. Wendy, a paramedic, went into Brookings because she was on call. Kari had to leave to get back to work (she manages a Starbucks). So we went with Kelly into town and she took us for a tour of Brookings and the SDSU campus, which is VERY nice. What a beautiful, fun place!! We stopped at Subway for lunch and then went out to the horse facility, a massive complex of barns. The university owns hundreds of acres dedicated to horses. They have several indoor arenas, probably 6 barns with stalls, lots of pasture, and they are in the process of building a new multi-million dollar riding and boarding complex. The competitions are in an enormous stadium called the Swiftel Center. I met with the SDSU equestrian coach, a very nice lady who is also an FEI technical deligate, eventer, and Prix St. George dressage rider. She told me all about the equestrian team, try out process, and how the competitions worked. I asked specifically about dressage opportunities in SD, which are not exactly abundent. If I were to make it on the team and if I worked hard for the team, she said she would give private dressage lessons. There are also clinicians that come in regularly. Most people on the team get athletic scholarships, which would be a nice thing to get. My problem is that most of the riding I would be doing is NOT dressage. NCAA English competition is equitation over fences and on the flat. I have no experience in either, so I'm not sure if I could get on the team. And even if I did, I'm not sure if it's the route I want to take. SD isn't a big dressage area, and I'm not sure if college is the route I want to go right now anyways. I'd really like to take a couple years to concentrate on my dressage. I suppose once my Young Rider and Pony Club years are over I could go back to school if no horse opportunities crop up. I just really don't want to put a hold on my dressage right when it's the prime time for me to be persuing it.

But other wise I LOVE the town of Brookings and think it would be a fabulous place to live and go to school. Plus, as my cousins pointed out, I have "built in friends" there!! I'm a little torn over it, being as I love the area so much and would love to get an athletic scholarship. But like I said, I'm by no means garunteed a spot on the team and dressage IS my passion. I guess I'll wait to see how life unfolds through the next year.

After our tour we left town and had a pleasent drive home. We're now home and I was very happy to see Isis. I think she missed me too!