Veteran's Day 11-11-11

We had a fun Veteran's Day this year.  My parents were in town so we took them out to see the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The Minuteman Site is the only national site dedicated solely to the Cold War.  You get to go down underground into the launch capsule where rotating teams of 2 Air Force officers were stationed round the clock for decades waiting for the phone call to launch the missiles at the USSR!

Our guide was a retired Air Force Major, who for several years during the Cold War, actually manned the very launch capsule that we toured.  He had an awesome deadpan sarcasm going in his narration of the site that entertained the adults and scared the living daylights out of the kids.  My mom was having all kinds of flashbacks to "duck & cover" drills and the terrifying propaganda films they were subjected to in grade school, and my dad just kept saying how interesting the whole thing was and that he had no idea you could tour a place like that now.  It's not everyday you can surprise my dad!

Each launch capsule had it's own unique tongue-in-cheek original artwork on the huge 3 foot thick  capsule door.  Can we even say stuff that arrogant without getting in trouble anymore?

I thought all the retro gadgetry was very cool looking.  The photo above is one of the two panels where they would have to simultaneously inserted and turned their keys to initiate the launch sequence. How cool are the stamped tape labels, rotary dial phone, typewriter and pull-out keyboard below!?!

After the Minuteman Site tour we headed down the road toward the Badlands National Park.  But before we got there, we discovered a tourist trap with . . . you'd better sit down for this, . . . the world’s largest concrete prairie dog!!!  

I know, I know.  You can hardly wait to book a flight to come see it with your own eyes!  Apparently during tourist season, the little trading post by the concrete prairie dog, sells unsalted peanuts to feed the fat, friendly prairie dogs that live right there.  

 S was delighted to have little animals that would come right up to her.

AJ was dashing about looking just like a preschool-sized version of Whack-A-Mole.  

J turned out to be something like the Pied Piper of the prairie dog town and they followed him around in a little line!

In the Badlands we hiked, picnicked, watched wildlife and enjoyed the visitor center.  

The most exciting hike was when AJ and my mom stayed in the car to nap while my dad and I took the two older kids on the Notch Trail.  There was a part where you had to climb about 80 feet of log and cable ladder up to the higher ledges where the trail continued.  Going up was pretty okay, the wiggly swaying didn't bother you too much because it was easy to see where we were going.

 In this next photo, you can see the ladder in the distance (about in the center of the photo going up that steep hillside.)

Coming down was SCARY!!!  The kids were freaked out and crying, but they made it down; I was proud of them.  It was a great way to make 11/11/11 unforgettable.