You know how when you visit a friend in say, New York City, you just can't quite believe it when they tell you, "I've never actually been to the Statue of Liberty." or the to the top of the Empire State Building? Or to any of the other famous landmarks that people go to New York to see? They've lived next door to the thing for how many years? And never gone to see it? Really?
Definitely not on the road less traveled.
Well, this is not how I am when it comes to Mt. Rushmore. I've been there dozens of times. Sometimes when I skipped class in high school, I'd just go for a drive and find myself at Mt. Rushmore. Really. Foggy days were the best - absolutely no one around because you couldn't see a thing! And you can just stop right there because yes, I do know how strange I am. Of course, this was also back when parking was free (it's now $11!) and the dining room still looked almost exactly like it did in North by Northwest. I loved that dining room...
But hey, my age is not the point. The point is, I didn't want that person who hadn't seen the sites in his or her own backyard to be any of my kids. And I realized recently that 5 of my kids had not been to the monument, at least not when they were old enough to remember it. So I decided to take them on a little road trip to the Black Hills. And despite some time constraints, and despite each of us needing to carry around a pocketful of Kleenex, I think we made some memories worth keeping.
Now, what is in your "backyard" that you haven't been to see lately, or ever? What are you waiting for?
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