Relaxing in Bismarck

Today we didn't have a lot planned, it was to be a lazy, relaxing day. So we slept in and did some reading this morning. It wasn't until around 10:00am when we left the hotel to explore the area. First, we drove out to New Salem. I had clues for three boxes in that area. One was at a rest area but it was another 15 miles so we decided not to drive out to it. The other two were at Salem Sue. So we headed out to drive up the hill to see Sue but there was a sign that it was closed for some race. Since we couldn't get up there to get a close-up of Sue or look for the boxes. We turned around and headed back toward Bismarck. But we stopped in Mandan before we got to Bismarck. In Mandan we found the Whispering Giant #39. After I took a couple of pictures we looked for a letterbox in the area. Unfortunately, we only found the first landmark, then after that there were no other landmarks that we could locate. After 10 minutes of looking we decided to call it quits and head back to Bismarck.

Back in Bismarck we drove over to the Capitol so that we could take a tour. On the weekend they only have guided tours and they are scheduled 1:00pm, 2:00pm, & 3:00pm. We made it for the 1:00pm tour. There were only six of us on the tour. We started in the lobby and then went up to the Senate and House chambers. The woman leading the tour was knowledgeable and entertaining. We learned about their legislature and structure. Next we saw the Supreme Court chamber and learned how they hear cases. Then we toured some of the more public areas and learned about the original capitol building and how it burnt and then learned about the construction of the present capitol building. Then the tour was done. We left the building and walked around the grounds for a little while then walked over to the North Dakota Heritage Center.

At the museum we saw exhibits about different things pertaining to North Dakota. Geologic Times, Early Peoples, Yesterday and Today, North Dakota and the Great War and there was an exhibit on the Hubble Telescope. It was all done extremely well and very interesting. After about an hour here we decided we had enough and headed out.

On the way back to the hotel we decided on an early dinner since we didn't have lunch. After eating we went back to the hotel and organized a few things and got the car cleaned up a bit so that we can head our early tomorrow morning. We are headed back in to South Dakota to begin our drive back home.