Life on the "Res" - Sioux Falls

We got up early Saturday morning and headed to Sioux Falls. We met up with Katelyn's cousin and one of her fellow interns that she was working with. Our first stop was to go hiking in Blue Mounds State Park, which is actually in Minnesota (we have really been getting around). Blue Mounds has an open range that is full of bison, so we were on a mission to find them. It also has the biggest rock escarpment in Minnesota (I think). Here are some pictures from the hike!

We started below the rock "wall"

Panoramic-ish view

A cactus blooming! You don't see that every day!

Pictures from the top:

I know it's impossible to see, but these are bison!

Finally saw some!

After the buffalo sighting, we headed out of the park and back to South Dakota. Since we were in Sioux Falls for the night, we thought we should probably go see "the falls". They weren't very big, but they were pretty!

That was a quick stop, and next up was a winery. None of us had been here before, so we picked a random close winery and went for it. it was called Strawbale Winery, and it was definitely a winner! The owner quickly took a liking to us and gave us tons of samples of all the favorites. They had chalkboard paint on the counters so we got to write down the wines that we wanted to try on the bar... genius idea! It was so fun!

This was my list - yum!

Nick -the fellow vet student

The owner made us go behind the bar to take pictures with the giant wine glass - we look nasty and sweaty from the hike still :(

We decided to head outside and enjoy the view while drinking our wine. Katelyn spotted a friend behind her after we sat down. As I snapped a picture of them, the rooster sprinted away. When I say sprinted, I mean it. I had no idea roosters could move so fast..... I guess he was camera shy.

 The owner came out to check on us, and decided that it would be beneficial for us to feed his chickens. He went to get some feed and poured some into each of our hands. Most of them were pretty gentle while pecking at our hands, but I had a couple mean ones that really got after it and bit me. I'm not sure how I've never fed chickens before in my life, but this was another first to cross off my bucket list.


































We noticed that if you buy an entire case of wine (12 bottles), you get a discount per bottle. So, we all started deciding which three wines we wanted. I couldn't choose just three. The owner got wind of my situation and let me know that I, in fact, could get extra bottles for the same discounted price. Bingo. I wanted to bring three bottles home with me to share with my family, but I wanted to have a bottle while I was out on the res still. It all worked out, and almost $200 later, the four of us were on our way.
We freshened up at the the hotel and headed out for dinner. Some people at the winery recommended an Italian place, Johnny Carino's, so we ate there. It was delicious. After dinner, we headed downtown. We had no clue where to go, so we just started walking. There were outdoor street performers, a few local bands playing in small bars, and perfect weather to enjoy it in. We found a bar with a lot of locally brewed beers, had a couple of drinks there, watched a band in another bar, made a few more stops, and headed back to the hotel. We slept in, ate a hearty hotel breakfast the next morning, and hit the road. Before we got on the highway, we had to make a stop at Starbucks and Jimmy Johns. As I've hinted at, the Res is pretty scarce when it comes to Fine Dining ;)

On to another fun-filled week!