July 4 Travel: Mt. Rushmore.

My summer domestic travel continues to yet another mid-Western destination - this time to the popular Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Mt. Rushmore is one of the most prominent landmarks of America, and quite possibly one of the most notable monuments in the world along side the Statue of Liberty, The Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, etc.

I've always wanted to visit Mt. Rushmore, more so for the US independence day (July 4th) fireworks. I have seen the fireworks light up the sky, right behind the monument and I always wanted to check it out. Now that I have a cool camera, I am training myself in various camera setting to get that perfect picture of the monument and fireworks. Let us see how that turns out : )

I will also visit a bunch of other destinations along the way, such as the Bad Lands national park, the black hills, and even perhaps crossing over to Wyoming! My guesstimate is that I will be driving 1400+ miles (~ 2300 KM), crossing Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota...and may be in to Wyoming and back! It should be quite an exciting trip, a long time coming! I will post the photos for sure! Keep tuned.

Small town charms!

Ever since I moved to rural Iowa, I have been traveling around quite often to the towns and cities around Iowa. As much as I enjoy cities, small towns are my all-time favorites. The past weekend, I made a trip out to Galena in Illinois and Dubuque in Iowa. Both are small, charming towns with beautiful main streets and picture perfect scenery. Dubuque and Galena are neighboring cities at the border of Iowa and Illinois, separated by the Mississippi river. Here are some of the photos. Check them out!

Galena is quite Victorian, while Dubuque looks more like an all-American mid sized town. Click below to see for your self.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2280012&l=b6e40&id=5734033

St. Louis was fun!

I visited St. Louis the past weekend with a couple of my friends. I have been planning to visit St. Louis for a long time and see the famous Gateway Arch and the Anheuser Busch Brewery. We drove down there via Illinois and stopped along the way to check out the highway-side attractions. On the way back, we drove straight up from Missouri to Iowa. It was a great trip and a great weekend overall. Check out the photos!









More photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2275017&l=e578c&id=5734033