Pierre, Rhymes with Beer

My next stop on the WINs Lewis & Clark circuit was Pierre, the capitol of South Dakota. On the way there, I stopped at a rest area in Chamberlain, SD, where there was a 50-ft tall statue called Dignity of Earth & Sky.

In Pierre, we stayed at Griffin Park, a city park right along the Missouri River.

All over the town are statues of all the governors of South Dakota.

The first thing we did was go see the Capitol.

We even had our own private tour, provided by a volunteer.

On the lower level are dolls dressed like the First Ladies for their inaugural balls, made out of the actual material of the original dresses.

Of course the big attraction was the rotunda. I was getting a crook in my neck trying to get a picture...

But Ken had the right idea!

This capitol looks almost exactly like the one in Montana, because they were built from the same plans.

We saw the Senate chambers -

With its stained glass ceiling...

And the House chambers, with its equally beautiful ceiling.

Outside, on Capitol Lake, is the World War II Memorial. There are 6 bronze statues, representing the different roles south Dakotans played in the war.

I love the way they are painted.

The water in the lake comes from a warm artesian well, and never freezes in winter. The Canada geese really love it, and there is evidence of that all around...

The water is so warm that steam rises, and makes the pictures really weird.

On another day, we had a tour of the Oahe dam and power plant, on the Missouri River.

After our dam tour, we all went out to lunch and had local walleye. It was absolutely the best fish I had ever eaten!

And then the next day, we had a boat ride on a paddle wheel boat. It's docked at the confluence of the Bad River and the Missouri, exactly where Lewis and Clark first met up with Indians on their trip West.

The Captain started out by saying that the boat hadn't sunk in almost a year! Hmmm.... Then we had to go under a bridge and we just barely made it. It was a very fun and entertaining ride!

All too soon, we paddled back to our dock.

The group. You can barely see me peaking out from behind Mark.

The WINs also did this trip back in 2010, and I was on that one too. That time we got interviewed for the local newspaper!