2012 Black Hills Vacation: Day 3

Mari's favorite game! The one
arm bandit.

Took an hour to get here from cabin in Custer. It was a nice leisurely drive. Mari and I tried our had at the slots. Mari outlasted me. I spent about $12. At one point I could have broke even but no, had to try lady luck. Decided that we would eat lunch here and then eat back at the cabin tonight.

Bruschetta using tuscan
flat bread.

Found an out of the way hidden restaurant called the Deadwood Social Club Restaurant. This hidden gem has a side entrance off of Main Street. Go up a flight of stairs through a couple doorways. Found a quaint area were they were serving. We started off with bruschetta. It was the best I had ever eaten. Mari had chicken Alfredo pasta. She swears by it. I had the special, jalapeno cheddar burger. I thought out was good. Prices are reasonable. Service is excellent. If you ever in the area looking for somewhere to to eat I wouldn't pass up the Deadwood Social Club Restaurant! Well we are going to go and do a bus tour then go to the Broken Boot Gold Mine. Later...

Mari checking out
Bill's backside.

City of Deadwood in cyan.

After a the great lunch we found a bus tour half a block up. We found the Kevin Costner Original Deadwood Tour. We got to go around a few key points in Deadwood and then up to Mt. Moriah Cemetery which overlooks the city to see the grave site of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. During the tour Dave, the guide and driver, spit out lots witty jokes and information about the history of the town as well as local celebrities. From the bus tour went went to Adams Museum and checked out the exhibits there. They had a lot of a neat artifacts from the area.

We left downtown Deadwood and headed towards the city of Lead were we found the Broken Boot Gold Mine tour. They have tours every half hour. We had gotten to the location early enough that Mari was able to pan for gold. They had a little back full of gravel/sand mixture. One of the tour guides showed the wanna be gold miner how to pan for the gold. She ended up finding 4 or 5 tiny pieces/flecks of gold. She was so proud of the gold she found. While we were in the mine touring they allowed the visitors to pickup loose rocks off the ground. Mari was picking up loose rocks left and right, her pockets were bulging. She was hoping to find some gold in their hills. During the tour the guide, Marissa (yea go figure our daughters name), mentioned that the mine used to have a different name Sein's Mine. It was changed to Broken Boot when they were renovating the mine for tours. They had actually found a wheelbarrow with a "broken" boot. I attached few other pictures at the bottom of today's blog. When we got back to the cabin Mari checked out her survivors from the mine. She ended up finding some fools gold.

On the way back from Deadwood we hit the Prairie Berry Winery. Mari and I got to sample five different wines. I tried: Crab Apple, Wild Plum, Poker Face, Red Ass Rhubarb and Raspberry Honeywine. We ended up getting four different wines to bring home...maybe we will just drink them tonight. Ha. The Prairie Berry Winery is currently remodeling and but what we got to see is very clean and awesome. You could even sit and socialize and eat at their restaurant. I would recommend stopping by her if you are in the area.

From the winery we took the scenic way home through the western edge of Custer State Park. We got our 7-day pass and stopped by Sylvan Lake. From there we headed back to our cabin in Custer. Planned on grilling some brats but had to put that on hold until tomorrow night. Our cabin neighbors had already started using the grill. We had some meat/cheese and crackers with carrots for supper. Relaxed and started making plans for tomorrow. Sounds like we will be planning a trip back into Custer State Park for the day.