I visited two years ago when I was getting my new South Dakota driver’s license, but only spent a couple days after weeks in Rapid City. After getting some other documents updated, including a change to my mail service and a new address, I needed to update my DL, too, so came for a week.

It is a beautiful city, with a great historic downtown. Falls Park is literally the center of the city, and a gorgeous area to enjoy a walk. I went 3-4 times during the week. Just north of the falls is the area for the Falls Park Farmer’s Market, too, on Saturday. Lots of traffic, and difficult to park, I probably would enjoy going if I lived here but I fought the traffic and then didn’t buy anything.

I also saw the Old Courthouse Museum a couple years ago but enjoyed a return visit, there are many nice exhibits. I visited the Pettigrew Home and Museum. Like the courthouse, free entry, and there is a free guided house tour with exhibits about Richard Pettigrew and his collections.

There is an interesting layout of the battleship, with propellers, several of their guns, and some good exhibits in the museum at the USS South Dakota Memorial, the most decorated ship in WWII.

I also stopped by for a quick visit to the beautiful St. Joseph Cathedral.

Also downtown is the Sculpture Walk and Arc of Dreams. Boo and I enjoyed walking up and down Phillips Avenue to see the 60+ sculptures displayed. I voted for one but it was hard to pick just one as there were many beautiful unique sculptures.

There are some nice trails around town including at Sertoma Park and Yankton Park. We also visited Oxbow Park and the Butterfly House and Aquarium.

Restaurants

The brisket sandwich at RoAM Kitchen was great, they have a good menu.

I had an excellent Vietnam chicken sandwich at Bread & Circus Sandwich Shop. They are dog friendly so instead of getting it to go, sat on the deck with Boo. I ordered the equally excellent Moroccan Chicken salad to-go for dinner that night.

I picked up a couple pastries at CH Patisserie. I found them at the Farmer’s Market and bought their berry tart, a couple days later was walking around downtown and passed their shop and got their beignet flavor of the month: Neapolitan, with chocolate dough, vanilla cream and strawberry glaze. Both were wonderful, the chef is winner of Top Chef: Just Dessert’s and rated Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America. Stop by! 

I visited Remedy Brewing for a beer and their great pork sandwich on Memorial Day. Dog friendly patio.

Out walking around downtown, I stopped in Fernson Brewing for a beer. They have a nice patio, dog friendly.

I had tried Phnom Penh last year and wanted to return for some good Cambodian. Their lemongrass stir fry and drunken noodles are great.

Outside Sioux Falls

About 15 miles north of Sioux Falls in Garretson, are Devil’s Gulch and Split Rock Park. Devil’s Gulch has some great trails and views, you can walk from there into Split Rock Park and walk along the river. It has some interesting history, or legend anyway, as well as beautiful trails. Legend has it the James brothers, Frank and Jesse, escaped from a posse after robbing a bank in this area, with Jesse supposedly jumped the gulch. According to the small visitor center, there is “no proof or documentation whatsoever”, just myth.

It’s about an hour drive outside of Sioux Falls, in SW Minnesota, but Pipestone National Monument is well worth the trip. I am trying to cross off as many NPS sites as possible. There are great history exhibits in the visitor center and there are beautiful trails around the quarries and Winnewissa Falls. Boo and I loved the circle trail. We learned about the long history of many native tribes quarrying the pipestone here, soft workable stone beneath the diamond hard Sioux quartzite. The stone is sacred to many of the tribes and only registered tribal members are allowed to quarry the stone.

On the drive from Michigan I stopped halfway in Coralville, IA. I enjoyed the Iowa River Landing, just around the corner from my hotel. Beautiful area for a walk.

The next morning I spent a few hours at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. It is a few miles east of Coralville but worth that short detour before continuing to Sioux Falls. I didn’t make time for the Presidential Library but did visit the grounds after seeing the exhibits and the video in the visitor center.

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **