Through The Lens vBy Angella and Ryan Byykkonen Hotel Alex Johnson Rapid City, SD This past December my oldest daughter graduated from South Dakota State University’s Nursing program in Rapid City, South Dakota where she has been for the past two and a half years. She recommended that we book our stay at the Hotel Alex Johnson for convenience, as the graduation ceremony would be held at the Elks Theater directly across the street and the reception would be just a block down the street at the Hay Camp Brewery. I had always wanted to stay at the Hotel Alex Johnson and had heard that it had a lot of history to it. As this was a quick trip of only a few days and I was focused on my daughter graduating I had not done any research on the hotel prior to staying there and I wished I had! We arrived in Rapid City and checked into the hotel late in the afternoon on a Sunday. We were greeted with warm smiles and a helpful bellhop who loaded our luggage on a cart to take up to our room. I was asked if I wanted to stay on the sixth or the eighth floor and responded that it didn’t matter. Once again, my regret of not doing a little research on the hotel prior to would set in later that I should’ve requested a room on the eighth floor. The young man led us to the tiny elevator and once the door opened, I thought no way were the three of us and the luggage cart going to fit in there, we just barely did, and we proceeded up to the sixth floor. After unpacking our luggage and getting cleaned up, we wanted to do some exploring of the hotel also a bit of the downtown as this was the only free time we would have. I grabbed my camera, and the family and I headed down to the lobby to have a look around. Hanging from the ceiling in the center of the lobby is a vLENS continued on page 20 HISVOICEvJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019v19