Adventures

Travels

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No matter how far ahead I’m watching, I think I’m going to have to resign myself that I’ll never be able to see what life has in store even a month ahead of time.

A six inch long crab from a South Carolina beach.

People, cultures, places. Modern transportation has made the earth both larger and smaller. Smaller when traversing continents in days or hours, yet larger in the amount that I can explore. Growing up, even going on a weekend trip to a major city three or four hours away was a rarity. Now I have set feet on both sides of the country in one month’s time. It’s a strange feeling, this mobility. My mind adjusts slowly, not quite able to adjust to the pace yet. Perhaps in another year I will have adjusted to the roving lifestyle I find myself in.

Gold Panning Adventures

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Oh, Susanna
Don’t you cry for me
I’m going to California
With my washpan on my knee.

The rivers around Auburn, California still show the evidence of the gold deposits . Tiny glints of the shiny metal shine in the pebbles. My Dad was determined to find a way to experience this piece of California history. Many refrains of “My Darling Clementine” could be heard on the way up the mountain countryside to try our hand at treasure hunting.

Learning the rules of gold panning

There were just a few basic steps to be learned  in beginning to look for gold.

  • put soil through sieve to remove large rocks
  • spin soil in large bucket to pour off large rocks
  • hand off to someone who has a gold pan.

Watching an expert was the ideal way to learn, a youtube videos make this possible from anywhere. We met with some very enthusiastic gold panners at a local supply shop, and they taught us the technique with an in-store demo.

for the little ones who wanted to help, there were several tasks they could do.  Everyone felt included no matter their age. Once their attention spans had faded they were more than happy to dig with shovels in the sand and splash in the knee deep river.

An ideal large family activity

The pictures portray an idealistic slice of the morning. The only doses of reality to be found was the presence of extra large California spiders in the rocks, and the awareness of the need to watch for rattlesnakes (a new one for us great plains folks). I would bring a small chair or stool along next time to be more comfortable. Stooping and lifting the rocks from the riverbed could use some ergonomic improvements. The heat of the sun was relieved by the chilly mountain water available. This was clear and fun for the youngest to play in. At the end of the day, everyone was fatigued but not cranky. The activity allowed even the youngest some independence in running around, so they were not as frustrated as when normally carried along on a big kid activity.


I suppose the biggest question is-did we find any? Yes-a lot! Mostly souvenir specks, but enough that we might have started a brand new hobby.

Over the Mountains

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Far over the misty mountains cold…

….We must away ere break of day


…To dungeons deep, and caverns old…


 

This song from Tolkein’s The Hobbit began in my heart the moment the plane lifted off towards the western horizon. Like Bilbo, I’ve been in awe of mountains, since I first saw the Beartooth Mountains in Montana. Perhaps simply because the terrain stands in stark contrast to the flat grassy plains where I live, I heartily believe a real adventure should involve mountains. So we piled in the fifteen passenger to brave the recent Sierra Nevada snowstorm over the heart of the range.

Me and lil’ sis, on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Black Hills Preview

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A friend’s wedding took the family to the west side of the state in late September. The beautiful fall scenery in the rolling hills and jagged rock formations brought a wonderful rest from schoolwork, as we fit our entire trip between my weekday school schedule. (Thanks, Dad, for driving till four in the morning to get me home for Monday classes!) We brought home a multitude of pictures, and here are a few teaser pictures until I have time to sort them all.

Benjamin in the Badlands.

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At last, it all makes sense; Joseph is a wild hoofed animal at heart. His first instinct when he saw the pronghorn antlers on the kids table at Wind Cave:

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Almost all the family-Landon stayed home to take care of schoolwork, and Maria is the photographer. This is at Wind Cave national park.

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Sun ‘n Sand

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Building an enormous sand castle at the beach was Landon’s childhood dream. It was fulfilled in California, where he spent several hours creating one with the two little boys.  They painstakingly carted bucket after bucket of seawater to wet the sand at a safe distance from the ocean, which terrified Dominic. Then, they had to guard the creation in progress from being smashed by the feet of inquisitive siblings coming to look.

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 I love this picture Mom snapped of the boys posing with their masterpiece, complete with a trench for a moat to its shell flags for the turrets. It’s a pleasantly warm memory for this cold February day.

Thanksgiving Break

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Thanksgiving break is finally here. Despite writing last about how close Thanksgiving seemed, while wading through my schoolwork it seemed that it would never actually come. I had an intensely busy pre-break week, filled with two tests, three papers, two nights of substitute ballet teaching, and two afternoons of babysitting.   After the constant time management and studying, it’s hard for my brain to have it all come to an end and not need to do anything. None of my teachers assigned any homework over the 5-day holiday (I love it when teachers treat a break as an actual break. So many love to give large projects or tests for us to study while we’re away), so  I really have nothing school related to do.

Luckily, there is plenty to do at home, the foremost thing being cooking for our Thanksgiving meal. I used to cook so much before I was a college student, that during the school year I really have the urge to bake and bake and bake as soon as I have a chance. It’s a good thing there’s so many mouths around to help me eat up all the treats!

San Francisco-California Part 3

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No other view says ‘California’ quite like this one.

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The Golden Gate Bridge was very pretty, and its renowned color did not disappoint. The bold orange color formed the perfect contrast to the crystal blue water and sea.

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It had a beautiful view of the city and the bay. IMG_3883

This is Alcatraz on the island. I never realized how near it was to such a large city. I wondered if the criminals found the nearby metropolis tantalizingly close.

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This is one of my favorite water landscape scenes I took. The wall lining the marina is so picturesque! IMG_3840

We traveled through San Francisco on our way to Los Angeles, and spent just enough timing driving through to get a feel for the atmosphere of the downtown region. Beautiful architecture lined the city streets, and historic trolley cables hung above us.

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Sometimes it seemed like Chicago and Florida ran into each other and got a little mixed up about which was which.

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We left San Francisco that same day, but if we had stayed we would have been there for the strongest earthquake since 1989. The hotel where we stayed the previous night was actually within a few miles of the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake that struck less than 24 hours later, at three o clock at the morning. While I’m happy we escaped being in an area suffering major damage, part of me still thinks it would have been cool to feel an earthquake. Maybe not one that is greater than 4.0 though.

Apple’s company headquarters are very close to San Francisco, and Computer Man Dad thought they were pretty cool. IMG_3913 IMG_3921

Lastly, a few more photos from the Redwoods. Here Joseph found some bracket fungi.IMG_3674 IMG_3693 IMG_3699

This was the view in all directions:

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Redwood Forest-California Part 2

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The first destination on our trip was the Redwood Forest in Northernmost California. My Mom had wanted to see the largest trees on earth for a very long time. We stopped to see the largest tree in the region, known unceremoniously as ‘The Big Tree’.

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The name was an understatement.

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Then we explored a forest trail, surrounded by thick forest as far as the eye could see.

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There were lots of new things for Claire to see.
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We were fortunate to see two of these unusual creatures. They are called Banana Slugs, and only live in pacific forests. The first one we saw was quite large, and it moved slowly along its leaf, disregarding us completely.


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Road Trip! California-Part 1

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Our family made a last minute decision to take to the road for the last two weeks before school started. After much deliberation, my parents decided to try to drive all the way to the West Coast. We weren’t sure how one year old Claire would deal with all of the driving, but she actually did quite well. (When supplied with adequate amounts of candy.)  The first state we crossed after our own was Montana. The landscape once we hit the mountains was rugged and had lots of interesting rock formations.

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We also passed close enough to the Bear Tooth Mountains to see their snowy caps. That was one of the first exciting moments of the trip, since none of the kids in our family had ever seen a mountain. Then we traveled along the Columbia River for quite a while, seeing the same landscape that those on the Lewis and Clark Expedition had seen about two hundred years ago.
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Some bridges spanning the Columbia were very picturesque:IMG_3376

and this boat looked like it came right out of Tom Sawyer:

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You can just barely see Mount Hood in Oregon in this picture through the hazy clouds. I would have loved to see it on a clear day, since its lone snowy top was just beautiful.

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The moment of victory: passage into California! For such a big state, they sure had a tiny welcome sign.

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When we arrived in California after about four days of driving, we stopped in Crescent City to stick our feet in the ocean for the first time.

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Landon and I quickly tasted our wet fingers to experience the salty sea. Everyone else began inspecting the remains of sea life scattered around. All of the kids, including me, quickly began collecting souvenirs. We were astonished at the great number of shells, sand dollar fragments, and dead crabs on the shore.

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I loved little Claire’s footprints in the sand:

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As the sun began to set, we finished up muddy but content.IMG_3618

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Kansas City

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Last weekend, Dad took Landon and I down to Kansas.  I participated in a college competition on Saturday, then traveled to Kansas City for the night.

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In Kansas City, we went to an amazing museum that featured the cargo of a pre-civil war ship, the Arabia, that sank on the Missouri River in 1859. The river shifted its position and left the boat buried 45 feet underground. About twenty years ago, five ambitious treasure hunters decided to try to dig up the ship. Though it turned out to be a much bigger task than they expected, they succeeded, and what they found is displayed in the Steamboat Arabia Museum.

The museum guide referred to the ship as a nineteenth century Walmart, as it carried enormous quantities of everything used in 1859, both necessities for daily living:

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… and non-necessities:

 

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  These beautiful buttons are all that is left of hundreds and hundreds of fine ladies’ dresses. Animal fibers like wool and silk were able to survive 130 years submerged in wet earth. Plant fibers, such as the cotton used in dressmaking, could not. Now we can only imagine how beautiful the dresses must have been.

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Archeologists have been working on preserving the cargo of Arabia for twenty years, and they still have fifteen years until the entire collection is finished. Every artifact has to be stored in a freezer until it can be cleaned and preserved, or else it will deteriorate beyond recognition. This is the lab, where you can watch the restoration taking place right in front of you!

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This is a full scale replica of the wheel of the Arabia:

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Landon and I in front of the real anchor:
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Front of the ship:
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Landon obliged me fifty-one cents so I could add to my collection of penny souvenirs. I’ve been collecting these ever since I was little, and I now have thirteen coins from six states!

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Chicago

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Our first stop in Chicago was the Shedd aquarium. Dominic really got a kick out of seeing the fish.

These beluga whales were one of the highlights of the visit for me. They seem to be permanently smiling!

Dominic loved these life-sized penguin statues.

We went to an amazing marine animals show. Here the beluga is ‘waving’.

Sea lion barking:

The pacific white sided dolphins were amazing!

There were some shark eggs on display, and inside the egg the baby shark was swimming around back and forth. It was so cool!

After our family finished at the aquarium, we walked along the lake and into the city to the Willis Tower.

We were there just as the sun was setting, which made a beautiful sight.

We also visited the Field Museum of Natural History and the Science and Industry Museum. Here are the boys posing with a train-the first to break past 100 miles per hour.

 

 

Pictures from Minneapolis

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We spent the last weekend of February in Minneapolis. Dominic was pretty excited about the hotel where we stayed, and he crawled over every inch of his new territory.

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When we arrived at the hotel, we had Chinese food delivered to our rooms. (Daniel ate as he was getting into his pajamas)

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The next day, we went to the aquarium underneath the Mall of America.

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We petted starfish and sea urchins, and neither of them felt like I expected. The starfish were velvety and squishy. Sea urchin spikes were not sharp and pointy, and they were much softer and more pliable than I thought they would be.

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Daniel was way too scared of the starfish to even put his hands in the water, but he was very impressed by the sharks, manta rays, and sea turtles we saw.

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