Posted by Sierra

Wind Cave was our fourth and final cave of the trip. In case you have forgotten, our other caves were:

* Font de Gaume, Les Eyzies, France
* Skocjan Caves, Slovenia
* Mammoth Cave, Cave City, Kentucky

Located a few hours’ drive away from the Badlands, Wind Cave is the fourth-largest cave system in the world. It is most famous for its boxwork.

The cave used to be owned by a family called McDonald. They hoped to mine the cave, but when they couldn’t find anything mineable, they started giving tours.

Their son, Alvin McDonald, gave most of the tours. He was obsessed with the cave. Once, when he was giving a tour, he found a new passageway, and he left his tour to go explore. The group was down there overnight, in the total darkness. Luckily, Alvin remembered they were down there and went back.

We took the Candlelight Tour, which is the kind of tour they used to give in the olden days, before there was electricity. Our tour was led by “Ranger Max.”

You hold a bucket, in which there is a candle. The bucket spreads the light from the candle out, like a flashlight. For about half of the tour, you are using only the candles to see. On parts of the tour, you might take one wrong step and fall into an abyss. You get to see lots of boxwork, and you also get to experience total blackness like the kind Alvin McDonald left that tour in, in the exact same spot.

Fortunately, we all made it out alive, although there is a rather nasty bruise on my knee. No one got lost, and we didn’t have to resort to cannibalism. Yet.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten anything from Harry & David, be it online, as a gift, or from one of their stores. It may have been Moose Munch, Royal Riviera pears, Bing cherries, or a gift box with an assortment of goodies. We went to the flagship store in Medford, Oregon. There you can take a tour of the bakery and the packing plant for $5 (you also get a coupon that is good for $5 off a purchase of more than $35). At the end, you get free samples (more on that later)!

 
The first stop on our tour was the bakery, where you can see Moose Munch being made (the photo above). Some 8,000 pounds of Moose Munch are made per hour! You can tell what each worker does based on their hairnet/gloves. A green hairnet means you’re a supervisor, a blue hairnet means you’re a line leader, a yellow hairnet means you speak Spanish and English, and any other colors mean you’re just a worker. Also, purple gloves mean you work in a high-allergen environment and should be careful not to contaminate anything. Also in the bakery are Swedish ovens, which rotate the baking goods. Two giant vats can hold about 6,000 pounds of chocolate apiece. Then come the free samples. You get a cookie and a chocolate. The chocolate was good, but the cookie had jam in it. I hate jam. But Mom and Dad were happy to eat mine.

Next on the tour, you go to the packing plant. On the way there, you pass the orchards, where they grow 800 pounds of peaches and 19,000 tons of pears a year. At harvest time, it takes 400 workers 6 weeks to get all the pears off the trees!

You can see people packing fruits and other treats into baskets and boxes. The experienced packers can pack 300-400 boxes a day!

Finally, at the end of the tour, you end up back in the store. I recommend buying lots of Moose Munch. The chocolate kind is yummy, but (in my opinion) the fat-free toffee kind is even better. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go sneak some. Don’t tell Mom!

* Alcatraz: Featured in books such as Al Capone Does My Shirts and movies such as The Rock and Escape From Alcatraz, this island prison was for the worst of the worst. It was pretty hard to be innocent in Alcatraz, since you had to be convicted of a crime more than once. Some famous inmates were Al “Scarface” Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert “The Birdman” Stroud. There is a really good tour of the Cell House that I very highly recommend. It is narrated by former inmates and guards.

* Earthquake: Unfortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it) we did not have a chance to experience this attraction. It is most famous for causing a good deal of damage in 1906.

* Cable Cars: Personally, I think these should be called streetcars, because if you pay attention, you’ll notice THEY DO NOT RUN ON CABLES! There are actually streetcars, which DO run on cables! What a confusing world this is.

* Exploratorium: A hands-on museum of science, this is a good place to learn things like about how magnetic black sand has iron in it. One of the highlights of the Exploratorium is the Tactile Dome. This is like a fun house with all the lights turned off. It’s completely dark as you climb, crawl, slide, and occasionally walk through a maze of pots, pans, and pillows. There are objects in there from spoons to sponges and from bundt cake molds to mattresses. In other words, the Tactile Dome is awesome.

* Musée Mechanique: I know what you’re thinking: How can a mechanical museum be considered “fun?” But this isn’t your typical museum. It’s a collection of old arcade games: fortune tellers, pinball machines, Skee-Ball, even an old “Laughing Sal,” a delightful/utterly terrifying figure. Those of you who have seen The Princess Diaries should recognize the arm-wrestling guy. You can watch a little band of monkeys (25 cents) or have the Bocca Della Verita tell your fortune (50 cents). The Musée Mechanique gets my vote for “Best San Francisco Attraction.”

So those are most of the attractions we went to in San Francisco. Next time, you’re there, remember to smile and scream “EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!”

Much of the material at the City Museum is used material. A lot of the climbing structures are made of rebar. It’s really hard to describe the museum itself, so instead I’m going to attempt to describe some of the highlights (Please note: I had to make up most of the names):

* MonstroCity: This HUGE um, monstrosity is, well, monstrous. It’s made out of all sorts of things—old airplanes, rebar, shingles. Located outside of the museum, MonstroCity is a bit of a tangled mess. But it’s lots of fun, just as long as you wear shoes that won’t come off.

* Four-Story Slide: This long slide involves a lot of climbing and even more sliding. In other words, it’s AWESOME. You slide down an old conveyor belt-like copper slide. Brace yourself for the ending, unless you want a fateful face full of cement!

* The Grotto: With its pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling and the fish tank with snapping turtles, swordfish, and catfish, the Grotto is a watery haven. There’s lots of climbing around to do, including inside a giant whale. This is the tightest climbing area. I bumped my head several times.

*Other Stuff: The stairways are lined with hundreds of painted rollers. Some of the walls are covered in old printing blocks. There’s a giant barrel that you can roll around, and there’s also a room that’s like a skate park (without the skates). The skate park room has a giant pencil in it, with a real, rubbery eraser (very heavy) at the end. There’s also a room that’s sort of like an old arcade, which contains “The World’s Oldest Known Corn Dog” from 3500 B.C. I wouldn’t want to eat that.

So there you have it, the City Museum, a typical boring museum NOT!

Hooray! this is officially our 100th post! I dedicate it to all our friends and family who have let us park the RV at their house, and let us stay there.

Washington, D.C., as I’m sure you’re all aware, is our nation’s capital. It is filled with big, white, buildings and people in business suits. The crosswalks give you as long as 62 seconds to cross!

Today I’m going to be telling you about the International Spy Museum, the Senate Gallery, and the House Gallery.

International Spy Museum: Feel free to walk around with the theme from “Mission Impossible” in your head. I know I did. You start off by receiving a cover and a legend. You are given a rather short period of time to pick one and memorize it, and before long you enter a room where you see the movie “Could YOU be a Spy?” At least I think that’s what it’s called.

Anyway, next you enter this room that looks really spy-y. You test your cover, and receive your next mission. After that, you can float around, reading lots of panels and doing lots of activities, including:
* Identifying a type of threat
* Locating the familiar shapes of airplanes
* Climbing into a vent and listening to a conversation (which I think was mostly in Spanish)
* Spotting a disguised agent in a crowd.
You can also watch videos on a few subjects, such as lock picking (Note to self: Add “lock pick” to Wish List).

Next, you get to learn about the history of spying. Did you know that George Washington was a spymaster? He needed spies to help win the war. Also, Ben Franklin used his pen as a spy tool during the war: England asked Germany to fight with them against the colonies, but Franklin gave the Germans fake information and slipped pieces of paper to German soldiers promising free land if they didn’t fight with the British.

You also learn about famous people who turned out to be spies, like Julia Child. There’s a lot about spying during World War II and the Cold War. There’s some really interesting stuff about ciphers and other codes. There’s a little about torture, then you are tested on the details of your legend.

Another thing you can do at the Spy Museum is called Operation Spy. You go on a mission. I’m worried if I reveal the details of this mission, the Spy Museum people will track me down and kill me, so all I’ll tell you is that it involves a nuclear trigger. My lips are sealed.

Senate Gallery: It is no easy task to see the Senate Gallery. First, you have to go to the office of one of your senators and ask for tickets. Then, when you get to the Capitol, you have to go through security to get into the Capitol. Then you have to follow a special route to the Senate Gallery. You have to check all electronics, including car door openers. Then you have to take an elevator. You have to go through security—again— to make sure you didn’t:
A) Forget to check some electronic— I saw one woman have to go all the way back because she still had her cell phone
B) Sneak in some food from the cafeteria
C) Somehow manage to hide a firearm and plan to murder a senator

After you go through security, you go into the Senate Gallery viewing area, which is basically a few rows of seats circling the place where it looks like the ceiling should be over the Gallery. You are very specifically told where to sit. There are medical bags underneath all the seats. Mom suspects the bags include defibrillators.

At this point I would like to mention that when we were touring the Capitol the day before we went to the Senate Gallery, some EMS guys ran by us when we were in the Crypt. The guide nonchalantly said that this was typical, but that doesn’t mean I believed him.

Anyway I think it would be really funny if a senator needed one of those medical bags and someone threw it to him and, in the process, HIT ANOTHER SENATOR ON THE HEAD! Boy, that would be hilarious. “Senator knocked out by medical bag.” Too bad that didn’t happen. It would’ve made a good blog post.

On a good day in the Senate, you get to watch one of their one-person debates. See, not very many senators were there at the same time before it was time to vote, so the ones that were there pretty much spoke and left. When the time came to vote, however, they swarmed in. Some left, but most stayed. To vote, a senator would give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Mom said it was a little like an auction. You’ve gotta admit, “Mr. Betterman, Mr. Betterman, no.” sounds a teensy bit like “Going once, going twice, sold to Mr. Betterman for the very generous sum of no!” Dad said it was a little like C-SPAN Live.

Famous faces included:
* Senator Kerry
* Senator McCain
* Senator Dodd
* Senator Whitehouse
* Senator Udall (both of them)
* Senator Jones
* Senator Bingaman ***

House Gallery: Getting into the House Gallery is like getting into the Senate Gallery. You have to check electronics, go through security, etc., etc., etc. The way the House votes, however, is different. Each representative slips a little card into a machine and presses Yay or Nay. A long list tells how each representative voted and another keeps track of the name of the bill, the time left to vote, and the number of Yays and Nays.

So those are a few of the attractions in Washington, D.C. I personally think that Washington, D.C., should create a personal anthem that is similar to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” except it should end in, “And the home of the 62-second crosswalks.”

*** One of these was made up. Can you guess which one?

Posted by Sierra

When you think of Colonial Williamsburg, “Revolutionary City,” you probably think, “An art museum? When pigs fly!” Yet that is exactly what I’m going to write about.

When we went to Williamsburg, one of the things we did was go to the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum/Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. I took the free audio guide tour. It talked about 16 or so objects in the museum. Here are my notes on some of those objects:

Memory Pot: Memory pots are made of lots of different little trinkets and knickknacks held together by something like cement. Objects on the pot may include thimbles, buttons, and shards of glass.

Blunderbuss: A funny name for a gun, blunderbuss means “thunder gun.” It did best at close range and was loaded with anything from shards of glass to clumps of ground.

Tompion Clock: This clock is special because it was made for King William III. It could run three months without being wound. Other famous owners include King George III and Queen Victoria.

Stamp Act Teapot: Reading “No Stamp Act,” this teapot is a bit like a “bumper sticker” of the 18th century.

Portrait of Deborah Glen: Deborah Glen was from a fairly wealthy family. She married at 18. In the portrait she is wearing clothes that were in fashion at the time.

Room from the Shaw House: Built and lived in by farmer Colonel Alexander Shaw and his wife, Sarah McIntosh Shaw, the house was made to look expensive. Normal wood was painted to look like fancy wood, and the top of the wall is a painted design made to look like wallpaper. Over the fireplace is the in-the-wall painting, “Vue of New York.” (Pictured at the top.)

Face Pitcher: This huge jug with a face is mysterious. It’s too big to have been used to carry water, since it wouldn’t be movable when full. Was it an advertisement for a pottery store? Or a house decoration?

Portrait of George Washington: This full-length portrait was done by Charles Peale. There are only eight copies like this that Peale made, each with a different battlefield as the background.

So those are some of the objects in the art museums of Williamsburg. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I suggest you stop by.

“Ten Thousand Islands” sounds like a misnomer to me! Actually, it is. Located partially in Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and partially in the third-largest national park in the lower 48, Everglades, there are more like 14,000-16,000. It depends on the tide. At high tide there are more, at low tide fewer.

There are many animals to see on the Ten Thousand Islands Wildlife Boat Tour. Here are a few
(asterisk denotes that we saw that particular animal):

* Bottlenose Dolphin: We saw two! They use echolocation in the dark water to find food. When a baby is born it is about 2 feet long. It can reach up to 9 feet long and 500 pounds. The dolphin can stay underwater for 7 minutes, although 2 minutes is more common.

* Vulture: There are two kinds of vultures, black vultures with black heads and turkey vultures with red heads.

* Cormorant: A cormorant is a bird that resembles an anhinga. There are a few differences: A) The cormorant has a longer neck and B) the cormorant grabs fish instead of spearing them.

* Snowy Egret: This bird has yellow feet. In the 1800s its feathers were very sought-after. It almost became endangered! Luckily, the snowy egret is saved now.

* Osprey: These birds nest in winter. The male and female take turns incubating the eggs. Ospreys are found on every continent except Antarctica. Florida has the largest concentration of ospreys. The female has a white chest with brown spots, the male has a solid white chest.

* Pelican: A pelican can hold 2-3 gallons of water.

Raccoon: Raccoons on the islands are smaller than ones on the mainland. They only weigh
about 2-3 pounds. Their hobbies include licking dew off leaves and stealing people’s water.

Manatee: Manatees are an endangered species. They are 9-14 feet long and can hold their breath for 20 minutes, although 2 minutes is more common. They are herbivores. Their closest relative is the elephant. They have similar skin, mouths, and 3-4 toenails. Eighty percent of manatees are identifiable by boating scars.

* Mosquito: There are 43 different kinds of mosquitoes in the Everglades. I can just picture a mosquito with a megaphone calling, “We have your RV surrounded. Come out unarmed, without bug swatters!”

Hawksbill Turtle: This turtle got its name from its pointed beak. The turtle weighs 90-130 pounds. It has no teeth. Tiger sharks, other fish, and humans eat adult turtles. Crabs, birds, and raccoons eat hatchlings.

So that’s the dynamic and wild ecosystem that is Ten Thousand Islands. My only questions is: who counted all those islands?

Posted by Sierra

When asked to name two great European cities, many people will name Paris and Rome. We’ve already been to Paris, and I wrote a post about it (Ooh, La La!). But I haven’t written about Rome. So here are the highlights, area by area:

ANCIENT ROME
The name says it all. Full of ruins, the ancient areas are among the trademarks of the city.

The Colosseum (Colosseo): I’ll start with the most popular. Just like the Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris, the Colosseum is the symbol of Rome. Everyone knows what it is. But there’s stuff many people don’t know about it, such as:

* Only a little bit was destroyed by natural disasters. Most was carted off as pre-cut stones during the Middle Ages.
* It was built around A.D. 80.
* The “stage” was wood with sand sprinkled on (“arena” is Latin for “sand”).
* Whatever the gladiator was fighting could pop up anywhere, courtesy of a system of elevators under the stage.

The Roman Forum (Foro Romano): After the Colosseum, the Roman Forum is possibly the second- most famous thing in ancient Rome. It’s not just famous because of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, either. The Forum was THE ancient political center. Caesar, Augustus, Marc Antony, all of them, were at the Forum. Amid what is now rubble are the Basilica Maxentius (now just three very big arches); The Temple of Vesta, where the sacred fire burned (now just some columns in a roundish shape); the House of the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses who tended to the sacred fire (now just two empty pools and some broken statues); and the Arch of Titus, which commemorates Titus’ victory over the Jewish people, who traditionally don’t go under the arch (which is at least still arch-shaped).

Pantheon: Yes, it is ancient. The Pantheon was originally built in 27 B.C., and then rebuilt in A.D. 120 by Hadrian. It is dedicated to all (pan) the gods (theos). Its dome was the model for Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence (which kicked off the Renaissance), Michelangelo’s dome (more about that later), and even Washington D.C.’s Capitol dome. It was the largest until modern times. In the ceiling there’s an oculus, or “God’s eye.” VERY unfortunately, it had closed by the time we got there.

Various other ruins: There are lots of other Roman ruins. Sometimes you’ll just be wandering around and whoosh! you find an ancient temple or theater or something. This is a very unique experience.

VATICAN CITY
Signed over to the Pope in 1929 by Mussolini, Vatican City is the world’s smallest country.

St. Peter’s Basilica: Numbers first: 18,100 square yards, 212 yards long, with a 435-feet-tall-by-138-feet-wide dome. It’s built over the tomb of Saint Peter, and the dome was built by Michelangelo, though it was completed after his death. Highlights of the basilica include:
* Michelangelo’s Pieta, which he did when he was 24.
* The climb to the top of the dome, with a great view of Rome, which Mom and I did. I counted 528 steps when we were climbing up, but only 492 steps coming down. Guess I undercounted, since there are officially 551 steps.
* Six-foot-tall letters at the base of the dome and around the ceiling.
* A seven-story bronze canopy over the altar.

Indeed, St. Peter’s is the world’s largest church topped by the world’s largest dome.

The Vatican Museums: Displaying great works of art, the Museums include:
* Transfiguration
* Laocoon
* The Raphael Rooms (with The School of Athens)
* The Sistine Chapel: WARNING! It may hurt your neck!

OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Spanish Steps: These steps and the Piazza Spagna get their names from the nearby Spanish Embassy.

Trevi Fountain: A great big fountain of gods with lots of people around it, the Trevi Fountain is, in my opinion, not as spectacular as many books say.

Bocca della Verita: An ancient drain cover, the Bocca della Verita is supposed to bite off the hand of anyone who doesn’t tell the truth.

So that’s Rome. Of course, this isn’t all there is to see. But as somebody famous said, “Rome, Non Basta una Vita!” or “Rome, A lifetime is not enough!”

Prehistory is full of stereotypes. We homosapiens tend to think of Cro-Magnons as “cave people.” This is totally incorrect. They didn’t live in caves. Well, at least not in deep ones. It is impossible to live in a deep cave for three reasons:

1. It’s too humid; you would get sick and die after a while.
2. There’s no light.
3. If you light a fire, it gets REEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY smoky.

So then, what did these Cro-Magnons use deep caves for? Well, no one really knows. It’s a deep, dark mystery. But one use is more or less known—for paintings. They painted the walls, the ceiling, even as high as 7 metres.

Where can you see these paintings? Near Les Eyzies, in a cave called Font de Gaume. It is one of three caves in the world where the public can see the original cave paintings.

An interesting thing about the cave is for a long time people knew it was there, even though it wasn’t officially “discovered.” Then one day a teacher came and visited the cave and realized how old the paintings were. The cave was then officially discovered.

The pictures are of animals. Bison, horses, mountain goats, reindeer, all sorts of animals. The caves used to be lit by candles, causing the animals to seem to move. Now it is lit by electric lights. Some animals are engraved. They are colored—some red, some black, some a mixture.

The art is amazingly exact. It is shaded to make the drawing 3-D. Remember how perspective was invented some 600 years ago in Italy? Well, these paintings are from waaaaaaaaaaaaay before then. So “HA!” Renaissance! Just kidding

Another cool thing about the animals is that they are painted to “move” with the rock. Does that make sense? For example, one of the hind legs of a horse is painted on a thin strip of rock that looks like a horse’s hind leg.

No one knows why these paintings are here. Or why they’re animals. Or if the animals symbolize or represent anything. For example, could the reindeer be love, the bison strength, and the horses family? It is a mystery. Perhaps someday we will have the answers to these questions, but for now, the mysteries remain unsolved.

Posted by Sierra

Have you ever heard of Gruyère cheese? Have you ever wondered how and where it is made? Well, here are the Answers (A) to all your Questions (Q)!

Q: Where is Gruyère cheese made?
A: Mostly in Switzerland, but also in France.

Q: Why’s it called “Gruyère?” That’s a funny word. “Gruyère, Gruyère, Gruyère, Gruyère.”
A: It was originally made in the town of Gruyères.

Q: How’d the town get its name?
A: A bunch of counts used to live there. Their flag had a crane on it, a “Gruy.”

Q: I’m getting tired of saying “Gruyère, Gruyère, Gruyère” over and over and over and over again and again and again. Can I call it crane cheese?
A: What sort of question is that? Of course you can!

Q: Is there anywhere I can learn more about crane cheese?
A: At Le Gruyère in Gruyères, you can learn all you want to know about it—and lots you didn’t, such as the fact that Cherry the Cow (see below) was born in the cherry season, which is a short season.

Q: How is the tour conducted?
A: Using an audioguide, you push the number for each commentary. Your “guide,” Cherry the Cow, provides information.

Q: How much grass and water does a cow eat per day? How much milk does a cow produce?
A: A cow eats around 100kg of grass and drinks almost 85 litres of water a day. A cow produces around 25 litres of milk a day!

Q: How much milk does it take to make all that cheese?
A: It takes 400 LITRES of milk to make 1 35kg “round” of Gruyère cheese!

Q: And where and how is that crane cheese made?
A: In a room with four pans of milk. Each pan holds 4,800 litres of milk, or 12 rounds of cheese. All four hold 19,200 litres of milk, or 48 rounds of cheese. The first step in making the cheese is to heat it to 32ºC. Then, a local natural starter is added for flavor. Next, rennet is added to coagulate the mixture. The rennet is made of calf’s stomach. After that, the mass is sliced up and heated to 57ºC to make it firm. Finally, the mixture is pressed for 16 hours and is turned regularly.

Q: How is it turned?
A: A robotic arm flips it, brushes in salt for the rind, and replaces it. This robot turns over 110 cheeses an hour! The cellar can hold about 7,000 cheeses.

Q: What do they do with any leftover stuff? Wait, is there any leftover stuff?
A: Yes, there is leftover stuff. The whey is used to make serac, a crumbly white cheese. The rest is fed to the pigs.

Q: How much longer is this post?
A: How many more questions do you have?

Q: None
A: Well then,

Q: The
A: End