Gentleman In Moscow

 In 2012 I read Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. This time I read Gentleman in Moscow by the same author. Count Alexander Rostov, at age forty, gets in trouble for writing poetry. He lives in Moscow and has never worked a day in his life. He is sentenced to house arrest. The house is the luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin. He can see the comings and goings of the Kremlin and also the opera house across the street. He is sentenced to house arrest in 1922 so he witnesses many political changes through the windows of his hotel. He has visitors and friends who run errands for him. He lives a fulfilling life including raising an adopted daughter who becomes a world famous pianist. The story is charming and humorous and I really enjoyed reading this book.

Upper Saint Anthony FallsT

Today we had a guided tour of the upper Saint Anthony Falls lock and dam. The park ranger said that the natural falls was located in Saint Paul. The sandstone allowed the falls to travel upstream to this spot in Minneapolis. When Lake Agassi emptied via the River Warren as the glacial age ended, these falls were 180 feet tall. In comparison, Niagara Falls is 188 feet tall.

We also shopped at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market which was very crowded.

An excellent band was playing while the girls ate their cotton candy.

 

The girls, ever observant of nature, spotted some fish in the river. We saw about 20 invasive silver carp bringing their mouths to the surface as if gulping air.

Minutemen Missile

The last National Park Junior Ranger badge was earned at Minuteman Missile in South Dakota. This site has 3 locations along I90 east of Rapid City. The first is Delta 1 which is available only by tours which are booked out into September. Delta 9 is a little farther east. You can park and get out and walk over to the site of the former missile and look down 4 stories. Each missile was slightly shorter than four cars parked end to end. The third site is ten miles down the road. At this turn off if you go south you enter the Badlands National Park. If you go north you go to the National Park. This park talks about the build up of nuclear arms since the Russians launched a satellite called Sputnick. There is information about bomb shelters. A turtle on an old black and white television sings a song about "Duck and Cover."  A video shows a little boy riding his bike down the street. An atomic bomb goes off in the distance so the boy jumps off his bike, leaves it in the road, runs to the gutter, lies down and covers his head as if that would help.

They had some atomic looking wall paper in that TV room. This was the most disappointing national park I have ever been to.

 

Devil's TowerTh

This is Devil's Tower in Wyoming. The natives called it Bear because the outside is scored as if a bear slashed the sides of it. A white military man misunderstood the native word for bear as bad dog and he translated that into Devil's Tower. I like Bear better. The lava tubes are visible from the outside.

Walking on the 1.3 mile loop around the base we found a leafy spurge hawkmoth caterpillar. We arrived at 3:30 because that is when the parking lots open up as other people leave. We saw 2 climbers descending the tower and 2 other climbers climbing up.

This National Park was a 5 hour drive out of our way but it was cool and the grand girls got another National Park junior ranger badge.

 

Jewel Cave

This morning we had a tour of Jewel Cave in South Dakota. The dark purple means maganese.

The cave was colder than Wind Cave so I was glad our tour was only 20 minutes long.

Two grand girls earned the junior ranger badge for Jewel Cave and Cave Explorers.

After the tour and the badge work we walked around on the grounds above the cave for awhile.

 

Rushmore and Wind Cave

Today we went to Wind Cave National Park to earn junior ranger badges and hike. Then we went to Mount Rushmore and earned another junior ranger badge.

Wind Cave has a small population of bison but plenty of prairie dogs. We walked to a prairie dog town and sat in the grass for 20 minutes to observe the prairie dog behaviors. We saw canyon wrens This is a lonely bachelor bison.

Later in the afternoon we had a 2 hour tour of Wind Cave.

These are boxwork configurations which are common in Wind Cave but rare elsewhere. This cave is a dry cave. The boxwork are thin sheets of calcite that form a honeycomb pattern. Some are as thin as paper. Others are so thick it would take a hammer to break them.

Badlands

Today we went to the Badlands in South Dakota

The day was hot with a high of 99 degrees.

Hiking was hard to do in the heat.

We ate a  picnic lunch in a shelter. We ate with a cliff swallow.

In the yellow hills the fossils of sea creatures can be found.

A big horned sheep grazes in the grass. This one has a yellow tag on it's foot.

Prairie Dog town.

Granddaughter #2 communes with a prairie dog for quite a few minutes.

 

Pipestone

Today we drove to Pipestone National Monument in SE Minnesota. Here is a rock that looks like a face.

This is the waterfall at Pipestone. Just a thin layer of red pipestone lays under 8 feet of solid, hard, Sioux quartzite.

This is the dignity statue off I-90 near Chandler, South Dakota.

Lewis and Clark staged here for a few weeks.

 

Como

Yesterday the grand girls and I met up at Como Park to plan our next road trip.

We saw a Sparky the Seal show which was much shorter than I remember them. Sparky jumped through a hula hoop, danced, did some tricks, but did not play a song on the horns like I remember from when I was a kid.

The volunteer in the big cat area said this cougar had his eyes sewn shut. I think the cougar was blind and that is why the eyes were sewn shut. I think he could have phrased that better. This cougar had a femald companion who led him around the enclosure.

One of my favorite places on the planet.

 

Boom Island

After two weeks of travel I figured a good hike was in order. I walked from Offspring #2's house west toward the river and then downstream to Boom Island.

A good long walk made me feel better.

 

Wisconsin Dells

 Yesterday we left the Wisconsin Dells. After visiting the Crane Center we checked into our Mount Olympus hotel and got our green wristbands. The green wristbands open the hotel door, our room door, give us admission to the water park, and pay for anything we want to buy. A White Claw, normally a drink in a can worth two dollars, costs $8.75 if you pay via your wristband at the water park. We avoided the extra charges and went swimming in the wave pool. We also used the kiddie slide. Later we waited half an hour to use a yellow slide. We walked up four stories of steps and got into a inflatable raft. We hung on tight as the raft went down the yellow slide taking turns at angles and sliding down to ground level in about one minute. Yes, there was some screaming by me. The next day we arrived at ten a.m. when the park opened. We found a different wave pool. We tubed down a lazy river. We found a pool designed for smaller children and stayed there awhile. We went back to the wave pool before taking showers and getting dressed. We had lunch and left the Wisconsin Dells about 1:30. This is my first trip to the Wisconsin Dells since 1973. Things have changed quite a bit. I feel no need to go back again. We had fun but I see no reason to drive that far to have fun in a waterpark.

International Crane Center

Yesterday we drove from near Gary, Indiana through Chicago to Baraboo, Wisconsin to visit the International Crane Center. Here is a grey crested crane. When I was in Kenya in 2008,  I was in a van. Our tour group was taking a short cut through a farmer's field. Our guide said, "Look to the left. There is a grey crested crane." Sure enough, I saw a tall skinny bird with a wonderful gold crest on it's head walking elegantly through a field. I was impressed. I decided then and there that I wanted to learn about birds so I could have the same effect on others as that guide had on me.

So a grey crested crane got me started on birdwatching.

This is a wattled crane.

Siberian cranes have ridges on their bills to tear touch vegetation out.

Whooping Cranes are cool.

 

Indiana Dunes National Park

 

Yesterday we arrived at the Indiana Dunes National Park. We visited a farm and helped feed the chickens, goats and cows. We walked through the great marsh and came upon a pair of sandhill cranes walking through the grass. Today we walked to the beach and walked on this board walk.

Later we went to a beach with a lifeguard for swimming and lunch. We had a great day outside. We visited an environmental learning center and went for another hike to see a beaver dam.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Yesterday we went to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Here is a view of one of the rocks at the ledges trail. We hiked for hours and completed tasks to earn Junior Ranger badges.

And we found a lady bug and took her on a walk with us for a time.

We found some jewel weed.

Nothing like cooling off  your feet in a cool creek after a long hike.

 

McKinley's Tomb

Yesterday we went to visit President McKindley's tomb, his presidential library, and the first ladies museum. The first ladies museum was having an exhibit on Jacqueline Kennedy. We also toured the girlhood home of Ida McKinley. Her house was built by her maternal grandfather. Some of the wallpaper, the light fixtures, and the furniture remains intact. Ida McKinley had the heartbreak of two children dying in childhood. She also suffered from epilepsy.

 

Pittsburg

Yesterday, on our way to Pittsburg, we stopped at the Allegheny Railroad museum. Here is a photo of the Lemon House.

Later, in Pittsburg, we took an incline lift to the top of Mount Washington. There we found a statue of George Washington and a native leader. You can see Pittsburg in the distance.

It's five dollars round trip to ride up and down the hill.

Here is our view heading uphill. The car was crowded, hot and stuffy.

From the top of Mount Washington we caught a nice breeze.