Aloha all,
we are half way through our European prelude to our road trip. Of course it's very nice to spend time with our friends & family, but in case you wonder what else we are up to:
- We had not realized this when we booked our flights, but we came here just in time for the European Soccer Cup. Nobody believes us that this is pure coincidence since we came here for the World Cup last time. The European Cup is almost as big of a deal here as the World Cup. Maybe because we have a better chance of winning without the Brazilians. Everybody gets together to watch all the games, eat too much and drink beer - it's kind of like a Super Bowl Sunday that lasts for 3 weeks.
- We went to a vernissage for Eric Carle and finally learnt more about our fellow book in the 'Local Library' at Halloween 2005. Eric Carle is the author of the Hungry Caterpillar or 'Raupe Nimmersatt' as it's called here. Carle is a little bit like us, he moved back and forth between the US and Germany. He loved his family and the German Pretzels just like we do. (He wrote a children's book about how the Pretzel was invented, while we try to eat every Pretzel in sight, but have a hard time keeping up with the efficiency of the German bakeries. At the end Carle moved to America because they gave him larger canvasses and more colors there than on post-war Germany.
- While visiting Sandra's sister in Stuttgart, we saw some very playful young tigers at the zoo, some very WICKED witches in a musical, took a harbor cruise on the Neckar and visited the brand new Daimler Benz Museum.
- We also spent 4 days in Munich, visiting our college friends. The city put on a big party for it's 850th birthday...and our return. The beer tastes even better here.
- Chris lost a chess game to a 17-year old girl and several ping pong games to a 70-year old man. But it's not as embarrassing as it sounds: The girl was some junior chess champion and won 7 other games simultaneously while playing him. And the man was his dad and Chris is rather proud of him.
And that's the news from Lake Germany, where all the cars drive fast, all the beer tastes good and everybody's soccer knowledge is above average.
Chris & Sandra
July 9, 2008
Aloha all,
July 27, 2008
Aug 13, 2008
Aug 22, 2008
Aloha all,
after over a month, we actually made it to our second state on this
trip! And so far, Wyoming turns out to be just as much fun as
Colorado. The southern part of the state might not be as scenic, but
they make up for it with weirdness. Thanks to Steve in Aspen, we have
a book about "Eccentric America" - a collection of all the weird, odd
& silly things to see along the way. Southern Wyoming has multiple
listings in this book, maybe for lack of other attractions for
tourists or a lack of distractions for locals?
Our first stop in Wyoming was Grand Encampment. If you look it up on a
newer map, you might find it marked only as "Encampment" - the US
Postal Service did not see the humor in this tiny town being called
"Grand Encampment" and dropped the 'Grand'. It's amazing enough that
such a small, sleepy town has a museum at all, but the extend and the
variety of their collections earns them the "Best Small Town Museum
Award" in my (unwritten) book - and a listing in the "Eccentric
America" book. Amongst other things, they have a folding "Murphy"
bathtub from 1895 and a 2-story outhouse (see picture below). For now,
I will leave it up to your imagination, why they would build a double
decker outhouse. Send me your best guesses - the first correct answer
wins a lifetime permit to always use the upper facilities if Sandra &
I ever decide to build one of these for ourselves! The extend of this
museum is pretty astounding, the small community must have put an
amazing amount of volunteer work into collecting, donating and
relocating everything that has anything to do with Grand Encampment's
history. They relocated several houses, including a fire watch tower
to be included in this museum. The residents of Grand Encampment take
great pride in their museum, in fact, we were on a tour with 3 locals.
When we were in one of the historic log cabins, I asked the guide when
this cabin was last lived in. I expected to hear something like the
late 1800's, but one of the other tour guests said "Oh, I used to
clean this cabin as a teenager in the 50's, this guy never wanted to
move into a real house." I was equally surprised to hear that the town
plans to add another house to the collection. If they keep this up,
the Grand Encampment museum will soon be larger than the actual town -
I am not kidding! The second "Eccentric America" location we visited
is in Rawlins. The Wyoming Frontier Prison was still used as a prison
until 1983. Now it is a museum and "reality tourism at its best" as
the book calls it. You can get yourself locked up, even in the gas
chamber, if you want to. That was macabre enough for us, so we skipped
the other eccentric attraction in Rawlins, where they display shoes
made from the skin of an executed killer...
Thermopolis was our next stop. They claim to have the world's largest
mineral hot spring (which is actually in New Zealand). But even though
they named the town so smartly and they do seem to have the world's
second largest mineral hot spring, it is a surprisingly sleepy town.
They even have an impressive herd of bison right in their town park.
But they just get enough tourist to sustain a campground and two water
parks with great slides, hot tubs and a vapor cave, where we spent
most of the day. The next day we visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Center
and took a rafting trip in the Wind River Canyon. Sandra wanted a mild
floating trip while I wanted a wild whitewater trip. We ended up with
a good compromise. The class 3 rapids left Sandra (in the driest spot
on the boat) at least in some small areas dry while I got to ride the
bow on some smaller rapids and got so wet that I did not get any
wetter when the guide let us drift in the water for the last part of
the trip, oh what fun!
Another highlight this week was the Sinks Canyon State Park. This is a
pretty impressive canyon to begin with, great hiking trails and
waterfalls. We also saw some big horn sheep there. But what makes it
really special - and gave it it's name, is a little stunt the river
pulls there: The water disappears into a cave and takes over two hours
to reappear (warmer!) just a 1/4 mile further down the canyon.
For the past three days we have been in the Grand Teton National Park.
What a place! The first two days we took it easy, we did a few smaller
hikes, took the ferry over Jenny Lake, rented a kayak on Jackson Lake,
went swimming...all with the awesome backdrop of the Teton Mountain
Range. They kind of look like the Alps, except that they rise straight
up behind the Lakes in the valley floor. Yesterday, we did a 10 mile
hike with over 3'200 feet elevation gain, which Greg had recommended
when I asked him for hikes with a maximum of 1-2.000 feet elevation
gain. He tricked us into doing it anyway by saying "If you don't do
any other hikes, do this one!" What were we supposed to do? We had
already done other hikes, so we had to do his one, too. We heard from
other people, too, how great this hike to the Surprise Lake and
Amphitheater Lake is supposed to be. After so much anticipation and
hype, we could only be disappointed.
But we weren't. The climb up was actually not as hard as expected.
Maybe all the high altitude training in Colorado was good for
something! And the view down into the valley and up onto the alpine
peaks were just spectacular. We had done a few what we considered hard
hikes before. But so far, whenever we were proud of how far we had
hiked, some family would show up, with mom carrying the baby and the 4
year old kid walking himself, which always spoiled our sense of
accomplishment. Not so on this hike. Up at Amphitheater Lake, the
'serious hikers' were amongst themselves and we were proud to be a par
of his elite group, even though many of the others continued on
towards the summit of Grand Teton while we were looking forward to our
warm shower in the RV parked at the bottom of the trail.
Tomorrow we head on to Yellowstone, the only other place we knew we
really wanted to visit on his trip. You tell us what you think that
two-story outhouse was for and we will tell you how our trip
continues...
And that's the news from Lake Wyoming, where not all the outhouses are
two stories, where all the lakes are cold and all the hikes are
steeper than average.
Aloha from the Grand Tetons,
Chris & Sandra
Sept 1, 2008
Sept 8, 2008
Sept 18, 2008
Sep 29, 2008
Oct 2, 2008
Oct 8, 2008
Oct 19, 2008
Oct 29, 2008
Nov 8, 2008
Nov 15, 2008
Nov 25, 2008
Dec 5, 2008
Dec 13, 2008
today is a very special day. First of all, our friends Co & Bob are getting married on Kauai today. I wish they will find it equally amazing to be married as we do. Secondly, it's my best buddy Bern's birthday and I am sure he would agree that life is pretty darn good! We celebrate this special day by picking up our RV today. This also helps distracting us from the disappointment that we can not be with Co on Kauai today. We bought our home for the next half year yesterday and are very excited about it. We are still in Evergreen, Colorado with Bern's sister Kelly & her family. This made the transition from being with our family in Germany very easy. We are still with plenty nice people, playing plenty fun games. If we weren't so excited about going on a road trip, we'd never leave Evergreen. Besides that we really enjoy the company, they've got the perfect house for us to visit, complete with a ping pong & pool table, tennis court and a big closet full of board games. And pretty much every day, deer or other wild life comes around the house to say hello.
What else have we been up to?
- We spend 4 days in the Jura in France as a large family of 13. It was so beautiful that we will now have to work hard on finding equally nice places on our road trip. The food at this little French hotel was so good and plentiful that we decided not to eat for the next 6 months - or so we thought.
- Two days before we left Germany, my dad celebrated his 70th birthday, which was the main reason for our trip at this time. It was a fun blast from the past for me to see friends of the family which I had not seen in decades, including my teachers from grammar school and kindergarten.
- As most of you might know, Germany made it to the final of the European Soccer Cup, but lost to Spain. Spain was so much better that it would have been almost embarrassing, albeit fun, if Germany had won. My favorite part of the final was when we were able to fool my dad, who had stepped out of the room, by yelling loudly and by taping a fake score onto the TV screen. Those were the 10 most fun minutes of the game, unless you are Spanish of course.
- Since we're here in Colorado, we've done more than just playing games and looking for an RV - Kelly took us to a really cool little glacier. It's called Saint Marry's Glacier and I enjoyed playing on the ice like the Hawaiian kids enjoy the snow under the Banyan Tree in Lahaina for Christmas.
- On 4th of July, we had an all American BBQ and went to the Denver Rapids soccer game. After the loss of Germany in the Euro final, they made up for it with a 4-0 victory and a spectacular fireworks show.
- We are right around the corner from Red Rocks, which must be the most spectacular concert venue anywhere. Set between some spectacular rock formations it overlooks Denver and the plains. The setting alone was awesome, but the Colorado Symphony Orchestra made it even better. I still don't understand why it was free;-)
And again, that's the news from Lake Evergreen, where all the houses are big, all the games are fun and all the RV's gas milage is above average.
Aloha from Colorado,
Chris & Sandra
July 9, 2008
Aloha all,
we are actually on the road now. Funny how quickly that goes: It only took about 7 years dreaming about it, about 7 weeks planning it, 7 days shopping for an RV & other stuff and about 7 hours actually moving into our RV. Since so many of you asked, I have attached a picture of our new home below. Inside, we have a dining table, a bed, a small bathroom and even a kitchen. Some of you might not believe it, but we actually cook more than we eat out now! We also bought 2 bikes that we carry on a bike rack on the back.
So what has happened since the second update?
- We had a few more days and some more fun with Kelly & Co in Evergreen. Amongst other things, we have played a "triple tennis match". Playing with three on each side is actually more fun than it sounds. We also went on an Alpine Slide (Sommer-Rodelbahn, for our German friends), saw Buffalo Bill's Grave and Museum, went up to the summit of Mount Evans at over 14,000 feet and saw another soccer match of the women's national teams from the US and Brasil.
- After that, we hit the road to make this fun trip into the road trip that we always wanted to do. Our first stop was the "Garden of the Gods" in Colorado Springs. Very cool rock formations - the gods must have had fun designing their garden.
- We also did a Lantern Tour at the Cave of the Winds. The caves are as caves are, but exploring them in candlelight made it into an adventure.
- Gold mines were never on the top of my to do list, but touring the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek was a real event. We descended 1.000 feet into a shaft and learnt all about the tools, techniques and terrible conditions of a working gold mine. It was by far the most interesting gold mine tour I have ever done. And I'd probably say that even if I had done another gold mine tour before.
- One of our golden rules for this trip is to visit each and every National Park or National Monument that is on our way. I had never heard of the Florissant Fossil Beds NM before, but it happens to be one of the prime fossil findings anywhere in the world. We saw petrified redwood tree stumps that were about 10 feet across. And I thought some of my ultimate friends were stoned...
- One of our favorite hikes so far was to the Agnes Vaille Falls, which we had all to ourselves. Just when Sandra pointed to a small waterfall downstream and said that somebody really small could go behind it like we just did last month at falls in France, a bird flew by and went right behind the falls, just like Sandra had suggested. We had to laugh for quite a while...yes we can be easily entertained;-)
- The next National Park were the Great Sand Dunes. They are 700 feet tall, we actually got up at 6am to beat the heat and make it to the top, which made for great views and for a great workout. Not only is it surprising to see these huge dunes in the middle of Colorado, they surprisingly also have a wide creek running past them. I saw a man who desperately needed help to build a dam to redirect the water flow to a sand castle further below. I saw the urgency and jumped right in to help him with this important mission. You can not have that much water and that much sand around you without feeling like a little kid!
- After the Sand Dunes workout and a few other hikes, we felt that we deserved a day of rest and what better place than the hot springs at Pagosa Springs. 12 hot tubs of varying temperatures and a river with a great little swim through rapid to cool down. We soaked all day and met a lot of nice people. That's a fun part of RVing anyway, you run into the nicest people, even at the dumping stations or when getting lost on a trail
So, the first week is over and we have just scratched the surface of Colorado. Tomorrow we will take the historic railway from Durango to Silverton. We usually only plan one day ahead, so we don't know where we will be next. And we like it that way. I think so far I went swimming more often by chance when I saw a pretty creek than when we actually planned to go swimming and brought a swim suit...
...and that's the news from Lake Durango, where all the rivers are refreshing, where all the hot tubs are relaxing, but where all the trails I decide to bike up are steeper than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
July 27, 2008
Aloha all,
thank you all for your messages, updates from home and encouraging thoughts. It's nice to hear or read from all of you while we are cruising around. It's been only a week since the last mail, but if I don't send another update now, my message would get longer than what anybody would ever read. Since the last mail, we rode the historic steam train between Durango and Silverton with just enough time in Silverton to discover the only local brewery which had a surprising selection of tasty brews. We also spent 3 days at Mesa Verde National Park, where we toured and enjoyed the amazing cliff dwellings. But I'm not going to tell you about any of this, because we were so fascinated by our next stop, so this update will be exclusively about the stunning little town of Telluride, Colorado - or as we call it: "Pleasantville":
For those of you who have not been to Telluride or have not seen the movie 'Pleasantville' - let me explain: Pleasantville is a fictional town where everybody is happy, everything is clean and everybody gets along with everybody. A little to good to be true, but that's exactly how we felt walking through Telluride:
- Telluride's location is already pretty amazing: After a most scenic drive from Cortez, it's situated at the end of a deep canyon, with towering cliffs and steep mountains hills on three sides and a scenic waterfall lined up just right so that you see it while driving down the main street. This main street has so many historic buildings from the gold rush era that most of downtown is actually protected as a national historic landmark.
- They have a gondola that takes you up to the top of one of the ridges and down to the next village in the next valley. And because this is Pleasantville, the gondola is free! Sandra and I rode it about a dozen times.
- This little town of only about 2,000 happy inhabitants has a pubic transportation system similar to Maui's for 120,000. And of course, it's free. People still ride their bikes on the wonderful bike paths throughout town and so everybody is in extraordinary shape - every local person we saw seemed to be heavily into mountain biking, hiking, skiing etc.
- There is no Mc Donald's (or any other chain restaurant or chain store for that matter), but plenty of hiking and biking trails. When not pursuing any extreme sport, the locals seem to play with their dogs in the park most of the time.
- As to be expected in a perfect world, the dogs here are also very happy and well behaved. You can actually tell the newly arrived dogs because they still bark. And should any dog misbehave after all, bags to clean up after them are available at pretty much every corner. It does not take a dedicated citizen such as our friend Annie on Maui: the bags to clean up after your dog are provided for free by the town.
- Telluride also cares for the well being of the human residents and visitors, so free sunscreen is dispensed at many places, along with ice cold drinking water (But they never forget to provide a separate bowl of water for the dogs...)
- We watched some of the local girl's softball game. There were no angry parents and no yelling at the umpire and the grass was greener than any green on the Kaanapali Golf Course.
- To further improve how well this community works together, the town established and maintains the so-called "Free Box": A place where people can drop off things they don't need anymore and anybody can go there to see whether they find something they need - for free. There is no Salvation Army in Telluride, but this 'Free Box' seems to work even better.
- Telluride is such a nice town to stroll around and has so many cute restaurants that we had to put our newly discovered cooking activity on ice for a little while. Of course it also did not take very long until we found the local brewery with again an excellent selection of beers. Don't worry too much about our budget, in this miracle town, HALF a rack of ribs was actually enough to feed the two of us.
We extended our stay in Telluride by a couple of days just because we couldn't get enough of it and of course because we wanted to sneak in a few more free Gondola rides. We are sure there are some drawbacks to life in Telluride (We prefer the weather in Hawaii for one), but before our 'Pleasantville Bubble' bursts, we leave this charming town behind and head off to new adventures!
Aloha from Lake Telluride, where all the people are happy, where all the grass is greener on THIS side of the fence, but where all the real estate prices are even above Hawaii averages.
Chris & Sandra
Aug 13, 2008
Aloha all,
it's been two weeks since the last update, but we are still in Colorado. This state is just too darn pretty! If we had to, I think we could spend our entire trip just in Colorado. The next stop after our last update was Ouray, which is kind of a low key version of Telluride. Very pretty, but not as in-your-face-spectacular, a little bit more real. They finished the very scenic 'Perimeter Trail' all around Ouray a couple of weeks ago, just in time for us. After Ouray, we went to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We went there mostly because of our rule not to skip any National Parks along the way, but what a gem this is! I personally think the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is as spectacular as the Grand Canyon, just darker, smaller and less busy. In fact, many lookout points we had all to ourselves. The reason for such a jewel getting so few visitors is probably that it is a bit remote. That in turn made for a wonderful clear night sky for the Ranger Star Party. We saw the brightest, longest, most spectacular shooting star ever seen in recorded Chrisandra history.
Next, we went to visit Steve in Aspen. We also had the pleasure to meet his wife Bridget and his very cute dog. Ellie actually competes with Wahine for the best dog greeting. Ellie knows a cute trick: When you call her Ellie-Belly, she rolls on her back and lets you rub her belly. Besides the fur fix, it's always nice to have the local connection and thanks to Steve we got to see the touristy and not so touristy highlights of Aspen. We also heard one of the best travel stories ever about Steve & Dan's tour to Ireland, which included a spontaneous side trip to the Bahamas with Captain Crunch and other adventures.
After driving over spectacular Independent Pass and a fun stop in Leadville with a tour of the impressive historic Opera House, we returned to our "home base" with Kelly & Co in Evergreen. Besides the mandatory games (which often had to start at breakfast time since some of us had to go to work during the day) we also went to Casa Bonita with Kelly. Casa Bonita in Denver claims to be the largest restaurant in the country. They serve a few thousand dinners a night and it is fair to say that nobody goes there for the food, which is mediocre at best. But this is not only the largest, but also one of the craziest restaurants - complete with cliff divers, magicians, waterfalls and other surprises.
While back in 'civilization' after a few weeks in the mountains, we also bought some essential things, such as golf discs, a gadget to play music from our iphone over the car radio and some books. One of the books is called "Watch it Made in the USA" - it is about all the factory tours around the country that companies offer, usually free of charge. We already did two of those tours: The first one at Coors in Golden, which as we learnt is the largest single site brewery in the whole world. Very impressive, but I personally still don't like the beer. The second factory tour we did was at Celestial Seasonings in Bolder. They are the largest specialty tea maker in America. Besides the factory where they mix and package the teas, they also let us in the "Mint Room", which is where they store all their Spearmint and Peppermint. The smell is so intense that our eyes started to water and I could breathe freely even through my allergy clogged sinuses. Very impressive - and we like the tea!
Another fun activity in Bolder was to fix the leaking skylight of our RV. The dealer had failed to fix this leak, which luckily dropped right into our shower, so did not cause any real bad damage. After a day on the roof of our RV in the parking lot of Home Depot, we now have a dry home again and I am pretty proud. As a reward for all the work, we treated ourselves to a Hawaiian dinner and Mama Mia, which was as cute as a movie as it was as a musical.
I am now writing from Rocky Mountain National Park. For a day and a half we had pretty bad weather, some of which we spent in the jacuzzi, some reading, some miniature golfing, some drinking beer and some hiking in the rain. All of this can be a lot of fun, but in order to make Sandra's birthday extra special amongst all these special days, we got to see a herd of over 50 elks! Today the weather got really pretty again and we set out to to another hike. While talking to the shuttle bus driver, we changed our plans and did one of his favorite hikes in the Rocky Mountain National Park, a great trail with several lakes, wild flowers, waterfalls and even some snow. Oh, and we met our friends, the Elks again.
Seeing wild Elks close up or exploring the natural wonders of the National Park are definitely highlights of our rip so far. However, sometimes it's the small things that make me most happy. Seemingly insignificant things. Here are a few of these small "Pleasures of the Road":
- Every time we come back to our RV when it was parked in the sun, I am just amazed how cool it stays. When a car would have about the right temperature to fry an egg on the dashboard, the RV is actually comfortable to get in and take a nap. Not sure why that is, but we are very grateful.
- There is still that myth in some German minds that American beer is bad. We have already found several places to disprove this. No, I am not talking about Coors. But so far every little town or village we went to seemed to have a local microbrewery that boasts several brews that can compete with any German beer in my book....ehm throat.
- When we are rather in the mood for wine, we exclusively drink out of a Black Box, which coincidental is the name of the brand we found that makes some real quality wine, but packages them RV-friendly in a 3 liter vacuum sealed box.
- The wine does not last that long, but another little pleasure is how long our propane gas lasts. We were cooking and refridgerating for almost a month before we had to fill up again. It might be that I enjoy this so much because it is in such complete contrast to how long our gas tank lasts...
- We had to buy a lot of stuff that we will only use for 5 months and will not be able to take with us back to Maui. I know that this is politically very incorrect, but we thoroughly enjoyed buying cheap stuff made in China. I still can not get over the fact that we bought brand new, 18-speed mountain bikes for $65 and an umbrella for all of one dollar! This is wrong, but very convenient for us.
- We did also buy a phone for $200, which some people might find expensive. Especially since the monthly service plan costs more than a brand new 18-speed mountain bike - every month! But we love our iphone, so it also makes the list of little pleasures, for example when we find the closest and best Indian restaurant with just a few clicks.
- The web browser on the iphone is actually very usable, but sometimes it's still nice to go online with the laptop, which brings me to the next little pleasure: I am pleasantly surprised how often we are able to pick up a free wireless signal from a campground, a store or just somebody who likes to share their connection or does not know how to secure it with a password.
- We go on some sort of a hike almost every day. It's the best way to enjoy this beautiful scenery. The hikes that we enjoy most and therefore make the list of "Little Pleasures" are what we call "Cheater Hikes". These are hikes where we hike less uphill than downhill. And since more and more National Parks offer free shuttle busses, we have more and more chances to plan out hikes to 'cheat' as often as possible.
And that's the news from Rocky Mountain Lake, where all the Mountains are rocky, where there are more Elk than in all of Sweden and where all the pleasures, large and small, are above average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Aug 22, 2008
Aloha all,
after over a month, we actually made it to our second state on this
trip! And so far, Wyoming turns out to be just as much fun as
Colorado. The southern part of the state might not be as scenic, but
they make up for it with weirdness. Thanks to Steve in Aspen, we have
a book about "Eccentric America" - a collection of all the weird, odd
& silly things to see along the way. Southern Wyoming has multiple
listings in this book, maybe for lack of other attractions for
tourists or a lack of distractions for locals?
Our first stop in Wyoming was Grand Encampment. If you look it up on a
newer map, you might find it marked only as "Encampment" - the US
Postal Service did not see the humor in this tiny town being called
"Grand Encampment" and dropped the 'Grand'. It's amazing enough that
such a small, sleepy town has a museum at all, but the extend and the
variety of their collections earns them the "Best Small Town Museum
Award" in my (unwritten) book - and a listing in the "Eccentric
America" book. Amongst other things, they have a folding "Murphy"
bathtub from 1895 and a 2-story outhouse (see picture below). For now,
I will leave it up to your imagination, why they would build a double
decker outhouse. Send me your best guesses - the first correct answer
wins a lifetime permit to always use the upper facilities if Sandra &
I ever decide to build one of these for ourselves! The extend of this
museum is pretty astounding, the small community must have put an
amazing amount of volunteer work into collecting, donating and
relocating everything that has anything to do with Grand Encampment's
history. They relocated several houses, including a fire watch tower
to be included in this museum. The residents of Grand Encampment take
great pride in their museum, in fact, we were on a tour with 3 locals.
When we were in one of the historic log cabins, I asked the guide when
this cabin was last lived in. I expected to hear something like the
late 1800's, but one of the other tour guests said "Oh, I used to
clean this cabin as a teenager in the 50's, this guy never wanted to
move into a real house." I was equally surprised to hear that the town
plans to add another house to the collection. If they keep this up,
the Grand Encampment museum will soon be larger than the actual town -
I am not kidding! The second "Eccentric America" location we visited
is in Rawlins. The Wyoming Frontier Prison was still used as a prison
until 1983. Now it is a museum and "reality tourism at its best" as
the book calls it. You can get yourself locked up, even in the gas
chamber, if you want to. That was macabre enough for us, so we skipped
the other eccentric attraction in Rawlins, where they display shoes
made from the skin of an executed killer...
Thermopolis was our next stop. They claim to have the world's largest
mineral hot spring (which is actually in New Zealand). But even though
they named the town so smartly and they do seem to have the world's
second largest mineral hot spring, it is a surprisingly sleepy town.
They even have an impressive herd of bison right in their town park.
But they just get enough tourist to sustain a campground and two water
parks with great slides, hot tubs and a vapor cave, where we spent
most of the day. The next day we visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Center
and took a rafting trip in the Wind River Canyon. Sandra wanted a mild
floating trip while I wanted a wild whitewater trip. We ended up with
a good compromise. The class 3 rapids left Sandra (in the driest spot
on the boat) at least in some small areas dry while I got to ride the
bow on some smaller rapids and got so wet that I did not get any
wetter when the guide let us drift in the water for the last part of
the trip, oh what fun!
Another highlight this week was the Sinks Canyon State Park. This is a
pretty impressive canyon to begin with, great hiking trails and
waterfalls. We also saw some big horn sheep there. But what makes it
really special - and gave it it's name, is a little stunt the river
pulls there: The water disappears into a cave and takes over two hours
to reappear (warmer!) just a 1/4 mile further down the canyon.
For the past three days we have been in the Grand Teton National Park.
What a place! The first two days we took it easy, we did a few smaller
hikes, took the ferry over Jenny Lake, rented a kayak on Jackson Lake,
went swimming...all with the awesome backdrop of the Teton Mountain
Range. They kind of look like the Alps, except that they rise straight
up behind the Lakes in the valley floor. Yesterday, we did a 10 mile
hike with over 3'200 feet elevation gain, which Greg had recommended
when I asked him for hikes with a maximum of 1-2.000 feet elevation
gain. He tricked us into doing it anyway by saying "If you don't do
any other hikes, do this one!" What were we supposed to do? We had
already done other hikes, so we had to do his one, too. We heard from
other people, too, how great this hike to the Surprise Lake and
Amphitheater Lake is supposed to be. After so much anticipation and
hype, we could only be disappointed.
But we weren't. The climb up was actually not as hard as expected.
Maybe all the high altitude training in Colorado was good for
something! And the view down into the valley and up onto the alpine
peaks were just spectacular. We had done a few what we considered hard
hikes before. But so far, whenever we were proud of how far we had
hiked, some family would show up, with mom carrying the baby and the 4
year old kid walking himself, which always spoiled our sense of
accomplishment. Not so on this hike. Up at Amphitheater Lake, the
'serious hikers' were amongst themselves and we were proud to be a par
of his elite group, even though many of the others continued on
towards the summit of Grand Teton while we were looking forward to our
warm shower in the RV parked at the bottom of the trail.
Tomorrow we head on to Yellowstone, the only other place we knew we
really wanted to visit on his trip. You tell us what you think that
two-story outhouse was for and we will tell you how our trip
continues...
And that's the news from Lake Wyoming, where not all the outhouses are
two stories, where all the lakes are cold and all the hikes are
steeper than average.
Aloha from the Grand Tetons,
Chris & Sandra
Sept 1, 2008
Aloha all,
we spent over a week in Yellowstone. We had been there once before, about 15 years ago. Back then we spent only a couple of days in the park since we were chased out by a snow storm. But we were able to see the highlights then, so you would think we were prepared for the natural wonders that we were about to see when we returned to our favorite National Park. Well, we were still not ready for this. The park was so spectacular and we were so amazed by the various wonders that after a few days, we literally had to take a break. Seriously, we had to leave the park for a day because we could not handle all that beauty all at once.
If you have not been to Yellowstone, either pack your bags or read on:
- We started off in the West Thumb area, which has some nice colorful hot springs, small geysers and mud pots. On one of the ranger walks we learnt that this used to be the most popular place in the park, even more than Old Faithful Geyser. There is a place in this area called Fishing Cone, or "hook and cook", where early visitors could catch a fish in Yellowstone Lake and boil it in a hot spring without even taking it off the hook. Today, these unique thermal features are used to look pretty and for some important scientific research. Just a few decades ago, they discovered "Thermus Aquaticus" here, a bacteria that surprisingly survives in these extremely hot springs and helped break the DNA code. I had three rangers explain it to me, but still don't quite understand it. But so much is clear: Without these hot springs and their bacteria, a lot of criminals would not be caught and some innocent people would still be locked up. Seriously, DNA testing was revolutionized thanks to Yellowstone. So in order to protect this special place, no more frying your fish in the Fishing Cone, so we had to stick with our pasta.
- Today, the most popular feature of Yellowstone is Old Faithful, which still erupts faithfully, about every 90 minutes and about 120 feet high. Old Faithful is only one of many geysers in this area. In fact, we learnt that Yellowstone has about half of all the active geysers in the world! Since we had a lot more time and a lot better weather this time compared to our last visit, we were able to spend a whole day in this area and watch just about every geyser erupt at least once. Some are very predictable and their next eruption time is posted like the next show at a movie theater or the estimated wait time for a ride at Disney. Others go off when they please and make for fun surprises. Our favorite was Grand Geyser. It is one of the most spectacular geysers and erupts only a couple of times a day. It was scheduled for 6pm - plus or minus 2 hours, so we brought books to read while we wait, but punctually at 4pm, it started erupting with blast over 100 feet tall with other nearby geysers erupting in concert. The explosions were so perfectly choreographed and so impressive that I couldn't help but think of the water fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas. We loved that show, but this one here blew us away, a natural hydrologic firework spectacle!
- The next day we spent along the Firehole River, more geysers and hot springs, but always something new. Mother Nature keeps coming up with new twists to keep it interesting. Our favorite was the Grand Prismatic Spring (see pictures below). It is the largest and most colorful pool. It's already pretty impressive from ground level, but we kind of stumbled onto a close-by hill and were in awe by the sight from the top. The next day, we received an e-mail from my brother in Sweden. His suggestion from their last trip to Yellowstone: See Grand Prismatic Spring from the hill on the way to Fairy Falls - the very spot we had been to! All these hot springs have another benefit, besides looking pretty: They heat up the Firehole River enough that we were able to swim in it without freezing. Can there be a better way to end an exhausting day of sightseeing than floating down a naturally heated...well ...at least slightly warmed river?
- After all of this, we had to take a break from beauty. I guess we were a bit overwhelmed. We headed out of the park to West Yellowstone. But even there, we did a few fun things. Two IMAX movies and the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center for example. We had not yet seen bears or wolves at that point, so were very impressed and actually learnt quite a bit. While back in 'civilization' - we also visited the cute little "Playmill Theater" and saw the musical "Oklahoma!". These are the most hard-working actors I have ever seen! We know from our acting friends on Maui how hard the rehearsals and performances for just one play are. This group of actors rehearsed and performs three different plays simultaneously. It's also the kind of small theater where the lady at the box office is then the usher and also sings a few songs before the show and turns out to star in a leading role. Instead of a break during intermission, the same people sell popcorn and other refreshments and make a show out of that, too! After the show, they still don't rest, but stand outside, chat with the audience and sign programs. You think they are ready for a beer now? Not so fast, they have another show the same night, actually two more on the weekend during high season. So more ushering, singing, acting, popcorn selling etc, ...when I asked them how they handle this day after day, the actor I talked to just said: "Oh we love it (and I believe him), we are only wondering what we will do next month when the season ends and we don't perform anymore." My hat goes off, these guys are just as hard working and amazing performers as Grand Geyser!
- One of the reasons we like Yellowstone so much is the variety of the sights. Besides hot springs, geysers, steam vents and 'mud volcanoes', it also offers simply beautiful scenery, including the 'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" a very pretty canyon with colorful cliffs, great waterfalls and a nice hike along the rim. No wonder they made this the very first National Park in the world - and what a great concept that is! Very visionary at a time when nature of the 'Wild West' was still mostly something to be tamed, not to be enjoyed.
- There is also an amazing amount of wildlife: We saw a Black Bear, plenty of Elk, Moose and Deer, all kinds of Squirrels & Chipmunks, hordes of Bison, Pronghorns & a water rat, not to mention the Osprey, Raven, Sandhill Crane, Pelican and other birds. On our way out we even saw a pack of wolves from a distance. Altogether a variety that we normally would only see in a Zoo, but for some reason it is so much more impressive to see them in their natural habitat.
- Maybe one of the reasons watching wild animals is so captivating is that you never know what will show up when and where. The terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs are spectacular by itself, but to top it all off, this is where we saw our Black Bear, which was brown. It was leisurely walking over one of the formations right past us. A 20 foot petrified redwood tree is already impressive, but as a bonus we got to see several moose hang out there as well..
- Oh yes, and then there is another perfect place to relax at the 'boiling river'... this one was actually really hot, just perfect to soak in after all that hiking.
- Yellowstone was, is and probably will always be our favorite National Park, even though it's an ever changing place. Caused by many small underground earthquakes, things keep changing around, specially in the Norris Geyser Basin. Hot Springs become Geysers, Steam vents or Fumaroles turn into mud pots. What is a calm blue pool now can be the site of a wild eruption in 5 minutes ...or in 50,000 years. Almost half of the scenery of Yellowstone changed drastically in 1988 when several enormous wildfires burnt down vast areas of the park. Now, 20 years later, it becomes clear that this apparent "destruction" was nothing but an essential part of the always resourceful and ever renewing forces of nature. The predominant Lodge Pole Pine trees actually produces cones that only open during a forrest fire. The burnt down areas we saw on our last visit gave way to a new and healthy new beginning. What a textbook example for the powerful circle of life!
Now we are in Red Lodge, Montana, having left Yellowstone over spectacular Beartooth Pass. Red Lodge is a cute little town and offers some different kind of sights. Most important and therefor our first stop was Bunt & Ann's house. They sold it last year, but after having heard so much about it, of course we wanted to see Bunt's and Bern's craftsmanship first hand. We also went to Ann's favorite toy store, which is, as Ann put it, like any good toy store should be, a great place to poke around and explore. Red Lodge and Yellowstone have one thing in common: The animals are wild! Except that here, it's the pigs. The Bear Creek Saloon & Steakhouse was suffering under lower tourist numbers after the 1988 fires in Yellowstone, so they started offering pig races as a new attraction. While you are having dinner, you can bet on pigs that run the short track in amazing speed to get to the food reward at the other end. There was a long discussion whether this was animal cruelty and a long legal battle began. At the end the races were allowed as long as the proceeds go to charity. Now how cool is that: While you enjoy your dinner, you can bet , drink beer, watch the pigs race, possibly make some money and feel good about doing something for charity. These pigs seemed awfully happy to me. I'd rather be a race pig than a pork chop. I don't see how anybody who thinks it should be legal to eat meat could oppose to these pig races. As an added concession to the pigs, there is no pork on the menu at all, so no worries about what happens to the looser of a race. We even won second place in one race. Too bad only the first place actually wins anything. But is was very exciting, we lost only by a snout.
Aloha from Lake Yellowstone, where all the animals (even domestic pigs) are wild, where all the colors are amazing and where every day and every sight is above average!
Chris & Sandra
PS.: I know that many of you can't wait to finally hear what that two story outhouse was all about. Well, let me tell you first that we throughly enjoyed reading all your guesses. We learnt a lot from them, too. First of all, I will be very careful next time I visit my sister-in-law. She suggested the bottom space to store luggage from visiting guests! (Maybe I should start sending out a German version of our updates?) I will also carefully inspect any shower facility Bern will be offering me in the future. He suggested the bottom could be used for showers...I wonder what kind of shower he was thinking about right under the toilets upstairs??? Several of our friends in Germany had a similar, but slightly improved idea: They put the bathtub or showers on top and recycle the used water to flush the downstairs toilets. There were also interesting ideas about better views, better smells & safety from wild animals upstairs. Only two people got the right answer, but one admitted to having looked it up online. Since we knew the answer, Kelly had the most boring guess, because she was right on. (Another thing Bern and I have in common: A sibling who is just too darn smart.) The correct answer is that since it is hard enough if you have to use an outhouse in winter, with a two story outhouse at least you don't have to shovel snow to get to it. So in winter, when the snow got too deep, they'd use the top. Once he snow melted, they used the bottom. All I can think is that I'd be really careful in the spring and fall.
Aloha all,
let me start by apologizing that you already receive the next lengthy e-mail from us. I know that a lot of you live busy lives and have a hard time keeping up with reading the updates. Please know that we are not offended in any way if you don't read everything. But these updates are also our 'travel log' at the same time, so we like them to be somewhat detailed and complete.
If you just want to know how and where we are: Great and in North Dakota, you may skip to the photos now;-)
For the rest of you: Here is the long version:
After we decided not to stay another day in Red Lodge just to see whether we would have any more luck at the pig's races the next day, we headed for Billings. We visited the historic "Moss Mansion", which the successful banker Preston B. Moss built there in 1901. Being from Europe, I sometimes have to smile when fairly new buildings (by European standards) are presented as ancient history. On the one hand it seems a bit silly to even care about the sometimes trivial details of a person's life, who we had never heard of until we came here. On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoy tours of these type of places. It really brings a place to life to have it restored (or even recreated) to the smallest detail and have an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide take you back in time. This tour of the Moss Mansion was no exception. This house and most of it's content is barely older than the house my grandparents lived in, yet we felt we were deeply immersed into history. Europe might have more history to offer, but I think Americans often do a better job presenting it. The amount of work and dedication, done usually by volunteers, at many of these sites is truly amazing. Besides this historic mansion, we also visited other sites of interest in Billings, such as Best Buy, Wal- & K-Mart. We needed a new camera after ours went kaputt in Yellowstone and after two weeks in the parks we enjoyed buying groceries in bulk at Costco.
After having heard so much about Lewis & Clark, we have bought and started to read a great book about them ("Undaunted Courage"). Just east of Billings is Pompeys Pillar. Captain Clark engraved his name in the sandstone there. This remains the only physical evidence of their epic journey in 1804-06. Other than this historic importance, the Pillar is a bit of a disappointment to be honest. But again, the Natioal Park Service does a pretty good job presenting this site in an interesting manner. I enjoyed learning about the crow tribe called "Kicked-in-the Belly" more than anything.
Next stop was the Little Bighorn Battlefield. I have to admit that my knowledge of this battlefield was limited to knowing that in the 'Taboo' game, there is a card for "Custer's Last Stand" which does not allow you to mention "Little Bighorn". After a day at the National Monument there, we are a bit smarter and continue to fill the gaps in our basic knowledge of American history. Our last stop in Montana was at Makoshika State Park. They have some interesting rock formations and a "Folf Course". Now I have played my share of rounds of frisbee golf, but I had never heard it being called "folf", so just for that novelty, of course I had to play a round - and Sandra was nice enough to join me. It turns out that I desperately needed the practice. Besides an Eagle on #15, my throws were a pretty rusty.
Our first stops in North Dakota (actually right on the border) were Ford Buford and Fort Union. When we first walked into the Visitor Center, a lady asked us where we were visiting from. We told her that we lived in Hawaii. This usually causes a little curiosity, specially when said in a German accent. But her reaction came as a total surprise to us. As soon as we mentioned "Hawaii", she threw her arms up in the air, smiled triumphantly and shouted "Yes!!". This time it was our turn to be curious. She explained that they keep track of which countries and which states people are visiting from. They had visitors from each and every state this year - except Hawaii. To celebrate this historic occasion, we both got our admission waived. Who would have thought we'd get a Kama'aina discount in North Dakota? After visiting such world-class attractions as Yellowstone, it's kind of nice to come to a place where people are truly happy to see somebody interested in what they have to offer. As special guests, we also got a private tour of the Fort...or what's left of it. One of the few original structures is the building in which Sitting Bull surrendered, basically ending the Indian wars. While Ford Buford was a military fort, the Fort Union close by was an earlier trading post run by a private company. They seem to have had very prosperous and peaceful relations with the Native Americans, until the government and military got involved.
The last two days we spent at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They have strange rock formations, somewhat similar to the South Dakota Badlands. But as an added bonus it also has Roosevelt's history and more abundant wildlife. We saw bison, longhorns, deer, wild horses and about a million and a half prairie dogs. They live in 'prairie dog towns' which are larger than most human towns we have seen in North Dakota so far. Very cute critters. We also did a ranger tour of the very cabin in which Theodore Roosevelt spent his time here in North Dakota. A time which he said formed him more than any other and without which he would have never become president. This probably was our last ranger program for a while since for some weird reason, there aren't as many National Parks in the Midwest.
We have done over 25 ranger walks, talks & campfire programs in National Parks on this trip so far. "Campfire program" makes it sound a little too rustic or too romantic: Around a big campfire is how these programs first started, but today, most parks have amphitheaters equipped for powerpoint presentations or at least a good old slide show. Only two evening programs were "old fashioned" with only a ranger and a campfire to keep us entertained - they happened to be two of the best programs we did. I am impressed, delighted and surprised how the National Park Service (a branch of the government after all!) is able to find so many talented, well educated and enthusiastic people to work as park rangers and offer such quality programs with such consistency. All (but two) of the programs were really excellent, and they covered an amzing variety of subjects. Amongst other things, we were on the jury to decide the fate of the weasel (verdict "not guilty"), heard what a wolf thought about life in a National Park and what a Native American thought about work in a National Park - and life in general. The Native American perspective was also interesting when we watched the very same presentation twice at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, where Native Americans defeated and killed General Custer and over 200 of his men in his famous "Last Stand". Once it happened to be done by a Native American ranger, once by a Euro-American ranger. Some of the perspectives and numbers were very different, but both presentations were equally interesting and probably equally close to the truth. My most favorite program so far was about how animals use their brains to survive in the wild. This is where I learnt that professional soccer players are not the only ones faking injuries. There are actually birds who will fake an injury to pretend to be easy prey for an approaching predator in order to lure them away from their nest to protect their newborns. Now that's pretty clever and the ranger even went as far as impersonating the animals. It was such a great experience that we asked the ranger when his next program was and did a walk around the geyser basin with him the next day, which was equally interesting and entertaining. Maybe the most critical lessons from these ranger programs are what to do when you encounter wild animals. For example, we learnt that when spotting a bison with it's tail raised it can mean only one of two things: This animal is about to charge....or discharge. Either way, it's probably a good idea to keep your distance. Here's a list of the things we learnt on this trip on ranger programs alone:
- How trees get petrified (at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument)
- How sand dunes form in the middle of the Rocky Mountains (at Great Sand Dunes NP)
- All about the amazing cliff dwellings of the Puebloan people (at Mesa Verde NP)
- An Alternative perspective on life by a Native American Ranger (at Mesa Verde NP)
- Stargazing Party (at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP)
- "The Weasel on Trial" (at Rocky Mountain NP)
- How Lightning forms (at Alpine Visitor Center in the Rocky Mountain NP)
- All about the Big Horn Sheep (at Rocky Mountain NP
- How the Pine Bark Beetle kills trees, but not the forrest (at Rocky Mountain NP)
- A lesson on wildlife photography (at Grand Teton NP)
- How the Grand Tetons change throughout the seasons
- Why Lewis and Clark did not get to the Tetons, but still influenced the area tremendously
- One year out of the Diary of a Wolf (in Grand Teton NP)
- How the Grand Tetons were formed
- How animals use their brains (at Yellowstone NP)
- How the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone changed the world
- What tourists did for entertainment in the early years of Yellowstone NP
- All about the buffalo, which is actually a bison
- What's a mud volcano and what do their names mean?
- What role did the military play in Yellowstone NP?
- The "Indian" and the "American" story of Custer's Last Stand (at Little Bighorn Battlefield NM)
- Why everybody should love bats (at Theodore Roosevelt NP)
- What inspired Theodore Roosevelt most?
Now if we could only remember a quarter of what we learnt, we'd come back real smart from our trip.
Now we are in Regent, North Dakota. This is pretty much at the epicenter of nowhere. This town would not hold the slightest interest even to the most curious traveler if it weren't for Gary Greff. He is a local artist who turned what must have been the most boring road in the country into what is now officially called "The Enchanted Highway". Over the past 17 years he erected 8 huge installations made entirely out of scrap metal. They actually are the world's largest metal sculptures and turned this boring road into a real American Larger-than-life experience. His original goal was to boost tourism in the area. He got a lot of admiration and recognition for his hard work, but it does not seem to have caused a visitor boom. In a way, this is what gives it its charm. Actually, it might be the least touristy tourist attraction I have ever seen. When we inquired about the RV park in Regent, I met Gary Greff, Mr. Enchantment, himself. He is somewhere between an eccentric lunatic and a visionary genius. Either way, we are enchanted.
And that's the news from Lake Dakota, where all the sculptures are huge, where all the ranger programs are interesting and where all the road are traveled less than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Aloha all,
since our last update from the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota, we made it all the way over to Minnesota. When we planned our trip, we were aware that there would be a bit of a lull between the exciting Rockies before we get to the Great Lakes. Many well meaning friends pointed out that in the middle of America, there are areas larger than most European countries with NOTHING to see. We do admit that the plains are not as amazing as the scenery we had been enjoying so far, but to our surprise, between the last interesting historical sites in North Dakota and the first highlights of the Great Lakes region, there were only about 300 miles of "nothingness".
In eastern North Dakota, we saw several reconstructed Indian Villages. Their Earth Lodges were surprisingly well designed and seemed a lot more comfortable than the Teepees in which I had envisioned most Indian tribes so far. Around here is also where we left the footsteps of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but not before we visited an excellent museum dedicated to their expedition in Washburn, as well as the exact replica of the Fort they built to spend the first winter with the friendly Mandan Indians. Sandra read the book fast enough that she actually got to read some parts at the original locations - or at least in the right area. I am a bit behind, by the time I get to the part where they set up their fort for the winter, I will probably be back on tropical Maui, which will make it a lot harder to imagine the harsh conditions on their expedition.
What happened to us at the Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in Bismarck, North Dakota, was pretty typical for our road trip: We got there late in the afternoon, about half an hour before they closed, thinking we might still be able to see the sites and continue on. We ended up camping in the park for the night, visiting most of the sites the next day and instead of 30 minutes, we ended up spending almost a full day in the park. It is such a luxury to have enough time to linger around as long as we want! Besides an Indian village and the actual fort, we also saw the house in which General Custer lived before he set off on the excursion that ended up with his "Last Stand" at Little Bighorn.
After driving through the very plain Plains, we were glad when the scenery changed in Minnesota. Within minutes, we saw more trees and more lakes than we had seen in the last few hundred miles. Of course, the first thing we had to do in Minnesota was to listen to the News from Lake Woebegone, since we can not visit this fictional town. You know, the place where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average."
We spent two days at Lake Itasca State Park. This is where the mighty Mississippi River starts as a humble creek. It's kind of fun to say you walked through the Mississippi River and you didn't even get your knees wet. We also did a nice bike trip and another interesting ranger program at the park.
Next, we went through the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. I have to admit that I never wondered where all the iron & steel came from that enabled America to become such an industrial superpower, but now we know. The mines around here are huge and so is the equipment they use to haul out the material. On the photo below you can see that our home, which we still think is pretty big, looks tiny in comparison. Next to one of the mines, we even found another disc golf course, which happened to be the best maintained course I have ever played. The small town of Hibbing also claims to be the birthplace of the American bus industry. The company that became Greyhound started here, reason enough for a local historian to open the 'Greyhound Bus Origin Museum'. While playing disc golf, I met two local kids and learnt that despite of this historic importance, Greyhound does not even service this town anymore.
The last mine we visited was the Soudan Underground Mine. The tour of this mine took us half a mile underground. 2.300 feet below the surface, almost 700 feet below sea level - definitely the low point of our tour! Actually, probably the lowest point we have ever been. We took another tour down the same shaft to visit the Soudan Underground Laboratory. This lab is also half a mile underground. I understand that they opened this laboratory in the abandoned mine because they do experiments there that are so sensitive that they could not be done closer to the surface because of interference from cosmic rays. Most of the rest of the tour, we did not understand. Now that's pretty sad if we don't even understand the dumbed-down tour-guide version of their experiments. Even this low under ground, it went right over our heads... But I did understand that they can detect Neutrinos here in this lab, which were created at a lab in Chicago and sent this way through the ground. These neutrinos seem to be so tiny that they usually do not interact with any physical matter. Even being sent through solid rock and dirt for over 450 miles poses no obstacle for them. They don't bounce around much either - it takes them only 0.0025 seconds to get from Chicago to Soudan. The funny thing is that in order to detect these tiny things (approximately one hundred millionth the size of an atom) they needed to built this huge contraption at this underground laboratory. You can see it on the 4th photo below. It's the black thing on the left, the colorful thing on the right is just some art they put there, so that people like us, who do not really understand the science, have something to look at and take pictures of (besides the bats on the walls).
From the mines of the Iron Range we drove to Lake Superior. As we have now learnt, Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world and as such is a pretty good substitute while we have to do without a real ocean. It sure looks like an ocean to me. The drive along Lake Superior's North Shore is very scenic, with several nice State Parks on the way. Amongst other things we saw bald eagles soaring above and below us, plenty of waterfalls and the historic and picturesque Split Rock Lighthouse.
We are starting to see the first fall colors already and are looking forward to more on our way through the Great Lakes to New England. We also see the first Obama and McCain and other campaign signs popping up in front yards all over the place, but I am not sure I am looking forward to seeing more of them as we get closer to the elections.
And that's the news from Lake Superior, Minnesota, where all the trucks are strong, where all the Neutrinos are good looking and where both the number and the size of lakes are well above average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Sep 29, 2008
Aloha all,
since the last update from Duluth, we spent most of the time in Michigan. I don't think we would have come to Michigan had it not been pretty much on the way from where we were to where we wanted to go. But the scenery of the Upper Peninsula in particular was well worth the time and gas it took to come here.
So after the 'Great Rocky Mountains' and the 'Great Plains', we are now in the 'Great Lakes country'. No worries, I will not tell you about every lighthouse and every maritime museum we've been to, but here are a few things we did:
- We briefly crossed through the northern end of Wisconsin. We only spent about two days there. The 'top attraction' was supposed to be the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, but the lake was not in the mood. And as we had learnt in one of the many cute little museums about the maritime history around Lake Superior the day before: "The Lake is the Boss!". We went out on a boat cruise to the Apostle Islands, but had to return early. Let me tell you: The lake was angry that day, my friends... Our captain had no intentions to join one of the many shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Superior. I think he did not even want to clean up after seasick passengers, so he turned around before it got really rough. We got to see some of the Apostle Islands, but to be honest, it was a bit disappointing. Well, it's never fun to have an angry boss. I have to keep reminding myself that these are lakes, not the ocean. They sure look and act like oceans. The storms that took many of the big ships down had waves that in size rival any surf brake in Hawaii, up to about 30 feet!
- Our first stop in Michigan was the Porcupine Mountains State Park. Great weather, nice waterfalls, some interesting rock formations (see first photo below), the pretty "Lake of Clouds" and the first really impressive fall colors all made for a fun day of driving and hiking.
- By the next day, I guess 'the boss' felt bad for ruining our boat tour before and decided to make up for it. When we got to Pictured Rocks National Shoreline, all of the sudden Lake Superior was picture perfect: Sunny and calm, like you'd expect a lake in September. Not windy and cold as it was two days earlier, when it reminded me rather of the North Sea in winter. Now we enjoyed the smooth cruise and the warm weather even more. The boat trip along the Pictured Rocks was amazing. Very colorful rocks indeed, interesting shapes, too. We were most impressed by one lonely tree that still stood on a cliff that had become separated from the coastline by a rock slide. With obviously too little water on it's little rock column, the tree strengthened the one root that was still connected to the mainland and this way the tree seems to be doing just fine. It was an impressive display of natures resiliency. (You can either take our word for it how impressive it was, or we can send you a couple of pictures of it. On the small attached pictures it would not really show, so I did not include this special tree in the selection below.)
- On the Upper Peninsula, we also visited the Oswalt Bear Ranch. It's not the same as seeing the wild bear in Yellowstone, but better than a regular zoo and we enjoyed watching the playful young black bears (see photo below).
- The next real highlight was Mackinac Island. This is probably the most historic and touristic place in Michigan, with thousands of visitors every day - but even as 'tourism professional', we had never heard of this place before. Being located at the crossroads of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior, Mackinac Island has long been a strategically important place for the military and trading purposes. But it already became a tourist destination in the late 1800's. Already in 1898 they had the incredible foresight to ban cars (or 'horseless carriages' as they called them)! I have wanted Maui to do that just for Front Street in Lahaina for years, but don't see it happening any time soon. Here on Mackinac Island, it has been working wonderfully for over 100 years. So we left our RV on the 'mainland' and took our bikes to the island, since walking, biking and horse carriages are the only way to get around. They do have an official state highway, but no cars what so ever are allowed on it. It's a very pleasant 8 mile ride around the island, but the most interesting place was the historic Fort Mackinac, which is very well conserved and/or restored and brilliantly presented with actors, interactive exhibits and live cannon and riffle firings. We spent all day on the small island and loved every minute of it.
- We crossed the straight to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan on the longest single-span suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. More history awaited us at the other end at Fort Michilimackinac (seriously, that's the name, I never want to hear anybody from Michigan complain about our long Hawaiian names again!). This Fort is recreated to reflect the colonial era around 1760 complete with British soldiers of the Royal Navy, a real working blacksmith and woman baking bread the very same way they would have done it 250 years ago. We even got to taste the delicious fresh bread and now Sandra wants to start baking bread when we are back on Maui. All kinds of good things come from this trip!
- Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park shows a real working sawmill powered by water. We actually got to see the mill in action. But because that alone can not quite compete with the other sites, they also added a canopy bridge, a zip-line and a climbing wall. Sandra climbed all the way to the top at about 50 feet and I am real proud of her.
- From there we drove down towards Detroit with two fun stops along the way: We had lunch with Jimmy Buffet in Bay City and spent an afternoon in Bavaria in Frankenmuth. Both of these places seemed a bit out of place in Michigan, but were most enjoyable. We only spent two hours in Bay City, but fully enjoyed the riverside restaurant, with a surprisingly authentic island feeling. Frankenmuth might not be the authentic Bavarian experience, but they do an even better job than Disney at the German Pavilion I worked at in Epcot Center - and it's a real town. Besides some very cute and very fake Bavarian architecture, they also have a semi-german grocery store where we could load up on Leberkaese, Spaetzle & Hanuta. There's also a year-round Christmas store (or 'Christmas Wonderland' as hey call it deservingly). This crazy place is as large as any Costco or Walmart, but sells only Christmas related things. Let me re-phrase that: They sell EVERY possible and impossible thing related to Christmas.
And that's the news from the Great Lakes, where all the history comes alive, where the Lakes are always in charge and where we enjoy our road trip even more than average.
Aloha from Dearborn, Michigan
Chris & Sandra
Aloha all,
I realize that many of you did not yet have time to read the last update. But we were so impressed by the museum complex of "The Henry Ford" in Dearborn, Michigan, I feel that if Telluride got it's own update, the last three days deserve one, too.
"The Henry Ford" is a complex unlike any other. The Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford the person might have their failings (e.g. I learnt that Henry Ford sympathized with the worst German ever), but the three museums in his complex just blew us away. I had no idea about this place until last week, but it's my new favorite museum in the world!
So what is it and what's so special about it?
'The Henry Ford' consists of three main attractions:
- "The Rouge Factory Tour", where Fords have been and are being built since more than 100 years ago
- "The Henry Ford Museum", which is more a museum about American History than about Ford or cars
- "The Greenfield Village", this is the best part, I would call it a time machine or living history park rather than a museum, what a place!
We started in Greenwich Village and quickly found out that each of these places takes a full day to explore. The Village was envisioned and started by Henry Ford himself and it is a totally unique concept. This is a historical experience you can not have anywhere else: Greenfield Village is a collection of real buildings, where industrial history was made. In one day, we were able to see amongst other things:
- The actual house in which Henry Ford grew up and the workshop in which he built his very first car,
- the bicycle shop of the Wright brothers. You can say that the back of this building became the world's first airplane factory since this is where they built their first plane,
- the actual laboratories in which Thomas Edison invented, designed and created his many inventions. Funny, that I mostly remember learning here what Edison did NOT invent: The light bulb! As it turns out, many others had made electric light before Edison. But their bulbs only lit up for a few seconds. Edison did come up with the first light bulb that worked for practical purposes. Still pretty clever.
- the house in which the Heinz company started out (interestingly enough with horseradish, not ketchup)
- the house where Noah Webster lived and wrote his famous dictionary, the last time that one single person completed a dictionary.
Usually, it would take months to see all these special places, here they are all together, assembled in one fictional village, presented by costumed guides filled with seemingly endless knowledge of the buildings, the people who lived there and the great inventions they came up with. And if you think that it's not the same as visiting historical places and see the actual ground where history was made, get this: For many buildings, they did not only move the structure, but the ground on which they stood as well. Many truckloads were shipped here so the buildings are on authentic soil.
The village is large enough that you can use some transportation. And what better way to cruise around these historic streets than in a steam train, a horse drawn carriage or an actual Model T Ford from 1914! Even immersed in history, we still got hungry, but we were able to stay in the 19th century. We had lunch at the Eagle Tavern. The building, costumes and the recipes were historic. However I was a bit disappointed that our server knew what a credit card is and accepted it for payment. These are just a few examples, there is also a city hall, a church, America's oldest windmill, a working farm and all kinds of crafts workshops, of which we only got to see the glass blower and the tin shop before the village closed and we were sent back to 2008.
The next day, we visited the Henry Ford Museum. When I first heard about this museum, I thought it was a museum about Ford. Their Automobile gallery is actually only a small part and includes everything from the original Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to several presidential limousines, even the one in which JFK got shot. They also happen to have the chair on which Abraham Lincoln got shot. But it's not at all some macabre collection, the chair is part of a fantastic exhibition about various struggles for liberty and justice: How America freed itself from the British rule by the declaration of independence, how the black slaves had to fight for almost another 200 years before America agreed that "all men are created equal" means that ALL men are created equal. And how the women's right movement had to convince not only men but also more traditional women that they should have the same rights as men. The museum has the actual bus on display in which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man. It is allowed, but I did not dare sit in her seat. But I talked to a museum guide for a while who had actually known Rosa Parks.
The museum has many other things, such as historic planes, trains and... ...furniture. But my favorite was the "Dymaxion House". This was a brilliant idea that was supposed to revolutionize the way the world lives and builds houses. Hailed in the 40's as the "House of the Future" (sounds familiar, RJ?) these houses were to be pre-manufactured and then shipped and set up in a few days. They were completely round, held up by a central post and had a lot of very unique features. It all sounds really appealing, but the changes were probably too radical. The houses were widely advertised, but they failed to raise enough interest or capital. Only two models were built and only this one in the museum remains...and we all still live in square houses.
Yesterday, we finally did he factory tour for which we had actually come in the first place. The Rouge is the factory where Henry Ford changed the automobile industry forever. A few months ago, we had visited the Daimler Benz museum in Stuttgart. They invented the automobile, but Henry Ford came up with a way to produce them for the masses. I am surprised that the clever and efficient Germans did not think about assembly lines first... Ford is still very proud of this 'industrial icon' or the 'birthplace for the American industrial revolution" as they call the Rouge factory. First they show two very impressive movies, one of which includes images, sounds, vibrations, and even smells of the various stages of the production. When they spray paint the cars on the screen they actually spray water on the audience...somebody from Ford must have had too much fun at Disney World;-)
They also show off some innovative features to make the production more environmentally friendly. They have the world's largest 'living roof' where grass growing on the roof helps reduce heating and cooling costs. It's hard to judge whether this and some other green efforts are a real change in thinking or just a publicity stunt. Right under the green living roof, which they so proudly present, they build exclusively F150 trucks that have only slightly better gas mileage than our RV. On the factory tour we got to see one of the most modern automobile assembly lines in action. We spent almost two hours watching them put together the various parts until the brand new trucks drove off for the very first time.
It's hard to compare this whole complex with a National Park or a town like "Pleasantville" Telluride, but we were equally amazed. What puzzles us most is the thought that mankind went from inventing the first car to flying to the moon in less than one lifetime. One can only imagine what humans will do in another lifetime. Hopefully nothing stupid.
And that's the news from Lake Henry Ford, where all the buildings are real, where all the history becomes real and where each of the museums is way better than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Oct 8, 2008
Aloha all,
again, I must apologize for the length of this e-mail, but I am glad to hear that many of you actually read and enjoy our travelogues. The last week since the Henry Ford update has been one of the most diverse weeks of our trip. We have been to large cities & small towns, great museums & several factory tours, we saw at least one world famous attraction, but also found some hidden treasures along the way. We made it from Michigan through Ohio, New York & Vermont to New Hampshire - here are some highlights:
- In Toledo, Ohio we visited the Toledo Museum of Art which, as we found out, is one of the finest in the country with a very impressive collection of American and European paintings. Just to make sure that we are not having TOO much fun (I know that some of you were getting concerned), I took the turn into the museum parking lot a little tighter than I should have. The damage on our RV is pretty small, but the estimate to get it fixed wasn't.
- Next stop was Cleveland, which I hear does not have the best reputation. From the little time we spent there, it looks like a fine city with a pretty attractive downtown area. So I really don't understand why they have such a poor reputation, except maybe that one incidence when they polluted their river so badly that it actually caught fire, but that was many years ago. We spent pretty much the whole day at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame which is their main attraction on the lakefront. I guess most people's first question when they get to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is: Why is it here, in Cleveland out of all places? So they answer this right away with an interesting documentary as you walk in. Basically it's in Cleveland because they wanted it most. But it also has a historical reason: It was a Cleveland disc jockey who coined the term "Rock 'n Roll". The architecture, the collections and exhibitions are world class. It's only a Rock 'n Roll museum, but we liked it.
- After a few minutes in Pennsylvania, we drove into New York. We always knew that upstate New York is very different from New York City. But having been pretty much only to Manhattan before, we were still very impressed by the pretty countryside and the cute towns & villages along highway 20.
- In Eden, one of these cute towns, we visited the only Kazoo factory in America, which has been around for over 100 years. They still use the very same machines, so it rightfully doubles as the official Kazoo museum. We will admit that being German, we had to look up what a Kazoo actually is. Now we know that the Kazoo, according to the Smithsonian Institute, is the only original American Instrument. Isn't hat an interesting bit of trivia? With all the great inventions by Americans, the only musical instrument that is not copied from other countries is this little thing with a funny name. For our German friends, who might or might not be as ignorant as we were about this achievement of American musical engineering: According to Wikipedia the Kazoo is "a simple instrument that with the help of a membrane adds a buzzing quality to a player's voice". It might look like a little children's toy, but we agree that you can not play or listen to a Kazoo without a little smile on your face. Actually, we had a big grin on ours, as soon as we got in our RV, figured out how they work and played the Star Spangled Banner, which only seems fitting for this most American instrument.
- Our next stop is slightly better known. I had been to the Niagara Falls before, but was more than happy to show them to Sandra. It was a beautiful sunny day - pretty cold, but not as bad as last time when I was there and most of the falls were frozen. We rode one of the famous Maid of the Mist boats into the Canadian horseshoe falls, got soaking wet under the American Falls, walk over the bridge to Canada for dinner and to see the falls lit up at night. They even put on a firework show for us. I assume that the fireworks were to mark this special day: Over 2 1/2 months after buying our RV and two temporary license plates later, we finally got our real plates, barely 2 months before the end of our trip. Since the RV is registered in Colorado, we had to trouble Kelly with dealing with the county there. This turned out to be a lot more complicated than imagined and we will be forever thankful to her. Mahalo again, Kelly!
- In Rochester, NY we visited the Eastman House. This is the guy who founded Kodak. The house which he built after his success with selling cameras and film is now a museum - several museums and archives to be exact. As we learnt in the museum and on the tour, he was quite the character. Supposedly he said that if he could, he would take two vacations a year, both for about 6 months. But it seems to me that he was rather a workaholic, who really enjoyed what he was doing and was very good at it. In it's heydays, Kodak employed 90,000 people in Rochester, now there are less that 10,000. Many jobs were either shipped overseas or lost due to the decline in regular film. Ironically, I happen to have become a Kodak fan because I think they make great digital cameras. But digital photography is what caused Kodaks current problems.
- Fort Stanwix is another example for how much Americans treasure the relatively short history they have. The city of Rome in upstate New York decided that for the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, they would clear a whole block in downtown to rebuilt a Fort that stood there during the revolutionary war. Yet again, the history was so brilliantly presented with actors and multimedia exhibitions, that we should be able to slowly put it all together. But sometimes it seems that the more we learn, the more we mix it up. But I will not forget how amazed we were when we saw the 'before and after' pictures of this reconstruction project.
- We saw our first really impressive New England foliage with the most colorful forests in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. Judging by the red, yellow, brown and green leaves as well as by the numerous people on the trail to an observation tower, it looks like we got there at he peak of the fall colors in that area.
- The only place in the Adirondacks I had heard of before is Lake Placid, because they have hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980. They have a nice Olympic Museum and you can go into the arena where the 'Miracle on Ice' happened. This, we are told, is probably the most important event in American sports history, very much like the 1954 "Wunder von Bern" for Germany. We also went to the Olympic Jumping Complex. That real humans actually ski of these jumps and fly for 100+ meters still boggles my mind. After reading about all these great athletes in the Olympic museum, it was also very inspiring to see the next generation hard at work. The freestyle jumping we watched looked like fun, but it must take a lot of dedication to practice the jumps over and over again, in a bitter cold wind, landing in an unheated pool after every jump. My hat goes off to those young athletes.
- I liked Vermont from the very beginning, which was a nice little campground on Lake Champlain. Our first real stop in Vermont was the factory of Ben & Jerry's. Ever since I discovered it back in Colorado, their 'Oatmeal Cookie Chunk' had been my new favorite ice cream. Now we got to see where it is made. They even have a 'flavor graveyard' where they remember and honor flavors they had to retire due to lack in demand. We were very glad to find our former favorite flavor, which we had not seen in 15 years, not in the graveyard, but in the scoop shop. Ben & Jerry seems to be a very special company. Unlike other companies, they seem to have been able to hold on to at least some of this tradition even after they were sold to a multinational cooperation. (Which 'other company' could I possibly be thinking of ?)
- Montpellier is the smallest of all 50 state capitols. We took a tour of their State House, which is actually pretty impressive. When I asked the tour guide why the building is called a State House rather than a State Capitol, she said that 'State House' does not sound as fancy. In other words, it's more Vermont. It's one of the smallest and one of the least populated, but also one of the nicest states, I think. We also visited Rock of Ages, a huge, 600 feet deep granite quarry and the Cabot Creamery, where I found out that Cheddar Cheese can actually be really tasty, if it's done right.
- Now we are in New Hampshire, at the Franconia State Park. The former landmark of this area is the Old Man of the Mountains. For 12,000 years this rock formation (which resembled an old man's profile), looked out over the valley. 5 years ago in collapsed. To be honest, the memorial park they plan to build for the old man looks like it's going to be more impressive that the actual rock formation ever was. We took advantage of the sunny & clear weather and took the Cannon aerial tramway to one of the peaks for a colorful 360 degree view of the White Mountains.
From here, we hope to make it to Acadia National Park in Maine, before heading south to escape the winter.
And that's the news from Lake New England, where all the cows are happy, where all Kazoo players are happy and where all the leaf colors are above average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Oct 19, 2008
Aloha all,
the 10 days since the last update have been very historic and very colorful - just like the last 10 days on Wall Street. But in terms of our trip, it has been very positive - we experienced the most fall colors and the most historic sites on our trip so far. Let's get right to it:
- Still in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, we spent a full day at the Wildcat Ski Resort. What do two non-skiers do all day at a ski resort in October with no snow? Here's what: First we played some disc golf, this course even offered the luxury of a ski lift to get to the top of the course. They also have a zip line, but it is "only" half a mile long, so we rode it twice to zip a full mile over the so called White Mountains, which are actually very colorful (see first picture below). We also took the gondola up to the summit, where I proudly took a few steps on the Appalachian Trail. As many of you know, I do not read many books, but I had just finished Bill Bryson's "Walk in the Woods" before, so walking on the actual trail he describes was very special, even if we just walked 200 yards of the over 2,000 miles.
- Our first stop in Maine was in the capitol, Augusta, where we visited Old Fort Western. It was built in 1754 as a supply fort and trading post. This is the oldest remaining wooden fort in the country and again a great tour made us appreciate the historic significance of this place.
- Acadia National Park was our next stop and the most eastern place we will reach on this tour. Compared to other National Parks, Acadia's beauty is more subtle. To our surprise, it's America's second most visited National Park. Nobody can argue that it is a beautiful and special place, but it's not as dramatic or spectacular as any of the parks out west. We spent one day driving and hiking and another day biking through the park, which was particularly pretty thanks to the fall colors. This area was one of Rockefeller's favorite places. In fact he is mostly responsible that Acadia became a National Park since he bought and donated most of the land. He also built the many miles of carriage roads, specifically prohibiting automobiles for eternity, which we enjoyed on our bike ride.
- We almost skipped Fort Knox, feeling that we had seen our share of Forts and that they do tend to look alike, even with the most interesting tours and exhibits. But this one surprised us. (This is the Fort Knox in Maine, named after the same general, but otherwise not related to the famous Fort Knox in Kentucky.) Instead of a simple wooden palisade like most of the other forts we had seen so far, this one boasts many massive walls. While the other forts had to be carefully restored and constantly maintained, this enormous structure will be there for thousands of years. The intriguing thing about it's history: Nothing ever really happened here. Not only was it never attacked, troops never even really moved in and even after working on it for several decades, they never even got all the cannons in place.
- Next to Fort Knox is the brand new Penobscot Narrows Bridge. This huge suspension bridge is one of only four bridges in the world with an observation deck on top. My mother and I had been on one of the other four in Slovakia 2 years ago, but there they had failed to inform us how unique this type of bridge is.
- We thought we had our share of maritime museums around the Great Lakes, but since this is now the Atlantic Ocean, we visited one more. The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath is located where American ship building history begun. This is where the first, the most and the largest wooden ships of the new world were built - and are still being built today.
- In Brunswick, we visited the Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College. This is mostly about arctic explorer Robert Peary who probably discovered the north pole in 1909. I guess his story is not as well known as the race for the south pole because nobody died along the way and because nobody knows for sure how close to the pole he actually was.
- The "Desert of Maine" is a mixture between natural phenomena and tacky roadside attraction. It's only a few acres of sand, but since it's the only American 'desert' east of the Mississippi and surrounded by lush rolling hills, it's an unusual and surprising sight. It's a lesson about what happens if we overuse the land. Over-farming and over-logging stripped this once fertile farmland of the thin layer of topsoil and turned it into a desert. However, it is also a lesson on how people deal with their fate. Instead of deserting the farm, they turned this desert into a tourist attraction.
- Another mix between fascinating site and funky roadside attraction is 'Eartha' - the world's largest rotating globe located at the DeLorme map store. Eartha is built at a scale of 1:1million and is about 12 meters tall. It is made of 140 gigabytes of high resolution satellite images. I always wanted to take a trip to space to see our planet from a little distance, this might be the closest I will ever get to fulfill that dream.
- I have written a few times already how impressed we are by the way the relatively short American history is preserved and presented. Our next stop was the exact opposite! This place has probably the oldest remaining human structures in North America, dating back 4,000 years, yet it is hardly known and not really professionally maintained. I am talking about "America's Stonehenge" in Salem, New Hampshire. I admit these structures might not be as impressive as the original stonehenge in England, but just the fact that these obviously man-made structures are several thousand years old I think would justify making this into a National Monument and having a professional archeological survey of the whole site completed. Instead, it is owned and maintained by a family, much like you'd expect of the largest ball of twine. They had several archeologist check on it, but they did not seem to have come to any real conclusions - except to say that the structures are up to 4,000 years old. Now this is what I do not understand: For example, we have been to Fort Clark on this tour. This is a National Historic Site that appears to be an empty meadow. It had so little to see that I did not even mention it in my update. They researched this site extensively because they knew a wooden fort once stood there for a few years about two centuries ago. They researched so long until (with highly sophisticated techniques) they could determine where the stables were by detected traces of horse shit. I am not making this up! So why is it that we spend all this effort to find out where a horse stood 200 years ago, but we don't seem to care how these elaborate structures got here several thousand years ago, possibly dramatically changing what we know about human history in North America?!? They pretty much ruled out the theories that aliens or a lost greek civilization built them, but they still don't seem to know for sure whether they were built by early native American tribes or by some unknown European explorers.
- Yesterday we spent all day in Boston. For one day, we were like 'regular' tourists with very little time. But big cities like Boston are not that easy to visit by RV. We had to park pretty far outside and take a commuter train to town, so we tried to see as much as possible in one single day. And much we saw: The impressive Bunker Hill Monument, where the Revolutionary War first broke out. The USS Constitution, which is over 200 years old, but remains the official and still commissioned flagship of the Navy. An active duty sailor gave us an interesting tour of this amazing ship and her impressive history. We also got a great tour of the Massachusetts State House, where the history and the current affairs come together. We saw several other historical places on the 'Freedom Trail', many of which could have normally kept us busy for a day, but we had to rush by. We will have to come back to Boston for a little longer at some time in the future.
- Today, we were back in our old habit and we spent all day in one place that many people probably visit in an hour or two. We went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. I had heard so much about the various Presidential Libraries before, but I had never been to one. For the almost 6 hours we were there, we really felt we got to know JFK. Various multimedia exhibits brought alive his way to the nomination, the election & inauguration - as well as important events of his unfortunately short term as president. Even if we were not born at the time, many of the issues of his time are so interesting that we were glad to learn more about it: E.g. the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race, his speech in Berlin and some other personal stories, concentrating on his life, not on his tragic death. Especially when watching the debates between Kennedy and Nixon, it was hard not to make comparisons to the current presidential election. It is interesting how many things don't seem to have changed at all, including the personal attacks. So far, I mostly knew his famous quotes such as "Ich bin ein Berliner" or "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Seeing the actual campaign and debate footage is less glamours and much more like today's elections. However, I very much doubt that any candidate would be elected today if he were honest enough to say that he will not be able to cut the national deficit in the next few years. Regardless of one's political believes, I think it's hard not to be inspired in a presidential library. If the dumbed down and sensationalized political cable news coverage makes any of you sick and tired of politics, I suggest visiting your local Presidential Library as soon as you can. There are a dozen of them and after having been to this one, I want to see them all.
And that's the news from Lake Massachusetts, where all the history is revolutionary, and where all our adventures are so interesting that this update is even longer than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Oct 29, 2008
Aloha all,
the economy gets worse and worse, the presidential campaigns get more and more partisan - but our trip through the country gets more and more interesting. So here's the latest from our Magical History Tour:
- This part of the tour started off at Plymouth Rock, where the first pilgrims came ashore and built their first settlement in America. We were on a replica of the Mayflower, the ship on which the Pilgrims made their famous voyage. While trying to get an idea of the conditions they endured, one myth about the Pilgrims was busted: I always believed they had left England because of religious prosecution and that they were looking for religious freedom in the new world. It turns out that they were in favor of religious freedom, ... but only as longs as it is their own religion. Many of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower who actually were members of the church that was banned in England, had lived in exile in Holland before they set sail for America. They actually left because they did not like the religious freedom and liberal society in Holland. It seems like once they were in the new word, they treated believers of other religions just as bad as they had been treated in England.
- Next to the town of Plymouth, is the reconstructed "Plimoth Plantation". This small village with very basic houses gave us a good idea how the Pilgrims lived in their first settlement. While walking around the place, we actually met some of the residents who came on the Mayflower. They invited us into their houses, we warmed up at their fireplaces and learnt a whole lot. The village is set in 1627 and the actors never fell out of character - for a few hours we felt like time travelers.
- Rhode Island was our next state. In Providence we got a great tour of their State House, pretty impressive considering that the state is actually smaller than Hawaii. But even more impressive were the mansions in Newport. We took a stroll around the lavish mansions of the Gilded Age along the 'Cliff Walk'. Even the fanciest villas on Kapalua Hillside in Maui seem pretty modest compared to these mansions. We took tours of two of the mansions. The first one was a "Living History Tour" of the Astor Beechwood Mansion. The Astors seem to be very friendly people; as soon as we entered, they informed us that we were invited for tomorrow's dinner and that the daughter of Mr. Astor would show us around the house. We learnt that Mrs. Astor was the undisputed Queen of the American high society during the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century. The qualifications to belong to the elite group of people invited to one of these dinners were that one must own at least a million dollars and that one must not work for a living. While we currently fulfill the second criteria, we had no idea about our hidden family fortune. The mansion is actually staffed by actors of a local theater group - it was fabulous. I mentioned before how much we enjoy the way history is presented in many of these historical sites in America - but this just keeps getting better and better! Next we went to "The Breaker" - this is the most elaborate of all the Newport Mansions, built by railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbuilt. After the amazing tour at the Astors right before, we could only be disappointed...we had no idea. The tour of this mansion could not have been any worse if the guide had tried. Actually, maybe he tried to give the most boring tour possible (and was really good at it). After the "Living History Tour" before, I called this the 'Dead History Tour'. The guide mostly rattled off some random facts about individual pieces of furniture, including many numbers and names of dead people. The two tours could not have been more different. On the first one we felt like we actually met the people who once lived in these mansions, on the second tour I wondered whether any human actually ever lived in these rooms. The guide seemed barely alive. It was almost comical how bad this tour was, but the building itself was pretty impressive: With 70 rooms and an amazing amount of imported art from Europe, it definitely had more of the feel of a European castle than a private home.
- The first place we visited in Hartford was the Connecticut State Capitol. We always enjoy seeing state capitol buildings, not only because they usually offer free tours. I think we are so fascinated by state capitols because here the past and the present come together. There is a lot of history in most of these buildings, but they are also the place where the current political affairs of a state are conducted. Portraits from heros of the battle for independence hang (rightfully or not) next to recent or current politicians.
- Hartford is also where Mark Twain lived and wrote many of his best books. His home is nicely renovated. The tour also includes a museum about Mark Twain's life and work. He is now my favorite amongst all of the authors I have never read. I was very inspired. I am just not sure whether I am inspired to write a book myself or read one of his...
- After the JFK Library, I had written that we now wanted to see all of the Presidential Libraries. What better place to start than the very first Presidential Library ever opened. Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, NY and spent most of his life there. Already during his presidency he built a library to house all the historic artifacts he accumulated during his lifetime. Besides the tour of his home and the regular museum, they also had a special exhibition on the first 100 days of his presidency. Since FDR came into office at the height of the Great Depression, the timing of this exhibition was pretty scary.
- Next, we went to a historic site of very different nature: The Bethel Woods Center of the Arts. This brand new museum at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival just opened this summer (Thanks for telling us about it, Joanna). What a great museum! When we took a break for lunch, we had not even gotten to the exhibits about the actual festival, they did a great job explaining the cultural changes of the 60's that lead to this historic event. We were fascinated by the little known stories and background information they provided about Woodstock. We wished we could have been there 39 years ago, even though the reality of Woodstock was not only peace, love, drugs and music, but also terrible traffic, not enough food, a lot of rain and general chaos. The organizers never in their dreams expected almost half a million people coming to rural upstate New York. The museum is really wonderful and we also saw the actual site and got to talk to one of the helpers from 1969.
- In Easton, PA we visited the Crayola Factory and the National Canal Museum. This might surprise you after I have been raving about all our great adventures: We did not like either one of them. I think we are too old. So far all the suggestions from our "Made in the USA" book had been great. We loved all the factory tours so far, but this one was aimed at kids, not mature-minded adults like ourselves. I never thought I'd write these lines;-)
- In Philadelphia, we visited our friend Barbara's mom and met with Tommy, who came from Maui to visit his family in the area. We got to explore historic Philadelphia with Tommy, his daughter and her husband. We ended up in the City Tavern, the restaurant where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and co. went when they needed a break from founding the country. The City Tavern is part of the National Historic Park, all the recipes are researched to be authentic as they were when those guys ate there. They had pretty good (and pretty strong) beer, too. The chef happens to be not only German but from Pforzheim, which is right next to my hometown. He came out to greet us and ended up telling us the whole story about the City Tavern, the American Revolution and himself. We ate, drank and talked for 2 1/2 hours. Did I mention we were there with Tommy?
- For the short trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore, we had Tommy as our guest of honor in our RV. In Baltimore, we got to meet his parents, now we know where he has his genes from to still play Ultimate Frisbee at his age! We also continued our Magical History Tour and saw several sites of Tommy's childhood.
- Now we are with our friends Terry & Jeanne in Severna Park in Maryland. Today we went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis and did a great tour of this unique school. We were very impressed, but I am a little too old, a little too German and a little too scared to join.
We will explore Washington DC from here before we head further south in search of more adventures, more nice people and more historic sites.
And that's the news from Lake Maryland, where all the Pilgrims we met were friendly, where our pilgrimage let us see all our East Coast friends and where everybody seems to be more partisan than average about the upcoming presidential election.
Aloha from Severna Park,
Chris & Sandra
Aloha all,
the past week has been truly "Presidential" - we saw the homes of four former presidents, the home of the current president and we saw our next president in person!
But let's start at the beginning:
- While still visiting our friends in Maryland, we went into Washington DC. We could easily spend a month or two in the museums of the Smithsonian Institute alone, but our trip is still too short for that, so we had to limit ourselves to only two days in DC. That's one reason why we saw the White House only from the outside. We were told that we should have requested a tour about six months ago. I still had a job back then and no idea whether or when we were coming to DC. We went up the Washington Monument instead, which offers a surprisingly good view of the city. We also visited the National Air & Space Museum and learnt a thing or two about space exploration. I am still sorry I missed the moon landing by about a year, it must have been amazing to witness this live on TV.
- We spent almost a full day at the National Archives. After visiting the historic sites of America's infancy in Boston and Philadelphia it was very impressive to see the original Declaration of Independence, the original Constitution and the original Bill of Rights. I find it amazing that they even are on public display, for anyone to see. The National Archives have many other exhibits about American history, so the day passed by quickly, we just had time to peek quickly into the National Museum of Natural History afterwards. There we got the condensed history of the planet and the ocean in a neat presentation, which was projected onto a globe. With Terry & Jeanne we also visited Georgetown, the Cryptology Museum at the NSA headquarters and Old Londontown on the Chesapeake Bay.
- As often, our first stop in Virginia was the welcome center. Besides hearing about the tourist attractions of Virginia, we also heard that Obama had his very last campaign rally before the election right there in Manassas the next night. We quickly changed our plans and this is how we ended up seeing the first battlefield of the Civil War the next day and the last battlefield of the 2008 presidential election that night. Besides the very inspiring speech from Obama, it is also inspiring to see 85,000 people willing to stand around for several hours just to see their candidate speak. Now let's hope that he can deliver on the high expectations he set for himself.
- While today people of any color, any profession and from any corner of the country (even Hawaii!) can become president, in the beginning of the United States, they mostly were white farmers from Virginia. This makes for some great plantation homes to visit. Our first one was Montpelier, where James Madison lived. His very presidential home has just been restored to the way it looked when he still lived there. The rooms were still mostly empty, but the tour guide did such a fantastic job bringing James Madison alive that we barely noticed how empty the rooms were. Before, I had known Madison's name mostly because so many streets are named after the early presidents. Now I know that he was the 4th president, was a good friend of Thomas Jefferson, became his secretary of state, was president during the war of 1812 and is considered the 'Father of the Constitution'. We even saw the ink spots on the floor in the room where he wrote his draft of the constitution.
- Next, we visited James Monroe's much more modest home at Ash Lawn Highland. Monroe was also a friend (and next door neighbor!) to Jefferson and was instrumental in the Louisiana Purchase. It wasn't until we stepped into his house that I first heard about the "Monroe Doctrine", which I now know is pretty famous. But I am not ashamed that I did not know about it, since Vice President non-elect Palin did not know what the 'Bush Doctrine' is either. (It's pretty much the opposite of the Monroe Doctrine. But it's hard to compare these 200 years later, so enough with the politics.)
- Thomas Jefferson has the most impressive mansion of them all. We toured his home and the gardens at his plantation estate "Monticello". After visiting all the Lewis & Clark sites earlier on our trip, it was great to be able to see where the man lived who sent Lewis off to explore the West. What an impressive mind Jefferson must have been - writing the Declaration of Independence was only one of his many achievements.
- Jefferson, Madison & Monroe all seem to have been very good presidents and pretty visionary for their time. But while all three of them believed that slavery was wrong, none of them even freed his own slaves. Makes them look like hypocrites, doesn't it? I try to explain it like this: If in the future humans are able to end poverty and hunger, they might look back at us and say: So many people spoke out about the injustice in the 3rd World, but nobody really did anything about it. Well, ending world hunger looks to me like an impossible task for one person, but ending slavery must have seem equally impossible to them 200 years ago.
- With all the presidential history past & present, when we went to the movies the day after the election, we choose "W." - the movie about Bush. We found it to be a bad movie about a bad president. To me it seems really unnecessary to make him look worse, we were almost as disappointed in the movie as in the presidency.
- Today we went to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library at his birthplace in Staunton, Virginia. Did you know he is the only president ever who had a PhD? Not that you need a degree to be a good president - but I find it amusing that no other president had an academic career equal to let's say my brother or Uncle Tommy. After visiting this museum, Sandra and I did a little recap: We now know at least a tiny little bit about 23 American presidents. That's more than half of them and - too be honest - more than we know about the German Chancellors.
- We only did a few non-presidential things this week. Amongst others a short hike in the Shenandoah National Park, a round of disc golf, a cave tour and a visit to "Foamhenge" - a styrofoam replica of the Stonehenge in England. In contrast to the American Stonehenge we visited in New Hampshire, this time there is no questions when and how this was created. It's the recent work of a local artist and looks surprisingly real.
And that's the news from Lake Virginia, where the past is full of presidential history, where the present is making presidential history and where all the presidents seem to be better than average.
Aloha from Virginia,
Chris & Sandra
Aloha all,
we have less than a month left on our tour, so there will only be about three more of these long e-mails from us, do you think you can endure it?
One of the reasons for us to do this road trip was to find out at what point we would have enough of the traveling... it has not happened yet. If we could afford it, we'd continue a lot longer...
It just doesn't get boring to explore this country and there seems to be an endless variety of things to see:
- The 'National D-Day Memorial' was opened in Bedford, Virginia in 2001. The reason it is in Bedford is that this community proportionally lost more men than any other American city during the allied landing on the coast of Normandy. I don't know why it took almost 60 years to built it, but it is the most impressive memorial I have ever seen. Very appropriate for this enormous operation, probably the most important day in the liberation of Europe. This memorial is huge and it has several sections dedicated to various parts of the operation: the planning, the crossing of the channel, the landing, the fighting and finally the victory. They offer great tours, explaining the details and the symbolisms. Having been born a generation after the war, I never really felt guilty for the crimes of Nazi Germany, but here I did feel a real sense of gratitude towards those who helped stop that madman Hitler, particularly when I saw the plague honoring General Marshal. I remember my mom telling me as a child how lucky Germany was that the US decided to go with his plan for reconstruction rather than with that of Morgenthau, which would have set Germany back to the middle ages. Thank you, America!
- As a little 'hana hou' to our presidential last week, we visited 'Poplar Forest' - Thomas Jefferson's private retreat. As you can see below, it is still a very nice mansion, but very modest compared to his Monticello estate. And again there are people dedicated to preserving and restoring this part of history and offering great insight on a very personal tour.
- The Americans amongst you might know that the Civil War ended with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Well, as soon as we walked into the courthouse, we learnt something new. The town is actually called "Appomattox Courthouse" (making the courthouse there really the "Appomattox Courthouse Courthouse"), but the surrender happened to come about on a Sunday and the courthouse was closed. So they used the 'McLean House", a private residence next door. The irony is that Mr. McLean had lived in Manassas before, where the Civil War broke out 4 years earlier. He lost his house there and moved to Appomattox to get away from the war. At least this time, they did not destroy his house, they only used it for the surrender talks to end the war.
- As you might have already noticed, besides National Parks, Presidential Libraries and factory tours, we also like to visit state capitol buildings. So pretty much the only thing we saw in Virginia's capital Richmond was the State Capitol. This one was particularly interesting since it was designed by Thomas Jefferson, a man of many talents. He probably was one of the best presidents, one of America's first great architects, he invented a few things and since he is largely responsible for doubling the size of America for only 15 million Dollar through the Louisiana Purchase, nobody can deny that he was also a very smart real estate agent. It seems very logical that 100 cents make one Dollar, right? Guess who's idea that was? Good old Tommy Jefferson. The tour through the State Capitol was another highlight and doubled as a recap of many things we had seen earlier on this trip: For example, the guide talked about the Lewis & Clark expedition, the National Archives in DC, the Declaration of Independence and even about Obama, since we were in the very room where the Virginia electorates will cast their votes for president in January.
- We spent the next two full days at Colonial Williamsburg. Too bad that I already ran out of superlatives to describe how great Americans present their history. Williamsburg really tops everything else. I had briefly been to Williamsburg when I was about half my age, but I did not remember it like this. So either the place or I changed dramatically. During the American Revolution Williamsburg was the capitol of Virginia, which was the largest and most powerful of all the colonies. All of downtown Williamsburg (partially original, partially reconstructed) is now an open air museum - or you can call it an open air theater. Besides seeing the buildings and furnishings, they also re-create the events that happened here. So while exploring, you meet the famous and not so famous people such as George Washington or Benedict Arnold, as well as the citizens and slaves of Williamsburg. Our favorite was Patrick Henry, the most outspoken Virginian in the fight for Independence. The actors do an amazing job, they not only re-enact important events during the revolution, you can also interact with them. We spent about two hours listening and talking to Patrick Henry alone, which is nothing compared to his actual speeches at the time. When our founding fathers met to discuss the new constitution, Patrick Henry talked for the better part of 23 days, up to eight hours(!) at a time. The real Patrick Henry must have been as entertaining as the actor who now portraits him in Williamsburg. People listened, even if they disagreed with many of his radical views. We were in Williamsburg on Veterans Day, how special the veterans in the parade must have felt with General George Washington as the keynote speaker. For anybody interested in American History, I suggest spending a few days in Williamsburg, it is as educational as a college course and as much fun as a day at Disney World.
- One interesting thing I have noticed is that no American seems to blame the South for trying to leave the Union or for the horrors of the Civil War that followed. In fact, the political and military leaders of the Confederacy are still honored as heros. This was probably the best way to heal the wounds and continue as one nation, but I find it pretty amazing that hardly anybody plays the 'Blame Game'. On the other hand, we found great disagreement between the North and the South about who should get the credit for achieving Independence. The Northerners in Boston and Philadelphia made it look like they did it pretty much by themselves and hardly mention Virginia. But here it sounds like Virginia was the real birthplace of the revolution. We met people who just laugh that Paul Revere is even mentioned as a revolutionary hero, when all he did was ride a horse, while the real success was achieved by the brave people and great minds of Virginia. Obviously it took everybody working together, but we enjoyed getting both sides of the story.
- One of the newest attractions in Williamsburg is the "President's Park". Inspired by Mount Rushmore, the founder must have thought "Why only four?". He went on to create 20 foot high sculptures of ALL 43 presidents. It also includes interesting facts, such as which president had a pet alligator or which two were indentured servants before they became president. While walking through the park and learning about all of the presidents, I tried to pick my favorite one, but whenever I thought I found the perfect one, I found out something unacceptable about him. Maybe they are all human after all. They also displayed great quotes of the presidents. My favorite quote was from JFK: When he hosted all of the Noble Prize winners, he said: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of intellectual talent ever gathered at the White House, with the possible exception when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
- Battlefields were never our favorite places to visit, maybe because I feel that wars are so horrible and so stupid (even though sometimes necessary). But ending a war is a good thing, so we made another exception and visited the battlefield at Yorktown. George Washington did not realize it a the time, but this battle basically won and ended the Revolutionary War. We learnt that the deciding factor was the help from the French. I had not even been aware that France was involved in the war. They really had no direct interest helping America and probably only came because they enjoyed defeating the British. And I am sure they were glad they did, when later in history, they needed America to help them out twice.
- Today, we were at the Berkley Plantation. Never heard of it? Neither had we, but it has an impressive list of history: It was the home of the Harrison family, which includes a signer of the Declaration of Independence and two presidents. One of them is particularly interesting: Of all presidents, William Harrison gave the longest inauguration speech (on a cold winter day), but served the shortest term in office (because he died of pneumonia 31 days later). The Berkley Plantation is also the place where Bourbon Whiskey was invented and the place where "Taps" was composed. It also played a big role during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln and 130,000 troops stayed at the plantation and to this day, there is a cannonball in a wall of one of the buildings. Berkley Plantation was also the site of America's first commercial shipyard and they claim to have celebrated the very first Thanksgiving in America, two years before the Pilgrims in Plymouth. A lot of history for one small place!
Now we are in North Carolina. We will visit friends in Durham and then head further south to find a warm enough place to leave our motorhome for Bunt & Ann, who will continue the trip in January. This is a great time to be on a road trip: Since most of you live in Hawaii or Germany, you might be impressed that today we paid only $1.89/gallon of gas (0.39 Euro/Liter), that's less than half of what we paid about two months ago. Anybody interested taking over the RV after Bunt and Ann are done?
And that the news from Lake Williamsburg, where all the historic people come alive, where all the people alive during the revolution made history and where all the gas prices are below average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Nov 25, 2008
Aloha all,
we pretty much rushed through the Carolinas - even now in Georgia it's still unusual cold. But we found a lot of interesting things to do:
Friends we had not seen in a while;
National Parks we had never heard of;
Agricultural products we had never seen before in the field;
A historic site as gruesome as any concentration camp I have seen;
The baby brother of the Grand Canyon;
and of course some more historical presidential sites:
- Pretty much the only thing we did in North Carolina was to visit our friends Jeff & Angel in Durham. Their daughter Amelia is such a delightful girl - playing with her for a day was enough fun for one state, so we headed on to South Carolina.
- While looking at a map over dinner just as we had entered South Carolina, we noticed a National Park only a few miles from where we were. We had never heard of the 'Congaree National Park', but you know our rule: We visit any National Park along our way. Congaree was 'upgraded' to a National Park in 2003 and protects one of the very few remaining old-growth floodplain forests in the country. Now you could argue that it's pretty much like any other forest - only partially submerged in a few feet of water. But that little fact makes a big difference: To the plants and animals that live in it, to the scientists who study it and to people like us who visit it. The reflections in the water and the abundant spanish moss hanging from the trees create a surreal ambiance where one might expect a troll or some other mystical creature to appear at any moment. We were also intrigued by these funny looking stumps around the cypress trees (see photo below). After seeing about 1048 of them on our hike, we returned to the visitor center to find out what they are and what their purpose is. I had no idea what I started with my innocent question. The stumps are called "knees" - and it seems like that's as far as any two people will ever agree on the subject. The two park rangers started an argument whether these knees help the plant breath or not. Instead of the simple answer I expected, I received a seven page article about the various theories. Scientist have wondered about the purpose of these knees for over 200 years, but mysteriously it is still unknown.
- In Charleston we first visited Fort Sumter, the island fort where the Civil War started. Then we strolled through pretty downtown and went to the Charleston Tea Plantation. This is the one and only tea plantation in all of North America. The Southeast actually has very good conditions to grow tea, but due to the cheap imports from other countries, it is not a very lucrative business. This planation survives by cultivating, harvesting and processing over 120 acres of tea plants with a crew of only 3 workers! They have more tour guides then actual workers. And our guide did such a great job that we were more than happy to buy some American-grown tea that (compared to the cheap imports) was ridiculously overpriced. As enthusiastic tea drinkers, it was about time we saw an actual tea plantation and this is the only chance to do so without leaving the continent!
- The French newspaper 'Le Monde' has labeled Savannah as "the most beautiful city in America" - but who believes the French? Well, in this case, we do! Savannah has no real attractions. Nothing really famous. Not even a state capitol or a president's home. But it is truly beautiful and charming. I forgot why they have so many squares (with spectacular trees on them), but with so many little parks and a nice riverfront, it sure is a great place to stroll. Too bad we missed the main attraction: A few days ago, our friends Dan & Christine were here with their sailboat on their way to Hawaii, it would have been fun to meet them and hear about their adventures.
- "Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge" is the funny name of the largest swamp wilderness area in the country. Now when you hear swamp, wouldn't you think of hot and humid weather? It was so cold that our captain on the boat trip welcomed us to the 'Arctic Wildlife Refuge'. And it was so cold that even the alligators stayed at home. The ironic thing is that we could only take a boat trip through Okefenokee because a little over 100 years ago, people tried to destroy it. The canal on which the boat took us through the swamp was built by a logging company who wanted to drain the swamp in order to cut down all the trees. They did not succeed in draining the swamp, but they made it accessible for us. Thank you for failing!
- Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy during the Civil War, was captured in Irwinville, Georgia. This ended the southern rebellion once and for all. The site now is a memorial and museum. The more Civil War sites we visit, the more complex it gets. It was a lot simpler when all I knew was that the North wanted to end slavery, which made them the good guys, and they won. I am still glad it turned out this way, but this Jefferson Davis sure was "A Rebel WITH a Cause".
- What we saw in Andersonville was the most sobering experience since I visited the concentration camps in Dachau & Auschwitz. Andersonville was the site of one of the largest and most notorious Prisoner of War camps during the Civil War. Out of 45,000 soldiers held captive here, about 13,000 died - in only 14 months! The reasons for the Nazis to have concentration camps was even more perverse, but the conditions here at Andersonville seem to have been just as bad. Overcrowded, no shelter to speak of, a small muddy creek as a a water source for thousands and so little food that pictures of some of the survivors resembled skeletons more than humans. When after the war stories about the conditions in this camp reached the North, the officer in charge of the camp (who weirdly enough was born in peaceful, neutral Switzerland) was quickly prosecuted and hanged. Unfortunately, the conditions and survival rates in the Union POW camps were not much better. Andersonville today is site of the 'National Prisoner of War Museum', another very sobering experience. Tragically, inhumane treatment of captured soldiers is not only a thing of the past. It made me think about my grandfather, who was a Prisoner of War in Russia, but I have missed my opportunity to really talk with him about his experiences.
- A lot more uplifting experience was to visit Plains, the hometown of Jimmy Carter. About half of this small village of about 750 people seems to be dedicated to Jimmy Carter in one way or another. His high school is now the Jimmy Carter Visitor Center and the train depot in the middle of town is still his campaign headquarters. The house where he grew up is a museum with recorded narration by Jimmy himself. This is also where we saw peanut plants for the very first time. But now we know he was a lot more than a peanut farmer before he became president. He came from a modest farming family in rural Georgia. But he got into the Naval Academy in Annapolis, which we visited last month. He had a successful career in the Navy, but decided to return to the family farm in Georgia after his dad passed away. I am sure his mom was glad to have him back, but I don't think she realized his political potential, even after he became Governor. It is said that when he told her he's running for president, she asked "President of what?".
- Yesterday we visited the headquarters of Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Georgia. What a great organization. They have a "Global Village" there: First you walk through a row of dilapidated shacks, giving you an idea how billions of people live in the slums of the third world. Then you walk through sample houses of the various countries in which Habitat for Humanity operates. It really makes you want to volunteer for them. But I hear their volunteer programs are so enriching and so much fun that it's even hard to get in. I still think I want to try it some day.
- Our possible last presidential historical site of the tour was FDR's "Little White House". Roosevelt built a home in Warm Springs, Georgia because he spent much time in the springs ever since he suffered from Polio. After seeing his home and Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY, it was interesting to see this part of his life, too. This is also where he died of a massive stroke while being painted. The "Unfinished Portrait" still hangs in the museum.
- Today we were at the Providence Canyon. For those of you who always look at the photos first, it's the last picture you saw below. It is also called the "Little Grand Canyon of Georgia". Now I would like you to guess how old this canyon is. Go ahead, give a guess! Nobody is checking, nobody will laugh at you if you are off by a few million years. Do you have your number? How many million years might it take for erosion to create these canyons? I give you a hint: The Grand Canyon is about 6 million years old, but this one is considerably smaller. Now this I found truly amazing: The Providence Canyon is caused my humans and is not even two hundred years old. In the early nineteenth century, this was still regular, undisturbed farmland. But the farmers did not pay attention, plowed their fields and started the unstoppable process of erosion. Now isn't that ironic, by abusing the land and destroying the topsoil, these farmers created one of Georgia's finest 'natural' wonders;-)
By the way, we have slightly changed our plans and we are now heading west to Houston, Texas from where we will fly back to Hawaii on Dec 14th.
And that 's the news from Lake Georgia, where Andersonville shocked us more than we expected, where the canyons are a lot younger than we expected and where all the temperatures are well below average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Dec 5, 2008
Aloha friends,
you probably saw this coming: We had another very entertaining and very educational week o the road. Since we changed our plans last week to fly back from Houston, we've been heading west along the Gulf Coast from the most eastern parts of Florida to Louisiana:
- It was nice to see the ocean again. Florida's panhandle has some great white sand beaches. Now that I do not promote Hawaii for a living anymore, I can say this: The beaches themselves were actually nicer than most in Hawaii. We took a long walk along a beach and even got to use our bikes again for a little bit. Miles and miles of pure white sand and blue water. (But other than that, I prefer Hawaii in pretty much every aspect.)
- Thanksgiving was pretty much a non-event for us this year, besides that we were then (and always are) truly thankful for all the blessings we enjoy. Since we could not be with our friends or family and did not care for a crowded restaurant, Thanksgiving dinner was just another 'home cooked' meal in our temporary home. (No turkey was harmed in the making of this meal.)
- Mobile, Alabama claims to be the birthplace of Mardi Gras. We went to the very impressive Mobile Carnival Museum, which documents the history of Mardi Gras in Mobile all the way back to 1703. They did not call it Mardi Gras back then, a loophole which New Orleans takes advantage of to claim 'ownership' of the festivities. If we ever come back here during Mardi Gras, we'll have to make a decision: The huge, crazy & wild party in New Orleans or the more family friendly, more historic version in Alabama, they both sound like fun.
- Judging by the beautiful home and spectacular gardens of Mr. Bellingrath, producing bottles for Coca Cola must have been a very profitable business for him. Even in the South, December might not be the best time of the year to visit a garden. But there still were surprisingly many flowers in bloom and we happen to get there on the first day of their Christmas Lights Spectacular, illuminating the gardens with over 3 million lights!
- It's been 3 years since Hurricane Katrina, but especially along the Gulf Coast around Biloxi, the devastation is still very obvious. Most of the debris has been cleared away, at least along the waterfront. But only a few hotels and restaurants have been rebuilt. Looking at 'before & after' photos is heartbreaking, even for us who have not even seen this area before. For those who call it home, it must be so much worse. In fact, judging from our conversations with the locals, Katrina still is the number one thing on their minds.
- Biloxi is also where Jefferson Davis's "Beauvoir" is located. This is the last home of the only president of the Confederacy, where he lived after he was released from prison. This once beautiful plantation estate has been severely damaged by Katrina, but the historic main house withstood the storm surprisingly well and they are just about done with the restoration.
- Besides seeing the hurricane damage, we also had some lousy weather that day. Thankfully, we found the "Little Slidell Theater" to lift our spirits. They performed 'A Christmas Carol' , which we thoroughly enjoyed. They even invited us to spend the night with them...well, to be honest they just let us park our RV in their parking lot;-)
- We spent two days in New Orleans. 80% of the city was under water after Katrina, but this is not really noticeable any more in most of the touristy areas, such as the French Quarter, Downtown & the Garden District. New Orleans really is an amazing mix: beautiful & ugly, historic & modern, alive & run down. What I enjoyed the most: Music & food everywhere: performers on the street, in cafes, bars & clubs. The highlight for us was not Bourbon Street, but the Christmas concert in the St Louis Cathedral with Irvin Mayfield. We also had plenty of cajun & creole food. I enjoyed all of the Po Boys, my stomach enjoyed all but one, if you know what I mean...
- The very impressive 'National World War II Museum' is in New Orleans. Now you would think that from growing up in Germany we'd know a bit about the European side of the war and from living in Hawaii we'd know something about the Pacific side...but our visit at this museum was very educational on both fronts. Just for example, I had no idea that the Japanese emperor was allowed to remain on the throne after the war, in fact until 1989 (but of course he was not really 'in charge' anymore). The museum also changed my mind about America's use of the atomic bomb. So far I thought of it as understandable, but wrong. Now that I have learnt a bit more about the sacrifices made by those who liberated Europe and having seen the (formerly secret) plans on an actual invasion of Japan, I have changed my mind. As horrible as Hiroshima & Nagasaki were, I actually think it might have been the better one of two very bad options.
- Yesterday and today we explored Baton Rouge. After much back and forth, Louisiana decided that New Orleans offers to many distractions for the state politicians, so the capitol was moved to Baton Rouge. Wherever we went - at the State Museum, at the Old & the New State Capitol - we always ran into Huey Long. This very flamboyant Governor and Senator from Louisiana was quite the character. I think you can equally justified call him a hero for the common man and a corrupt communist. If you have not heard of him (as we had not until yesterday), this might be because he was assassinated in 1935, as soon as he hinted at a possible run for president. Well, from all I have learnt so far, America was better off with FDR.
- The Louisiana State Museum has a great exhibition about the Louisiana Purchase. I find it amazing that Thomas Jefferson was able to simply buy about one third of present day America from Napoleon. No war, just 15 Million Dollar. I wish all international conflicts about border disputes could be resolved this way. While studying this exhibition, I also realized that I should have no problem adjusting back to a working life again. Before, I though that after half a year of vacation, my brain might not adjust to work again. But to be honest, I think our brains have been intellectually more challenged during our road trip than at our jobs. And the nice thing: learning this way was a lot of fun.
And that's the news from Lake Louisiana, where all the buildings are haunted by the ghost of Huey Long, where all of the coast was devastated by Katrina and where all the food tastes better than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Dec 13, 2008
Aloha all,
we are in Houston and we have a problem: After living in our fantasy world of constant traveling for over 6 months, we are re-entering the orbit of normal life with alarming speed!!!
This is the moment when we are particularly thankful to live in Hawaii. We'd love to keep rolling on our road trip, but can't really afford it - but at least we have a beautiful place to go home to. And we most definitely are looking forward to seeing our friends and our Hawaiian ohana again. Here's what we've been doing during the past week, besides complaining how quickly the time has passed:
- Back in Louisiana, we visited 'Konriko' - America's oldest operating rice mill. At one of the museums in Baton Rouge, they had tried to explain what 'Cajun' really means. It's a lot more than just a cuisine. It's not really a race, but rather a lifestyle. Way better than any explanation at the museum was the experience at the Konriko rice mill. The lady who did our tour was "as cajun as they come". To be honest, we did not really see that much of the mill, but her attitude and humor more than made up for that. Instead of learning about the processes of the rice mill, we got a glimpse into the Cajun lifestyle. I feel it is not all that different from Hawaii. Maybe living in the middle of the Louisiana swamps has a similar effect on a culture than living in the middle of the Pacific. This rice mill was registered as a 'historical landmark' over 20 years ago. I am not sure whether they did it to preserve the historic mill or to avoid having to abide by the modern health standards. Either way, it's an interesting place and their rice is delicious.
- As you might have noticed before, we like to 'spice up' the routine of historical sites & sightseeing of natural wonders with a few factory tours. And speaking of 'spicing things up', our last such tour was at Tabasco on Avery Island in Louisiana. This is the only Tabasco factory in the world, so any Tabasco bottle you will ever see anywhere was filled up right here. Besides the famous tabasco sauce, they have a few other flavors and they mix it in pretty much anything you can imagine. I have tried Tabasco flavored everything there, including tabasco soda and tabasco ice cream.
- Not only the Texas Visitor Bureau claims that "Texas is a whole other country". Obviously, there was no way we could see all of Texas in the few days we had left, so we concentrated on just the area around Houston. At least we learnt a little bit about a few things that you would expect in Texas: Oil, nature & George Bush:
- In Beaumont we visited the Texas Energy Museum, which obviously is mostly about oil. Of course we still think that most of the oil industry is greedy and corrupt, but it's pretty impressive to learn about oil exploration and refinement. It's actually scary how much everything we do and everything we use relies on oil.
- Life is tough in Texas. Especially for bugs, as you can see on the second photo below. These are the carnivorous 'Pitcher' plants at the Big Thicket National Wildlife Refuge. They seem to work well, we were not bothered by any mosquitos at all.
- Our next stop was the San Jacinto Museum & Memorial east of Houston. This is also the battlefield where Texas won her independence from Mexico. The memorial is 570 feet tall and the view from the top is pretty impressive, even though (or because) it is mostly surrounded by oil refineries. On a clear day, you can see 25% of American oil being refined from here.
- At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, we were lucky and coincidentally got to see the traveling exhibition "Body Worlds 2" ('Koerperwelten 2'). To my pleasant surprise, Sandra wanted to see it, too. (Last time a friend had told us about this exhibition of real body sculptures, Sandra promptly fainted.) But seeing it in real seemed a lot easier on her. The exhibition consists of many plastinated human specimen. Even though all bodies were donated knowingly and at free will, using real human bodies obviously is very controversial. We found it to be both artistic and educational. Some displays show the human body (sans skin and blood) in various athletic poses to explain what happens inside of us when we kick a soccer ball or do a yoga pose. Others explain body functions by highlighting different body parts. Amongst other things, they displayed the lung of a smoker. Not a model or picture, the real lung. I don't see how anybody can look a this and continue to smoke. Unless of course you ever worked in a coal mine. They also displayed the lung of a coal miner and I don't think smoking could have done any further damage to this lung. It was fascinating to see how our body works, but I have to admit that after seeing the exhibition, I am in absolute awe how we even survive. All the things our body has to do just to take a breath... it truly is a miracle!
- We spent one full day at the Houston Space Center. This is kind of a NASA-Disney World, but it also includes a tram ride into the actual Johnson Space Center, for example to the Mission Control room that was used during the moon landings. We also got to see the huge; I mean HUUUGE Saturn rocket of the cancelled Apollo 18 mission.
- The "Houston Health Museum" gave us some further explanation about the wonders of the human body. They also had a great exhibition about Albert Einstein. I got really close to finally understanding his special and general theory of relativity. Now I know that space, time and speed are all relative, except the speed of light, which is always the same regardless of the speed of the observer. The rest is still a bit blurry. I still think that Einstein might have been the smartest human of the last century. And it seems I am not alone in my admiration for him without really understanding his work. He is quoted saying "Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?" We also learnt that time travel is not only possible, but is already being practiced: Since time slows down the faster we travel, they calculated that some of the astronauts, who spent a long time orbiting earth, are actually almost a quarter of a second younger than they'd be if they had stayed on earth.
- We had done some research on the weather to make sure that Houston was a 'safe' place to store our RV. However, on our last day on the road, we got into a rare Texas snow storm. I guess this was Mother Nature's way of helping us making it more appealing to go home to tropical Hawaii. Throughout our trip, we ruled out many beautiful places as a place to move to based on the winter weather. Are we spoiled by Hawaii or what?
- Since we got so much into the presidential history on our trip, it was only fitting that another Presidential Library would be our last highlight. Yesterday, we visited the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station. Just to make sure you don't think I am totally suckered into blindly admiring all American Presidents: this is about George H.W. Bush ('Daddy Bush', '#41', the 'smart one', whatever yo want to call him). I might disagree with a few of his decisions, but I actually think that he is a very decent person and was a fine president. I don't blame him for his son (it's a Seibert family motto: "keine Sippenhaft!") We learnt a lot about George H.W. Bush's life before, during and after his presidency - and I was very impressed. Only the one question I would really like to ask him will remain unanswered: What does he really think of his son's actions as a president?
The last three days of our tour are needed to pack our stuff, clean & store the RV and fly back to Hawaii. We are very excited to see our Oahu friends on a short stopover in Honolulu before returning to Maui late on Sunday evening. Otherwise, we don't expect any more adventures until we get home, so this will be the last update from our trip, but we'll let you know when we arrived safely in Maui. It has been a real pleasure sharing our adventures with you. Mahalo;-)
And that's the news from Lake Texas, where all the museums were out of this world or went under the skin, where all the cleaning and packing takes longer than we thought and where all our memories of our trip are way better than average!
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
Dec 19, 2008
Aloha all,
Sandra and I have returned safely to Maui. It truly was a dream come true for us. As much as we have enjoyed our road trip, of course it's also good to be home. We were very honored to have several friends on Oahu come out to the Dixie Grill to welcome us home with a quick round of beers and games. Of course it is also great to be back with our hanai ohana; our canine friends were at least as excited as we were. Sandra already had her first day at work (they really missed her) and I got to play with my Ultimate Frisbee friends already (I really missed being in shape). So in short, we are back to reality, but a pretty darn good reality. If you missed any of our 19 updates about our fantasy reality during our road trip and have enough time to read them, just let me know, I'd be more than happy to send them to you.
Instead of a final update or closing thoughts about our road trip, I will just forward you an article from the Maui News. It looks like they misunderstood some of our enthusiastic reports since we came back:
++++ NEWS FLASH ++++ NEWS FLASH ++++ NEWS FLASH ++++ NEWS FLASH ++++UNEMPLOYED IMMIGRANT CLAIMS TO BE THE RICHEST PERSON ALIVELahaina, Maui - Financial experts are still puzzled by the outrageous announcement of unemployed immigrant Chris W. who recently went public with his claim to be the richest person in the world. So far, investigations into his unknown wealth do not seem to give his claim any credibility. In fact, according to information that was leaked from his banks, he and his wife just spent most of their relatively modest savings on a 6 months road trip through the United States. There is one aspect of his life that some people point to in order to explain his delusion: Chris W. has an amazing and loving wife, a loving family and great friends. If you truly believe that "All you need is Love", Chris W. might have everything one could ask for. But his claims reach further than that and even mentioned material things, so the story about his secret fortune did not go away after the leaking of his banking information. So what is behind this self-proclaimed wealth? The Maui News was granted an exclusive interview with Chris W.:Maui News: Mr. W., let me be frank with you: Most people do not take your claim to be the richest person very seriously. You have lived a financially modest life - how could you have risen to such sudden wealth, especially during this global economic crisis and after having been laid off from your job?Chris W.: It is not so much that I recently became rich, it's rather that I gained a better understanding of how wealthy I really am. It dawned on me when I heard this simple, but true statement:"You can't have it all - where would you put it?"This made me realize that my current situation is actually not that different from actually owning the whole world - maybe better.Maui News: You think you are better off than if you owned EVERYTHING? I had heard you were a little weird, but this is more crazy than I expected. I am sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems to me you have lost your touch with reality. Rumors have it that you just spent most of your savings, leaving you with enough to survive, but nowhere near the wealth that you claim....Chris W.: I'll try to explain: Let's just imagine I owned everything. Imagine just the real estate holdings alone if I actually owned the world. How would it be any better than my current situation? The only difference I can see is that I'd feel a lot more responsibility. What would I do if I owned all the land in the world? I would have to leave it right where it is anyway. So all I could really do is travel around and explore my land holdings. Well, that's exactly what we just did anyway. Sandra and I just spent one month traveling through Europe and then we traveled for six months all over this beautiful country. I don't see how owning the land could have made our trip any better.Maui News: You might be able to travel all over the world, but if you were really rich, you could buy homes and live wherever you wanted.Chris W.: We already do. Of all the special places we have seen, we like Maui the best. OK, it is a bit isolated and it's a long way away from our families, but as I said before: Even if we owned it, Hawaii is where it is, so what's the difference? We feel that living here and visiting as much as possible of the rest of the world is as good as it gets.Maui News: Hmm, maybe owning all the land would not really be such great thing. I see your point that you'd have to leave it where it is anyway. But how about moveable things. If you were as wealthy as you claim, you could buy anything you want and have it right at your home.Chris W.: And you call ME crazy? There is so much stuff in the world, there is no way we could fit it all into a home. This is totally unrealistic, especially since we live on an island. Even if we brought only the pretty things here, Maui would become so cluttered that we could not live here anymore. So what would I do if I actually owned all the things in the world? Let's think about this. For example, if I owned all the artwork in the world, I'd store them in buildings to preserve them. The best ones I would probably display so that other people can enjoy them, too. I guess I'd call them museums so that people knew where to go to see these treasures. So what's the difference to the current situation? I still have access to more artwork than I will ever be able to see. I have to pay a tiny fee to see them, but that's nothing compared to the headaches of being responsible for all museums in the world.Maui News: OK, I get it, you don't 'want it all' - but how about a few selected, special things? You and your wife said you enjoyed all the National Parks and seemed to really get into the history of the American presidents. Now wouldn't it be nice to actually own Yellowstone and maybe Thomas Jefferson's plantation estate Monticello or a historical artifact from JFK?Chris W.: Not really. What would I do with Yellowstone? I would want to preserve it, so I would probably set up some system that protects it from human destruction. But it's so pretty that I'd also want people to visit it. And it is so interesting that I would probably want to have staff there who could explain things to me and other interested visitors. Well...you get my point: The National Park Service does all of these things for us. With our annual pass for the National Park (thank you Chase'n Rainbows Ohana), we feel like the most beautiful and interesting areas around the country are actually ours. Of course along with millions of other 'owners', but sharing it makes it only more valuable. The same is true for the presidential things. Numerous dedicated people around the country, volunteers and the staff at the Presidential Libraries do an amazing job preserving and displaying the places and things related to most presidents. I would not have it any other way if I owned all of it myself.Maui News: But wouldn't you like to have at least a few pieces of art at home where you can enjoy them all the time?Chris W.: Good that you remind me. I have a favorite artist and I do want to hang some of his painting in our apartment when we move there in a few months. But lucky me, this artist is my grandfather and I already have some of his paintings. Believe me, I will enjoy those more than having the Mona Lisa staring at me in our home.Maui News: Well, good for you. So you don't want to actually own the world, but do you want anything or do you just live in a blissful fantasy?Chris W.: I am not that modest, I want plenty of things: I want world peace, I want to be able to touch the 10 foot ceiling again, I want to find a fun job and I want everybody to have a Merry Christmas and healthy and wealthy 2009!
And that's the news from Lake Maui, where all the days are warm, where all the dogs are happy and where life is better than average.
Aloha & Mele Kalikimaka,
Chris & Sandra
March 31, 2009
Aloha all,
there is no denying it anymore: Sandra & I have been domesticated, at least for now.
We can tell you that only our money was running low, not our enthusiasm for more adventures on the road or our curiosity to learn more about this most interesting country. Our RV is still stored in Houston, there are still some far fetched dreams about a little "Hana Hou" trip later in the summer after our hanai parents take our motor home for a spin. But more than likely we will try to sell it and just keep the fond memories of our "Hopefully Not Once in a Lifetime Trip".
The big project since we came back has been to remodel our apartment, but let's start this update where the last one left off:
- For Christmas we were reunited with our hanai family, including Kelly & co from Colorado and our fuzzy friends Cane, Wahine & Kiska. It was so much fun and there were so many games that I could even handle being around all these gifts (even though I am still allergic to Christmas presents). Judging by the pile of presents there, I can assure you that the current economic downturn is not the Burkhalter's fault.
- In February, Sandra's sister & mom came visiting. Amongst other things, we spent a weekend on the Big Island and saw the lava flowing into the ocean at the volcano. It's good to see that there is traveling life after the road trip!
- On January 25th at 12:53pm at an elevation of 1,253 feet above sea level our friend Steve founded his own company "Kingetics". The shed in his backyard might not look like a revolutionary shoe company, but we have seen many places of humble beginnings on our road trip that turned into huge successes and we wish him the best of luck!
- I also got to spend five days on Oahu for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Most of you know how much I always enjoy frisbee tournaments, with plenty of Ultimate, camping & partying with friends. Maui had a particularly fun team this year. We lost enough games to make it to the party pool, which we won undefeated. This trip had some extra bonuses: It was great to catch up with friends & (ex) co-workers on Oahu and Co especially organized an Oahu Game night for me. I miss my Oahu Ohana...good thing that we will get to see many of them soon when we will hike through Haleakala Crater for three days.
But as mentioned before, the main project since our return has been to remodel our condo. After owning it for over 8 years, we finally got to move in! As scary as the thought of actually growing up & settling down is, I have to say that we throughly enjoy having our own place now and are getting awfully comfortable in it. It's about twice as big as any of the other places we lived in before. Actually, about six times as large as the place we lived in during our road trip;-) It's also the first time we have our own washing machine & a real dish washer!
One reason we enjoy our new home so much is probably that we lived on a construction site for several weeks before and that we did all of the work ourselves. Actually, I was only the unskilled laborer. There is no way we could have done this remodel without our hanai dad. Bunt was not only willing to spend countless hours helping us, even if he wanted to go play golf or act in a theater play, he sent his brother in law Jerry to help us. I can't tell you how grateful we are to them. Another handy and money saving advantage: Bunt has not only the skills but also the tools to do the job. I have held mostly office jobs where the only experience I got with tools was with staplers & shredders. So this was just as educational for me as the road trip. It's always fun to do something totally new. And as Bunt can tell you, remodeling a kitchen was totally new to me.
Bunt was equally impressed by how much I learnt during the process as by how much I still do not know. Now Bunt is a really good teacher, but there was one problem: I had to learn when to listen to him and when to follow my squiggly instincts. If it is up to Bunt, every board, even one out of reach and out of sight, has to be sanded, primed, sanded again, sealed, sanded again, painted, sanded again and then painted again until it is perfect. I, on the other hand would rather try to hang the cabinets using super glue & duct tape if there is a chance that this might avoid another rip to the hardware store. Obviously, a compromise had to be found and I think we did amazingly well. I rarely worked as hard as I did now being unemployed. You can judge yourself by the "before & after" pictures below. It's such a nice kitchen, we might actually have to start cooking in it. We just love it, please come and visit us to see for yourself!
The next projects are doing our taxes, hiking from the summit of Haleakala through the crater to Kaupo and finding a job, probably in that order.
And that's the news from Lake Kahana, where it's always sunny on the lanai, where it's always windy when we open the front door and where all the kitchens are much prettier than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
PS: These updates were originally sent by e-mail from our 2008 road trip including photos. I posted them here mostly to have a back up. It might be a while before I get around adding the pictures. However, if you would like to see the pictures, you could make us really happy if you told us. We love sharing our pictures, we just don't dare asking people. But if you actually read all the way to down here, maybe you would like to see our road trip pictures...
