Trains and Meadows

Today we had a two hour drive from one place to another, and nothing else planned ahead, so we were winging it. We found the Georgetown Railroad--a narrow gauge railroad and a silver mine. It was on our way so we stopped there and immediately saw the steam engine and were hooked! Unfortunately tickets on the steam train were sold out, as was the silver mine tour, but we managed a ride on the diesel train, which afforded nice photo ops of the steam engine, and some nice views.

Chipmunk! Young Adventurer had my other camera, and when i download the photos off of that, there will be about 50 of this fellow. We're discovering that Young Adventurer is happier with a camera in hand on this trip. Wonder where he gets that?

We also wandered around Georgetown, which apparently has the largest collection of Victorian buildings in the country.
Found an antique shop with an entire bookstore of antique books!
Then we went on down a scenic highway to Buena Vista, Co. We drove for a while along the Arkansas river, which we will raft tomorrow. The area between Interstate 70 and Buena Vista is beautiful! Much of it is a high altitude valley--10000 feet or so. It looked a lot like this:

Green grass, streams and rivers, wildflowers, Venom saw a deer. Also the kind of area to have a red one-room schoolhouse. :-)

We're driving back up the valley in a couple of days on our way out, and are planning to stop for more photos.

I don't get it...

Is having an affirmative rock supposed to make me feel better?

The sparkly rock that says "hope" was kinda pretty, in a "take only photographs, leave your cash in your pocket" sort of way.

The other photos took too long to load. Maybe tomorrow.

We made it this far...

First, the little bit of trouble that delayed our vacation by three days and caused all sorts of chaos--Indie. She's okay now, or at least heading in that direction. The photo is one taken Sunday night before bringing her home from the emergency vet after a 48 hour stay. My sprained hand, her IV'd and bandaged paw. She was not feeling well, in spite of being better than she had been the day before.

We headed out this morning, and began to relax a little as we hit Monument Valley. We need to come back here for an actual visit, but just driving by on the highway was pretty impressive. Paint, mom! Paint!
I think this was Mexican Hat Rock in Southern Utah.
I don't know if this formation had a name, but Young Adventurer says it's Atherton, from House of Power.
This is Wilson's Arch. Utah. At least I think it's Wilson's. It started with a W.
This is the crack in my universe. Waiting for The Doctor to come fix it.

Also it is why we like having a sunroof.
The view from our hotel, once we finally found it. We were excited. We live near trains and we are accustomed to sleeping through the noise. And we thought Gavin would like a picture.
Sunset over Glenwood Canyon on our way out to dinner.
No, I didn't order Sushi, but we were impressed with the tomato butterflies and the turnip(?) flower
For Booyor. Inside the chinese restaurant. Turn the corner and there's a very big Buddha.
It took three cameras (and numerous acts of God) to bring you these photos. Tomorrow maybe I'll take pictures of people too. :-)

P.S. Now that I've seen an actual river, with rapids, I'm not so sure about whitewater rafting...

Camp, Take Two

Venom and Adventurer Two are up at camp this week. Venom is a Junior Counselor, and Adv.2 is in her last year as a camper.

Adv.2 has chosen to rough it a little more than the average camper, by staying in the "Adirondaks" which are much more rustic--more shacks than cabins--the door is a tarp, and more distant from the main camp area.
Here she is, setting up her bunk. She was having trouble keeping bugs off the sheet as she put it on the bed. The insect repellent will probably come in handy!
Venom is stationed at Hill Cabin, also a considerable distance from the dining hall and restrooms:
Here's an excerpt from her first letter home, sent back with us from camp after her first night (she went up a day earlier):

"I have been having a fun week so far. It's sunday now so it is only my second day here but i can already tell that it is going to be a great week. Yesterday I had lots of time for walking around and relaxing after we set up the cabin. But Mrs. B. sure had a lot of stuff to carry up to hill cabin...& it's a long way from the car...However I had a great afternoon. I accidently sat in the forest lost in thought for an entire hour! Can you believe it!

"...I had time to take a nap and fool around at the creek for a while before dinner. And guess what I found in the creek? A water wheel! It was the coolest thing! You should see it!

"However, I slept horribly last night! There is a GIANT mouse living in a hole above the fire place. It is seriously bigger than a guinea pig's butt, it's soooo fat. And it is round! The stupid pig mouse spent the ENTIRE night running around the room and trying to get into my suitcase! It kept pitter pattering across the matress of the bed below me and driving me nuts..."

The last photo is the creek. Young Adventurer was here last week, literally here. The dam in the foreground was partially his work. The water wheel found by Venom was the product of his dam-building class, although he told me this morning that the stated goal of his dam-building team was not to utilize the water wheel to produce power as was expected, but to make a nice swimming hole. Goal accomplished. Shallow, but nice. :-)

Photography Class Can't Come Soon Enough!

We had a great thunderstorm last night--lots of lightning! I tried taking pictures, but was mostly unsuccessful. In the car, I had my cell phone camera, which captured a great picture, then told me the battery was too dead to use the camera and discarded the picture. Ack!

When we got home I grabbed "camera extraordinaire" and drove to where I had a clear view of the oncoming storm, only to discover that I have no idea how to set this camera to photograph lightning. I got lucky once and I'm happy about that, but the rest of the time the camera mostly refused to open the shutter at all. I think it couldn't understand why I wanted to take a photo in the dark, and I was not able to explain in the language of F-stops and shutter speeds that the camera could understand. I didn't think till now that maybe I could have checked the settings for this one successful photo, and set the camera that way again. I was too busy wondering why it wouldn't just do the same thing twice in a row. The learning curve for this camera is gigantic and I can't make my way up fast enough! Impatient! Impatient!! IMPATIENT!!!

Museum Musings

We visited the art museum yesterday, and found it interesting, especially the giant painting that looked like a microscopic version of a plant stem mixed with a rainforest (it was somewhat abstract--that's my interpretation), and the neon, chaotic re-do of Rembrandt's "Nightwatch."

We also found an entire room of creepy, disturbing, gigantic paintings--the two mona lisa reinterpretations were icky. Yes, icky.

There was an exhibit of works by Paul Cezanne, demonstrating his influence on modern painting--his works, mixed with those of artists who came after him and were "under the influence" of his style. I was surprised at how much he influenced photography. Or at least at how much people think he influenced photography. Interesting.

Here's a painting Cezanne did in 1877, called "Victor Choquet, seated"

It caught my eye because it reminded me of this painting we covered with the kids in the art masterpiece program at the Adventurers' school this past spring:

This one was painted by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (but it's not his mother) in 1858. Whistler was American, but he spent most of his time in Europe. I'm curious whether Cezanne had ever seen it. The composition is so similar--very closely cropped, edges of picture frames, bold horizontal lines, very still. The use of color is very different though...

There was an entire room full of still life paintings of fruit, such as this one: Cezzane's "Five Apples"

Venom was not suitably impressed. She thought it somewhat silly that so many artists were obsessed with painting something so boring. A discussion via email ensued...

Me:

Maybe this is why they paint fruit...

"With an apple I will astonish Paris."

"The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution."

~Cezanne

Venom:

wow... um he is crazzy. a carrot cannot do that.... its a carrot. However, if the person looking at the carrot had some mental disability and the color orange caused him to get violent, then it might. But really, pigs will fly before a perfectly sane person goes "look! there's a carrot!!! I must over throw the President!!!!!!!!!"

Note to self: Take the kids to museums more often--It's fun!

I got a letter!

Last year I didn't get a letter from camp.

This letter [edited to protect the identities of the poor souls responsible for my son] is classic Young Adventurer. I know he put a lot of effort into writing it, and it put a happy smile on my face. :-)

It appears, from internet weather, that since the drop-off-in-a-downpour, it has been dry all week, but it rained a bunch today. The rest, we can only guess. What proportion of clean/dirty clothes will be in the luggage upon it's return? Are all his shoes wet, like they were last year? Are all his socks wet by now too? Have the boys been forced to shower? How is Scraps the dog enjoying camp? ...

Caution...

Is it safe to open up?

Young Adventurer's Adventures

Young Adventurer is at summer camp this week. I drove him up yesterday and dropped him off in the middle of a gigantic thunderstorm, complete with lightning and thunder and downpours of rain and hail. He and his buddies, including the one pictured below, were delighted. How dry they'll stay, I don't know. Probably not very, if the first hour was any indicator.

Young Adventurer has a top bunk, next to his other buddy, in a cabin near the creek. He plans to engage in dam-building and fishing activities, among other things.

I plan to dump the entire contents of his suitcase into the washing machine when he gets back.

Trip to the Reptile Store

Young Adventurer at Nine

Young Adventurer celebrated his 9th birthday recently. He skipped the big party this year in favor of the ultimate sleepover fun with one buddy. The sleepover occurred a week in advance of the actual birthday. It involved some "scientific fun" with dry ice, and cornstarch. Now I'm wondering if it may have been even more exciting to combine the two substances in water...

The actual day of his birthday was a very busy one. Not much time for a big celebrations, but there was time to open gifts:

So we bought him one more video game--it was worth it for the smile. There was also time to check and see if the kitchen floor is level...

Of course it's not. Would you seriously expect this kitchen floor to be level?

Usually we'll take the birthday kid out for lunch or dinner, but Young Adventurer decided he'd rather stay home and have that special birthday peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Eating at home left more time to try out the new video game before leaving for the choir camp rehearsal and performance.

Happy Birthday Young Adventurer!