Museums

The last few days have been filled up with driving and the few respites we’ve had have been at a series of interesting museums. I have always loved history and learning about the past, and the past couple of days have given me a new appreciation of the settling of the American West, the gold rush and the atrocious US policies that drove the Native Americans from their lands.

It’s amazing the number of towns / counties that have small museums with high quality and interesting collections. We’ve stopped by several on this trip, and below are some of the highlights from the past few days.

First, as we were leaving Chamberlain, SD (half-way across the state, along the Missouri river that divides the farming eastern half from the more rugged / badlands / black hills western half) we saw the South Dakota Hall of Fame as we were about to get back on I90. We stopped in for a few minutes and learned about a lot of great South Dakotans (Tom Brokaw, Sparky Anderson, Tom Daschle, and numerous others including Ted Hustead, the found of Wall Drug). After the SD Hall of Fame we headed west to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and had a chance to teach the kids about the cold war and learn about the START treaty.

Adams Museum – Deadwood, SD
Later, we decided to go to Deadwood, SD, because I knew it had an interesting history (and was the subject of one of my favorite Nanci Griffith songs) but didn’t remember what. For those whose memory is as bad as mine, Deadwood gained notoriety as part of the lawless Dakota territories (it was an illegal white settlement in Indian territory) where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. But, Deadwood also houses the Adams museum which has several great collections; everything from Dinosaur fossils and a cabinet of curiosities (see the double-headed calf, below) to a room honoring the “legends” of Deadwood such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Potato Creek Johnny, Poker Alice Tubbs, and Deadwood Dick. We also learned a lot about the early Jewish settlers of Deadwood who helped settle the city (Deadwood even had a few Jewish mayors in the 1870s and 1880s).

Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM) – Billings, MT
Billings Montana holds the Yellowstone Art Museum (YAM). The city itself is a bit of an oasis amidst a desert and the museum is also an oasis. Housing a small permanent collection of western art, the museum had two interesting temporary exhibitions when we visited the first was objects on loan from several local collectors and the second was called “Post Secret.” Post Secret is a traveling exhibition (more details at http://www.postsecret.com/) with a few hundred of the thousands of post cards that have been sent into the Post Secret project.

The project started several years back with a simple concept – have people artistically portray a secret on a postcard and then mail it anonymously. The results are happy, sad, scary, emotionally touching and cathartic as well.

I’ve included photos of the postcards below, and strongly recommend you see the exhibit if it comes to your town (or check out the Web site).

In conjunction with the Post Secrets exhibit they had a very humorous exhibit by a Japanese-born American artist named Gen Hayashida . Hayashida stretches the limits of the US Postal Service rules on what can be mailed (and how addresses are read) by creating what I can only describe as “mailing address art” – he creates very interesting post cards and then mails them (I’m assuming that some of his more innovative creations never make it there). One of my favorites was made using parts from a computer keyboard.

Another interesting one was made from a moveable piece puzzle.

The last one I’ll include here was a ransom-note like address.

The museum’s western art was also good, although for some strange reason they had a Raoul Dufy oil painting of boats in Deauville, France hanging next to all of the western art – it was definitely one of those “one of these things is not like the others” moments.

Museum of the Rockies – Bozeman, MT
A couple of hours west of Billings, in the town of Bozeman, is the University of Montana’s Museum of the Rockies, which hosts one of the best paleontology exhibits I’ve seen. Of course, having the largest T-Rex head ever found is always going to be a crowd pleaser, but the info graphics on all of the other dinosaurs were superb and we all learned a tremendous amount.

In addition to the paleontology, the museum has great exhibits on the settling of the west and of World War II. It also has an impressive looking planetarium that was closed for the day by the time we got there -- guess we'll have to stop by again next time we're in Bozeman.

Ciao for now,
Evan

PS – I’m writing this from the wonderful public library in Idaho Falls, ID. I could probably write a whole blog about how wonderful public libraries are and how we’ve come to appreciate the free WiFi, the reference books and the good working space they provide. But, if the blog never gets written, at least I’ve acknowledged them here.

Our Polar Bear Adventure

After months of elaborate planning, we finally went out on the tundra today to see polar bears. And we weren’t disappointed. We woke up at around 6:30am in the Polar Inn, our home away from the RV while we’re in Churchill, Manitoba. After putting on our long underwear and other clothing usually reserved for skiing, we had a quick continental breakfast and waited to be picked up by the tour company. At around 7:40 a school bus pulled up to the hotel, picked up our family and another couple staying at the hotel and we joined the 5 people already on the bus for the trip out to the base camp.

The base camp is just past the entrance to Wapusk National Park and is where the two licensed operators (Tundra Buggy Adventures and Great White Bear) transit tourists onto the tundra buggies / polar rovers. By 8:30 we were on the Tundra buggy and getting briefed by our guide / driver, a Churchill native named Brendan. And then we were off. The polar rover (since we had such a great time going with Great White Bear Adventures, I think we should call them that, even though tundra buggy is a much more descriptive and alluring name) is a custom-built vehicle designed for traveling off road, over snow, and through water. Ours had three independent axles (thus was a six-wheel drive vehicle) and the wheels are about 5’ in diameter (think big earth moving machinery) and very wide. The rover has its own bathroom, a propane heater and windows like a school bus with seats like a coach. The back has an outdoor viewing platform. Hopefully the attached photos give you a better idea than my descriptions. If you want to see all 43 of the uploaded photos, they’re viewable at http://www.flickr.com/photos/familyadventure/sets/72157622448757711/

Shortly after heading out, we spotted bear #1, a mid-sized male that Brendan speculated had not seen many Polar Rovers as he didn’t want to hang out near us. We watched him walk along the rocks and then try to get out of our way by heading to the shoreline. We followed in hot pursuit (well, as hot a pursuit as you can have when you’re in a vehicle that has a top speed of 10mph on the tundra). We got some more photos of the bear along the shore before he managed to evade us some more. We then headed out to another part of the park.

By now it was about 10am and the gentle bouncing of the rover over the rocky trails had lulled Simon into a nap. After about an hour of fruitless searching, Brendan suddenly stopped the rover. At first, none of us knew what he was looking at, but then he pointed to a large yellowish rock in the distance that, on closer inspection, was the backside of a sleeping bear. We couldn’t get any closer to the bear (we were at least 100 yards away) and he didn’t appear to be doing anything but napping, so we decided to move on.


We could see that there were three other rovers/buggies a few miles away all stopped near one of the Tundra Lodges (the two companies each tow out large, movable hotels for the 6-week polar bear season). Brendan decided to head over, and when we got there we could see a well-fed, adolescent bear napping next to a small pond. Josh named the bear Paul (I’m not sure why) and we stopped, the rover, ate lunch (a hot tomato soup that was just what we needed after standing on the cold observation deck, sandwiches, donuts, coffee & hot chocolate). I should note that while it was pretty warm inside the rover, outside it was about 28 Fahrenheit (just below freezing) outside with a very strong wind. Also, whenever we were near a bear we were opening a lot of windows which quickly lowered the temperature inside. Thus, the hot soup was most welcome. Over the course of the hour and a half we spent having lunch we watched ‘Paul’ curl up and nap, open his eyes and look up at us and the other rovers / buggies, go back to napping, get up and yawn, go back to napping, lift his head up again to look around, go back to napping, etc. I was amazed by how human-like the expressions were on his face, and we were near enough to really see the lazy bear go through his motions.




By now it was around 2pm and we started heading back (the tour was scheduled to end at 4). We went back near the area where we had seen Bear #2 (the sleeping lump off in the distance) and he had moved on. We then went out near the Hudson bay to where our tour company (Great White Bear) had set up their tundra lodge and saw another bear walking in the distance. By now a snowstorm had kicked up and so visibility was low (the snow was coming down hard, diagonally). The pictures I took have a very impressionistic look to them, and are some of my favorites so far.


After another 20 minutes or so of watching Bear #4 through a snowstorm, we started heading back to base. I was really amazed at the rover’s ability to go through a few feet of water, over rocky hills, etc. At some points it looked like we were out on a boat! Here are some other shots to give people an idea of what the view was like from inside the rover and rugged the vehicles are.



By 4pm we had pulled back up to base camp and were transferred back into the school bus for the ride back to Churchill. We had a wonderful dinner at the Lazy Bear Inn, by far the nicest restaurant we went to in Churchill (much nicer décor than the others, and excellent food). I’m writing this while waiting for our evening train. We head back south to Thompson this evening and then will re-join our RV and head to down to Winnipeg for a few days before heading off to points that we haven’t yet decided.


Cheers,

Evan

The Butterfly Effect and stuffed bears

I’ve long been fascinated by “butterfly effects” – the ability of seemingly small events to have such a big impact further on down the road. In science, it has been posited that a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo could alter the course of a tropical storm thousands of miles away, thus the effect’s name. This week, thousands of miles (and many years) away from the original seeds, we ended up reaping the harvest of two butterfly effect events.

My father’s largest client happened to be located in the General Motors building in midtown Manhattan, and he would visit frequently. For some reason, back in 1931, Frederick August Otto Schwarz decided that he would move his toy store to the southeast corner of W. 58th street (I doubt the GM building was there when he made the decision). One day, back in November 1997, after one of his meetings ended early, my dad decided to pop into FAO Schwarz (which had now moved to the GM building) to buy a present for his new grandson, Josh. I’m not sure why my father picked Schatzi, the stuffed white bear made by Gund, but it probably seemed like the absolutely perfect, positively special, just-right gift he was looking for. And it was. Although my 12-year old would probably not want his name to be associated with stuffed animals anymore, he still has Schatzi. Schatzi has been with him to four continents, sleep-overs, sleep-away camp, and is in his carry-on luggage as I write this.

Wendy and I can’t recall exactly when Josh became passionate about polar bears in general (not just Schatzi in particular), but it has been a long time. We have visited the polar bears at the San Diego zoo, we’ve read with interest all the trials and tribulations of baby Knut in the Berlin zoo, we’ve bought numerous polar bear toys, watched several national geographic specials and tried to learn as much as possible about the great white carnivore of the north. And so, when we were thinking about things to do on our year-long odyssey that would celebrate the children’s passions, polar bears were near the top of the list. Back in April, I had never heard of Churchill Manitoba, but when I Googled “Polar Bear tour” and “North America”, it was in all the search results. It seems, that the place to see the bear is in a town just off the Hudson bay, 900 miles north of Winnipeg that has no roads leading in (but does have an airport, train station and sea port). Apparently, the polar bears cross the frozen Hudson bay in the spring and den-in around Churchill, and then wake up in September, famished and looking for seals (or anything else they can eat) and are itching to head north the arctic circle, but are stuck around Churchill until the Hudson Bay re-freezes (usually in mid-November). So, for most of October and November, thousands of polar bear admirers flock to Churchill and load themselves into tundra buggies to view the magnificent animals (I’ll try to blog more about the bear sightings after we’ve actually seen a few).

Thus, because my father’s largest client happened to be located next to FAO Schwartz, and he happened to pick a certain plush toy 12 years ago, I’m now on a 16-hour overnight train ride from Thompson, MB to Churchill. When my dad gave Josh Schatzi, I’m sure I said something like “what a nice toy, it’s so soft, I’m sure the baby will love it.” I didn’t know enough to say “thank goodness it’s not a Koala, then we’d have to travel to Australia in 12 years time” or something more forward thinking. That’s one of the exciting (or frustrating) things about butterfly effects -- while you’re watching the wings flapping, you have no idea of the magnitude of the eventual impact.

Schatzi on the train en route to Churchill

The second way that fate / butterfly effects impacted our lives this week goes back even further. In 1914, Lt. Harry Colebourn was being shipped over to the UK to fight in the Great War, and as he was going through Ontario he decided to purchase a pet to keep him and his fellow soldiers company. Being a bit of a maverick, Lt. Colebourn decided to purchase a bear instead of a dog or a cat (a black bear alas, not a polar bear). And, because he wanted to be reminded of his home town of Winnipeg, Colebourn named the bear Winnie. Now, had Colebourn not passed through White River, Ontario on a day when bear cubs were for sale, this story would have a different ending. Had the UK had the same quarantine laws that they now have this story would have a different ending. Had Colebourn’s regiment not been called up to leave the UK and go to France, this story would have a different. Had Colebourn not lent the bear to the London zoo while he went to France this story would have a different ending. Had he not permanently donated the bear to the zoo upon his return from the war (because the bear had become very popular with children) this story would have a different ending. Had writer AA Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, not enjoyed going to the London zoo and seeing the bear, this story would have a different ending. But, dayenu, Milne saw how much his son liked the bear and they named his stuffed bear Winnie as well. Christopher’s stuffed toy is still viewable, I think, at the New York public library. And two statues were cast of Lt. Colebourn and Winnie and one was placed in the London Zoo and the other in Assiniboine Park zoo in Winnipeg. Likewise, had Simon not liked going to the London Zoo and seeing the statue, and hearing the story of Lt. Colebourn, AA Milne, Christopher Robin and, of course, Winnie, this story would have had another ending. But, when we realized we’d be passing through Winnipeg on the way to Churchill, we realized we had to see the “other” Colebourn statue.

Josh by the statue of Winnie & Lt. Colbourne

So while I always had a vague conception that stuffed animals could have a major impact on their owner’s and their owner’s families, I never imagined that in one week we’d be traveling hundreds of miles because of two different stuffed bears.

We've been busy

Forgive me reader, it’s been over three weeks since my last blog. It took a former co-worker calling me a slacker to rouse me from my slump and put fingers to keyboard, but it’s not that I haven’t been busy – since seeing the minor league baseball game in Peoria, IL (my last blog subject) we’ve been through seven states (and slept in Wal-Mart parking lots in four of them), visited eight National Parks or Monuments, stayed in five friends houses (and seven different campgrounds), traveled over 3,000 miles (over 5,000 since starting out in August) and been to three indoor water parks.

Water Parks? I’m not sure if it’s a Midwest thing; if I just missed the growth of US water parks during our six years in London; or if, as Wendy suggests, they’ve always been here but I wasn’t paying attention because our kids weren’t water park age. But, there are a lot of water parks in the Midwest. And, we’ve learned that when your kids are national park’d out, and the outdoor swimming pools at the KOA are closed, then whizzing down a ten story-high slide on an inner tube is a welcome diversion.

When Wendy and I had planned this trip, we spent most of our time thinking of all the wonderful hikes we’d be doing in National Parks, the scenic vistas we’d be appreciating, the historical sites and museums we’d be visiting. We kind of forgot that our 7- and 12-year old boys would be a little more chuffed by mini golf and water slides. After a mini-rebellion when we were leaving Jewel Cave National Monument it was agreed that we’d do more “fun” things with the kids. We found a campground with a mini-golf course (crazy golf for those without an American English->British English dictionary) and realized that when the kids are having fun we’re all having a better time. The next day, after rushing through Mt. Rushmore, we made it to the highlight of South Dakota (for the kids) – Watiki World water park. For three hours on an uncrowded Friday night, we splashed around and rode numerous slides (all of our favorite was the “super bowl” in which you slide down a slide, get shot around a large bowl which you circle three or four times before dropping down another shoot into the pool below). Watiki World, like all the parks we’ve been to, had a “lazy river” for drifting around on a tube, a combination of slides that you can go down in a tube as well as body slides, a few different kids play areas where large buckets of water pour down every once in awhile, a hot tub/whirlpool, and an attached arcade and bar (so far we’ve not visited either of those).

After Rapid City & Watiki World, we headed east across South Dakota, stopping in the Badlands and staying over at the home of Wendy’s college roommate. We also made the mistake of stopping at a bar & grill in Belvedere, SD (the “Population 44” sign should have been our first indication that only ping food would be served). We spent a night in Iowa at a state park on beautiful Spirit Lake (even more beautiful without all the summer tourists) and then headed up to St. Paul/Minneapolis where we spent a week with another of Wendy’s former roommates.

While in the twin cities we went to our second water park, the Water Park of America which is next to the Mall of America. As much as I wanted to visit the mall, which claims more annual visitors than all of the National Parks combined (and if that isn’t a damning indictment of American society, I don’t know what is), the lazy river was calling and Josh and Simon already had their swim suits on. The WPA (Water Park of America for those of you who don’t remember the Depression) was just as fun as Watiki World; it had a “family raft” slide that up to 6 people could go down at a time, it had a 7-story high body slide and numerous other slides, it even had a surfing simulator (it’s hard to describe, but you’re essentially surfing down a waterfall with the water going up, so the water pushes you up while gravity pushes you down, keeping you in one place)! Forget the Baaken museum (an interesting museum dedicated to the way electricity can be used for health purposes, endowed by the inventor of the first implantable pacemaker), Minihaha Falls and the parties thrown by various friends – the hands down favorite event of our Twin Cities visit was the water park.

Yesterday, we left the Twin Cities en route to Northern Canada for our Polar Bear tour in Churchill, Canada. About two hours outside Minneapolis we stopped to have our photo taken next to the 30’ high plaster Viking, named Ole, in the town of Alexandria, home of the Rune Stone museum which houses the famous Kensington Rune stone. For those not of Scandinavian descent, the Kensington stone was found in 1898 by a Minnesota farmer and purports to chronicle the adventures of a couple of Vikings who visited the area in the 14th century (more than a hundred years before Columbus ‘discovered’ America). There’s been more than enough written about whether or not this was an elaborate hoax or not, so I won’t weigh in other than to say anything that gives a bunch of Scandinavian immigrants the incentive to erect a 30’ high plaster Viking in their town square can’t be all that bad.

After the Alexandria stop we headed into North Dakota and stopped for the night in the town of Grand Forks. It was 7pm and we hadn’t had any exercise all day. We thought of finding a swimming pool so I called the local YMCA but found out they didn’t have open swim on Tuesday nights. Then I had a brainstorm – “we’re still in the Midwest, why not look for a water park?” I plugged ‘water park’ into my Blackberry’s Google Maps application and it turns out we were only 1.5 miles from “Splashers of the Seven Seas.” Clearly, it was meant to be. And, because it was Tuesday night, we had the whole water park mostly to ourselves (entirely to ourselves after 8:30, not counting the 5 life guards on duty). Splashers was the perfect antidote to a day spent cooped-up in the RV. We all enjoyed the “Turbo slide,” a smaller version of the “Super Bowl,” the giant-sized hot tub, and the swimming pool area with all the basketball hoops. Wendy and I tried to get some exercise by walking the wrong way up the lazy river, only to be upbraided by a teenage lifeguard for not being in an inner tube. “But we’re the only people here,” I protested, to no avail. In the end, Wendy decided that we could justify our water park habit by claiming it was exercise. “It’s like skiing in reverse,” she explained on the phone to her mom, “you get the exercise when you’re walking up the stairs, before taking the slide down”.

In any event, that’s the update from the road. I’m writing this from a Timothy’s World Coffee café, with free Wifi, in Winnipeg. So far we’ve been to the zoo (I’m hoping one of the kids will do a Blog on why we went to the zoo, for the statue of Lieutenant Coleburn and his bear) and are planning on spending the night just outside the city. Tomorrow we head further north (400 miles), to the town of Thompson, which is close to where the roads end. From there, on Friday evening, we board a 16-hour, overnight train up to the town of Churchill. On Sunday, we’ve booked a dog sled tour in Churchill and on Monday we’ll be on the Tundra Buggy to view the Polar Bears. So, given all the good fodder for writing I’m hoping that I’ll be blogging more frequently in the future, but it’s unlikely we’ll be able to visit a water park in the next week.

Ciao!

PS – In addition to catching up on the blogging, I’ve also caught up (at least through South Dakota) on our Photos. They are now online at Flickr and you can click on this link to go there as well as the Photo link on the top of the http://www.familyadventureyear.com/ home page.