Field Trip: Effigy Mounds

  A real vacation!  *sigh* a long time coming, but this trip brought no deadlines, except when to check in and check out of lodging.  Yay!  Our first stop was Effigy Mounds National Monument near Marquette, IA.  It was another stop where we could pick up a Junior Ranger badge!  We did this part of our trip in to sections the afternoon when we arrived in the area and then we took advantage of the little museum area and finished our Ranger requirements.

 

We were so late in the day that we were one of the only ones there and we got to spread out a bit.  Shorty was wired for sound having waited patiently (if you count two dozen "are we there yet" queries) and finally I told him, "I think they saw a table just for you over here", silently thanking God for touch tables all the way.  

The next morning, we braved the chance of rain and took a hike.  Effigy Mounds gives a guided tour twice a day, but because of the threatening rain the morning session was cancelled.  A wonderful ranger gave Bubby an outdated guide book (it contained markers that were no longer visible even though the features were there) and Bubby was our guide on the Fire Point trail, regaling us with stories of the mounds - it was even better than having a ranger with us ;)

conical mounds on the left

bear mound - you're looking at his head and foot

the Mighty Mississip, but Shorty was more interested in the train track ;)

Before we took off from the area, we stopped in nearby McGregor, Iowa. Excellent pizza, excellent bookstore and "refrigerators" of old carved into the limestone cliffs.  One thing we learned on our entire trip to the North Woods was that one week was not going to cut it ;)

A little fun in McGregor, IA

McGregor, IA

Field Trip: Tallgrass Nature Preserve

  We've been wanting to do this one for.ev.er!  We had printed our Junior Ranger packets out for Tallgrass Nature Preserve 2 years ago and filled them out.  Each time we've tried, we've been deflected from our goal.  But our time came!  Hubby and I had some business to do down near Strong City and today was our chance!

  On not too bad of a day for the middle of November, we dropped Hubby off at the job site and went in search of some multi-sensory learning :) The Tallgrass Nature Preserve is located just north of Strong City and like many of the smaller National Parks, has free admission.  The kids had their Junior Ranger packets in hand and double checked answers and filled in some blanks they hadn't needed to finish. 

The Visitor's Center was not very large, but it did a good job of telling the story of the prairie and the critters that live there.  After walking around and watching the short video on the area, we headed out to one of the other exhibits.

This ranch, which is part of the preserve, has been around since 1882.  It is absolutely fabulous.  You are able to explore two of the three levels of the barn...

This picture of Shorty kills me.  He had been walking around for a while with what looked like a piece of straw in his mouth - gross, but he was being a farmer right?  Well, one of the other kids asked him where he got the toothpick.  Toothpick?  Ok, now it was mom's turn to ask where he got the toothpick. "Down on the sidewalk by the horse".  YUCK!!!! This picture is us in the middle of trying to get him to PUT IT DOWN!!! :) Bleh!
 

We made a new buddy :) Then it was off to explore the house.  The house is not very furnished, but I am sure that is due to low staff.  The whole complex had adequate signage and really the architecture was so elaborate, who needs "stuff" ? ;)

Mookie working on her Ranger booklet

The "secret passage"

The kids' favorite was the tunnels that took you from one root cellar to another.

The grand front entrance

We accomplished our Ranger goal and got sworn in as Rangers of the Tallgrass prairie :) Then it was off to the Lower Fox Creek School just up the road and also part of the Preserve.

The building was furnished and had some accessories for the kids to play school with.  We played there for quite a long time.  Then we waited at the city park before it was time to pick up Hubby. It had the coolest swing!

The building in the background is an old auditorium.  It was so sad to see it abandoned.  Grand total for today's trip: lunch and gas.  There's a ton more to do in that area too with Council Grove just up the highway and Cottonwood Falls across the river.  We'll be back ;)

Field Trip: Lincoln!

  Our next stop on our trip was Springfield, Illinois.  Our family loves the Junior Ranger program put on by the National Park Service so when Hubby had the day off we planned a trip so we could add the Abraham Lincoln home to our collection of badges without eating too much into daddy's free time too much. 
  The Lincoln home is not just the home itself.  The Park Service has bought up four blocks of period houses and restored them.  Some are used for offices, but three are open to the public with displays and there are interpretive spots all up and down the streets - including signage or call in stations.

in front of the Lincoln home

in the neighborhood

  When you go, you sign up for a specific tour time.  They said go early to make sure you are able to get a time - and they aren't kidding.  By the time we left, they were already issuing tickets (which are free) for tours two hours later.  We had an hour wait, which gave us plenty of time to complete the ranger challenges. 
  Our tour of the home came with strict instructions of not to touch the walls, door jams, stay on a certain carpet, etc... Definitely one of the more stringent tours we'd been on, although they won't harass you too much if you are caught leaning where you aren't supposed to.

one of the places you can lean...

  The thing that made the kids' eyes just light up the most was when our ranger guide told us that the place they could touch that was from Abe Lincoln's time was the stair rail.  They were utterly thrilled to do that (never you mind that the thing was urethaned to high heaven ;) ).

  After our tour we got the kiddos sworn in for their Junior Ranger badges.  I will tell you what, we have never met a park ranger we didn't like.  Most go out of their way for junior rangers.  I always ask permission if I snap their picture and this particular ranger made sure he put his hat on for our picture! 

  Our Lincoln trip wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the president's tomb which was not far away. 

  They were amazed by the sheer size of it.  The inside was quite grand and I was really glad someone in our group didn't attempt to use the circular nature of the layout for a racetrack...

A Candlelight Tour

  On our wishlist for a while has been the Fort Scott Christmas Candlelight Tour. We had never been, but had heard wonderful things about it.  This was our year!  Tickets go on sale Nov. 1st and the tour is only offered for 2 days.  Our tour took place on a drizzly night this past weekend, but really it wasn't too cold for December.  Dress warm! It was perfect timing because we're covering the Civil War for our history in school right now. 
  Our tour guide was one of the rangers (Ft. Scott is a National Park) and he gave background information prior to and after each station we stopped at where volunteer actors re-enacted Fort Life.  Mookie whispered to me about a dozen times, "this is SO cool!" They don't like photography, but I did snap this shot while one of the skits was going on inside one of the buildings and I was out running Shorty around. Beautiful!

  It all ended with a dance with live historical music, food and drink, and activities for the kids.

  Because of the distance from home we stayed overnight.  The kids would not have allowed us out of town anyway since Ft. Scott is a National Park and had a Junior Ranger program anyway :)
   We had printed off our Junior Ranger booklets ahead of time and the kids had worked on them on the way down South.  This was great because the next morning was as drizzly as the night before and even chillier!

We were there about an hour and a half working on our Ranger booklets and wandering.  Definitely one of the more intensive ones.  Not that I minded, I'd rather one of the tougher ones be in local history.
  One of the things that stuck out to me on this trip was the fort jail.  This year for Christmas I am getting the pension record for who we think is my ggg-grandpa George Marshal.  George is one of my black sheep in the family and was in the Arkansas St. Penitentiary for stealing.  He also was naughty during the war and was caught stealing.  So he would have ended up someplace like this I imagine.  

 Doesn't look very comfortable.  I'm not sure if that cured Grandpa George of his problem, but it probably put an end to it temporarily. :) 

A Wedding, Silver Dollar City, a Battlefield and Guttenberg

  This last field trip was one we've been waiting for for a few months.  One of our very dear friends was getting married in Springfield, MO. A bit of a trip, but something we wouldn't have missed for the world.  Of course it sparked thoughts of what can we do along the way.  One thing presented itself when Mookie won a couple of Silver Dollar City tickets through our local library's summer reading program.  SDC also had a special going on where people born in 1976 could get in free, so that took care of my ticket too and Shorty was free because of his age!  We only had to purchase one ticket - not bad for a family of five!

A picture of the Co. I boys I found recently

  On the way down we stopped at Wilson's Creek Battlefield.  This was great for the kids because it gave them an opportunity for another Junior Ranger badge, and great for me because some of the Burlingame, KS Civil War Veterans from Co. I of the 11th Kansas Cavalry fought there. 
  The battlefield had limited displays when we were there because they were in the process of revamping the old ones.  They had a really interesting auto tour and they also have one of the biggest collections of west of the Mississippi Civil War items.  You can find their virtual museum here.
 

Looking up at Bloody Hill at Wilson's Creek

  The staff at Wilson's Creek was excellent.  They gave Shorty a Junior Ranger badge so he could be like big brother & sis.  They also copied items for me from their collection & told me to contact them if I thought of anything more. 
  On we went for a short stop at Silver Dollar City and then out to supper.  We ate at McFarlain's in Branson where they placed us at a table that rose during our meal.  Hubby and I were let in on the secret.  They couldn't figure out what mom & dad were snickering at.  They kept looking around to find someone that was going to sneak up on them with a wacky sombrero or sing a silly song to them.  It wasn't until the table was up to their chins that they finally caught on.

 The next day we arrived at the City as soon as it opened and we shut it down.  My family has been going to Silver Dollar City every five years since I was five.  It is one of our favorite trips as a family.  We can't wait to go with my folks on our regularly scheduled on in a couple of years.

 Before the wedding celebration on Saturday we needed something to occupy our time.  Hubby found the exhibit "Passages" was in Springfield.  Passages is a collection artifacts that take you through the history of the Bible.  When we were in Dallas last year we had seen that it was there, but didn't make it.  Boy are we glad we took it in in Springfield! The collection included actual Dead Sea Scroll fragments, cuneiform tablets, Bibles throughout the ages as well as other Biblical texts and artifacts.  Essentially the whole exhibit was full of Bible history, world history, science and just a perfect side trip for us in general! They had wonderful interactive displays, hands on things for the kids to do, as well as animatronic characters.  They even had a scavenger hunt for the kids.  I'll tell you what, if you want a kid to get absorbed in a museum, give them a scavenger hunt!

Transcribing a line of text in Latin with real ink!

Shorty listening to St. Jerome talk about his life

Watching a working replica of a Guttenberg press

They even had a play area for Shorty

The exhibit said that it would take you 2-3 hours to finish.  Well, we took 3 hours and could have spent more time! We literally had to drag the kids out of there.  We definitely packed a ton into our trip, but hey, it was school!  I think we'll take tomorrow off;)

The Great National Park Adventure - Rushmore

Shorty at our Custer Cabin

  We woke up in Custer State Park to a beautiful morning - I could see my breath!  A beautiful haze was blanketing the huge trees.  Oh how I wish that we could have lingered a little longer in Custer.  They have wonderful wildlife and just neat areas to explore.  We were feeling the crunch though and after a brief stop at the visitors center in Custer that the CCC built, we were on our way to Rushmore.

wouldn't this be an awesome house?

  The drive up was just beautiful.  Even though it wasn't far from where we camped, the curves and switchbacks made it slow going, but really who minds when surrounded by so much beauty of nature?

   When we got to Rushmore, we could tell that it was almost the next weekend because the crowds had really picked up.   The cool thing was when we walked through the parking garage we saw almost a different state/province in every slot!  To be totally honest, I was very disappointed at the "grand entry" to see the monument.  I thought that the monument itself was grand enough and the other just took away from that.  It wasn't there when I was there 20+ years ago, so I was glad I had the memory of that time:)
 

   The exhibit area down closer to the monument was really well done.  They were interactive for the kids and great for all different learning types.   The kids' favorite one was where you could push a tnt detonator plunger and make parts of Mt. Rushmore explode using original video footage.

Making Rushmore go "boom"

getting sworn in as Rushmore Jr. Rangers

  The walk on the President's trail was so pretty with lots of great photo opportunities.  Bubby was really interested in all the Ponderosa pines in the area and would pick up the needles along the path and hand them to Shorty telling him what they were.  Shorty misunderstood and thought they were "porkapine" quills :)

  By the time we left Rushmore, our hopes of reaching Devil's Tower for an afternoon visit were slim, so we just headed for our next night's stay in Keyhole State Park.  It is about 20 miles away from the tower, but you can see it in the distance on your descent into the park.

  Our cabin at Keyhole was more basic (without a heater or close showering facilities), but it was still lovely and lakeside too! 

   Oh how majestic that tower looks!  I've been 3 times and am not tired of it yet.  We got there right when the visitor's center opened and got "rock star parking", which was good, because when we left a couple hours later, it was getting really busy.  

  Surprisingly the kids didn't get really tired of all the hiking we did.  They all trooped along, just excited to be seeing what we saw at each place.  Shorty didn't care much for the faces on the mountain at Rushmore, but he did enjoy the tower - maybe it was because of all the rocks he could climb along the trail.

walking the tower trail

 

  

the kids on the debris at the base of the tower

   After earning their 5th and last Jr. Ranger patch, we started on our last leg through the mountains in Colorado - um, or so we thought.  From about Gillette, Wyoming on we drove through rain.  When we reached a few miles north of Cheyenne the road signs started saying that all roads were closed from Cheyenne to Colorado - huh?  We'd been without internet/tv/phone service for a couple of days so had no idea what was going on.  After we got cell service I made a call to Ducky and Gigi to find out what was going on and they told us about the flooding going on in Colorado.  What a blessing we weren't a day or so earlier in crossing the state border (they had closed the border just that day) - we had been planning on heading to Estes Park area.

  We turned east on I-80 and decided to drive on home.  When we hit pea soup fog in Nebraska, we were doubting our choice.  It even had strong winds with it, but the fog was unaffected!  When we stopped for gas, the attendant said that it had been like that for 2 days.  Thankfully, we ran out of it and had a great uneventful trip safely home.  Shorty woke up when we pulled in at 4am and cheerfully shouted "Home!".  He was more than ready to be there, his schedule had been shot to high heaven on this trip and he was done.  Actually the rest of us were wearing thin too, that is except Bubby.  That kid just fed off of each place we went.  We told them in stages where we were going over the next day or so, that way they would enjoy each thing and not be looking forward to the next to do.  Every time we'd let them in on the schedule, he'd say "I've read about that place and have always wanted to go!" and tell us some odd fact about it.  

  The funny thing about this trip was that the kids asked what we'd be doing about school since they were missing it.  They thought we were weird when we told them that they'd been doing school the whole time!  But really, all the intensive Jr. Ranger research, all the math figuring out ETA and how long the trails would be, P.E. (the hiking), geography, history, etc.... it was the ultimate in school! 

   Who knows when we'll have the opportunity again for something like this, but we'll be ready when we get it! :)

 

  

The Great National Park Adventure pt. 2

  The second part of our second day included Agate Fossil beds.  This is a high concentration of fossilized mammals.  Bubby's favorite part was a trail that had several Daemonilix which were the corkscrew shaped burrows of Paleocaster (ancient beaver). 

Paleocaster daemonelix

Hubby likes torturing me bringing back pics like this

The kids would get after me if I didn't include the right names, they were pretty rabid about their Junior Ranger duties;)  We arrived at Agate's visitor center with just an hour to spare, so it was the most hurried we were on our Jr. Ranger quests.  You can't go wrong with kids and fossils, so it was a hit nonetheless:)  They also had a super cool Native American exhibit.

  Thankfully they also had a great hands on kids area where I entertained Shorty.  He was in high gear due to lack of nap time, and other than glances at the exhibits I didn't absorb too much while I was chasing after him! 

   Our night's stay was one that we wished would have lasted more than just the single night.  It was this super neat bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere in NW Nebraska, the High Plains Homestead.  The drive out was through a badlands looking area which was just beautiful.  We were the only guests that night, which was nice :) They had a couple of buildings for the sleeping quarters and several buildings that made up a Prairie Town furnished all in antiques. By far Mookie's favorite was the old school.

  Shorty loved the "buffyloaf".  There were three and he stood at the fence saying "Buffyloaf, come, come" and motioning to them.  They never did listen:)

Bubby's main excitement was the possibility of fossil hunting, which was free to young kiddos.  We tried after supper (which you can get at the cookshack there) without much luck. So Hubby and Bubby headed out after breakfast (which was provided and as yummy as the supper!) for another go.  Success! 

Bubby & his tooth

He found a paleo bison tooth, and fossilized turtle shell fragments.  I have never seen him more thrilled!  He was just grinning from ear to ear and had to go show Miss Linda, one of our hosts, what he had found.

  That was not the last of our fossil adventures.  After scouting out where the Hudson Meng buffalo kill site was just a couple of miles down the road, we were off to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
  The Mammoth Site is where a giant sinkhole formed containing a nice hot springs with steep sides.  Because of this it trapped numerous mammoth and other critters that are now being excavated.  The building is only over part of the large site on a hill on the edge of town.  The kids were fascinated.  Shorty kept asking to "diggy", but we had to tell him that it wasn't Daddy's site so he couldn't dig this time:) 

"I diggy"

We had to have fun with the short faced bear exhibit:)

  The last trip of the day was to Wind Cave National Park.  Hubby was interested to go because it was a CCC project.  This was the most intensive of the Junior Ranger badges - we worked forever on it.  Shorty was excited to see more "buffyloaf".

  Ranger Clayton, that lead our tour of the cave, was from NE Kansas just like us!  That wasn't the only reason we liked him.  By the time our tour happened, Shorty was done for the day.  Ranger Clayton had a cool trick that he would take his flashlight and flash it on the floor near any of the toddlers (there were 3) that were getting a little fidgety or he'd take it and shine it under his hat while the kiddo was looking - so cool and such a blessing to us!

Our night was spent in Custer State Park.  Did you know that many state parks have cute little cabins for low cost?  This one had a heater even.  The kids loved the bunk beds!

After a good night's rest we were ready for the main event the next day - Rushmore!