Saving Eagles at American Lake

Drive-by picture of the protected peninsula at American Lake, Pierce County, WA

 

About twenty years ago, my sister Alyce was instrumental in preserving a five acre piece of land at American Lake in Washington State.  The land was to be developed with lakefront homes, without regard to the nesting eagles in the treetops.  (Eagles prefer to roost in undeveloped forests close to shorelines.) Alyce got the word out, involving neighbors, a local Indian tribe, and the local newspaper.  The land is now managed by the Nature Conservancy in perpetuity.  Alyce drove us past this protected land on our way to points west.  I'm very proud and grateful she took on the fight for this land twenty years ago.  

Northwest Carriage Museum

Dad outside the museum

The City of Raymond, Washington is not so big (population 2,880), but it has a big collection of 19th century horse drawn carriages.  The horses are gone, but the carriages, most meticulously restored, are well displayed at the Northwest Carriage Museum.  I felt transported back to the 1880s and 1890s.  The carriages include two hearses (one built in Vienna), a Hansom cab (think Sherlock Holmes), a children's cart (with high sides to keep the kids safe), and a battered 1888 stage couch once used in old Western movies.  There were also some mail carriages and working carriages.  I especially liked the elegant Opera Car, designed to transport the wealthy to, well, the Opera.  The museum also has the black carriage used in Gone with the Wind.

Ride this carriage to attend the opera in style

Mom inspects the cab.  Leg room was limited!

Crystal Cave, Sequoia National Park

Inside a larger cavern.  

Just outside the entrance to Crystal Cave

Most people think trees when they think Sequoia National Park, but just a few miles from the world's biggest tree is a cool cave called Crystal Cave.  By cool I mean not hot (temperatures in the cave hover around 48 degrees year round) and also cool as in fun and fascinating.  We purchased tickets for a late morning guided tour, and then took a windy road to the cave trail head.  After stowing our food and smelly toiletries in bear safes and sanitizing our feet (to keep a virus from the bats), we trekked down a steep trail to the entrance of the cave.  The cave was discovered by fishermen in 1918 and has been open for tours since the 1940s.

Our tour guide cautioned us not to touch any surface with our hands, as the oil on our skin would transfer to the rocks. We were also asked not to take flash photographs, not because it would disturb cave inhabitants, but because it's hard on human eyes.  We then walked through dimly lit caverns, 30 to 50 feet high, with streams bubbling along the edges.  Light is lost within 100 feet of the cave entrance, but the caverns have been artistically lit throughout so you can marvel at the stalactites and stalagmites and crystal formations.  A fascinating and worthwhile detour.

Samuel, Betsy and a flashlight beam

  

How to Feed a Tiger - A Day at Point Defiance Zoo

How do you feed a 200 lb. tiger?  Well, carefully of course.  But at Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, you feed your young tiger through the chain link fence.  The zookeeper, who still has all her fingers, pushes meatballs* through the fence with a special stick.  We watched this feeding plus observed some colliding walruses, fluorescent jellyfish, and goofy gibbons, while spending a day at the zoo with my extended family.

Mary, Adam, Teresa, Liam, Roger, Esten, Alyce and Betsy in front of Point Defiance Zoo 

Nephews Esten and Liam pet the rays.

*The meatballs were made from horse meat because beef has too much fat and gives the tigers indigestion!