BABY ALIVE PEEK N PLAY

I send a lot of postcards when traveling. Sorry if I didn't get one out to you.

Mom & I went on a five day driving trip through Eastern, Oregon.

Some highlights: Outsider Art Monument: Petersen Rock Garden in Redmond (friendliest peacocks I’ve ever met!). The John Day Fossil Area was amazing – the Painted Hills and Sheep Unit. At the latter we went down a trail called something like “Island back in time” and were mesmerized by the strange chalky green rocky landscape with no life growing from it. We were lucking out with 75 and Sunny in a place that can get 110 this time of year. The new Paleontology Museum is very interesting. I became obsessed with touring cyclists and wished I was on my bike. Even saw a group of 4 punk-style riders, with just boxes and blankets strapped to the back of their bikes. We barely made the last tour at the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day not knowing that you can only visit with a guide. This old apothecary/store/house set in what once was a Chinatown was really interesting to me. Then on to Baker City, Oregon which is really a great town – I walked around at Sunset and thought about setting up a portable press shop here for a month. We stayed in the Geiser Grand Hotel, which isn’t as expensive as you’d think, and my oh my were those sheets soft. The next day for the firs half of the we visited the National Oregon Trail Interpretative Center a top Flagstaff Hill, 5 miles outside of town. The museum got a thumbs down from me (too general, busy, not into taxidermy horses), But the center and walking trails are worth it and I loved visiting the actual Oregon trail and seeing the old wagon ruts. Mom and I realized that we could visit Hell’s Canyon afterall. I really wanted to go, but we didn’t want to hit gravel roads. We found there was a road to an overlook that we could take on our way to Joseph. We stopped in Halfway, Oregon and I got a chocolate milkshake. At the overlook in Hells Canyon there is a pretty amazing view of the nation’s deepest Canyon. You can’t see the floor or anything, and you feel far away, but it was still beautiful. In Joseph we didn’t like our stinky overpriced smelling cabin or the fact that everyone and their family seemed to be around the Lake in the Wallowas, but I took advantage of the pool/hot tub and beat my mom in Scrabble even though she made two whole words. In the morning we played mini golf at the resort while a couple long haired boys watched us. Mom loves Mini golf! We were going back and forth on whether we should take the Tram to the top of Mt Henry, we heard it was good, but wondering if we should get a move on. But luckily we decided to go. The weather was great and I couldn’t believe the Swiss Gondola style tram went an entire mile up. We were at over 8000 feet! At the top we were greeted by a gopher and a chipmunk, little did we know that we’d meet many more “friends” on our visit up there. We walked around the trails and had a very chipper time. On the way out of Joseph we stopped at the local county museum – I asked the friendly senior ladies what they liked most in the museum. One lady said the electric curler (a scary monstrosity!) and the other lady said a grade school exhibit from the 1905 Lewis & Clark Fair. I myself was amused by the Moonshine exhibit. I gave the one lady a painting I made of the electric curler and she was so pleased! We then drove through a few small towns and headed towards Pendleton, getting loss in La Grande on the way. Pendleton was so much smaller than I thought (all the round-up/blanket hype), but I enjoyed the murals, and my mom and walked on the riverwalk which was buggy at dusk. We played another game of Scrabble where I almost won, until I made a stupid fatal error on my second to last turn. In the morning (Saturday) we walked around town, but nothing was open and we looked like hick tourists. I guess all the action was on Friday night. Finally a few shops opened, but every one seemed to be selling old stuff – some of it good (the Curio shop!) some bad (beanie babies, and romance novel, now really!) And everyone wanted a lot of money for crap. We headed out of town (backtracking a few miles) to go to the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute which in on the Indian Reservation. Right before we stopped for gas, and waited to be served (can’t pump your own gas in Oregon), but no one came, and then we realized, oh on the reservation you pump your own gas! The museum is past the casino that had a full parking lot. The museum lot only had three cars. I was really impressed with the exhibits and design and learned a lot about five Indian groups from the area. Outside it was heating up, planning on getting up to 100, I walked around displays of different kinds of Indian housing.

We then headed down the Gorge towards Portland and watched the scenery slowly change from beige to green. We crossed the toll bridge at Hood River to Bingen to meet my Sister Sarah and 3 ? year old nephew Andy who were coming

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania - A young zebra nurses milk from its mother. The Zebra is a member of the horse family, native to eastern and southern Africa. They are best known for their distinctive white and black stripes which come in different patterns unique to each individual. Zoologists believe that the stripes act as a camouflage mechanism. This is accomplished in several ways. First, the vertical striping helps the zebra hide in grass. While seeming absurd at first glance considering that grass is neither white nor black, it is supposed to be effective against the zebra's main predator, the lion, which is colour blind. Theoretically a zebra standing still in tall grass may not be noticed at all by a lion. Additionally, since zebras are herd animals, the stripes may help to confuse predators - a number of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large animal, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out any single zebra to attack. A herd of zebras scattering to avoid a predator will also represent to that predator a confused mass of vertical stripes travelling in multiple directions making it difficult for the predator to track an individual visually as it separates from its herdmates, although biologists have never observed lions appearing confused by zebra stripes.

A more recent theory, supported by experiment, posits that the disruptive colouration is also an effective means of confusing the visual system of the blood-sucking tsetse fly. Alternative theories include that the stripes coincide with fat patterning beneath the skin, serving as a thermoregulatory mechanism for the zebra, and that wounds sustained disrupt the striping pattern to clearly indicate the fitness of the animal to potential mates.

<< Arhiva >>