On Vacation – Back July 1st
Leaving Denver
I am so very excited – my family and I leave early tomorrow for Europe. It’s our first proper vacation in years, unless you count camping. My in-laws flew in yesterday to take care of our spoiled dogs (who I just can’t bring myself to take to a kennel) and will also be helping my sister in law with a home renovation project. They are so good to us – if you happen to be reading this, Thank you!
Neuschwanstein Castle in Bravaria
One of the stops on our travels to Germany is going to be Neuschwanstein Castle which was used as inspiration by Walt Disney for the famed Disney icon, Cinderella Castle. We figure that might make sight seeing with our 11 year old daughter a little more tolerable to add in some fun side trips that appeal to someone her age. Our head quarters is going to be a little town outside of Würzberg where my step mother currently lives. We also plan to visit Rothenburg, Munich, and Stuttgart (where my husband and I met).
Eiffel Tower
Since my husband took so much time off from work, we found terrific flight bargains within Europe and are going to spend 5 nights in Paris. We figure we won’t be going back to Europe any time soon with me going back to school this fall so we should take full advantage of our trip. $120 round trip per person from Frankfurt to Paris on Air France – can’t beat that. Plus it was less expensive to fly than to take the train. Instead of staying in a hotel, we found a screaming deal on a 1 bedroom apartment in le Marais which is in the heart of the city for about $140- a night through a terrific website called VRBO. The place is in the 3rd arrondisement within walking distance to many of Paris’ main attractions such as the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Picasso Museum, Notre Dame, the Seine & more. We’re also going to swing by the little apartment where I used to live in 1985-87 when I was a student at the American University in Paris. Good memories….
Back to VRBO which stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner – it’s a terrific site that we recently used when we went skiing in Steamboat Springs. People post their homes & condos for rent on the site and a calender shows if the place is available along with plenty of photos & amenities. We like living like a local and having access to a kitchen. In an expensive city like Paris, eating at home saves a lot of money.
I will be unplugged for the next two weeks, but hope to take lots of photographs to share upon my return July 1st. Maybe I’ll post 1 or 2 from Germany – I will have access to my step-mom’s computer.
Later,
Cynthia
Now you didn’t think I could go to the Black Hills and not share photos of Mt. Rushmore do you?
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Mt. Rushmore is one of those American icons that everyone knows what it looks like before actually visiting in person, sort of like the Statue of Liberty or Disneyland. We made this pilgrimage for my daughter, but also because my husband and I think it’s one of those places you have to see in your lifetime as an American. I had low expectations, and I’m glad I did otherwise I would have been sorely disappointed in the tourist trappings around this institution. That and we got yelled at by some crazy old man for pausing long enough to allow some folks to take photographs of the monument before blocking their view with our car going through a narrow tunnel.
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I wanted to yell out of the car, “Hey, we’re on vacation and trying to have fun here, dammit!”, but refrained. Though his outburst did put a damper on the energy building towards the climax that would be a full frontal view of Mt. Rushmore memorial. But, in the end, I had to admire Mt. Rushmore Memorial from a technical point of view: a scupture so huge was designed and sculpted before Photoshop and Autocad were invented. I’m not quite sure how Gutzon Borglum and his army of 400 workers executed their work, but they did so in a matter of 14 years.
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It was rather anti-climatic after making our pilgrimage to Mt. Rushmore, to not actually stop in for a visit, but we didn’t. We did another drive by. Why you ask? Because of the 3 million visitors that visit the park annually making it quite a zoo.
- Who created the sculpture? Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers.
- How much did the sculpture cost? $989,992.32.
- How long did it take to build? 14 years, October 4, 1927 – October 31,1941
- Are the faces eroding? No, The estimated erosion rate is 1 inch every 10,000 years.
- Who is the mountain named after? Charles E. Rushmore, a New York City Attorney, in 1885 who was out here on business.
- Were there any deaths during the carving? No.
We missed out on some of the educational background that we would have gained by entering the memorial, and a chance to walk on Washinton’s head (yep we saw people walking around on top of his head on what looked to be a fenced area overlooking the Black Hills), but somehow I think that would have ruined it for me. Instead, we were rewarded with the side view of Washington’s head when we rounded the corner on our way to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial.
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The Crazy Horse Memorial was less crowded and with an interesting side story. It was begun in 1948 by Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. Ziolkowski was a self taught sculptor who dedicated his life to this endeavor who died in 1982. Now 7 of his 10 children along with his widow Ruth have continued working with Korczak’s vision along with the Native American community. Read their story here.
A disturbing feeling struck us during our travels through Wyoming and South Dakota – a feeling of terrible inequality and injustice served towards the Native Americans. We passed through two Indian Reservations – the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 70 miles east of Rapid City, SD, which are the 1st and 2nd largest reservations respectively in the US.
While the Badlands and the surrounding grasslands are spectacular at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservatoin, it is a god forsaken place weather wise. I can’t imagine that the Lakota Indians are able to manage a sustainable agricutural practice. The Lakota do help manage the Badlands, but I doubt it’s enough to employ the entire tribe. Needless to say, Pine Ridge is in the poorest county in the US with an average income per family of $3,700 annually.
On the other hand, according to the Wind River website, this reservation was chosen by the Eastern Shoshone Indians and is much more lush, with varying terrain – mountains, streams, prairie and yes, even a little badlands.
It was really an eye opener for me to see the disparity of the landscape and prosperity levels between the Black Hills and the Pineridge Indian Reservation – and especially an eye opener for my daughter, who was complaining that her batteries wore out for her iPod and her Gameboy! Why weren’t the Lakota placed in the Black Hills? Well, there was money to be had there of course.
At any rate, I’ll get off of my soap box now….
Meanwhile, before I left on vacation I received 100 sheets of traditional decal paper that I had ordered from Ceramic Supply Co. out of New Jersey. The decal paper is not on their website, but it is available if you call them directly. I still need to order some ceramic overglaze colors to make my own screen printed decals to fire onto my ceramic ware.
I hope to have some new work started soon,
Extremes in Temperature and Encounters with Wild Life
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We’re baaaaaaackk! Whew, we just got back yesterday from our whirlwind camping trip through South Dakota, Wyoming and Northern Colorado. Our experience was one of highs and lows and in the end it was all good. We experienced extremes in temperature, moods and encounters with wild life!
In South Dakota, it was HOT as hell, but well worth the trip. We ended up setting up camp the first night at Wind Cave National Park where we were but a handful of human souls. As city slickers, we were in awe of the wild life walking through our camp in the evening.
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Then we met the Demon Beaver after leaving South Dakota for Devil’s Tower. We camped at Cook Lake in the Black Hill portion of Wyoming on Thursday evening where we were only 1 of 2 camps set up at the campground. Sounds like paradise, doesn’t it?? It was until about 2 in the morning…when my husband reached over to see if I was in the tent or if that was me rattling around outside the tent. Sure enough I was inside, as was our dog and daughter. What could it be?? My heart rate started racing when I imagined bears and mountain lions outside our tent circling ever closer before they ripped open the tent to devour us. No one would know since they probably already ate the other campers at the lake.
My husband put on a brave face, took the lantern and went outside to confront the bear. That evening, we had returned our food stuffs to the Pathfinder, but overlooked the cooler which was still sitting out on the picnic table. What did he find? Not a bear or lion, but a beaver! The beaver, who despite being cute, witty and adorable in cartoons, was about as big as our 60 pound dog and quite ferocious upon being caught stealing from our cooler.
He (the beaver) took off into the night and my husband returned the cooler to the car and came back into the tent. Meanwhile I had to go pee, but I wasn’t about to tangle with a 60 pound beaver so I decided I could will the sensation away. I was just about to drift off to sleep when we heard a commotion at the trash cans – banging and gutteral growling that lasted for about 15 minutes and then silence. I was once more so scared with the vision of a mountain lion full of blood lust thrashing the beaver around just outside our tent. And, furthermore, I was beginning to think that maybe city people should never ever camp under any circumstances unless it was at a highly developed campground city.
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Needless to say, we survived the evening and sometime during the night I managed to drift into a fitful sleep full of dreams of beavers, lions and bears. In the light of day, we realized that the beaver got our chocolate bar for the S’mores that we had stashed in the cooler because of the heat. It dawned on me that the Beaver was probably on a chocolate, sugar, caffeine high after eating the contraband and we might very well be responsible for killing the Beaver with chocolate! Or maybe, he’s just suffering an incredible chocolate hangover…. We didn’t hang around long enough to verify his fate.
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We took off early in the morning because of impending rain and did a drive by of Devil’s Tower before heading across the state of Wyoming towards the Grand Tetons. Little did we know that rain covered the state, and by the time we reached Jackson, WY, we had decided to get a hotel room for the night instead of camping. We weren’t alone and there was not a room to be had within 150 miles of Jackson. We were all exhausted, pissed off and I was ready to divorce my husband for insisting that we drive 16 hours on a wild goose chase.
We eventually found a hotel room that would take us and our dog in Rawlins, WY. The proprietor of the Econo-Lodge gouged charged us $129.00 for the privelege of staying with our dog. My husband was about ready to keep driving – but by 12:30AM, I was willing to pay $500.00 to have a dry place to bed down for the evening. We woke up refreshed and found Penny’s Diner in Rawlins the next morning which was terrific. Nothing like a big pancake breakfast with hashbrowns, bacon, eggs and coffee to make it sound like a good idea to camp an extra night before heading home.
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We managed to pitch our tent at Chamber’s Lake in Roosevelt National Forest in Northern Colorado before it started raining again. It cleared up in the evening so that we could make dinner and enjoy a camp fire before hitting the sack. We made it back home to Denver yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed sleeping in our own beds, long luxurious showers and a dinner filled with vegetables – which were sorely lacking the past week.
Overall a good vacation! Meanwhile, I’ve been itching to get back into my studio this week…. 
I’ll Be Back… on July 29th!
I’m leaving home tomorrow for a much needed vacation, though not on a jet plane. In the next week, we will attempt to visit Mount Rushmore, The Badlands, Devil’s Tower and Yellowstone National Park. Our mode of transportation: automobile. Our accomodations: tent. I will most likely need a vacation from my vacation when we return after sleeping on the ground with naught but a measly little therma-rest between my body and the ground. You’re right, I need to get in the proper mind-set.
I was talking with my father in law today on the telephony and he asked “What is in the Badlands?” I replied “the largest fossil beds in the world”, but I wonder why ‘bad’ is in the title of the place. I really have no idea what to expect.
In preparation for visiting Devil’s Tower, we watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind the other night just for fun. I seriously doubt we’ll make it to Yellowstone, but my husband thinks it’s a good idea.
Meanwhile, this trio of ceramic houses just came out of my kiln last week, and I’ve posted them for sale in my Etsy Shop. Though, I have to say that I really like them and might keep them for myself. I know I can always make more, but….
Anyway, I’ll see you all in a week… I hope you have a productive and enjoyable week ahead of you!
