DC

Marie and I woke up with my brother and when he drove to work he dropped us off at the mall. We had hopes of seeing the american history museum and the portrait gallery, as we had seen most things last summer. We got the AHM at 10am and the doors were just opening. We went to the 3rd floor and looked at Lincoln's collection almost by ourselves. Within a half an hour, it seemed that every school group in town was there. It fills fast.

We went through every room and saw all the displays in the musuem. Well worth it. We then grabbed a quick lunch and off to the portrait gallery. We saw the temporary exhibit and the presidential gallery. The coolest piece was the obama hope poster. It was originally a collage made of newspaper and then spray painted.
We then met my brother and grabbed our bags from his car and took the metro to the bus stop. We almost missed the bus. We did not have any change, and as Marie ran for cash, the bus showed up. It had closed its doors and pulled into traffic as we waved him down.

Needless to say the flight home was un-eventful and we made it back home at 11pm last night. Now comes the task of planning for next week with little time to decompress.

Free day in DC

Marie and I were on hold for over an hour on Wednesday night. I finally got through and asked if we could fly to DC standby on Thursday instead of Friday. They said no.....Sad. Marie woke up earlier than I and called to ask if we could just switch our ticket to Thursday and they said YES!!! Ask the right questions, i guess.
We hurriedly packed our bags and hailed a taxi as we were to fly out 2 hours later. We got to the airport in plenty of time and flew to Dulles airport. The ride from New Orleans to Dulles took us less time than the ride from Dulles to my brothers house (via bus and metro). My brother met us took us to his apartment and fed us some leftovers. We were very appreciative and also threw in a load of laundry.
We then went out to a nearby bar and played pub trivia. Daimon is a regular and his team is a competitive one for sure. Daimon's wife, Kirsten, joined us there. We played the five rounds and won. I was not able to help much on ancient rulers and their kingdoms but my shining star came with actors who starred in movies with pets and little kids.

We then went back to his apartment to watch the end of the Missou-Memphis game. It was awesome to have a place to sleep and not pay for it. THANK YOU BRO!

Beads.....and possibly another night

Wednesday Marie and I drove out to the industry part of the city for our last volunteer day. We signed up to help recycle Mardi Gras Beads. We worked with Arc employees to sort the beads. The beads were from pick up points around the city. People donate beads and trinkets associated with Mardi Gras at many spots around the city.

We then sorted them into piles and put alike beads into 30lb bags and put them on palettes.

We worked with others for six hours. Terrance, the man I was working with, became my "best friend" that day. It was a fun experience, and I am glad we did it.


We then returned to our hotel and took well deserved nap. We returned our rental car and realized we forgot to fill it up with gasoline. Whoops. It will cost us $5.99 a gallon to fill it. We then went out for drinks and appetizers. When we returned to our hotel we found out our flight was cancelled for tomorrow. We have been rerouted to Washington DC on Friday instead of Denver on Thursday. Marie and I are currently both on hold with Customer service. We are trying to get standby to DC tomorrow so I can stay with my brother, instead of paying for another night at a hotel. Wish us luck.

Thibodaux

Marie and I had signed up to help replant wetlands, and the only activity from our connection was to pot plants at the Nichols State U. farm in Thibodaux. We drove out of town and got to the University at around 10 o'clock. We met our connection Matt and he drove us to the green house. We learned how to mix up soil for the planters and filled cups to plant Christmas Berry. The greenhouse was used to plant starts of native plants to eventually be planted on a man made ridge used to stop erosion in the gulf. We talked and planted until noon. We made over 600 cups.

Matt then led us to a great lunch place called Bubba's, where Marie and I ate crawdads with great sides of potatoes and beans.


We then went to the Laurel Valley Plantation and saw an old general store/museum. There are also old slave houses that have been used in many movies including the scene in Ray when Ray Charles was young.

We then drove to Jean Lafitte National Preserve and hiked along boardwalks that led us into swamps. Around the visitors center we saw many lizards, frogs, birds and snakes. Marie was surprised how well I saw little animals that blended in so well. We then hiked through a picnic area and headed out to a swamp. We were all by ourselves at 5pm on a Tuesday. It was very peaceful. I was looking for baby gators when Marie spotted a pretty big one on a stump. It was probably 3 to 4 feet long. We walked further to the end of the boardwalk and on our way back I spotted another alligator. The gator was bigger and started to swim (I believed toward us), and started a large gator (6-7 feet long).

The big alligator began to growl, and startled us enough to get us to move quickly down the path. We realized we didn't get a photo, so we walked back and the two larger alligators swam through the water as we walked. We then ran into a few other hikers and told them about the wildlife. On our way back to the car Marie heard some rustling and spotted an armadillo rummaging through some leaves.



We then drove back into New Orleans and had a drink at our hotel. We then took the streetcar out past Loyola and Tulane university and ate at a little restaurant called Jaques-Imos. It was delicious food and nice to see a different part of town. We rode the Streetcar back and went fast to sleep on full bellies.

Planting trees

Marie and I woke up late and enjoyed our hotels breakfast. We then walked to find our rent-a-car, but had to take a taxi to another office because the downtown office was understaffed due to the recession. We picked up our car and drove into the Lower 9th ward. We met at a church in Holy Cross Parish and joined up with other volunteers. We picked up shovels, trees, and mulch. We all then went to one house to learn how to plant the trees. We all joined in putting a magnolia in the front yard of a resident, then Marie and I took off on our own to plant more.

The first house we went to was owned by a nice woman who helped us plant in her yard. She was very open into answering all of our questions and was very kind with sharing her story. She even invited us to a gumbo feed at her house at a later date. We then went to a woman's house and planted two small trees into planters. It was fast and easy. We then drove and dropped off our supplies. 5 trees and 3 hours to help rebuild. We did not feel as f we did much, but it was fun work.

We then went back into town to look for a good hot sausage po' boy (sub sandwich). We found a nice place, Dejavu, and then walked down to the riverfront. There is a nice river walk and a free ferry to the other side of the river. On the other side, Marie and I walked along the levee and watched the sunset over the city.

New Orleans

Marie left on Wednesday morning to fly to New Orleans for the National Science Teachers Association's National Conference. Last year we attended the conference in Boston. Like last year, Marie was given a free ride by a new teacher academy grant. Last year it was during our spring break so I went as well. This year the conference was a week before. I stayed in McMinnville and taught my last few days. On Wednesday I judged the high school battle of the bands competition and on Thursday I helped out a track meet. Friday, I ate 10 hotdogs in 10 minutes at lunch, then went to a movie with a friend and eventually cleaned up the house and made it to Portland at 1am. I went to the airport the next day at 6 am and started my trip to the big easy.

I got into New Orleans at about 6 pm. I found the hotel Marie was staying at and met up with her and our teacher friend Alyssa from grad school. We went out to eat at Crescent City Brewery and enjoyed some local fare.

We were standing in line and had a couple coupons for 2 for 1 but since there were three of us, we gave them to the two men behind us in line. We finished our meals at the same time and they came over to thank us. They were middle/high school teachers in Massachusetts. We all decided to go find music. We wandered the city stopping into bars and grabbing drinks to go and listening to one or two songs. We eventually met more teachers wandered to a "soul Party" which turned out to be just a dj at a bar, but it was fun music to dance to.


At about 2am, Marie and Alyssa were ready for bed. We went to Cafe Du Monde and ate Beignets, French donuts.

The girls went to bed and the guys we met took me down Bourbon St.

Needless to say, I got in a 6am and did not wake up for the 8 o'clock swamp tour.

Marie called and the alarm went off at 11 am and I woke up and checked out of the room. Marie and Alyssa showed up quickly after and we went and had lunch and walked through the Insectarium.
After, I was ready for a nap and Alyssa went to her airport shuttle. Marie and I checked into our new hotel and I slept and recovered from 3-7. Marie was just thankful there were people willing to stay out with me. I started feeling better at 9:00pm. We wandered the streets and found a nice eatery. Then went back to bed. We will volunteer for the next few days and return home on Thursday. I will post photos and updates.

Lucy

Marie found online that the bones of "Lucy" one of the oldest hominids ever found. We changed our plans for the weekend and drove to Seattle. On the drive, I registered my car and retitled it in Oregon. I officially own my own car. It also has Crater Lake plates!

We stopped in Kelso, Washington and ate dinner with Marie's childhood friend Lee. We ate deep fat fried onions, mushrooms and I had fish and chips. Great roadtrip food....

We also called the people we were staying with on the road to see if it was okay. Luckily Melody and Ira are gracious and said of course. We got in late Friday night and hit the hay.

On Saturday we woke up mid morning had breakfast at the house and drove to the Pacific Science Center. I had been there when I was in 2nd grade and one of the only things I remember is that they had lights on a wall that moved as fast as the fastest sprinter at the time. We would push the button and try and out run it. It wasn't there anymore. We walked into the DINOSAUR exhibit.

I am a little bit of a geek with dinos. We then walked through a great Earth and space center followed by a great amount of genetics information. It was impressive how much they had on genetics. Marie was also thrilled that there were Naked Mole Rats. Her favorite part of the Portland zoo is the rats and there was a whole section dedicated to them.

We then wandered through the bugs and insects section. Melody, our host, is a master's student studying spider DNA. She likes the creepy crawlies. We got to go to a tropical butterfly house too.

Then it was time for us to enter the Lucy exhibit. We walked into the maze of people and Ethiopian artifacts. The exhibit had much of the history of Ethiopia and it's culture. I learned much more about King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I read a little about Ras Tafari this summer before our trip to Jamaica so I had a little (very little) Ethiopian history in my head.

There were pictures and descriptions about the history of the confluence of Islam, Judiasm and Christianity. There was also a place that described Ethiopian food. Marie loved the place to smell the spices.

They then had a place where you transition into Paleoarcheology and how they find fossils. I liked this part. It discussed index and trace fossils as well as absolute and radiometric dating. YEAH! They then had a ramp set up with casts of fossils of all the hominid skulls ever found, or at least the most complete skulls. It started with ancestors who were more like chimps than humans, and moved up through Lucy's species into homo erectus, homo neanderthals, and homo sapians. Then you enter a small room and the bones were there. It was incredible, awe inspiring and silent. I sat looking at the 3.18 million year bones for about 3 minutes in silence. They also had replicas of the bones set as if they were in a complete skeleton, they had a representation of what Lucy would have looked like and a mural moving through all the hominids into homo sapiens. I wish my students could have been there. It was a very good way of explaning evolution, and human evolution which as we all know is a touchy subject. I have students this year trying to complain about it during a physical science class. There were no cameras allowed sadly.

Marie and I drove home that night after we stopped for some Ethiopian food. Marie also picked up an Ethiopian cook book.
Today we graded papers, ran, cleaned the house, and got ready for our week. Just two more weeks until Spring Break!

Itzhak

Marie and I bought tickets to the symphony as they had a special guest, Itzhak Perlman. I was in middle school when I first heard the Schindler's List soundtrack and began to appreciate his work. I have seen him numerous times on television and he was at the Innaguration this year. We showed up as the doors were closing and ran to our seats. The orchestra was a lot smaller than we were used to. They tuned and the doors opened on the side of the stage. Thunderous applause and a standing ovation welcomed the special guest, who has limited use of his legs so he uses crutches attached to his arms. His labored walk to the front only made the crowd cheer louder in anticipation for getting to hear his violin.

They began quickly, and danced through the first song. 16 minutes may seem like a long song, but when you are listening to such amazing music, it went by in a flash. It was the first symphony I had attended that people clapped between every movement.

Mr. Perlman walked off to a standing ovation, came back for a curtain call, and then we all realized,...thats it. We won't get to hear any more. A larger group came out, and Itzhak conducted a piece by Schubert. He told the audience that Schubert told him he did not want the clapping between each movement. He was ok with it, but Schubert wouldn't let us.

There was an intermission and then he came back out to conduct a Brahms Symphony. This was the first time I had been to a symphony that I had not heard any of the pieces played prior. The Brahms was fun, the first movement was 20 minutes long and there were hints to his lullaby.

Marie and I feel cultured. We have been to three symphony concerts this season, a ballet and a few other concerts. Next season there are some great ones including Beethoven's 5th, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Itzhak is coming back.

Pac-10 Basketball

I need to apologize to all the Beaver fans out there. On February 21st, I attended the first University of Oregon Mens Basketball PAC -10 win of the season. I sat with Marie's Dad and friend who had season tickets and watched the ducks beat the Cardinal of Stanford. I was invited back as a possible good luck charm for the next weekend. I told the men that I would be sporting Beaver colors and not the yellow and Green of the U of O. Sadly to say I may have been the lucky charm for the Ducks as they came back in the second half to cream the beavers. Sad Sad year for civil war games that I attended.