Southern Forest World

Olivia's class took a short field trip to Southern Forest World last week.  Since the field trip only lasted about two hours- and since the location is less than a 10 minute drive from my school- I was able to go with her on this trip. I've never been able to go with either child on a field trip before, so I was psyched to get to go on this one.  Southern Forest World is a neat museum with several exhibits about the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of trees in our area of the country.  The kids went to several "stations" and learned all sorts of different things.  At the first station, the kids learned about camouflage and participated in an activity that helped demonstrate the importance of blending in. The second station took us on a tour of various forestry exhibits.  We learned about how to count rings on trees and about the importance of replanting.  The final station was a nature trail.  Here the students saw how to get sap out of pine trees.  All of the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves.

 The museum has recently come under a new director, and she is doing wonderful things to "update" the exhibits.  There were "coming soon" signs everywhere.  This "spider web" net appeared to be one of the new additions, and it was very popular with the kids.

And finally, no trip to Southern Forest World would be complete without visiting Stuckie the dog.  Years ago, this poor dog chased some animal up a tree and got stuck (thus the name).  The conditions inside of the tree preserved his body.  He was found in the 1980s and given to the museum.  This is without a doubt the most popular exhibit.  Petrified dog = cool.

Running and Recovery

Before I begin this post- I want to take a moment and offer my sympathies to the runners, organizers, volunteers, and spectators of the Boston Marathon.  I don't understand how anyone could do the terrible thing that those two young men did.  In the face of this adversity, though, the residents of Boston and the running community as a whole has reacted in the best possible way.  I'm pleased to see that these criminals have been brought to justice.  I am proud to live in this great land of ours and to be part of such a wonderful community of runners.  

Now- on to recent local running events.  The last time I blogged about running was immediately following my first full marathon.  If you'll recall, I injured my left knee during this event and even sought the advice of a knee specialist.  I had to lay off of my knee until it felt better and then he said that I could slowly return to running.  I looked at my racing calendar to see what I had coming up and noticed that the Gate River Run- one of my favorite races- was coming up.  I certainly didn't want to miss that.  So, I was very careful in how I proceeded with the recovery runs. 

I decided to enter a 5K in town- the local Fund Run- on the weekend before the Gate so that I could be sure that my knee was going to hold up.  I ran that race with no difficulty and finished in 26.14- which qualified me for first in age group.  This ended up being a pretty fun race.  Quincy and my cousin Jessica both ended up running.  Cassie was home that weekend, so she came too.  We all placed in our age groups.  In addition to this, Jessica brought her little girl Natalie to run the 1-mile race.  Natalie did a great job.  Franklin ran with her- so I guess this makes it his first race as well.  I like running in my hometown because you never know who you're going to run into.  As I was running down one of the roads, I noticed a large white van (my mom) that had stopped to let the runners past.  I waved as I passed.  Cassie was right behind me and she stopped and did a dance.  I was so happy to reach the finish line with no knee problems.  Yay!!!

The next weekend was the Gate River Run 15K.  I LOVE this race.  This and the Peachtree Road Race are probably my two favorite.  I traveled to Jacksonville with Quincy and Maura.  We arrived in plenty of time to pick up our race numbers, stretch, and hit the port-a-potty before the start.  As usual, there were a large number of participants in this race.  I finished in 1:24:58.

Next up, the Swamp Run 10K.  This is an off-road course through the Okefenokee Swamp.  I've run this race several times, and the course is hit-or-miss.  One year the dirt wasn't packed down very well and I spent the whole race worried about twisting my ankle.  Another year the mosquitos were horrible.  This year was actually a little chilly.  I started the race strong, but didn't finish that way.  At mile 4 my other knee (the right one) started hurting.  All I could think as I was running is "Are you kidding me?"  I finished the race in 56.05, which is not what I was hoping for.  This race awards the top 5 in each age group, so I ended up getting a medal for fourth place.  Quincy also placed in her age group.

I didn't go to the doctor for the new knee because all he had told me to do last time was stay off it for awhile and then start back slowly with the running. I have been doing some research on how I can avoid these problems in the future, and I am implementing some of the things that I've learned.  After taking over two weeks off, I started training again.  Last weekend I ran in the SCA 5K and finished in 26.08 (3rd in age group) with NO knee pain whatsoever.  I've also run all this week with no pain.  I hope this continues.  I hate being sidelined.  

USS Alabama

 On the way to New Orleans we stopped for a few hours in Mobile to visit the USS Alabama at Battleship Park.  The battleship, of course, was the star attraction- but there was also a submarine and numerous tanks and aircraft to explore.  Upon seeing the size of the battleship, Owen became very excited.  He ran ahead of us up the ramp stating that this was "going to be awesome".  We got to roam all over the battleship.  It is a large boat, but I certainly wouldn't want to be on it in the middle of the sea.  I have a whole new respect for those serving in the Navy.  As tight as things were on the battleship- they were much, much tighter on the submarine.  Once again, lots of respect for those serving on submarines.  That has got to be tough.   The kids (and adults) really liked poking around the ships and checking out what life at sea would be like.

Yep- my family tried to throw me in the brig, but I escaped.

This is a replica of the Hunley.  Can you imagine being underwater in this little thing?

Steamboat Natchez

On our last day in NOLA we channeled our inner Mark Twain and took a trip on the Steamboat Natchez.  The Natchez is one of only a handful of steam-powered paddle-wheeled boats left in the U.S. today.  This was a two-hour cruise on the Mississippi River.  Two hours sounds like a long time, but it was really quite enjoyable.  We were able to see a lot of neat sites along the river- including large ships and barges, interesting buildings, an oil refinery, and the Dixie sugar plant.  There was a guide narrating our journey over the loudspeaker so that we knew what we were looking at.  I actually learned a little about shipping on the Mississippi. While the narration was happening on the outside, there was a band playing on the inside of the ship.  We went inside to hear them, but didn't stay long.  We much preferred being outdoors.

The guide also pointed out the areas near the river that were the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina- including the lower ninth ward.  There is still some visible damage today.











Here's Tom and Huck, they liked sitting in the very back so that they could watch the paddle wheel

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We also got to visit the engine room where we saw the engine and learned how it works.














The weather was still unseasonably cold, so Olivia and I purchased new sweatshirts before boarding

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Mardi Gras World

We got into the Mardi Gras spirit in NOLA by visiting Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World.  This is the company that makes the floats for Mardi Gras and various other high-profile parades.  We had to pay to take a tour of the factory / warehouse, but it was worth it (especially since I had a coupon).  Instead of paper tickets, they gave us a special string of mardi gras beads that served as our entrance passes.  The warehouse was huge and had many floats and decorations from past events stored in it.  I couldn't believe how much stuff was in the warehouse.  Even more amazing was that this was only one of eighteen warehouses owned by the company.  On our tour we learned how the floats are made and got to hear about how the parades are sponsored by different krewes.  We also got to see some of the employees working on floats for next years' event.  One really nice worker spotted Owen and Olivia and gave them beads and a toy football that were left over from this year's festivities.

 After the tour was over, we were allowed to wonder around the warehouse and have a closer look at all of the cool floats from years past.  Some of our favorites were Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, a large panda, and the Wizard of Oz.  Olivia wanted see each and every inch of the warehouse.  Owen, on the other hand, was not quite as interested.  To pass the time while us girls did some exploring, Brian and Owen started tossing the toy football around in the warehouse.  Silly boys.

After the tour, we were each given a piece of King Cake- a pastry typically associated with Mardi Gras.  It was pretty good- but not as good as my sister Hannah's cakes =)  This is probably the closest that I will ever get to attending Mardi Gras, so I'm glad that it was a fun experience.

Audubon Everything

There are many attractions in New Orleans bearing the name "Audubon".  There is Audubon park, zoo, aquarium, IMAX, insectarium, and golf course.  We visited every single one of these attractions except of the golf course while on vacation.  We only had one day of good weather during our whole trip (what else is new), and we spent it at the zoo.  We found the zoo to be very nice.  There were plenty of areas for kids to play located throughout the park (see the giant spider web below).  There was even a water-play area.  The animal exhibits were nice.  There was a "bayou" area that showcased different animals native to the area.  This area was particularly well done- as it should be.  There were a few animals that I had never heard of in this section- the nutria (river rat) being one of those.  I guess you learn something new everyday.  Also impressive were the rhino and south american animal exhibits.

After leaving the zoo, we went to see a film at the IMAX theater.  There were several to movies to choose from, but we saw "Hurrican on the Bayou".  We picked this film because it was about New Orleans, the wetlands, and Hurricane Katrina.  I found the movie to be very informative.  Owen fell asleep during the movie (surprise surprise).  Olivia stayed awake, payed attention, and actually learned a few things from the film.  She is also now terrified of hurricanes.  Great.  

As I stated earlier, we only had one day of nice weather.  Wednesday was cold and rainy.  We stayed in our room til mid-morning waiting for the rain to slack off.  One we caught a break in the rain, we made our way to the Audubon Aquarium.  This was a decent aquarium.  There was an interesting "rain forest" area where you could see a huge anaconda.  That was cool. It was no Georgia Aquarium, but it was not a bad way to spend a rainy morning.

  

My favorite of all the Audubon attractions was the Insectarium.  It was surprisingly cool.  There were lots of interesting exhibits featuring all sorts of bugs.  There were also a lot of interactive experiences.  One area- labeled "the underground" took visitors into a dark tunnel where you were surrounded by large, fake bugs.  This was supposed to simulate what lives in the soil under our own feet.  There were also machines that demonstrated how quickly a spider can strike (using a puff of air to simulate the bite) as well as video games that help teach what types of bugs live in which climates.  There was even a 4D theater that presented an animated bug show- which was a lot like "It's Tough to be a Bug" at Animal Kingdom.  The kids even got an opportunity to get hands on by touching a Madagascar hissing cockroach.  Yuk!  I still can't believe that thy touched that thing.

Here's another gross yet cool thing about the Insectarium- they had a cafeteria that gave samples of dishes that used bugs as ingredients.  They even had free pamphlets with recipes on them that you could take with you.  I am still considering making "chocolate chirp cookies".  Brian grabbed a crispy cajun cricket and tried to persuade Owen to eat it, but that wasn't happening.

The last room in the Insectarium was the butterfly garden.  You weren't suppose to touch the butterflies, but when one lands on you what can you do?