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Learning stuff and Island Park loop
Apr. 30th, 2013 08:49 amYou learn stuff every day. For example, my second grader is preparing a class report (a Referat--I guess we DO do them in America!) on penguins. One thing she/we learned yesterday is that not only do penguins mate for life, they get engaged by searching the entire beach for the perfect stone to present to their beloved. Awwww.
Another thing I learned while googling to see what was real and what was made up in a time travel book is that Siebenburgen = Transylvania. I had NO IDEA. Siebenburgen is a traditionally German region of Romania (like the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic). I KNOW someone from Siebenburgen. It's just a regular place. Except that it is the German name for Transylvania! This is the thing: learning stuff in different countries/languages isn't just a matter of substituting one word in one language for another in another language. You learn about entirely different things depending on which language you use. (And now of course my mind is trying to fit the very nice lady I know who took up piano as an adult with hello, Transylvania!)
Saturday we got out of town for a bit, which was nice after the long winter. The older boys were off camping in various places with the scouts, but the rest of us plus SIL hopped in the car and took off for Clark County, population 900 and something. Basically, you drive to the sand dunes and keep going over volcanic wasteland until you're at the base of the Centennial Mountains, which divide Idaho from Montana. It was pretty, and pretty remote! There was still snow on the ground, and the animals acted like they had no idea what a car was. There's about 11 miles of unpaved road once you hit the Yale-Kilgore Road (it connects I-15 with Island Park, but not many people actually drive it, with good reason).
(Yes, that's the Tetons as seen from Island Park in the photo above.) We saw sandhill cranes, ospreys, chipmunks, a groundhog (at least, it was too small for a marmot), a MOOSE in the middle of the road, a pronghorn (also hoofing it down the road), and a lot of buffalo (on the road). This is a good time of year to see wildlife down low because it's still pretty snowy up high.
We drove past Henry's Lake, which I've always wanted to see, and up around the mountains to Quake Lake, which my SIL has always wanted to see. Quake Lake is a really pretty region where you think you might want to go camping. Except that in 1957, 28 campers died when a 7.5 earthquake hit, causing the mountain across the river to break apart and spray across the valley at 100 miles an hour. The landslide dammed the river and voila, Quake Lake. Pretty, but eerie.
After swinging through West Yellowstone, we headed back into Idaho, stopping at Big Springs for lunch. So pretty!
Sawtell Peak in Island Park:
I can't wait until it's green up there!
Another thing I learned while googling to see what was real and what was made up in a time travel book is that Siebenburgen = Transylvania. I had NO IDEA. Siebenburgen is a traditionally German region of Romania (like the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic). I KNOW someone from Siebenburgen. It's just a regular place. Except that it is the German name for Transylvania! This is the thing: learning stuff in different countries/languages isn't just a matter of substituting one word in one language for another in another language. You learn about entirely different things depending on which language you use. (And now of course my mind is trying to fit the very nice lady I know who took up piano as an adult with hello, Transylvania!)
Saturday we got out of town for a bit, which was nice after the long winter. The older boys were off camping in various places with the scouts, but the rest of us plus SIL hopped in the car and took off for Clark County, population 900 and something. Basically, you drive to the sand dunes and keep going over volcanic wasteland until you're at the base of the Centennial Mountains, which divide Idaho from Montana. It was pretty, and pretty remote! There was still snow on the ground, and the animals acted like they had no idea what a car was. There's about 11 miles of unpaved road once you hit the Yale-Kilgore Road (it connects I-15 with Island Park, but not many people actually drive it, with good reason).
(Yes, that's the Tetons as seen from Island Park in the photo above.) We saw sandhill cranes, ospreys, chipmunks, a groundhog (at least, it was too small for a marmot), a MOOSE in the middle of the road, a pronghorn (also hoofing it down the road), and a lot of buffalo (on the road). This is a good time of year to see wildlife down low because it's still pretty snowy up high.
We drove past Henry's Lake, which I've always wanted to see, and up around the mountains to Quake Lake, which my SIL has always wanted to see. Quake Lake is a really pretty region where you think you might want to go camping. Except that in 1957, 28 campers died when a 7.5 earthquake hit, causing the mountain across the river to break apart and spray across the valley at 100 miles an hour. The landslide dammed the river and voila, Quake Lake. Pretty, but eerie.
After swinging through West Yellowstone, we headed back into Idaho, stopping at Big Springs for lunch. So pretty!
Sawtell Peak in Island Park:
I can't wait until it's green up there!
