Did you know?

We have now traveled 8,222 miles on our trip and we have seen a few strange things. Did you know that there is a complete replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee? I didn’t.

Ask Your Senator

Well, the plan to go to Florida for a shuttle launch is scrubbed. They left the shuttle out in the rain and it got hail damage. Silly buggers.

If you're ever going to Washington, contact your senator to hook you up. Robin e-mailed Senator Cantwell and within a couple of days received the following reply. How awesome is that?

Dear Robin Messec,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding Congressional Tours. We were able to schedule the following tours for you:

Capitol--Your tour is scheduled for Mar. 2nd at 9:30AM. Please arrive at our office, Suite 511 of the Dirksen Senate Building, and a staff member will guide you through the Capitol. From Union Station, head south towards the Capitol on 2nd street NE. Pass the barricade and turn onto C Street, and head towards the north end of the Dirksen Building.

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/cc_map.cfm

All liquid substances, including perfume and lotion, are prohibited on the tour and will be confiscated by Capitol Hill Police, so please consume all beverages before the tour. Also please note that backpacks and large bags are not permitted.

National Archives– The tour is on Mar. 6th at 9:45AM. The National Archives is located 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW, enter on the special events entrance at 7th and constitution. This hands-on tour lasts approximately 90 minutes and is recommended for young adults and older.

Library of Congress– Your tour is scheduled for Mar. 7th at 3:45PM. Please arrive at the Jefferson Building on First Ave SE 15 minutes prior to your scheduled tour to allow time to go through security.

Kennedy Center Tour – Your tour is scheduled for Mar. 6th at 4:30PM. Your name will be on the reservations list at the information desk. Free concerts are offered Monday through Friday evening at 6:00pm. There is a free shuttle to the Kennedy Center from the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, which services the Blue and Orange metro lines.

Again, thank you for contacting our office. Please let us know if anyone in your party has any accessibility needs. If you have any questions, please contact me at 202-224-9454. Also, please include your requested tour dates on all future correspondence.

Sincerely,

Matthew Souza
Staff Assistant/ Tour Coordinator
Office of Senator Maria Cantwell
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510
202.224.9454
http://cantwell.senate.gov

Alive and Well

Don't worry, we are alive and well. We survived Mardi Gras in New Orleans and I am trying in vain to capture our experience in words - it may take a while.

We are in Memphis, Tennessee right now and are headed down to Beale Street to the annual Zydeco Festival. Tomorrow we are starting to make our way toward Washington D.C. If you happen to be anywhere between the two cities let us know - we are looking for places to go and people to meet!

Friendly Louisiana

After spending the night in Baton Rouge, we headed back to Lafayette and the land of Acadiana. The word Cajun is actually a bastardization of the word Acadian - referring to the people in southern Louisiana who were exiled from Acadia (eastern Canada) in the mid 1700's. We had a great time exploring the area and talking with people.

We found a coupon on in a local paper for a great room deal at a casino in Marksville, so off we went. The drive here was beautiful - swampy areas interspersed with rolling hills and forest, great old houses and farms, crawfish ponds and cattle. We couldn't check into the room until 4PM so we explored the town a bit and decided to try something new - a drive through daiquiri place.

There are no "open container" laws in Louisiana and liquor is available everywhere. You can buy hard alcohol at Wal-Mart and they have the same "beer barns" as they do in Texas where you can drive though to get you libations, but they go a bit further here. At the particular barn we went to they advertised daiquiris, shots, and fresh boiled crawfish. Yes, my friends, you can drive up to this place, take a shot, grab a daiquiri, beer and crawfish (and maybe a fifth of whiskey for later) and drive along your merry way. The woman there explained to us that as long as they did not put the straw in the daiquiri for us it was legal. I guess they must give you a shot in a covered cup as well. I don't know about that one - we weren't about to try it. We ended up with a ‘Jamaican me Crazy’ daiquiri as it was the favorite of the proprietor. It was so sweet that we could only drink about 1/4 of it, but it was good experience.

We checked into our room at the Paragon casino ($39.95) and hung out for a while before heading down to the Grill & Oyster Bar. We ordered two oyster shooters and a pound of boiled crawfish. This being our first time eating the mudbugs we asked the waitress to explain to us how it was done – which she did, giggling a bit at our naiveté. They were delicious. We had just finished them when another couple sat down at the table beside us. John and Liz were from the area and told us all about the best places to go, and great not-to-be-missed sights. We had a fabulous time talking to them. When we ordered a second pound of crawfish John showed us a much easier way to peel them – and showed us what we were doing wrong with the head sucking. You see – the part you eat on a crawfish is the tail – it’s pretty small – so a lot of people also “suck the heads”. We had done this, but weren’t getting much. We didn’t realize you needed to crush the head and then suck to get all the juices! It was messy and fabulous. After much more conversation and peeling, John and Liz stood to go. We said our goodbyes and he told us he had taken care of our check!! Not only did we have a fabulous time talking to these people, they had even bought us dinner. Louisiana hospitality can’t be beat.

Louisiana Gators

After spending the night in Lake Charles, we decided to head South and spend the day driving part of the Creole Nature Trail, then head up to Lafayette.

The trail heads through the heart of Creole country (and incidentally, through a town called Creole). In order to preserve the natural wetlands of this area, the state has, since the 50's, implemented an intricate system of land management that includes flooding tens of thousands of acres of formerly dry land. The flooding is controlled through a network of levees and flood gates. In addition to controlling water levels, the gates also control salinity levels which are used to help control foreign species in the area.

We stopped at an information station and it became obvious we had come in the off-season. There was nobody about other than a few construction workers and much of the station was closed off. The signs describing the life cycle of the native alligators explained that in the winter the gators are dormant, don’t feed, and usually only come up for air. Our hopes of viewing gators in the wild were dashed.

After leaving the information station we noticed a cut-off for a small nature loop. We took this (again, the only people around other than a park ranger that left after a few minutes). In addition to seeing a ton of waterfowl, we actually saw alligators! Since it was a nice warm day I guess they decided to come out and get some sun.





This area was hit particularly hard by hurricane Rita in 2005 and it still looks like the locals are in the early stages of rebuilding. We had just recently realized that there was still a lot of rebuilding left to do but nothing prepared us for what we saw. Even far inland there were huge debris piles on the side of the road that used to be mobile homes, garages, and even whole houses. The strange thing is that these piles weren't even on building lots, but had been blown/floated in from who knows where. As we got closer to community centers, the signs of rebuilding became evident. On the road we passed many mobile homes being hauled in, as well as truck loads of building materials.

It was strange to pull into a small town and see 20 or 30 identical mobile homes sitting 10 feet up on cinderblock legs. It was sad to see those 20 or 30 homes sitting amid 50 or 60 debris piles where rebuilding had not even begun. We didn't stop for photos; we'll probably get some later in the trip.

Heading back up towards Lafayette we were able to see many more alligators along the bar ditches and swamps. If this is the off-season, this area must really be infested with alligators. We also saw many fields that were flooded about a foot deep. These fields had a basket placed about every 500 square feet. It didn't take long for us to figure out this is where the mud bugs (crawfish) come from. The sheer number of these fields was incredible. I guess it's an easy way for families to make some cash and explains why you can buy crawfish locally for less than $3/pound.

Will do a separate post on food later. The food down here is incredible and alternates between pretty healthy (boiled shrimp and crawfish) to incredibly not healthy (pretty much everything else).

Pre-Party Party

We went down to Galveston on Thursday to see what we could see. Unfortunately, it was cold and windy - not at all pleasant for strolling the beach, so we headed into historic downtown and found that there were to be Mardi Gras "first weekend" festivities - so we stayed.

Friday we cruised down to the Southwest end of the island and checked out all of the houses - they are all built on raised pylons. It was a bit weird to see Texas style suburb housing divisions, except elevated. We saw a few interesting birds, but it was not a nice day so we didn't get out and walk the beach.

At 3:00PM we headed into old town and decided to hang out for happy hour. It was a bit weird because everyone was ready for a party, but no one was there - very strange feeling.

We alternated between JuJu's bar and Starbucks for the evening until things started to pick up. I went out at about 6:30 and took these shots of the almost deserted town and I got a picture of early partiers throwing me my first beads.

The action picked up and soon EVERY ONE was in the street yelling up at the balconies for beads!

It was quite strange to stand back and watch the crowd. There was a lot of general yelling and whistling and every once in a while a pocket would form. A young woman or two would suddenly become completely surrounded by a huge mass of guys shoving cameras and camcorders at them because they got the feeling that they were about to flash for a particularly enticing string of beads. It was really pretty weird. Men who you would not normally think of as depraved pervs ran out of nowhere and surrounded these women on the off chance that they would get to capture a picture of them flashing their breasts at the balcony. Sometimes they did. The men would then disperse and look for another likely flasher. Meanwhile, the woman who flashed the balcony usually did not get the beads she was after because there were too many people crowded around her and they were snatched away while she was putting her chest to rights.

Needless to say, John and I went with the shouting, yelling and smiling method rather than the flashing method and we managed to score a HEFTY amount of beads.

John pleading for beads.

We went into Poor Michael's for Blues and Brews and had a fabulous time listening to the band and watching the people.

It was a great way to get a little taste of what we will be doing later this week when we hit New Orleans.

McDonald Observatory

On our way from El Paso to Lampasas we stopped for a day in the Davis mountains to visit the McDonald Observatory. Those of you who listen to NPR will recognize McDonald as being the origin of the StarDate program that airs daily. It was fascinating! There were only 8 people there on the day tours so we got to do a lot of exploring and asking questions.

We started with wandering through the deserted visitors center and then saw a short film on the history of the observatory. It is part of the University of Texas and contains 3 LARGE telescopes as well as many smaller ones.

After the film we heard a presentation about the sun and got to view live images of it from one of the telescopes. We learned about sun spots, solar winds, etc.

Then came the big tour of the two biggest telescopes, the 2.7 meter and the 9.2 meter (the measurement refers to the diameter of the mirrors in the telescope).

It was fascinating to learn about how they are used, see how they move, open the dome for viewing, etc. This is a view of the "old style" 2.7 meter telescope.

The newest one is actually used strictly for spectroscopy and was built for about 20% of what an old style telescope costs and is the 4th largest in the world.

After the tour we hung out for a while and waited for the twilight program where we learned about the constellations, and participated in a living model of the solar system (I was Mars). The temperature dropped significantly and the crowd got bigger as the time for the star party approached.




We trooped outside, bundled up as much as possible and viewed different objects through the telescopes that they had set up behind the observatory. We saw Saturn, two different nebulae, a star cluster, the Andromeda galaxy, and Mercury. We then headed inside for a film, coffee, and most of all, warmth.

Then it was back outside to do a "constellation tour" where we all stood around looking up and the guide had a high powered flash light and pointed out the different constellations, talked about their mythology, etc. What we were really doing though was waiting for the moon to rise. As soon as the moon peeked over the rim of the hill the stars in the lower part of the sky disappeared.
The moon had been full the night before and was amazingly bright. As soon as it made its appearance we all headed back out to the telescopes to view the moon. It was a fabulous, but bone chilling night. We were most amazed at what we could actually see with the naked eye. The observatory is in one of the darkest points of North America so we could see more stars than we ever thought possible.

John says:

"One of the coolest things I saw this evening was a dust band in the ecliptic plane.

When looking up at the night sky, the normal band of bright stars (the Milky Way) is the disk of our galaxy (actually, just one of the arms; we're about 2/3 of the way out from the galactic core). However, our solar system is actually tilted away from the galactic plane. The plane of the solar system, across which the planets and asteroids (mostly) orbit is called the ecliptic plane.

Normally this is invisible, though you can sort of imagine it as an arc across the sky if several of the planets are visible at once. On this night shortly after dusk, however, the sun was reflecting back on dust left over from the formation of the solar system and you could actually see the ecliptic plane arcing across the sky. It was really incredible!"

Lost and Found

We found this at a Starbucks outside of Houston. It appears to be someones list of potential romantic candidates. I submitted it to Found Magazine, but couldn't resist posting about it here.

Candidate #1 (Terry) - she hasn't met him yet, but he is an attorney who "takes control" - not a good sign.

Candidate #2 (Bob) - she also hasn't met yet, but sent her a mushy email from Portugal, AND - he's bald, apparently important to note that.

Candidate #3 (Keith) - he has not made much of an impression on our author, she knows who he works for, that he plays golf and (I think) is in a band. She doesn't seem impressed.

Candidate #4 (Ted) - OK, this one made even less of an impression, he's just an architect.

Candidate # 5 (Kevin) - he somehow gave the author the impression that he doesn't like Jesus. This in itself is a bit odd. I can see someone saying, "I'm not very religious" or "I'm an atheist" or "I don't like to discuss religion", or even, "I don't like the Christian religion", but for some reason "I don't like Jesus" seems a bit strange. AND he's never in Kerrville for goodness sakes - definitely a NO.

Candidate #6 (Rick) - OH - this one is from e-harmony, he has to be good, right? Apparently not, forget the personality and looks, he has bad teeth - AND he ate off his knife! No second date for you!

Candidate #7 (Mark) - a guy from San Antonio who she met at Rice Fest, hmmm, sounds like a long distance relationship. Oh - an electrician/stalker - not good, honey, not good at all.

Candidate #8 (Kevin) - clearly her favorite so far. Not only is he a cutie-pie, but they have the most chemistry together. Can she get over the fact that he is 24 and NOT ESTABLISHED? Maybe he is just too young.

Candidate #9 (Sammy) - the dentist loser. This does not bode well, but she apparently went out with him 4 TIMES, even though he is short! Maybe he paid. Perhaps he should not have told her he is on anti-depressants.

Candidate #10 (Mike) - a male nurse who is involved in government disaster relief who she met at Rice Fest. Why did she feel the need to put "male nurse" rather than just "nurse"? He speaks 5 languages and is a world traveler! Does she put liberal down in the notes as a bad thing? In what way is he "becoming aware of God"? AND, what did he say/do to give her that impression. Again - not something I can see someone saying directly in conversation.

Well, that's it. I didn't notice until the last one that there are exactly 10 guys on the list - I hope it's not her top 10. All things considered, I think she should call Mike.

The Road to Phoenix

We have been in Phoenix for the last day and 1/2, but have done nothing interesting. It rained all day yesterday so went to Sears and got the car fixed (new tires, alignment, etc).

The road from Blythe to Phoenix was an interesting one - we took the back way through national forest areas, agriculture, and finally box canyon road. Here are a few pictures along the way.

John enjoys a grapefruit from trees lining the edges of a vineyard. They were NOT trees for harvest so we felt ok sampling them.

Box Canyon Road was really fun - we felt like we were in a Jeep commercial. Here are a few shots of the canyon. We got out to play for a while.