America is SCIENCE-Y!
My inner former-interpreter-at-the-Franklin-Institute LOVED all of the great science we were exposed to on this trip. The Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park was great -- lots of pretty scenery (red white and blue mountains!? how patriotic!), fossilized wood, and a Route 66 memorial (can you have a memorial for a road?!).
I also LOVED the Garden of the Gods, right outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where there were tons of beautiful red rocks, perfect for a hike before heading south to Santa Fe. I was particularly excited to discover vertical stratification on this rock, which means that the sediment gathered horizontally, then the rock got smushed into a vertical position, and then it eroded away to look like what we see today. Fact: science is so cool.
Our last day, Mat and I went to the beautiful Griffith Observatory in LA, which included a lovely planetarium show (that I half slept through, not because it wasn't interesting, but because I am physically incapable of staying awake during those), a lovely hike towards the Hollywood sign, and a wonderfully well-curated and interactive set of science exhibits. The periodic table of the elements was my favorite (mostly because it made me want to sing the Tom Lehrer song).
America is musical theater-y!
This trip featured SO MANY opportunities to plays songs from musicals that featured the places we were visitings. This is not exactly a new phenomenon for me -- I'm pretty sure every time I go to New York, there's a different NY-related musical theater song in my head, but this was 3,000 MILES of musical theater references (it's a good thing Miriam likes most musicals, or our friendship would be in jeopardy . . .).
If you were following along with #3000milestoHUC, you'll know the answers to this game. First person to name a musical theater song or lyric to go with all of these places that we passed gets a drink on me!
1. Ohio
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Jackson County, Missouri
4. Kansas City, Missouri
5. Oakley, Kansas (okay, no musical actually goes with this place, but you should be able to guess what show was in my head)
6. Santa Fe, New Mexico
7. Los Angeles, California
OH, and speaking of musical theater – remember that time Lea Michele showed up in a sushi restaurant two tables away from us? When we got to California, I got to meet up with some of my favorite former DC residents, Seth and Stacy K. I asked them to give Schutz, Miri, and I an LA experience for dinner one evening, and they seriously delivered! We got to a snazzy (but not too snazzy) sushi restaurant in West Hollywood, and as we were walking to our table, Lea Michele walked in! We were very polite and didn’t take pictures or try to talk to her, but needless to say, we were very excited about this celebrity sighting.
Next up: more reasons why this road trip gave me a crush on America: it contains a lot of yummy food and it's surprisingly energy-diverse!!
2 comments:
The purple flower is so pretty! I want to go there
I appreciate that your caveat that I like "most musicals."
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