Weekend Stuff

Classes started for Kris on Monday and for Karen and me on Wednesday. It has been a busy week. Kris has also been involved in soccer. I got a good pic of her this morning. Tonight we went to another Peoria Chiefs game (Kris and Katie earned passes through the library reading program) and they won. There were fireworks there, too.

41st Birthday and 17th Anniversary

Yesterday was fun; we visited a local reptile show (some friends of ours were exhibiting) and a botanical garden. Turning 41 was not as scary as turning 31 was.

Soccer Season Begins

We have goldfinches visiting our suflowers. Kris's first soccer game of the season was tonight - it ended in a 3-3 tie (she is #49 at right in the picture). Katie said her own prayer tonight instead of the "God Bless..." one we taught her. It was something like, "Thank you for ice cream, thank you for soccer practice, help us behave for a long time, thank you for school. Amen." Then she fell asleep in a goofy position.

Illinois State Fair

I've been really busy as the semester approaches, so my posts will be less frequent I think. On Monday the family went to the Illinois State Fair to help with the American Chemical Society booth. The weather was less hot and stormy than last year. After our four hour shift we explored the fair. We saw a couple of harness races, which was interesting. As you can see Kris and Katie got their drivers licenses, too.

What was this?

In the spirit of the "Ask This Old House" segment, "What is it?" I ask "What was this?" I found it while I was fossil hunting, so it could be mining related, but I have found all sorts of junk back in the woods ranging from washing machines to bicycles to lawn chairs and even a car. Any ideas? I added my rock hammer for scale. Not a whole lot of other pix from the weekend. On Saturday morning a local grocery store had an event to be attended by the cartoon characters Dora and Diego. They were both in the picture with Katie - they were a bit different than I expected. Ah well, Katie did not really know who they were anyway. She enjoyed the police car a little more.

Home Again

We left Arkansas this morning. We did not feel the teeny earthquake in southeastern Missouri (blue dot near the town of Campbell) at six this morning - the New Madrid fault system has been having a bunch of very weak quakes lately. The ride back was long, but we did stop at the Missouri/Mississippi River confluence to visit the Camp Dubois (Lewis and Clark camp) historical site. I had visited it before (see the entry for April 18, 2009) and now my family could see it, too. That's a 15-stripe flag in the picture. I saw an 1802 map that spelled the Wisconsin River as the Ouixconsin River. Last pic is of a couple buzzards in the sky behind a cemetary - sort of creepy. We made it back home this evening. Good, long trip. Both glad and sad that it is over.

Hot Springs National Park

This morning we went to Hot Springs National Park - arguably the first of the National Parks. (therefore it is the first of the National Park quarters that start this year). Kris earned yet another Junior Ranger badge with Karen's help, while I wandered around with Katie. The Visitor's Center is in one of the old fancy bathhouses. I guess we were thinking they would be like Roman style pools - these were more like individual stalls. All sorts of bathing and healing and spa gadgetry was used and some of it looked pretty wierd. The water from these springs was HOT (over 140 F - I had thought the water would be merely warm). We saw some hot springs and fountains outside, and even with the August heat and humidity we could sometimes feel the heat from these waterworks. We wish we had more time/opportunity to explore, but that excessive August heat and humidity kept us off the trails. We drove to the northwest corner of Arkansas to Osceola in the flat land near the Mississippi River. The soybean field in the pic is behind our hotel. We would have gone farther but we were locked into our reservation. When I asked the person at the front desk what there was to do around here she said, nothing, really. Ah well.

Diamond Day

We left Denton this morning and headed over to Arkansas, making it to Crater of Diamonds State Park in the early afternoon. See: http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/. This is a place I have long wanted to see and actually had figured I never would get the chance. Then when I realized that I was traveling through southwestern Arkansas I just had to visit. It is believed that an underwater volcano erupted during the Cretaceous Era (think dinosaurs) at that location. This was a very rare volcano that carried diamonds up to the earth's surface. So I did get to visit a volcano this year, just a really old one and the only traces I saw of its existence were some volcanic rocks in the soil. The diamond hunting area is basically a big occasionally plowed dirt field surrounded by woods. We rented some screens and supplies (plus some I brought from home) and ventured into the field for a few hours to hunt. With temps over 100 F again, we opted for wet seiving where we could work in the water in the shade. The experience gave me a lot more appreciation for those who make a subsistence living doing this sort of stuff, say, in Africa. We did not find diamonds (the odds are about 1 diamond for every 100 paid admissions - though someone found one yesterday) and the heat was quite uncomfortable, but other than that we enjoyed making the attempt. After that we traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas. The hills are pretty around here. After dinner we played a damp game of minature golf -this area has humidity to go with the heat. Katie's first shot (ever?) was very close to a hole in one!

BCCE (Day 2)

Today I attended BCCE again, while Karen, Katie, and Kris went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (it included a planetarium). They forgot the camera, but assure me that they had fun there. Temps of 102 F, but dry. Here is a pic of the waffle made by our hotel waffle maker and also a reminder that we are in the south. By the way, on all 3 nights we have stayed at the LaQuinta Inn in Denton a bunch of small birds have come to roost for the evening in 2 trees by the pool. I'm guessing maybe 200 birds at about 8:30 each night. Kind of cool.

BCCE (Day 1)

We went to church this morning and then Karen and the girls went to the Dallas Zoo this afternoon and shot these pictures. It was fabulous, but hot (104). They kept themselves as wet as possible and in the shade. Today was the first day of the 21st Biennial Conference in Chemical Education. My talk went well - there were 25-30 people in the room and they did not all run away. Also presenting in the session was emeritus professor Stanley Manahan, who wrote the Environmental Chemistry book that I had as an undergraduate student years ago, and Geoff Rayner-Canham, one of the authors of our current Descriptive Inorganic text at Bradley.