The Hills Are Alive

Last August 4th, we spent an amazing day exploring the alpine tundra ecosystem in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, Colorado. Trail Ridge Road, a relentlessly winding and climbing road, led us to this netherland. The long drive was harrowing, with one crossover I will never forget for its petrifying nature. Usually on mountainous drives, I only feel as though I could fall down one side of the mountain (I mean I could at least try to cling to the other side), but at this one spot, I felt as though my precious family could tumble down on either side of the mountain instantly, depending on which way a huge gust of wind happened to blow! Yikes and double yikes!

Once we safely made it up there, it did feel like a scene out of The Sound of Music with acres of grasslands and the treeline miles below us. Sadly for me, it did not seem socially (or rangerly) acceptable to run and spin in wide circles with my arms spread out singing "The Hills Are Alive." Also, I was not wearing one of my Gretl costumes, so it probably wouldn't have felt as authentic as I would have liked. (Or at least that's what I'll forever tell myself!) Wow, it was breathtaking!

The wide expanse is cool, but just as cool are all the tiny flowers and creatures that live on the alpine tundra. We all got down close to see if we could spot the elusive flower that blooms just once after 20 years of growing.


We were given the rare treat of actually walking off the trail and on the tundra itself so that we could better explore its wonders.




The park ranger told us fascinating facts about how some very adaptable plants and animals survive in this harsh environment. Not much can live there, but anything that can has to be tough, tough, tough! I was hoping to spy a pika after we passed around photos of the animals to look for. We were fortunate to see elk resting near the top. Click on any of the photos to see them in more detail.

She also shared a bizarre story of two women whose scholarly dream was to live there for an entire winter season to study the alpine tundra's ecosystem and report on it for an advanced degree program. I was a little sad to learn that they could not make it and had to be rescued before completing their lofty and lonely goal. A memorable part of the story (legend?) was that the women had been great friends, but after living and working together through such harsh conditions and in such tight quarters (I think she called it a "shack"), they never spoke to each other again!

After the ranger's program, we trekked up to the very most tippy tippy top. It was windy and outrageously beautiful up there! This is the one place where I will admit that Mike's decision to purchase us ugly but protective hats really came in handy!


About an hour before we arrived at the alpine tundra, the twins had a spat, so we had to split them across the Continental Divide, and Pops joined in the fun! We also took a short hike and found one of the many pretty lakes in Colorado.












Then later we all settled in for a nice evening watching the kids play in the river outside our friends' cabin. And here they spent hours happily entertained solely by rocks and water and friends!



Funny how reliving an adventure from a year ago can make it feel as fresh as if it happened yesterday!

Ten things we learned at Cub Scout Camp

1. Even plastic magnifying glasses, along with bright sunlight and boys' unending fascination with fire, can be used to make smoke from grass, leaves, sticks, and pieces of mulch.





2. My son has retained enough knife safety knowledge during his 4-year Cub Scout career to demonstrate the Safety Circle accurately without any prompting. As you can see, the circle is employed to make certain that you are a full arm's distance away from others before you sit down to begin whittling.

3. Ninja is a fun game. (Just don't play it with pocketknives.)

4. It's pretty cool when you get to have an officer of the U.S. Navy quiz you on citizenship and flag trivia. Kind of entertaining, too, when the officer enjoys playing the "let's narrow it down" game and the boys end up using the process of elimination to answer a number of things about several events of which they have never heard. For boys entering 4th or 5th grade, this elimination process is easier to do when guessing years than when guessing presidents!

Here's how it went...
Officer: Do any of you know what year Flag Day was instituted?
Scout 1: 1777?
Officer: No, after 1777.
Scout 2: 2001?
Officer: No, before 2001.
Scout 3: 1950?
Officer: No, before 1950.
And so on and so on until we settled on the year 1916.

And this is what it sounded like for a president-related question...
Officer: Do any of you know which president recommended that Flag Day become an official date on the calendar?
Scout 1: George Washington?
Officer: No, after George Washington.
Scout 2: George W. Bush?
Officer: No, before Dubs. (No kidding, that is what he said.)
Scout 3: Abraham Lincoln?
Officer: No, after Lincoln.
Scout 4: John F. Kennedy?
Officer: No, before John F. Kennedy.
Scout 5: Bill Clinton?
Officer (almost giving up): No... maybe one of you moms know? (We didn't.) Well, it was President Woodrow Wilson during the time of World War I. (Better question that could have stopped the madness much earlier: Do any of you know that Woodrow Wilson is the name of a U.S. president? Did you know that he really liked the flag and dearly wished for an entire day to celebrate it?)

And still more interesting trivia and/or teasers for all my fine readers. (By the way, all of these were introduced in the officer's copyrighted and trademarked rapid-fire, question-and-answer, narrow-it-down-to-the-right-date/name/event style.): Did you know that at one time the United States added a star AND a stripe every time a new state joined the Union? (That didn't last long.) Did you know that there are just a few places where the flag is illuminated throughout the night? What are those places? Where is Fort McHenry? In what year was the Battle of Fort McHenry? Any idea what the Battle of Fort McHenry was about? How about the War of 1812? Anyone? Anyone? Do you know the correct order of the following name: Key Francis Scott? OK, so you know that there was an important lady named Betsy, but can anyone come up with her last name? And in what year did she do the thing that made her famous? What year did the U.S. decide to make a flag for our country? What do the colors on our flag stand for? Blue is for...bravery, red is for...blood, white is for... uh... the eagle?? No, it begins with a P. Uh, party? Petunias? No. Parks? No, purity. (Oh right, purity, I'm sure that was on the tip of every kid's tongue!) What year was the flag completed and officially adopted? In what year was the poem that later became lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner written? And then in what year was the song adopted as our national anthem? Who was president then? (Better question: How many presidents can you name?) (I am not exaggerating. This is nearly verbatim how the Citizenship session went. Seriously hilarious.)

5. If you are strategic with your daily personal hygiene schedule, you can almost avoid using the smelly port-o-potties for an entire day. But don't try too hard because you will be forced to drink your weight in water to stay hydrated!

6. Invasive and evasive do not mean the same thing, but apparently the camp does not retain many good editors on its staff (ahem!), so although you might think you are going to learn about evasive species (muskrats? lemur? oppossum? koala bears?), in fact you are about to learn about invasive species (grapevine, buckthorn, garlic mustard). Either way, the boys learned about some plants that are invasive and what can and should be done about that problem, and then they hiked off to clear a lot of garlic mustard from a very woodsy area (while fighting off killer mosquito attacks). Cub Scout Camp is no walk in the park, I'm telling you.

7. Shooting slingshots is super fun, especially when you are given 15 minutes and unlimited ammo. And if your ammo is pinto beans, there will be a lovely bean garden growing in front of the target zone!

8. Amphibians can live in a pond that is completely covered in algae. In fact, they love it there. (See Wordless Wednesday post from July 28.) However, there won't be many fish living in that kind of pond. You will also learn many other fascinating things about trees and plants and fish and animals and the earth on a nature hike led by two fantastic and funny Eagle Scouts.

9. You will get to hear a boatload of groaners and even a few borderline inappropriate jokes at the Friday campfire, and for each year you go to camp, you will understand the innuendo of the jokes a little more, and you will want to hear more and more and more! Also, you will know how to sing the entire song "Announcements, Announements, Annow-wownce-ments. A terrible way to die, a terrible way to die. A terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible way to die. Announcements, Announcements, Annow-wownce-ments. Uh!" And you will get to have conversations with boys in your group that will make you smile and laugh and be thankful that you are getting to be a part of this experience with them. It's especially nice when you find out that one of the boys in the group really likes the days when you are one of the parent volunteers, and that kid is not even your own son.

10. The Boy Scout and Venturing leaders are really great. Well, except possibly the one who, during what was supposed to be a lesson in first aid, decided to mention (albeit in a cautionistic tone) his joy at pulling an all-nighter playing Halo and then becoming addicted to Monster energy drink after trying it the next morning because his friends talked him into it in order to stay awake during class! ...But even that young scout had some excellent leadership skills, which he displayed while patiently guiding and actively encouraging an uncertain boy during archery... I think he just needs to develop a better filter for all the "wise" things he wants to share with the younger boys who are hanging on his every word... I'm just going to hope he develops the filter before they make him an Eagle Scout!

This was the last year of Cub Day Camp for me and my Webelos! Hard to believe and a little sad, too. We all have a bunch of good memories of our week during the past four summers at Camp Oakarro. I have yet to meet a boy who doesn't find something to enjoy trying there: BB guns, archery, obstacle courses, fishing, buying candy and loot at the canteen, fire-building, knife safety, knots, climbing wall, slingshots, unraveling and discussing the weeklong "mystery" played out in skits each morning and afternoon, outdoor running games, skits and songs and stories, nature hikes, crafts that involve pounding and fingerprinting and sticks (not at the same time), and so much more. (Did I mention BB guns? I have to admit that I even like that one. But I digress.) Camp Oakarro, we do love you! Camp Makajawan, here we come in 2011? Scout salute!

And so July 2010 explodes into oblivion...

Before July ends, I am compelled to post one more memory of it, specifically, an event that occurred on the 4th of July. By the late afternoon that day, one of my sons was subdued to the point of meltdown... Perhaps it was the aftermath of a daylong celebration of patriotism beginning with a performance of Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Testament of Freedom," then involving many waves of guests through our home, and culminating with the highly anticipated but still out of reach trip to the lake to watch the fireworks. Or maybe it was the result of the piling-on effect caused by a stretch of several days of near nonstop activity. But most likely it was directly related to the sad fact that very early the following morning we all would be forced to wave good-bye again to our dear friends from Libertyville-now-Connecticut... And we hadn't even had a chance to do everything we wanted to do with them yet. It just didn't seem fair. Or festive. Or patriotic. Well... you get the point.

Whatever the reason, on that funky and humid evening of July 4th, my faithful-friend-for-all-time Jodi and I felt compelled to make an emergency run to Walgreen's to purchase the goods (two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and packs of Mentos) that would allow us to indulge one of our kids' collective childhood dreams: to do their very own explosions. By this point in the day, six kids were left at the party, so that allowed us half a dozen attempts at perfecting the strategy.

Our brave 6-year-old friend/cousin Jeremy was the alpha tester.










Then the fearless beta-testing girls took their turns...











And then came the big guns... the three intrepid 10-year-old boys who had been dreaming and planning for the day their mothers would allow them to try this crazy thing for as long their dear little brains could remember. Good thing clever Jaki innovatively experimented with the funnel action or none of the kids would have produced more than short little squirts!

With each try, the explosions got a little more exciting. All of the kids were giddy with the anticipation and the unscientific measurement of the height their own personal explosions! (If you click on a photo, it will enlarge so you can better see the expressions of joy!)










And next time we try this experiment, we will rely on our data and start off using what we now know is the secret to getting the highest flare on the first try: Duct tape!

KABOOM!

And about an hour later, KABOOM again!

And that, folks, is what is known as the pursuit of happiness!



Let's hear it for July!