GrillSgt's Firepit

The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology, so this story piqued my interest. These gypsum and selenite crystals and huge!

The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine: Big Pics : Discovery News.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Crystal cave (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Cave of Crystals: BBC Explores Amazing Crystal Cave in Mexico (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)

Why France is best place to live in world – CNN.com

Interesting article about International Living magazine’s top 10 countries to live in. France is #1 for the 5th year in a row. The US is #7. Last year the US was #3.

Why France is best place to live in world – CNN.com.

Hmmm, maybe we should move to Paris? I enjoyed Paris on our 1st Wedding Anniversary back in 1995. I think it would be quite interesting to live in Paris. I could go for that.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bonjour, Eiffel Tower (chris.pirillo.com)

Monticello Revisited

While Stacey was visiting we also made another trip to Monticello. Our tour was a little earlier in the day this time, so we had time to see a few of the things we missed last time like the kitchen and cellars. Here are some new pictures of Monticello. Again, you can click any photo to see them full size in my Picassa album.

Washington DC

Been a while since I made a post, so I’ll start with the older stuff first. Back in August, Stephanie’s sister, Stacey, came to Virginia for a visit. We had a good time while she was here. Stacey and I spent a day in Washington DC. We took a boatload of photos. It’ll take you a while to get through them all. We had a fantastic time. We took a trolley tour around the city; the first half took us through the city and Georgetown. Saw a lot of the foreign embassies. The second half of the tour took us around the mall. That’s where we started getting off the trolley and observing the sights. My favorite memorial was Lincoln Memorial. It awe inspiring. We were running out of time so we missed the FDR memorial, WWII memorial, going up in the Washington Monument and a few other things. Stephanie wasn’t able to go this time, but it looks like Mom and Dad will be coming out in the spring and Michael and Stacey will be visiting in May, so we’ll be going back. Enjoy all the photos. PS — you can click any photo to go to the Picassa album and see larger photos.

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Friday

We had a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend this year. Ed, Stephanie’s Dad, and Judy, Ed’s wife, flew in on Friday morning to spend most of the weekend with us. I took Friday off, so I had a four day weekend. Ed and Judy got into Charlottesville about 11:00 AM and went to their hotel to get a little rest. They came up to our house about 3:00 PM. We showed them our unusual rental house and chatted for a while. We then decided to go to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. After dinner, Ed and Judy were tired, so they headed back to the hotel. It was a nice dinner.

Saturday

Ed and Judy showed up about 11:00 AM. We served bagels and cream cheese from Bodo’s Bagels, lox, onions and tomatoes for brunch. Bodo’s Bagels are New York style bagels and very good. We’ll be going there more often. About 1:30 PM we loaded up in my truck and drove to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. We bought our house tour tickets, which were for 5:10 PM. We had a couple of hours to kill before the tour so we took a 45 minute guided walking tour of the plantation. It isn’t a long walk really, no more than a 1/4 mile down Mulberry Row. Our guide was very good. Not only did we learn about the plantation and the lands around Monticello, but also about the Jefferson family and some of his dependencies (slaves). It was quite interesting. After the plantation tour, we stopped in the gift shop to get a couple snacks and souvenirs. After a short rest, we made our way to the line for our house tour. Like the plantation tour, the house tour was quite interesting. Thomas Jefferson was quite the innovator and architect. He incorporated alcove bedrooms, double paned windows, pocket doors, dumbwaiters and a variety of other interesting features into Monticello. Unfortunately, no one is allowed to take pictures or video inside Monticello so I don’t have any photos inside the house, but I have plenty of the house from the outside, the plantation, gardens and the views, which are spectacular. I’ve included a slideshow below. If you want to look at the phots full size, use this link, Monticello Photos or click on the slideshow. There were some things we didn’t have time to see, like the dependencies (slaves) quarters and Jefferson’s grave, so we’ll definitely have to go back again.

After the house tour, we went back to the parking lot on the shuttle bus and headed for home. We were planning to eat out at the Downtown Mall, but needed to get home to let Juneau and Cinnamon out and feed them. So we decided to eat in. We barbecued chicken and green beans, microwaved potaoes and mixed up a quick Caesar’s salad. We had fresh fruit, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for dessert. Ed and Judy headed back to the hotel around 10:00 PM.

Sunday

Ed and Judy arrived about 10:30 AM for another bagel brunch. About 1:00 PM, we drove down to the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA. The Downtown Mall is an outdoor walking mall with a collection of shops, restaurants, offices and other places. There is a movie theater and an indoor ice rink at the west end. At the east end there is the Charlottesville City Hall and the Pavillion. A variety of musical acts play at the Pavillion throughout the summer. On Friday’s after 5:00 PM, there are free shows during the summer. There are also some flea market style vendors, street mucisians and other interesting characters at times. We walked around the mall for an hour or so then had a late lunch at Caffe Italia. Very good Italian food (but I still haven’t found anything stateside that compares with the restaurants I ate at while in Italy!). I took a few photos, which are in the slideshow below. If you’d like to see the full size photos, click this link, Downtown Mall or click on the slideshow.

After our late lunch, we drove around the University of Virginia for a little while then headed back to our house. Ed and Judy left for the hotel around 6:00 PM for an early turn in as their flight back to Florida left at 5:30 AM on Monday.

Monday

Stephanie and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We both liked the movie, but it definitely lacked a little bit in plot and wasn’t as good as the original (none of the sequels were). Still it was good fun. We also stopped off at Lowes to pick up a couple of desk lamps, patio umbrella and a charcoal grill.

Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend.

South Florida

As mentioned in a previous post, Stephanie and I travelled to South Florida for a Tropical Turkey Day with Stephanie’s Dad, Ed, his wife, Judy, one of Judy’s sons, David, Stephanie’s sister, Stacey, and Stacey’s husband, Michael. It was a very enjoyable Thanksgiving; the details are at this post: Tropical Turkey Day.

Friday

On Friday, Stephanie and I drove over to Ed and Judy’s house in Boynton Beach. It was only about a 15 minute drive from our hotel in Boca RatAs mentioned in a previous post, Stephanie and I travelled to South Florida for a Tropical Turkey Day with Stephanie’s Dad, Ed, his wifeon. We got there about 11:00 AM EST or so, had a bagel and talked for a bit. Then we all piled into a Jeep Commander that Stacey and Michael rented for the weekend. They got it because it had third row seating, but let me tell you, the third row was not made for adults! It would be comfortable for small children, up to the age of 10 or so, but for two adults it was quite uncomfortable. Stephanie and I made the best of it.

Billie Swamp Safari

We drove about 60 to 90 minutes southwest to one of the Seminole reservations and a place called Billie Swamp Safari. It’s in the Everglades, though not actually inside the National Park. Most of South Florida is swamps, or would be if man hadn’t drained parts of it for habitation and other water and land uses. Everglades National Park is just a small part of South Florida’s wetlands. Ed and Judy treated the lot of us to a snake and alligator show, airboat tour and a swamp buggy tour. We looked around the gift shop a bit, and then wandered over to the little restaurant for a late lunch.

After lunch, we went over to the snake show. Sorry, no pictures of the show. But it was very interesting. On display were a coral snake, a pygmy rattlesnake, a water moccasin (also known as a cottonmouth) and an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake. We learned a few things, such as these snakes are not poisonous snakes, they are venomous snakes. There are no poisonous snakes. Venom, such as that from a snake, has to enter the body through an opening such as a cut, an open sore, or through the eyes (which is why spitting cobras can envenom prey without a bite). According to the guide, you could swallow snake venom and not be envenomed (provided you have no open sores or cuts in your mouth and no ulcerations in the digestive and renal systems). However, I don’t think I want to try that. The water moccasin is the meanest and most unpredictable of the venomous snakes at the show. While rattlesnakes have a bad reputation, we witnessed that as long as you go about your business, leave them alone and keep your distance, they will go about their business and leave you alone. Water moccasins on the other hand, while like all snakes just want to be left alone, will take an interest in you if you come too close and will not hesitate to strike. We had to leave toward the end of the snake presentation to catch our airboat tour, but I think the show was just about over when we had to leave.

The airboat dock was just a short walk from the snake show. We stood around for a few minutes, waiting for the airboats to return from their previous runs. We climbed aboard. Before shoving off, Ed had the airboat pilot snap a picture of all of us. You can see all of Ed’s Billie Swamp Safari photos at Kodak Online Gallery. The airboat tour was actually pretty short. We were taken along some airboat trails through some somewhat open water. We saw some deer, water buffalo and other wildlife. We also went through a small wooded area, which I think were cypress trees. After exiting the Cypress forest, we travelled a little further until we came upon some wild hogs and alligators. The airboat pilot started throwing some food pellets at the hogs at the edge of the water. They went right in after the feed despite the presence of the alligators. The alligators ate some of the feed as well, but no wild hogs got in the way of gator jaws and everyone survived, even the little baby piglet. The rest of the airboat tour was rather uneventful, as it was but a short ride back to the dock. But I really enjoyed the ride; even though airboats are extremely noisy (earplugs are strongly encouraged!).

View my airboat tour photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

We had a little time between the airboat tour and the swamp buggy tour so we walked around the little zoo they have. You can see alligators, large and small, lizards, monitors, turtles, tortoises and a Gila monster in the zoo. I took a few photos of the reptiles in the zoo. After wandering around the zoo for a few minutes, we made our way back to the gift shop. I bought a suede wide brimmed hat and Stephanie got a necklace and keychain as souvenirs.

The swamp buggy tour was quite interesting. A swamp buggy is a bus on a raised suspension with very large tires so that it can traverse the swampy areas as well as the dry areas. It’s about an hour long tour and goes through the dry hammocks as well as swamp lands. Our tour guide and driver was Shea. He seemed very knowledgeable about the area, pointing out various flora and fauna. We stopped a couple of times, once at a mockup of a Seminole village. The fire pit served a couple of purposes. The obvious one is to cook food and provide warmth, but it also served as a compass. If the men were out hunting or engaging the enemy and the women and children had to flee, they would place a fifth log in the fire pit to point to the direction in which they were travelling so that the men could find them. If there was no fifth log, it told the men that the women and children were captured. We also stopped for a short discussion on a particular plant (I forgot the name) that is a natural mosquito repellant. Later on the tour, we saw some deer, including an impressive stag, some cows that were fighting, and a curious ostrich. The ostrich tried to steal Michael’s camera! Shea had informed us at the beginning of the tour that since it was nearing dusk, there was a chance of seeing a Florida panther since they are normally nocturnal. Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky.

View my swamp buggy tour photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download. Also note that this is the same archive as above.

After the swamp buggy tour, we returned back to Ed and Judy’s house for leftover Thanksgiving dinner, plus grilled and fried chicken. We left their house around 11:00 PM EST and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and get ready for Saturday.

Stephanie and I really enjoyed our afternoon at the Seminole reservation and Billie Swamp Safari.

View the rest of my Billie Swamp Safari photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download. Also note that this is the same archive as above.

Saturday

On Saturday, after a quick stop at Starbucks and the ATM, Stephanie and I arrived at Ed and Judy’s house about 11:00 AM. After a bagel and cream cheese and conversation, everyone crammed back into the Jeep Commander for more sightseeing. Everyone except David. He had to fly back to New York on Saturday morning.

Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center

Our first stop was Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center, which is a collaborative effort between the Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department and the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center is a water reclamation facility that also teaches people about the importance of Wetlands in South Florida. From what I could tell there are two boardwalk loops and we strolled the shorter of the two. The scenery was very beautiful. We saw several different kinds of wading birds, ducks, moorhens and a few spiders. All in all, it’s a quite interesting place. Too bad we had other things to do that afternoon. I would have liked to stay longer and walk the second loop and spend more time in the Nature Center where they have a few exhibits and stuff to look at. Maybe on our next trip to South Florida.

View my Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center photos online, or feel free to download them at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

West Palm Beach and Palm Beach

After spending an hour or two at Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center, we (again) crammed back into the Jeep Commander. With Ed providing directions, we got a tour of Delray Beach, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Because the third row in the Jeep Commander isn’t made for adults, it was difficult for me to see out the window, and there wasn’t enough room to scooch down in the seat to put the windows at eye level. So I didn’t get to see much on Ed’s improvised tour. So, I ended up taking a short nap. I’m sure everyone heard me as I did snore a bit. Sorry.

After Ed’s improvised tour, we pulled into a parking garage in West Palm Beach, unfolded ourselves and took a short walk to a shopping plaza. We had a little while to wait before our last sightseeing tour, so we walked around the shopping plaza, used the restrooms and window shopped. About 4:00 PM we climbed aboard the Diva Duck Amphibious Tour Bus. It’s a bus on a raised suspension. It also can navigate calm bodies of water as it has the workings of a boat: rudder, propeller, etc. It only goes 6 knots in the water, but that makes for a leisurely ride. The tour took us through West Palm Beach for a bit, with our tour guide pointing out various things and cracking dumb jokes and puns. Music was pretty good though. After a short ride through West Palm Beach, we entered the intercoastal waterway between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. We went straight across to the Palm Beach side and turned north. Along the west side of Palm Beach are some very expensive homes owned by famous people. I think our tour guide told us that one of the homes is owned by the Kennedy’s. Another one is owned by Celine Dion. The last one we saw is owned by author James Patterson, who, unlike most of the residents of the houses we were shown, lives there year round. After passing by the exclusive Palm Beach Country Club… you don’t even want to know how much it costs to join (megabucks!), we turned west for our return to West Palm Beach. On the return we saw some very large yachts moored at one of the many marinas and a tugboat that was used to tow the Queen Mary and will soon be placed in a maritime museum. Not long after that we were back where we started.

We were all hungry by this time and Ed wanted pizza, so we walked over to City Pizza and had a nice dinner. After dinner, we walked back to the shopping plaza. Stephanie picked up a zip up hoodie with Palm Beach on it. There was a live band playing cover tunes on the stage, so we went near the stage to listen to the music and talk a bit. A little while later, we decided to call it a night; Stephanie and I had to be up fairly early on Sunday morning to catch our flight back to Virginia.

View my Palm Beach photos online, or feel free to download them at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

Sunday

Sunday morning, Stephanie and I were up bright and early. We drove to Fort Lauderdale International Airport, turned in our rental car and made our way to the check in counter where we got a nice little surprise. The ticketing agent was able to put us on an earlier flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, so we didn’t have to sit and wait in Fort Lauderdale. On top of that, she put us on standby for an earlier flight from Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, Virginia. We still had our tickets for our original flight, so it was worth a shot. We were able to get on the earlier flight to Charlottesville so we ended up getting home about an hour earlier than planned. It was a nice way to finish the holiday.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable holiday and Stephanie and I had a really good time.

Tropical Turkey Day

I sincerely hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We travelled down to South Florida from Central Virginia to visit Stephanie’s dad, Ed, and his wife, Judy, for the weekend. Stephanie’s sister, Stacey, and her husband, Mike, flew in from Las Vegas, and one of Judy’s sons, David, came down from New York. Unfortunately, David’s wife, Melissa wasn’t able to make the trip. Neither was Judy’s other son, Josh, and his wife, Liz.

We left Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport at about 5:30 AM arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida around 10:00 AM. We had about an hour layover in Charlotte, North Carolina, just enogh time to grab Starbucks and a quick breakfast. For the most part, the flights were uneventful, although there were a few small children on the Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale flight. They weren’t too bad, I guess. The one in the seat next to us fell asleep once we were airborne.

Stacey, Mike and David all arrived before us. Mike and Stacey took a red-eye from Las Vegas and got in around 5:00 AM EST. They weren’t able to get any sleep on the flight, but they were able to get a short nap before we arrived.

While the food was being prepared [Ed cooked the turkey on his barbecue, Stacey made the stuffing and Judy made everything else] we all talked and caught up. Dinner was around 4:00 PM and consisted of turkey, Stacey’s stuffing, mashed potatos, green bean cassarole, fresh and jellied cranberry sauce, sweet potato pudding and a Jewish noodle dish (called Kugel, I think). I think I’m missing another dish, but I can’t remember. Judy served Matzo ball soup as an appetizer. After dinner, the dishes were cleaned and the trytophan induced stupors started. A little later dessert was served. By the time dessert was done, several of us were really beginning to feel the effects of a long day enhanced by the tryptophan drowsiness.

About 6:30 PM or so, Stephanie and I took our leave and headed off to our hotel, Boca Raton Plaza Hotel and Suites. It was a pretty nice place. Not 5 stars by any means but it was pleasant. We had a balcony where we could sit and read and enjoy the tropical weather when we weren’t out with family. Stephanie and I were exhausted by the time we got settled into the hotel room as Stephanie had been up since 2:00 AM and I had been up since 3:00 AM. So we were in bed at 8:00 PM!

Oh, our rental car was a white convertible VW bug. It was nice, but small. We brought one large suitcase. It wouldn’t fit in the trunk. The only way to get it into the car was to put the top down, put the windows down and lift it into the backseat, where it proceeded to take up all the room. Reminder to self: NEVER rent a VW bug on a trip again. There just isn’t enough room! Still, it is a nice little car and we did enjoy having the top down on a few drives.

There’s more to our Tropical Thanksgiving weekend. Those posts will be coming soon.

Virginia!

Yes, yes, I’m slow on this post.

Stephanie, the puppies and I arrived in Charlottesville, VA yesterday afternoon at about 2:30 PM and checked in to the hotel. It’s the same hotel I stayed in on the house hunting trip. It’s nice, takes pets and has wireless high speed internet access.

After a short rest, we all got in the truck, picked up the keys to the house and drove up to Ruckersville to see the house. Stephanie and the puppies approve. Juneau had a little trouble negotiating the few steps up and down to the outside initially, but she learned quick. The landlords left us a card and a welcome basket. It was so nice of them to do so. THe landlord also told me we have his permission to do whatever we need to do to make us all comfortable and safe, including replacing the fence. I think we ended up with a fantastic landlord!

I also found out that the truck will arrive on Friday to deliver our household goods. So today, Thursday, we had a day to rest. Stephanie took the time to get her hair and nails done. She looks great. While she was having that done, the puppies and I hung out at the hotel resting. When Stephanie got back we took a drive up to Ruckersville to get an idea of where some things are, like banks and other shops. Then we drove to Swift Run Gap, which is the pass through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the entrance to Shenandoah National Park. We turned around at that point and came back to the hotel, stopping to get some dinner along the way. I also found out that our move cost less than the estimate, so we don’t have as much of an out of pocket expense as we thought we might. During our household purge, we eliminated about 100 pounds of stuff from the estimate.

Tomorrow, we’ll be Home Sweet Home. Our truck is supposed to arrive at 9:00 AM and a fence guy will be there about 8:00 AM to look at the yard and, I assume, give me an estimate. Hopefully, he can put up the fence real soon.

We won’t have Internet access until Monday, but I can still get email using my phone. So keep in touch. I’ll write more on Monday or Tuesday.

Bristol, TN

Well, we’re in Bristol, Tennessee tonight. Bristol is right on the Virginia border; in fact, there is a Bristol, Virginia on the other side of the border. They are sister cities. Bristol, TN is the home of the Bristol International Raceway, which hosts NASCAR races. We hit some construction traffic just before Knoxville and again in Knoxville, which slowed us up a bit. Otherwise, a rather uneventful day.

So what did we see today?

• We passed through the Country Music Capital, Nashville.
• We drove through Knoxville, Tennessee, which is the capital of Tennessee and also the home of the University of Tennessee.
• We drove over the Tennessee River.
• Tennessee is a very beautiful state, especially the eastern half.
• Smoky Mountains

Tomorrow, we’ll finally reach our destination, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Memphis

Today finds us holed up in Memphis, Tennessee. Only had to go about 410 miiles. We left at 7:00 AM and arrived in Memphis between 3:00 and 3:30 PM CST. We got to the hotel at about 4:00 PM. We hit a couple of brief showers, but not nearly as lengthy or intense as what we drove through in Arizona. All in all, it was a pretty easy day. Tomorrow should be similar, just a little longer… about 480 miles to Bristol, Tennessee.

There were some pretty crappy drivers on the road in Arkansas; lots of tailgating, especially this blonde, tailgating biyatch in a pickup truck with a “Dixie” sticker on the back window. She would race down the road, get on someone’s ass, and ride it until they got out of the way. She did it once to me, and again later to Stephanie. On top of that, both times we saw her she had a cell phone growing out her ears, first the right, then the left. If you see her, flip her the bird for me. Other interesting things we saw…

• A sign that proclaimed Troy Aikman’s hometown;
• A sign that announced Carrie Underwood’s home town;
• A sign announcing Toad Suck Park (in Arkansas)… apparently it’s the site of an old Arkansas River crossing and the current site of Toad Suck Ferry Lock and Dam;
• Lots of roadkill;
• A definite lack of full sets of teeth (in Arkansas);
• The mighty Mississippi River (Ol’ Man River, the Muddy Mississipp; and other nicknames);

My parents drove up from West Point, MS this afternoon and spent a few hours and dinner with us. It was nice visit.

Tomorrow, Bristol, Tennessee…