Wordless Wednesday: Natural History, Gem and Mineral

Two bird nests!

Travelogue Part 2: Mammoth Cave

 Mammoth cave is the longest cave in the world: possibly as long as 1000 miles, with 400 miles mapped so far.  But it's not laid out in a straight line.

The yellow on the map shows the crazy layout of the mapped part of the cave.  It was originally discovered as three different large caves before they realized it was all one cave!

The model at the bottom shows how the cave actually exists like a giant pile of spaghetti with many levels.  The model is just of the black box on the map.

 We started in the museum. 

 And then it was on to the cave!

 The cave was carved in soft sandstone and limestone by underground rivers.

Most of the cave system is covered by a layer of hard shale through which surface water can't pass.

This leads to a strange thing: most of the caves have no formations.  They are just smooth water carved sides and jagged rocks where ceilings caved in.

But in one part of the cave, the shale covering eroded allowing water from the surface to percolate through...

 The water dissolved the limestone and redeposited in stalactites, stalagmites, and all manner of beautiful cave formations!

The Big Trip: Amazing Australia

We had a fantastic time in Australia!  On Tuesday we said farewell to Sue and her lovely family (Happy Birthday, Sue!), and set off for Canberra.
I have to say that one of the great things about staying with real people (instead of hotels) is getting to see more of normal life.  I grew up in a forested area, and I am always fascinated by the ways that forests are different  (even where I live now) from the one I grew up in.  Seeing the eucalyptus trees in Sue's forest (bush!) was amazing - it smelled so different!!  Very fun!

Canberra is a lovely "planned" city.  Washington DC was planned in a similar way, but 200 years earlier, before there were cars.   I much preferred driving in Canberra- they have better traffic circles!  Also, they designed their capitol with more of an eye towards green space, something that wasn't really an issue when they started building DC in a rugged swampy wilderness.

We weren't there long, though.  We hopped a plane and flew to the center of the continent to see Uluru (Ayer's Rock). We had tickets for the  Overnight Uluru Safari.  It was wonderful: we loved seeing  the differences in the rock at sunset and sunrise.

An unexpected bonus was that we were so far from light pollution that we really got to see the southern constellations: the Southern Cross, and the Magellanic Clouds!

I can't describe what it's like to see different stars in the sky.

We hiked around a bit there on Wednesday (although we decided not to climb on Uluru), then flew overnight to Cairns, in the far north east corner of Australia, near the Great Barrier Reef.


We spent a day, relaxing and recovering in Cairns, then took an overnight sailboat tour of the Great Barrier Reef.  This was amazing!

 We slept, rocked to sleep by the boat - just lovely. We all learned how to snorkel!  We loved seeing the fish up close.





And then it was time to move on - we could have stayed in Australia for month, rather than the week that we were there!  But we had a wonderful time, thanks so much Sue and Bill, we hope we get to come back some day!

Saturday evening we flew from Cairns to Osaka, Japan.

 Total so far: $32,606

If you've just joined us on this trip, here's what you need to know!

New Jersey Round 2

 One of the fun things we did was to visit the Sterling Hill Mine.  I hadn't been there in 15 years, and they've really added a great deal!

They have an amazing museum of minerals and mining equipment (and I say this as someone who visits the Smithsonian's mineral exhibits!)

I'd highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area.

Oob was very enthusiastic, but then, he's a minor.

Klenda found the gold on the "treasure hunt."

And then they had a fantastic periodic table!!

I want one!!!

The mine itself didn't photograph well, it being dark and all.

 Coming back into the sun was rather dazzling.

Our guide was an actual miner who had blasted some of the tunnels - very cool!

I should mention that this area has the most fluorescent minerals (in quality, variety, and quantity) in the world.

And we got samples!

 They've added a ton of hands on science exhibits and educational stuff, all of which we loved.



At least until they discovered the fossil the kids are touching is a coprolite (dino poop).

We also had a great time at the gift shop.  We found some fantastic new minerals and fossils for our museum, and this poster for Pa (who also goes by the name Grumpy).  Too funny!
















The beginning of this video shows the mine: