Eggs in a Basket

LAYING IN SUPPLIES: Part of today was spent readying for next week. It's no ordinary week, it's Hunger Action Week, an annual awareness event by the United Way of King County. I do believe it's our third year of participating.

Hunger is an issue affecting 13 percent of King County residents (that's more than 1 in 10 of our neighbors). During the week, the challenge for participants is to live on a "food stamp budget." If you're a single person, that's $7 a day. If you're a household of four, like us, you get $22. (Hold it .. why don't we get $28 [4x7], but I digress.)

Anyway, per the rules we get $22 a day to use towards food. So today, to help make those dollars stretch as far as possible, we went on a long distance grocery grab, down to Winco in Kent. It's a haul that co$t$ some in gas, but more than makes up for it in what we save, I think.

We went armed with a calculator, to make sure we were getting the most, money wise  out of every morsel.

For instance, as we approached the cooler where eggs were, we saw we had our choice between 98 cents per dozen or $2.30 for an 18 count carton. I asked the kids to figure out which we should buy and stood there waiting for them and their maths to make the magic and the decision. I did give them the hint that if they could figure out a per-egg price, we'd be on our way to our answer.

CJ came up with the bright idea of taking the price of the carton and dividing the number of eggs into it. Eggcellent! :)  He did the 18-pack first and found out the price is 12.7777 cents per egg. He and Annabelle then calculated that the dozen egg pack price translated into 8.2 cents per egg. Guess which pack we bought?

Yup, cheaper by the dozen. I have to think that Easter's impending arrival has helped with the egg prices.

We are going to be eating a LOT of eggs next week.

Anyone, anywhere can participate in this exercise. We invite you to join us. :)

http://www.uwkc.org/news-events/event-calendar/haw/

MR. GOLDEN SUN: We started our day with guitar practice and some "Let's Dance"  exercise before settling down to tune in to the NASA Edge broadcast.

It was great. Since this is Solar Week, we learned all sorts of things about our sun.

One segment of the program was all about the Van Allen probes. It included an update about a surprise NASA probes discovered this year - a third belt around our planet. 

Another segment was all about the Northern Lights, featuring an interview with Doug Rowland.

Hey, speaking of  NASA Edge and all things astro-outreach related, damn you, sequestration. Today news came across the Twitterverse and Facebook web that one of the casualties of sequester is basically EVERYTHING under NASA's public information education/outreach budget.

Question: If a rocket launches in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Yeah, of course, the rocket still launches, but dang, NASA in the last couple of years had finally figured out that people NEED to hear the damn rockets Public awareness of the vital projects and programs NASA is involved in helps keep the funds for those things flowing.. And now it's the sound of silence? I sure hope not. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how this all pans out.

Bills and Bats

FUNNY MONEY: A few days back, we were in a store and at checkout the cashier asked if $2 bills were ok for change. 

"Sure!" I said, telling her I doubt CJ and Annabelle had ever even seen one. Heck, I thought that I hadn't even seen one since the '70s. 

Sure enough, they hadn't.  The kids marveled at the 'funny' money and asked if it was real. I told them it was genuine United State currency, and that back when I was their age and $2 bills were new, they were supposed to be the next big thing, more popular than $1 bills. 

Today, we finally got around to doing a little research regarding the $2 bills. Turns out that when they were minted in the mid '70s, they weren't really new at all. They were just being reintroduced after a 10-year hiatus.
 
In fact, $2 bills date all the way back to the mid-1860s (who knew?). The photo leading today's blog is a note from 1862. That's Alexander Hamilton on it, BTW. He was the first secretary of the treasury (again, who knew?). Back then, I'll bet $2 would go quite a ways!

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving has all sorts of fun facts about $2 bills/notes. For instance, the first time Thomas Jefferson appeared on the $2 bill, was on Series 1869 notes. That same portrait of Jefferson has been used on all $2 US Notes, as well as all $2 Federal Reserve Notes

The 1976 reissue I thought to be new was part of the celebration of the US bicentennial. For Series 1976, the back of the bill was changed from Jefferson's Monticello to an illustration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The bill is rare because it has had relatively low printing numbers to begin with, and since there are relatively few in circulation, it causes people to horde or hold on to ones they have, rather than putting them back in circulation. We're guilty of that. The two $2 bills we got are tucked away right now. 

NO EASY WAY: "Hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sports." 
That proclamation was made by Ted Williams, and I think many would agree with him.

Today we read the book "No Easy Way: The Story of Ted Williams and the Last .400 Season." 

Before we started it, I asked the kids how they would feel if they only got 40 percent on their physics test. They both said they would be VERY unhappy, as .400 would be a big fat F.

I told them that if they were playing baseball professionally, that batting .400 would be EXCEPTIONAL. With that, we read about Ted, and his amazing season in 1941, where he finished the year with a .406 average. 

From the book we learned that Williams, like so many other pros of his era, had their baseball careers interrupted by World War II. Williams was sworn into service on May 22, 1942.

From further research, we learned that unlike some other athletes, Williams didn't spend his time being an ambassador and/or playing on a military team. Rather, he was a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, and his superior reflexes, coordination and reaction speed made him an excellent pilot. He was released from active duty in January of 1946, but remained in the Reserves. Many were surprised when Williams was recalled to active duty in 1952, at age 33, for the Korean War, during which he flew 29 combat missions. Interestingly, he was in the same unit as future NASA astronaut John Glenn, who described Williams as a fine pilot. In fact, for the last half of Williams' missions, he served as John Glenn's wingman. 

Between WWII and the Korean War, Williams missed out on nearly five years of Major League Baseball. There is wide speculation that had that not been the case, Williams might have broken Babe Ruth's home run record.

MIDTERM: We listened to nearly an hour's worth of "How Things Work" physics lectures today, wanting to finish up this week's topic of ramps and take our quiz today. 

We reviewed our notes before the quiz. We've learned what handy simple machines ramps can be. We learned what a joule is (a derived unit of energy or work) and how to pronounce it (like 'jewel'), and about support forces. We've learned a lot about energy (it's a conserved physical quality), and that you can transfer energy, but the overall amount of energy doesn't change. We learned energy takes two forms (kinetic and potential) and about different kinds of potential energy (elastic, magnetic, gravitational, electric, nuclear, and chemical ).  We learned about ramp force and how to calculate it, and that a constant velocity is sometimes zero. And we covered Newton's Third Law of Motion, learning that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Before taking our quizzes, we read the course's online discussion forum. There, we found some hot debates people were having about seemingly half the questions on the quiz (without giving away the exact questions or answers). Yikes. It wasn't exactly a confidence builder. But we had to give it a go no matter what. 

I submitted my quiz first and, remembering the professor's previous statement that if you get half right, you're doing well, I was so hap-hap-happy to get a B. The kids did as well or better. We're now halfway through the challenging course and holding our own. Phew!

TUNE IN TOMORROW: On Friday, Mar. 22, NASA's Sun Earth Days team and NASA EDGE will present a live program about the sun's violent nature at the peak of solar activity. The 90-minute program from Wallops Flight Facility will share discoveries about heliophysics and planetary missions.  

It will air from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at this URL: http://www.ustream.tv/nasaedge

We will certainly be tuning in!

If you don't have time to check out the Web cast, the Sun Earth Days Web site is certainly worth a look-see. Lots of great resources there: http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2013/

HEAVY SIGH: If you haven't seen it already, this one minute Anti-Defamation League video is worth the 60 seconds it takes to watch it.
http://youtu.be/3KyvlMJefR4

Fortuitous

ROLL ON, COLUMBIA: Tuesday, as we departed the Long Beach area, we decided to check out one more state park point of interest, Fort Columbia State Park.

The 593-acre site is steeped in history. The area is home to the Chinook Indian Nation, it was explored by Robert Gray in 1792, the Lewis and Clark's expedition in 1805, and MPA in 2013. :)

The park has a whopping 6,400 feet of freshwater shoreline along the mighty Columbia River. The river's so wide here, it darn near looks like the ocean.  

The main road into the old battlement area leads you right past the gorgeous old rows of wood frame historic houses. 

They are in great repair and so architecturally pleasing to the eye (well, at least my eye!)

We parked and made our way to old concrete bunker/battlement/lookout areas. We're no strangers to such structures any more, having visited awesome Fort Worden in the past, and Fort Canby the day before our Fort Columbia visit. 

There were vertical ladders to climb ... 

long, narrow passages to explore ... 

 Interesting niches and windows to peer into ... 

 
and out of. ...

There were concrete walls to run atop ... (can you spot the kids?)

and interesting bunkers to explore (see anyone you know?). 

Plus, plenty of creaky doors to check out.

Oh, and one more thing. 
Something that made this fort different than any other we'd ever visited.
At Battery 246 there were guns. ...

REALLY BIG GUNS!!!!!!!!! 

The guns have been long gone from every other fort/battery we've visited before. What's kind of ironic is that these guns are not original to this fort. Not even close. They're from Fort McAndrews, Argentia, Newfoundland. Fortunately, rather than throwing the mammoth steel monsters on the scrap pile, when they were surplussed, they were hauled to and installed at Fort Columbia in 1994. 

We were happy to find that when we walked around the backside of the guns, they were open and we could actually go inside.

Below is the view the 'gunner' would have had.

Thankfully, nothing happened when CJ and Annabelle pulled with all their might on what looked to be the launch mechanism.

 

I loved this photo (on an sign at the site) of the old Fort Columbia baseball team.

I found some more neat-o period shots of Fort Columbia here: http://cdsg.org/HDCRdata/columbiaHP.htm, and tonight, I found a great video all about Fort Columbia on YouTube. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjDT70Vhvo8

DISMAL DESTINATION: As we drove east, back toward the Emerald City, we passed a sign letting us know Dismal Nitch was coming up. We most certainly had to stop, as we had passed Dismal Nitch more than a year ago at highway speeds, and CJ was immediately taken with its name. He's talked about it several times since. 

Look at how happy these kids are to be at Dismal Nitch! Who needs Disneyland?!

As you may know, Dismal Nitch got its name from the journal of William Clark.The Corps of Discovery was thisclose to the Pacific. Their fresh food was gone and their clothes were literally falling apart. They were hoping to connect with a trading ship on the Columbia, but a wild winter storm pinned them down right here - peer through the trees, and you'll see a small beach, or 'that dreary little nitch,' as Clark called it.

The explorers spent six miserable days here, unable to safely leave the shoreline.

They probably weren't feeling bold and brave at the moment, but the cool, 3-D bronze monument in the spot depicts them as such. 

The view from the nitch has changed since their day. Now, you have a nice vista of the 4.1 mile long Astoria Bridge. 

Anything but Disappointing

PICTURE PERFECT PACIFIC:  Monday we spent a lovely day exploring Cape Disappointment State Park. 

  

Formerly Fort Canby State Park, it's a sprawling, 1,882-acre treasure on the Long Beach Peninsula, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Columbia River to the south. There are 27 miles of beachfront on the grounds, along with two lighthouses, miles and miles of trails, camp sites and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. 

Our first stop in the park was the North Head Lighthouse. In order to get there, we had  a lovely hike down a .25 mile trail.

At the end of the amble, this is what we found. Gorgeous!  

The lighthouse was built in 1898. 

Here's the view to the south of the lighthouse. There's an expansive beach. It looked like a great place for a picnic.

To the north was another cliff, kind of a twin to the one the lighthouse topped. 

Lighthouses are necessary in the area for two reasons. One being, the locale receives in excess of 2,552 hours of fog a year - that's over 106 days. (How lucky were we to hit it with clear blue skies?!) Second, the park's south side is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, and the intersection is supremely treacherous. 

The North Head Lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation, but its keepers are long gone. The oil lantern that used to serve as its beacon has been replaced, taken over by an automated process since 1961. The keepers used to have to clean the beacon's Fresnel lens daily, polishing it with soft rags. According to a sign on the site, once every other month, they'd polish the lens with wine, to ensure it shone brightly. 

Since the lighthouse was so remote, its keeper, first assistant and second assistant (all employees of the United States Lighthouse Service) and their families worked toward a self sustaining lifestyle, growing a hearty garden and raising chickens.

After North Head, we headed a bit further south and west, toward the old Fort Canby. We decided to check out the Cape Disappointment lighthouse first.

Man, oh, man, that was a bit of a trek. Narrow path, lots of uphill. But there was plenty of pretty scenery to appreciate along the way.

Deadman's Cove looked downright inviting. 

And we spied a picturesque Coast Guard station on our way to Cape Disappointment lighthouse. The spot looks tranquil, but per the National Parks Service, that station responds to between 300 and 400 calls for assistance every year. 

After a last uphill haul, we spied the lighthouse. Gorgeous! From some vantage points, it looked like it was on the edge of forever.

Naturally, we wondered where Cape Disappointment got its name. According to the National Parks Service it dates back to 1766, when English explorer John Meares missed the entrance to the Columbia River. Lighthousefriends.com backs up this story, reporting, "After vainly trying to seek shelter from a turbulent sea on July 6, 1788, Meares wrote, 'Disappointment continued to accompany us...we can safely say no river San Rogue exists.' Out of frustration, Meares christened the cape, 'Cape Disappointment.' "

That said, there are accounts that the name came some 20-years later, when the Lewis & Clark Expedition found no ships in the vicinity, and deemed the locale disappointing.

On Monday it was anything but! 

Above is the west side of the lighthouse. First lit on Oct. 15, 1856, it is still actively manned by keepers. In fact, it's the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast, protecting mariners from the watery tumult known as the Columbia River Bar, also known as Graveyard of the Pacific 

Below is a view of the lighthouse from the east side. Fifty three feet tall, it's an imposing figure, blocking out the sun.

Some of the best views of Cape Disappointment Lighthouse come from a distance. Here it is, viewed from a beach to its west. 

After the two lovely lighthouses, it was time to check out a one time point of national security - the old battlement site at Fort Canby. That was another hike, but well worth it!

As we approached the site, I assumed it was established to protect our shores during WWII. Turns out I was wrong by nearly 100 years. 

It was 1862 when Cape Disappointment was armed with cannons to protect the mouth of the Columbia River. It was expanded over the years and named Fort Canby, after Gen. Edward Canby, a decorated Civil War officer who was later stationed in the Pacific Northwest and assassinated during reservation negotiations with the Modoc tribe in 1873.

                               

Clearly, the guns are long gone, but the concrete bunkers are standing strong.Some of the steel and wood elements haven't fared as well, however.

In one of the bunkers, we spied what appeared to be some old munitions. Cool!

In a quiet spot a bit away from the abandoned lookout, we found a memorial overlooking the tranquil waters. It reminded us that the conditions can change quickly at the mouth of the Columbia.

It reads, "Please take a moment to remember all those loved ones lost or buried at sea, especially the happy times you had together." It's from the family of Robert Douglas Hughes, who lived just six days beyond his 24th birthday, based on the years on the marker. 

From the Fort, we went back down the hill and drove around the park a bit. We found a couple of points of interest related to Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Like this one. ...

The copper plaque at the bottom has a line from William Clark's journal reproduced. It says, "Men appear  much satisfied with their trip beholding with estonishment (sic) the high waves dashing against the rocks and this emence (sic) ocian (sic)."

The type at the bottom of the plaque reads, "So wrote Capt. William Clark, as he, York, and ten men reach the Pacific in the vicinity of McKenzie Head. Always observing, Clark recorded a sketch of a flounder and nearby they established their first ocean campsite. 

Very nearby, there was a granite monument. It had another of Clark's journal entries, this one from Nov. 18 of 1805. It read, "I set out with 10 men and my man York to the ocian by land ... (later in the day) I found Capt. Lewis' name on a tree. I also engraved my name ... I crossed the neck of land low and 1/2 of a mile wide to the main ocian, at the foot of a high open hill ... I assended (sic) this hill which is covered with high corse (sic) grass, descended to the N. of it and camped."  

The marker says the site they camped at is believed to be within a few hundred feet of the campground. We likely tramped right over and through it.

With all of the hiking we'd done that day, I couldn't help but smile when I saw this sign.

Beach Bound

 

WESTWARD, HO:  A little change of venue for the MPA students and faculty. We took advantage of a Groupon to go visit a place I recall fondly from childhood, Chautaqua Lodge in Long Beach, Washington.

We left Seattle Sunday morning around 10, leaving the dogs in the capable hands of Kennedy.

FROM THE MUDDY BANKS OF THE WISHKAH: We made a stop (a pilgrimage of sorts, for me) along the way, in Aberdeen, WA. I've wanted to go there for years to check out Kurt Cobain's former stomping grounds, around the Young Street Bridge.

On the highway into town, we whizzed past a sign that announced our arrival in Aberdeen. "Come as you are," the sign invited. Very welcoming and fitting.

We had no trouble finding the park dedicated to Kurt. It's a tiny spot, along the muddy banks of the Wishkah (the title of Nirvana's last album made that locale famous).

I'm not gonna lie, I found the park super depressing. For one, I didn't like the rather menacing looking illustration of Kurt on this sign. ... This makes him look much more old and haggard than he ever got the chance to be, having lived only to age 27.

And it was super depressing knowing that Kurt's 'home' was under this bridge for a spell. 

The ground along the Wishkah River is muddy indeed, and filled with clay, making it super slippery.

Here's the view looking out under the bridge. A third of Kurt's ashes were spread here. :/

It wasn't exactly 'uplifting' to learn that the river's name meant 'stinking water' in the native Chehalis tribe's language. :(

 I also found it kind of depressing that reminders to pick up dog crap were so prominently displayed. 

The poo signs nearly rivaled the size of the dirty granite memorial in the ground. 

This statue in the park was the most eye pleasing-element. 

All in all, though it's definitely not a rave review, I'm glad we went to the park. It needed to be done.

AT THE LODGE:  Good ol' Chautauqua Lodge. ... It's bigger than I remember it being in the '70s. Here's a view from the beach side. 

 We have a top (third) floor room, with a nice view of the Pacific, and some dunes and wetlands in between.

We have sure lucked out with the weather during our visit. We've had some gray skies, but more blue than we could have hoped for, especially since it's mid-March!

                                              

This morning our first order of business was getting some kites aloft. CJ piloted the space shuttle kite, while Annabelle handled a colorful 'pocket' kite.

TOURISTY: After the successful kite session, we headed 'downtown,' to check out the obligatory tourist traps. 

First, the iconic "World's Longest Beach" sign. ... 

And, of course, we had to go to Marsh's Free Museum!

There, we had fun clowning around with the wood statues out front. ... 

 

And inside, we had to pay our respects to the one and only Jake the Alligator Man!

I have to admit, I was disappointed when I saw Jake. First, what's with the stupid hat? Second, the case he's in is so highly reflective, it's impossible to get a good photo of him.

We wasted some money on some of their old coin-operated attractions, like this baseball game.

I remember pumping quarters into it in the 1970s.

After Marsh's we had to go across the street to check out the 'world's largest frying pan.' The kids pretended they were strips of bacon. :)