Georgia, Part 6

Actual date,Sunday, December 9th.

Oh, wait, we DID get to visit Kennesaw Battlefield after all!

We finished up at the Harris house around 1:30 in the afternoon, and since the battlefield didn't seem that far away (about a 40-minute drive), we decided to add it to the itinerary.

Kennesaw is on the outskirts of Atlanta, and was  the first position used by the Confederate Army, led by General Joseph Johnson, to delay the advance of General William Sherman's Union Army.  The battle was fought from June 19th to July 2nd, 1864.

The battlefield has four areas; the Kennesaw Mountain artillery position, Pigeon Hill, Cheatham Hill, and Kolb's Farm.

A shuttle will take you to the top of the Kennesaw Mountain position, or you may walk the road.  There is also a steep hiking trail.  Naturally, we rode.  Above is a picture of the cannons and fortifications at the top of the mountain.  Confederate and Union troops traded cannon fire for nearly a week, but neither seemed very effective.

The next part of the battlefield was down the road at Pigeon Hill, but that site was a hike into the woods, and we were running out of daylight.  So we skipped ahead to Cheatham Hill.
















Cheatham Hill was the "bulge" in the Confederate lines, and became a focal point of the battle.  The Southern army erected barriers and dug trenches.  They also camouflaged a set of cannons, with gunners given the order not to fire until specifically told to do so.

There are two kinds of plaques on the battlefield: the "slate" markers, seen at right, and a "table" marker common to National Park sites.  The "slate" markers usually present a single person and his contribution to the battle.


Cheatham Hill saw the bloodiest fighting of the battle.  Union troops made several attacks and were repulsed each time.  Finally a Confederate colonel, William P. Martin, called a cease-fire and instructed troops on both sides to come and remove their fallen comrades.  The next day, Union commanders presented Martin with a set of pistols to thank him for his humanitarian act.

Several monuments stand in the park, commemorating various regiments who fought here.  At left is the Illinois Monument.

The cannons above represent the hidden cannons.  They remained silent for over a week before the order to fire was issued.  The battle actually raged around them.  When they did fire, however, they were shooting into the middle of Union troops, and proved to be very effective.

Kolb's Farm, pictured at left, was actually the opening scene of the Battle at Kennesaw.  Confederate cavalry repulsed Union troops.  Sherman wanted to bypass the area and proceed to Atlanta, but later decide that Confederate troops were spread so thin that an attack would cripple the Southern Army.


The farm house, pictured above, was eventually purchased by the National Park Service and restored to its 1860s appearance.  Now it houses offices, and is not open to the public.  If anyone wants to check out the NPS Kennesaw site, click here.

Georgia, Part 5

 Actual date: Sunday, December 9th

We had planned to visit the Kennesaw Battlefield, but opted instead to travel to The Wren's Nest, the home of author Joel Chandler Harris, best known for his Uncle Remus stories.

The site is named for the fact that birds used to (and apparently still do) build nests in the Harris' mailbox.

The house is pictured at right.  For once, we caught a break; December 9th is Harris' birthday, so the site is not only open on a day it's normally closed, but there is also no admission.



If we wanted, we could stay for storytelling sessions, but we were mostly interested in Harris' biography and a tour of the house.  At left is the harp player in the front parlor.  The schedule of events was posted as follows:

"Tours every hour, history every half hour, cider available throughout the day, harp playing intermittently, or whatever actually happens."

At right is the family room, with a round table decked with a wreath for Christmas.  If you have very good eyes, you can just make out the picture of Br'er Rabbit on the chair behind the table.  (If you don't have good eyes, join the club.  And ask to see our trip photos when/if we get home.  I have a much better version of this photo on my laptop.)



 For the official website, click here.

At left is the dining room.  Harris and his wife had nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood.






Below is the girls' room, where the daughters slept.  Like the rest of the house, this room is decorated for Christmas in the style of the 1870s.

Joel Chandler Harris and I shared a birthday together.  He would have been 167.  I turned 51.





By the way, lunch today was at the Q-Time Restaurant, which had a cafeteria-style service and seating.  Roast chicken, ribs, beef tips, and vegetables.  If you go home hungry, it's your own fault.  It's right down the street from the Wren's Nest.

Georgia, Part 4

Actual date, Sunday, December 9th

First order of business, go to church.  We attended Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Stone Mountain.  Anyone who doesn't believe in "the browning of America" needs to go to mass here.  It's a regular United Nations.  Most folks are quite friendly, however.

This video is from the small garden display at the front of the church.

Georgia, Part 3

Actual date, Saturday, December 8th.

If you ever plan to go to Atlanta, Georgia and ride the public transit system, e-mail me first.  I can save you a HUGE hassle.

Round trips on both the local buses and the local train are $5.00.  You can pay cash for the buses if you prefer, but the train requires a Breeze pass.  You have to buy one at the station before you can get through the gates to get to the train platform.

Presumably there is an easy way for Atlanta residents to find this out.  The only reason we discovered it was because after several minutes of us standing at the gates trying to figure out how to get in, an employee of the system walked over and explained it to us.  So we each had to purchase a pass, load $5.00 on it to get into Atlanta and back, and then actually get through the station to the trains.

Before all this, however, we had to catch the bus to the train station.  After we had walked five miles yesterday looking for the bus stop, we drove back to Stone Mountain Village, parked the car, and walked to the bus stop.  The bus pulled up about seven minutes later.

Ooops.  We were on the wrong side of the road.  We needed to be at the stop across the street to go into Atlanta.  This bus was coming out of Atlanta.  So we crossed the street and the next bus came by.  We got on and paid the driver.

The bus ride was probably 25 minutes long, and it dropped us off at the train station, which provided yet another 20-minute ride to the Dome, the local sports arena.  We got off the train, but couldn't get OUT of the station.  The doors wouldn't open.  We were supposed to tap our pass on a pad to get out.  Finally, due to a complete lack of other options, we did this.  Then I used one of the local pass machines to scan the card.  Instead of the $2.50 that should have been on there for our return trip, the card balance read zero.

So it cost $2.50 to take the train to Atlanta, and $2.50 to get out of the station.  We had to reload all three cards with $2.50 each to get back to the bus.  While we were doing this, another woman walked up and asked if I understood how these machines worked.  She had a handful of coins and her pass; this was the change she had received.  I explained that those were dollar coins, and that it really was valid currency.  She was quire relieved.  The only reason I know this was because not only had we gotten a bunch of the coins ourselves, but I had seen dollar coins in other places a few years ago.  I have one at home because they are such a novelty.

So, we walk up the steps into the entrance of the arena, then up the ramp to the sidewalk.  We're looking for the Coca-Cola factory, which used to be right near the train stop.

No such luck.  After asking around, we discovered that the factory was three or four blocks away.  The only way to get there is to walk.  We hiked through the Olympic memorial park, which is at least two blocks long itself, and finally find the factory.  There is a $16 admission fee for adults, $14 for senior citizens.   Then we have our bags searched at the door.  The staff does provide a wheelchair for Dad, but it's a manual.  The reason there are no photos on this entry is that I was busy pushing the wheelchair.

Mom has fond memories of this factory tour, but it's all changed, unsurprisingly.  We have a staff member show us some of the Coca-Cola memorabilia from down the ages, and then we watch a six-minute movie about living a good life.  What this has to do with creating a bottling Coca-Cola completely escapes me, other than the fact that bottles of Coke do appear in the movie.

If you want to experience the whole thing on the small screen, it's on Youtube.  Honest!  Try here.  If you figure out the point of the movie, let me know.

Then it's out the door for one of several exhibits.  One is a history of the beverage, invented by a pharmacist in 1886.  (Complete history is described here.) Another display is the actual bottling of the beverage in glass bottles that visitors take home at the end of their tour.

A lot of space is dedicated to the "secret formula" that has changed hands a few times and has been imitated but never duplicated (according to the display, anyway).  The whole exhibit is housed in a "vault," and there is a place for people to try their hand at creating "formulas" of their own.  Impossible to get to through the crowd of kids and families.

After all that, you can go upstairs and get your picture taken with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear (for a fee, of course), and proceed to the main event, sampling a variety of Coke products produced in various parts of the world.  Just for the record, we liked the "Fanta Magic" beverage produced in Estonia.  It tastes as though they're trying to make wine out of it.  There was also a peach beverage from a location in Europe that I don't remember.  I think the least favorite was the beverage from Italy.  The almost universal reaction was for people to sip, frown, grimace, and pour the rest of the sample down the disposal grill.  Mom complained she could still taste that one 10 minutes later. 

The newest taste is a gingerbread Coke that you make at home from ingredients available at select stores.  The person serving the samples didn't specify which stores those might be.

Finally, we pick up our free bottles of Coke, walk through the gift shop without buying anything (the prices were high, of course), and drop the wheelchair off at the front gate.  Then we had the walk back to the train station.

Our train took us up about three stops, then the conductor announced that the train was "out of service" and everyone had to get off.  We waited another 10 minutes or so for the next train, but since we hadn't left the platform, we could bet back on without paying a second time.

Once back at our station stop, we managed to exit by tapping the cards again.  For a wonder, it actually worked, even though we had no money left on any of them.  This has got to be one of the weirdest transportation systems on the planet.

We finished the day at a German restaurant in Stone Mountain Village called The Village Corner German Restaurant and Bakery.  Good, but expensive.

Then it was back to the hotel.  By the way, we still have the Breeze passes if anyone ever wants to use them.

Georgia, Part 2

Actual date: Friday, December 7th.

Off to Stone Mountain to the Confederate Memorial.   There's a whole park dedicated to this.

It's $10 admission to the park, which consists of the stone monument, a museum, a grist mill, various hiking and bicycle trails, and a skyride to the top of mountain to get a closer look at the monument.  An additional fee of $12 will get you a round trip on the skyride and admission into the museum. 

I'm about to save you $22.  You can thank me later.

Above is a photograph of the monument.  It depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson on horseback.  It was started in 1923 by Robert Borglum, the carver who later designed and completed Mount Rushmore.  (Yes, THE Mount Rushmore.)  He worked on it for a year, had a disagreement with the management, and left, taking all notes and sketches with him.

A second carver, Augustus Lukeman, took on the project, but by the deadline year of 1928, he had only one figure's head completed, and was out of money.  The family who owned the property reclaimed it, and no work was done on it for nearly 40 years.

Work finally began again in 1964, and this time the project was completed.  If you want the entire story, follow this link.

That's it.  We skipped the grist mill (seen 'em), the museum (seen those too), and since it was a Friday in winter, there wasn't anything else going on at the park.  We weren't about to come back the next day and pay another $10 just in case something interesting might be happening.  Besides, we were planning to take the bus into Atlanta to the Coca-Cola factory for the day.

More fun ensued.  We had to find a bus stop.  We had asked at the front desk of our hotel.  The clerk was a nice young woman, but had no idea where (or if) the bus stopped anywhere in Stone Mountain.  She sent us off down the road looking for an unmarked building.  No luck.  One of the local shopkeepers finally told us the bus didn't stop in that part of town any more.

Next we tried the library in Stone Mountain Village, which is outside the park/monument.  The clerk thought the bus stopped on Fourth Street and that there was parking there.  So Mom and I walked over.  The lot was closed off.  We stopped at the bank, and the teller thought the bus stopped on Second Street.  There were no signs of any bus stop there.

We finally asked someone at an antique store, who very helpfully pointed out the bus stop sign two blocks up on the right -- ironically enough, a block up from the library's parking lot.  In the other direction from which the clerk sent us.  Okay, we were in business.

Or so we thought.

Georgia, Part 1

Actual dates: Thursday, December 6th and Friday morning, December 7th.

Someone remind me again why we think we enjoy this stuff?

This trip is already a heavy-weight contender for "Worst Vacation Ever," and we aren't even in Georgia yet.  We arrived at Penn Station in Philadelphia early (thanks, Jim!), picked up tickets, and asked a station Red Cap to help us get our bags to the lounge to wait.  He can't.  We aren't sleeping compartment passengers.

Say what?!

When we actually checked the tickets, we discovered he was right.  Instead of having the handicapped compartment in the sleeping car, my parents had the handicapped seating in the coach section.  This means sleeping sitting up all night and sharing the car with 40 or 50 other people.

Mom attempted to get this straightened out at the ticket window.  The agent told us all the sleeping compartments were sold out and there was nothing he could do for us.  Then we went to customer service.  The agent made a call to headquarters, and Mom got precisely nowhere.  All compartments were sold out.  Finally we decided that my parents would sleep in my room (I did have the correct sleeper accommodations), and I would travel in coach.

Oh, yay.

Not.

God bless the fellow who took our bags up to the lounge.  He asked the train conductor about finding a sleeping compartment at any point along the route.  Thanks to him, I traveled in coach until the train arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina at 2 a.m., and then transferred to an open sleeping compartment for the rest of the trip.  So I did manage to get about four hours of sleep before we pulled into Atlanta at 7:50 a.m.  You better believe he's going to get a letter of commendation from me when I get home.

In all fairness, things weren't bad in coach.  There were four children in my car, and I only saw one of them.  I didn't hear any of them.  Everyone pretty much politely ignored everyone else, so there was some semblance of privacy.  It wouldn't be a bad way to travel if it were just for a few hours during the day.  Trying to sleep in there at night is a whole 'nother story.

And dinner was very good -- roasted chicken with vegetables.  Of course, I had to pay extra for it, since I was a coach passenger, and I was interrupted in the middle of dinner by the conductor, because he needed to scan my ticket, which was four cars back at my coach seat.

But we did finally get into Atlanta, picked up the bags and our rental car, and got out of town.  The first three nights are booked in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

And the "fun" continues....

Colorado, Part 8

Durango and Silverton were two of our final touring destinations.  They are linked not only by road, but by rail with what's known as a "narrow gauge" track.  Mom and Dad rode the train from Durango to Silverton and back, while I took a jeep ride into the mountains around Silverton to explore ghost towns, streams, and mines.  But first, some of the scenery on the bus ride out to Silverton.

Much of the scenery was like this.  These are the San Juan Mountains, by the way.

This is shot out the bus window at the road we would be riding in another minute or so.  Much of it was again twisty and winding.  I'm convinced that the state motto is actually: "Colorado -- where guardrails are for wimps."

Straight down as we round a curve.  Mom had originally planned for us to drive this road to Durango, but chose another route after she found out about the lack of guardrails.

The bus that carried us to Silverton.  The company is called Mild to Wild, and they offer several package tours coupled with the train ride.

And this is the "jeep."  Actually, the company did have a jeep-like truck that they were supposed to take us around in, but when our bus driver's brother started it up that morning, he discovered someone had pour sugar in the gas tank.  So we drove around in a couple of alternate vehicles.

A rock-crusher built into the side of a mountain.  Stone containing metal ore was dropped down this set of stairs, breaking the stone up for easier extraction of the gold, silver, or other metal.  The stone was then shipped to Durango for processing.  The technique apparently couldn't be done in Silverton -- the altitude was so high that fire couldn't be made hot enough to melt the ore.

A long, long stream of waterfalls.

One of the ghost towns in the area. 





















Area gold mine.  You could take a tour and visit a small exhibit on how gold and silver are mined.  There are still a number of mines in the area that could be worked, but people have a hard time getting permits because of environmental constraints.

People on the jeep ride with me thought that was terrible and the government shouldn't be allowed to do that.  Sorry, folks, but I'm with the EPA on this one.  My clean drinking water trumps your mineral rights.  Or it should, anyway.

I rode from Silverton back to Durango on the same train my parents took.  They got the luxury accommodations.  I got to travel coach, since I was only riding one way.  This is my car, from the back.

If you didn't mind the wind, you could also ride in the open observation car.

Mom and Dad "de-train" in Durango.

Much of the rest of the trip was shopping and traveling to different locations on our way back to Trinidad to catch the train on Friday evening.  We were concerned about the 45-minute wait at the "station" because there really wasn't a station.  It's just a loading platform and parking lot right now.  (Apparently it's just been upgraded.)  However, there was a sort of shelter at one end of the platform, so we could get out of the wind and sun.

Also, for the record, I picked up four Christmas gifts on this trip.   :-)

And now for a our last "wave," to Jonathan and Cheryl at the bank:

And that's it, until the next trip in September.  Tune in for yet another jaunt to Gettysburg, PA.

Colarado, Part 7

May 22, 2012

Mesa Verde National Park roads seem designed to frustrate people.

We drove 15 winding, twisty miles over mountains to get to the visitors' center and our tour bus.  It's got to be the longest 15-mile drive on the face of the Earth.

Mesa Verde includes 80 square miles of Anasazi cities, inhabited in the 1200s. The word "Anasazi" means "ancient enemy" in the Navajo language.  Although there's been a movement to change the name to something a little more accurate, most of the suggestions have been unwieldy.  Plus, a number of tribes are weighing in on the name change, and can't seem to agree on one.  So our guide used "Anasazi" throughout our tour.

Many of the cities look like the one on the right, tucked under an overhang called an alcove.  They consist of round rooms called kivas, and square homes, many with towers.  Kivas were the rooms in which religious ceremonies were held.  They were also sometimes used as dormitories when no ceremonies were being held.

Our tour was offered through Aramark, a lodge in the park itself, and lasted over three hours.  Our guide took us around to view several sights, with two stops to get out and talk about the culture of the Anasazi. 

At left is our tour guide talking about the yucca plant.  It was (and in some cases still is) used as a source of food, fiber for weaving, the basis for soap, and the soles of sandals.

Our guide also talked about the juniper tree, which is used for a variety of items, including building materials, firewood, food, and decoration.  

 At right is a double-tier city.  Many of the sites are off-limits to visitors, but we got to actually walk into Cliff Palace, one of the largest of the ruins.  It is pictured below.

The cities are made of stone bricks mortered with clay mud.  Most of the cities seem to have been building in a 30-year period.  The Anasazi originally lived on top of the mesas, and then in the early 1200s, began building cities in the alcoves.  Theories about what caused the moves include greater access to water supplies, protection from enemies, and shelter from increasingly poor weather.

Left: Cliff Palace.  Our guide for this was actually a National Park Ranger.  The site is not even remotely handicapped accessible -- you have to be able to climb down 130 steps (some metal, some stone), and up three ladders (about 10 feet long).

Plus the atmosphere is much thinner here, as we were at 7000 feet.  (Sea level is around 5000 feet.)

Still, if you can made the trek, you can actually walk around the plaza that connects the houses and kivas.

At right, if you look closely near the bottom of the picture, you can see a series of logs protruding through the wall.  These logs make up the wooden floor inside the building.  They were cut with hand-axes, giving them a "gnawed" look on the ends.  Several of the houses had more than one level; the tallest building were four stories high.

When you stand next to the doorways of the houses, you realize that the average height of people back then was under 5 feet tall.  Our guide mentioned that that seemed to be pretty universal among people living in the 1200s, no matter where on Earth they lived.

For many years, there was a mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Anasazi.  By the end of the 1200s they had all left the area.  Theories included being chased from the area by enemies, or even alien abduction.  But anthropologists noticed similarities between Anasazi culture and the cultures of the Pueblo and Hopi Indians.  It's now know that the Anasazi moved to a different part of the Southwest and continued their civilization elsewhere. Their descendents are still living on those areas today.

Colorado, Part 6

Saturday, May 19th

Not a lot to report here.  I spent part of the day going whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River, through a section rated as Class 3.  (No large waterfalls, and a better-than-average chance of surviving the experience.  :-) )  I have no pictures to post, since my camera isn't waterproof.  My trip was done through Performance Tours, and lasted a couple of hours.

Sunday, May 20th

We attended church last night, but went back this morning for a quick "wave" to Barbara and Gary Vining:

Colorado, Part 5

Pikes Peak, and the cog railroad that goes to the top.  (Thank goodness.  I'd hate to have to hike that....)  (And, for the record, people don't just hike it, they run marathons up and down it.  No joke.  The record to the top and back is just over three hours.  You can also drive to the top.)

Pikes Peak is the inspiration for Katharine Lee Bates' well-known song "America the Beautiful."

One of only a handful of cog railroads in the United States, this is the longest and climbs the highest.  As you can see in the picture on the left, there is a "third track" in the center.  This is where the gears on the underside of the train connect, and literally pull the cars up the hill.  (The two outer tracks are for balance.)

This railway was started in 1889, after a tourist named Zalmon Simmons road to the top of the mountain on a mule, but decided there had to be an easier way to get there.  He raised over $1 million to build the first set of tracks, which were used by steam engines.  Of the six original engines, only one still operates on special occasions.  The first diesel cog engine was used in 1938.

Here's the actual train itself.  The trip up and back takes around three hours.  You spend half an hour at the summit, where there's a gift shop and a set of rest rooms and observation platforms.  The conductor gives information about the vegetation, local activities, and the history of the railroad as you ride to the top.  There's often a 30- or 40-degree difference in temperature between the bottom depot and the top.  Also, it's a good idea to bring along a can of oxygen (sold in the gift shop) if you or someone in your party has trouble breathing.  After all, you're going up to over 14,000 feet above sea level -- air's pretty thin up there.  (The poor fellow across the aisle from us had such a hard time adjusting that he threw up when we reached the top.)  It's not unusual to need to sit down and drink something for the first 10 minutes you're there.  Also, because of the change in atmosphere and air pressure, your voice changes.

Below are some of the sights we saw on the way up.

Some of the trees look tilted.  Actually, they're growing perfectly straight -- we just rode up at an angle.  And that line across the middle of the picture is the top of our window.

Below is a video shot at the top.  The wind covers up a lot of other sounds, so my narrative may not be audible at all times.  Basically, it's about 40 degrees F, with a wind-chill factor of 20 degrees.

 

And below is another of Mom's "waves", this time for Jeff.  We're at the summit of Pikes Peak.

Colorado, Part 4

The United States Air Force Academy, located just outside Colorado Springs, was today's stop.  There are six places to visit for members of the general public (and more if you have an active military ID, apparently), and we started at the Visitors' Center and museum.


Along the Center's walls are displays showing cadet life.  There is one board each for Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years, outlining what is to be learned and what major tests must be passed.  The picture at right shows the Sophomore board.







Interior displays include the various clubs cadets can join, designs for the Cadet Chapel (more on that below), and a falconry display.  The falcon is the Academy's official mascot.  At left is a hand-carved falcon donated to the Academy.

 At right is the schematic of the Cadet Chapel, a distinctive building that houses places of worship for Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist students.  (There is both a Protestant and a Roman Catholic section available.

























At left is the outside of the Chapel, the Protestant section on top, and the other sections on the bottom.

At right is the interior portion of the Protestant Chapel.  It's difficult to see in this shot, but there is a large, thin cross hanging from the ceiling.

Sections of the stained-glass panels highlighting the windows.  The panels continue on to the ceiling.

The altar.

The Catholic Chapel (pictures of the current Pope were kind of a give-away when you walk in.)

One of the Stations of the Cross.  It appears to be Jesus comforting the women of Jerusalem.  Sections of all the chapels were roped off and closed to visitors, but there were still plenty of items to photograph.

The front of the Jewish Chapel in the basement.  The room is round, and located in the center of a small area behind the Catholic Chapel.

The small Buddhist Chapel.  Visitors are asked to remove their shoes before entering, but the entire room was roped off, so it was kind of a non-issue.

A view of the campus from the Chapel steps.  Over 1200 students enter the Academy each year.

Colorado, Part 3

May 16th:

We had planned to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, but there were apparently some concerns about the roads, so we skipped that and visited Idaho Springs, noted for its gold, silver, and metal mines.  There is a small museum and visitors' center in town, and we stopped there first. 

Because of "orphan mines", the area water supply has been contaminated, and the entire back of the museum is a display of clean-up efforts.  Partnerships between local groups, mining operators, and the federal government have been formed.  Land has been reclaimed, and mines sealed to prevent run-off of dangerous metal into the local water.  At right is a display of "before" and "after" in one area of the county.

During our visit, we were joined by a group of school kids, most of whom had no interest in the museum, and were either playing with items in the gift shop, or playing hide-and-seek among the displays.  Mom finally complained to the owner, and the kids were brought under control by their teachers.  We've been with school groups before, and many were well-behaved, so we know it can be done!

We then walked the local historic district, and did some shopping.  I picked up a couple items for myself, as well as three Christmas gifts. 

We returned to Black Hawk to our hotel room for the night.  Above is a picture of the elevator floor, just for everyone's viewing amusement.  Mom had the most excitement at this stop.  She played a game of Roulette, and won $3.  She also tripped on the sidewalk on a walk around town, and now has a number of bruises.  No broken anything, though, and she's doing pretty well.

Colorado, Part 2

So, it's off to Black Hawk, small city of casinos.  But first, we're stopping at Celestial Season's Tea Factory for a look at how tea is make and the ingredients found.

Celestial Seasonings teas are found in most grocery stores around the country, but all the tea is made in Boulder, Colorado.  The herbs, flowers and leaves that make up the tea, however, come literally from all over the world.

The Virtual Tour here is a super-simplified version of the tour we took.  Unfortunately, pictures couldn't be taken on the tour, so this is the best I could do.

I can, however, show you some of the pictures of the cafe, which included displays of the process, as well as four cases of seriously cool teapots and cups, and pictures of the art produced for boxes of the various flavors of tea.

At left is one of the display panels, detailing some of the ingredients used in various flavors, and where they' re grown.  These include chamomile, peppermint, vanilla, lemongrass, blueberries, and honey, to name only a few.

The tour of the factory began with a short video about the teas, the people who develop the different blends, and the farmers who produce the ingredients.  Then everyone donned hairnets, and a few of guys "beard nets" (yes, really!), and we walked into the factory.

 At right is one of the teapots on display in the lobby.

Our tour guide explained that most teas had to be blended, and showed us the large plastic "tubs" that shake and roll the mixtures.  She then walked us through the storage area, where we could see boxes and bags of different ingredients.

One whole room is devoted to the mints -- peppermint, spearmint, and wintermint.  This is because mints have such a strong odor that they would overwhelm all the other scents if not kept separate. 

 It's hard to see the full teapot at left because of the camera angle, but all of those "branches" are actually part of the handle or feet.  I seriously want one of these.  (It stood over two feet tall.)

We continued on the tour, and ended up at the final step in the process: the machine that stacks the packed cartons of tea for shipping.  Then we continued on around the room, looking at the boxing machine, the area in which the tea is actually placed in teabags, and the conveyer belts that move everything along.   The full tour took about 30 minutes, and ended up, of course, in the gift shop.

At right are two of the paintings of art produced for the tea boxes.  Some of the art was labeled with the name of the flavor it was produced to represent, some was not.


While waiting for the tour to start, you have a chance to sample some of the teas, including green and red tea flavors, "zingers" (which have a distinct "zip" to them), and chilled flavors of iced teas.  You also picked up your "tea-ckets" (a variation on the word "ticket"), which showed that you belonged on this particular tour.  Each "tea-cket" was a packet containing three teabags of a particular flavor.  We had peppermint.

In the video theater was the Sleepytime Bear, the official representative of Celestial Seasonings.  Of course, Mom had to have a photo op.  And the staff was kind enough to supply Dad with a wheelchair, so he didn't have to stand through the whole tour.  (No pictures of that, though....)








Once finished with the tea factory, we stopped briefly at Into the Wind Kites and Toys, at the request of my friend David.  This was something of a mistake.  Mom's rubber duck collection suddenly grew by about half a dozen members....

Just to give you an idea of part of the store's inventory: