Visiting Pennsylvania

Earlier this week, we visited Arny and Tracy in Lancaster, PA, and toured the surrounding area.
It’s a beautiful place with many picturesque farm scenes to see as one travels the small local roads.

Birding at Middle Creek

I’ve already written about the snow geese at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management area.

After seeing the geese, as the sun was about to set, we also saw tundra swans on the water.

Photography through the car window at dusk.

Downtown Lancaster

Throughout the city we saw fascinating murals. (I’ll be posting more of them!)

We also looked around the market, with many artisan and farm stalls.

Arny and Tracy’s House

The kitchen.

Arny doing dishes.

The internet router looked like a robot to me.
(I added the eyes with my Apple pencil.)

In the house there are telescopes and other equipment everywhere because Arny is a star watcher!

Birding at Conowingo Dam

Arny and Tracy looking for birds across the Susquehanna River below the dam.

I enjoyed watching this eagle eat its prey. Many eagles and other birds are attracted to this area.

Vultures on the shore of the river below the dam.

There’s a large hydro-electric power plant atop the Conowingo Dam, which was built in 1928.
Its generating capacity is 572 megawatts of electricity from 11 turbines, powers 165,000 homes.
It is Maryland’s largest source of renewable energy.

The Conowingo Dam and the power plant.

Driving Home

We chose a clear and pleasant day to drive the PA and Ohio turnpikes.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Important Thoughts in Ann Arbor Today

“The Rock” is where a wide variety of opinions and images have traditionally been displayed.

 

I did not intend to write another blog post today, but this is too urgent to postpone. I think everyone must be frightened at the impending triumph of evil in the world right now. Blog post © 2024 mae sander.

Visiting Northern Virginia

Last week, we visited our daughter and son-in-law in Fairfax, Virginia, and then continued to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I’ve written several posts about some of the highlights of the trip, but I wanted to add some photos from both places. Today: our visit to Virginia.

Sunday, February 11, we traveled the Ohio and PA turnpikes and continued
south to Fairfax.

We arrived just in time for the classic Superbowl refreshments: chili and guacamole.

We were also in time for Mardi Gras and Paczki.

Two Towns in Virginia: Occoquan and Alexandria.

When I was a child, there were several carriage stones in my neighborhood, but we called them 
“wishing stones” and thought if you sat on them and made a wish it might come true.

Near Alexandria, we enjoyed birding, especially the owl.

The Torpedo Factory, an art space in Alexandria.

The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC

I have written about the special chocolate festival at the museum
Evelyn, Tom, Len, and I also looked at a variety of other exhibits.

I enjoyed a case dedicated to children’s toys and dolls.

Symbolic gifts to the Europeans to cement a treaty.

“Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations” is a long-term exhibit at the museum (from 2014-2028). The exhibit documentation states:

“From a young age, most Americans learn about the Founding Fathers, but are told very little about equally important and influential Native diplomats and leaders of Indian Nations. Treaties lie at the heart of the relationship between Indian Nations and the United States.”

The first rooms were focused on several early examples of the very numerous treaties between Indian tribes and Europeans from early colonial times through the early 20th century. These pre-Revolutionary and early 19th century examples were often made in good faith, though later broken by the settlers and politicians eager to take over land and expand the European domination of the continent. As time went on, the treaties became more and more exploitative and cynical, and the national policy of  “removal,” which became law in 1830, replaced any good will towards the Native Americans. I was very interested in the artifacts, the facsimiles of treaties, and the historic information in this exhibit.

Visiting Evelyn and Tom

We took several walks around the neighborhood.
The weather was beautiful, with only a touch of snow.

Houseplants!

 A puppet from their collection.

Evelyn makes wonderful ceramic gnomes.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue with our visit to Arny and Tracy in Pennsylvania.

 

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

The Eagle

 Photo © 2024 mae e. sander

Snow Geese

 

The white streak in the water is a raft of several thousand snow geese.

Along with a crowd of other birders, we went to see the famous snow geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Huge flocks of these migrating geese land on the water and stay a while, and then rise in huge numbers and fly off to somewhere else. It’s an impressive sight.

With binoculars or a camera lens, you can get an idea of how many geese are flocking on the water.
A bit to the left of center and also at the left edge, you can see two blue geese (a variety of snow geese).

Lift off!

The huge flock breaks up into smaller flocks, which wheel around in the sky and then go out of sight.

Sometimes the geese show up at other small lakes or ponds in the area, other times they seem to disappear — evidently stopping on private farm lands and other places in the area. One day, usually in March, they are seen no more as they have continued to their nesting grounds in the northern parts of Canada and Alaska.We felt lucky to finally connect with them.

Photos © 2024 mae sander

Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC

Heading into Washington, DC

Blossom to Beverage: The Story of Chocolate

This weekend the museum had a special event with lectures and demos about the 
history and uses of cacao, including interactive mural painting. The aroma of chocolate was everywhere! 

The artist creating the murals is Joaquin Alejandro Newman, a Yaqui Indian from Mexico.

Kids could help paint the mural, which is deigned in Aztec style.

The display of chocolate-making, starting with the raw beans and processing them with traditional
equipment, was presented by Jose Reyes and his family, who are Mixtec.

Grinding cocoa beans and pressing cakes of chocolate in the traditional way.

Preparing a Mexican chocolate beverage.

The chocolate demos were on the main floor, while all the exhibits are upstairs.
After looking at the people preparing cocoa beans and mole, we spent quite a lot
of time in the main parts of the museum. From above, we could see the chocolate expo.

The American Indian Museum is one of the Smithsonian museums on the Mall in Washington,
so you can see the Capitol Building from the windows.

Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Sami’s Monday Murals and with Elizabeth’s celebration of drinks.