(Note: None of the pictures are mine, they were taken by her host, Romperoo, and most of the text was also written by the host family)
I felt a little awkward around the other girls. But I liked Laura.
(This is Laura)
The house I stayed in
I got to go to the Anthony Thomas candy store!
http://www.anthony-thomas.com/
This is called a Buckeye, like the state nut of Ohio. Romperoo explained that Buckeyes are a nut from the official state tree. The nuts have a hard brown casing around them which cracks open and looks like the eye of a deer (buck eye). While you can't eat those nuts, you CAN eat the buckeye candies! They are chocolate coated peanut butter tidbits that are delicious!
This giant version weighs 235 pounds and costs $3500!
How to make a Buckeye (I am going to do this!)
http://candy.about.com/od/fruitnutcandy/r/buckeyes.htm
Jeffers Mound (as it is known today) is prehistoric mound is all that remains of a much larger complex of earthworks that once occupied this site, a dramatic 60-foot bluff overlooking the Olentangy River. The earthworks are believed to have been built by the Hopewell people between 100 BC and AD 400, although archeologists have found signs of human habitation at this site dating back to 8,000 BC.
There were once an estimated 10,000 American Indian mounds and earthworks in the central Ohio Valley. Today, about 1,000 of these ancient landmarks have survived through efforts of private landowners, local, state and federal agencies and conservation groups. Of those sites, only about 73 are open to the general public or visible from public places.
We walked around the mound and tried to find remnants of the remaining earthworks. We all imagined what it would have been like so long ago, before farmers tore up the land and before cars went whizzing by
http://www.worthington.org/about/jeffersmound.cfm
Romperoo has headed out for the day for a girl's scrapbooking getaway with her friends. But before she left, she told us that she was going to come back tonight because... we are going to a Columbus Crew MLS soccer game tonight! I am so excited. I wish I had a vuvuzela!
Wow! That Crew game was so exciting! They won 2-0 and secured the lead in the league. Romperoo's DD had to fill me in on all the details because I had to sit in the car and listen. Bad storms were supposed to come in that night and I did not want to get my freshly braided hair messed up!
This morning, Mr. Romperoo also took us to the Columbus Zoo (but forgot the camera!) to walk through the North American and Polar exhibit. The bison was HUGE!
http://www.thecrew.com/
I still felt awkward and out of place
But I got cheered up when we went to the North Market
We piled in the car and headed downtown today. First we had a stop at the Santa Maria on the Scioto (say "sigh-oh-toe" or "sigh-oh-tuh") River. The ship is a life-size replica and the most accurate replica of the original boat. We could not imagine crossing an ocean with huge waves in this 98' vessel!
http://www.thesantamariaexperiment.iwarp.com/
It is so ridiculously hot and muggy. We are hanging at the pool today. Romperoo told me she is thinking about smuggling in some margaritas for the big people at the pool. Oh, lucky them!
Before the heat and humidity attack us today, we headed over to Highbanks Metro Park for an early morning hike. Romperoo wanted to show me more Native American earthworks and also had a surprise for me, but wasn't going to tell.
The park is huge (1, 159 acres) and incredibly beautiful. There are ancient trees, deep ravines and meadows and you can even play in the shallow areas of the Olentangy River.
We trekked all over the park and stopped to visit two earthworks in the park. Overgrown with vegetation (and having very cloudy skies), the first earthworks that we saw was a little hard to see. The Highbanks Park Earthworks consist of a C-shaped embankment that encloses a tall bluff overlooking the Olentangy River in Delaware County, Ohio. The earthen walls are about 3 feet high and are broken by three openings, or gateways. There is a ditch on the exterior of the wall that originally was 3 feet deep, indicating the ditch was the source of the earth that formed the wall. This embankment and ditch may have served as a defensive wall for a Late Woodland (600 A.D. to 1200 A.D.) or Late Prehistoric (900 A.D. to 1650 A.D.) village of prehistoric Native American people. I was happy to see how this sacred area was being respected by people today.
Try as she might, Romperoo's camera could not take a good picture, so she has added some links to show you what we saw:
http://www.safetgallery.com/MoundPix/MoundFrameset.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highbank_Park_Works
We continued to walk on the trail and observed two deer feasting on some acorns that fell a little early from an oak tree. Romperoo told me that once she saw a litter of fox kits playing in the forest.
Down a slight slope on the path, we came to an observation deck balancing on poles overlooking the Olentangy River. I could hear the hawks screeching overhead and looked up to admire them. Guess what? Those weren't hawks! It was a Bald Eagle! Not too far from the observation deck a pair of eagles had built a nest early this spring (Romperoo saw it before the trees leafed out and reported it was massive). The wingspan on these great birds is impressive. They are so majestic to watch as the fly.
It was hard to leave the area, but we had one more sacred spot to visit. This small mound, known as the Adena Mound, is only a few feet high and about 45 feet in diameter, but was much reduced by plowing when the park was still farmland. Most archeologists believe that because of this mound’s location and general appearance it seems typical of the Adena type of earthwork.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1287&nm=Adena-Culture
We also went to the Children's Fountain in the Battelle Riverfront Park. Would you believe that it was under repair? We still got to play on the fantastic bronze sculptures that tell the story of The Pickaweeke and his hound.
Here's the story: The hound drinks from the fountain and is turned to bronze. Pickaweeke goes on an adventure, talking to different animals and mythical beings, trying to help his hound.
The Unicorn sits next to the fountain. Pickaweeke needed to gain the Unicorn's power as part of helping his hound. The unicorn thought he knew everything. Pickaweeke noticed that the Unicorn's horn was very powerful. Pickaweeke pulled out some gum, and found the Unicorn's weakness was taste. He offer the gum to the Unicorn, and the Unicorn started chewing it without question as he knew everything. This caused the Unicorn's mouth to get stuck shut. Pickaweeke offered to help and grabbed the Unicorn's horn to pry its mouth open. As Pickaweeke pulled, he pulled the power out of the Unicorn's horn.
It's my last day here in Columbus - and a hot one. Before the sun got too high, I went out to her gardens one last time. The squash were growing well and the black-eyed susans had come into full bloom.
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