The Tooth is Out There

Strange goings on at the Golden house today.

Mammoth Site & Reptile Gardens

Mammoth Site
By: Ysabela Golden
I liked the Mammoth site because it’s an active dig a museum and a tour all under one roof! Guided tours are 30 min. long and very easy to understand. The tour guy spoke into a microphone that we could listen through with phones that were connected to the microphone. I learned they only found male mammoths because they were in bachelor herds and didn’t know better. The Mammoth site has paleontologists come in for a week and the rest of the year prepare the things they dug up for display. The Mammoth site is 60 feet deep and from every time they work on it through all the years only 30 feet has been dug up. Also the Mammoth site doesn’t cover all the fossils! There’s a lot more land that needs to be covered! The Mammoth site awesome in every way! Bye!

Reptile Gardens by Xavier Golden
Rapid City, South Dakota
USA

Places: Gift Shop, Sky Dome of Reptiles, and the Reptile shows

I liked the snake show and the alligator show. The snake show was first. They were cool. They had Rattle Snakes. The Gift shop was cool they had rubber band guns.

The Rattle Snake was cool and the other snakes. There was a man there he was handling the snakes. Their were a King Cobra, Python, half grown Boa Constrictor, cotton mouth and more.

South Dakota

How to boil this trip down to 5 pictures? We headed west with Hank and Marilynn, also driving Jill and Tara, and Gail, Steve, Andrew and Danielle. We did about half the sights together and the rest as a smaller group.

Attractions/sights you can ask us about include the Corn Palace, Badlands, Wall Drug, Reptile Gardens, Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road, Wildlife Loop, Wind Cave, Crazy Horse Memorial, Rapid City, SDSMT Museum of Geology, Pipestone National Monument, the Mammoth Site and the Goblet of Fire. (2700 miles - we needed a long audiobook.)

Pictures: Pipestone waterfall, Badlands, Wall Drug cafe, X shaking Madison's hand, Needles Hwy vista, Henry as Crazy Horse, and the family posing with James Monroe. (Rapid City is decorated with the statues of presidents.)



Our favorite "attractions" were Pipestone and the Mammoth Site. But everything listed there was worth it. I'll pass along the excellent advice of my cousin Mary Pat - spend as much time in Custer State Park as possible.

Mackinac Trip I

In all likelihood, this is the last summer McNally Cottage will be in the family, as the cousins are trying to sell. Our first attempt to go up was cancelled on account of illnesses, but this one came off. We planted a bunch of annuals, caught the first weekend of Lilac Festival - sans lilacs, although there were still trillium and lady slippers aplenty in the woods. Had a cool trip to the fort with practically personal demnstrations, and a quick trip to the family plot. Strange lunch at the Iroquois with flickering power but nice time with Kay. Did you know you needed power to cut a lemon meringue pie?

Marvel Birthday Comics

Xavi celebrated his 8th birthday with a little child labor sweatshop to produce a 12 page comic featuring the Marvel heroes Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Elektra. Brandon, Gareth, Mason, and Phino joined in for the production, drawing, inking, coloring and lettering their hearts out. Taking a small break for Assemble the Armor, Save the Citizen, and some Iron Man cake.

March 08 - Catching Up

March saw Easter (check out K's idea for the snow egg), Bela's first communion, the Nancy Drew movie party, and this spectacular shot of Xavi's missing teeth.

Hogsmeade Weekend

Well, Hogsmeade Weekend has come and gone. Madame Maxime worked some amazing magic, with a great assist from Prof. Sprout. The Three Broomsticks was rockin', and the Ravenclaw common room was host to astoundingly clever discussions.
Pictures: HP and Minerva; Prof. Sprout; Broomsticks and the Ravenclaw commons; Lupin, Tonks, Luna and Ginny; whole group, incl. dementor; Mm. Maxime, Hagrid, Harry and Prof. McGonagol.