Week 44: My First Dig

October 30, 2010

Today I went with the Office of State Archaeology to the Alamance Battleground for a dig. I arrived early so I watched the video of the Battle of Alamance which happened before the Civil War and American Revolution. Basically the farms raged again the government and a bunch of people got killed.

The first task I did was laying out the grid. Placing flags 1-24 and A-Y and painting the grass. Next I participated in pervenance. This is cataloging the data. Then they let me have a metal detector. I found a washer and a pop tab. They had a metal detector club there helping them. That's right, a club! There was at least 25 people with the club. Then it was back to more pervenance and then I tried my hand at metal detecting again. This time I hit the jackpot. I found a fired rifle ball. Awesome!

My big find!

No I did not find the cool button.

Then I went to a Halloween part as the Mad Hatter! Have a very merry unbirthday! To you, to you, to me, to me!

Week 43: Zip Lining in the Dark under a Full Moon - aka AWESOME

October 22, 2010

This adventure rocked! I went with a group (about 35 or so) to Richland Creek Zip Lining for a night of hanging from wire under the full moon. http://www.richlandcreekzipline.com/ We arrived to a campfire, which was much appreciated since it was a tad bit cold out. We were harnessed and then given glow necklaces, so we could be spotted in the woods. Some other folks brought glow bracelets and shared them. We received instructions and all of the hand (glow stick) signals. Up and down meant break. A circle meant keeping coming. A figure 8 meant ridiculous - translation: you a going so stupidly slow that we are laughing at you.

Then it was time to fly. They clip in your harness and you are off. Down the cable you go and you have the option of stopping yourself with you brake (gloved hand) or by using a tree. Now if you used too much brake, you could potentially not make it to the platform. At which point, the guides would laugh at you, take you picture, and you would have the pull yourself to the platform. If you were unable to do this, the guide would have to come and get you. This did happen once. Poor "A" got stuck and the guide had to go get here. And one person did use the tree for stopping. I was glad that none of that happened to me.

Now, what did happen to me is that I was laughed at a lot. And to be fair, I was laughing at myself. As those of you who know me realize, I'm short. Not quite midget short, by under 5'. The lines that you are strapped into are sometimes high. In order to be strapped onto the line, I would have to stand on my tip toes, while the guide pulled down on the cable. I don't know why this helped, but standing on one foot tiptoe seemed to give me some more height. Not only are the zip lies high, but sometime we walked across bridges to get to different platforms and you had to clip on to a cable above your head. Well, by the time we got to these bridges, the guides were quite amused by my shortness. The cables were high and I was struggling to keep my feet on the bridge. The guides decided to help me out on several occasions by pulling down on the cable, thus make the cable higher, and leaving me dangling by my harness. It was quite amusing!

This was an awesome adventure! You gotta try this!

Sorry, no pictures. It was dark and what if I would have hit a tree with my camera. Anywho, you just need to experience this one for yourself.

Week 42: Conservators' Center - Lions, Tigers, and Wild West Oh My!

October 16, 2010

This week I had a partner in crime with me, Wild West! Wild West has made other adventure appearances, mainly on the Soapstoner Wine Tours. First we had Christmas Cantata practice, then to Tasu for Sushi (yum), then out for adventure!

Wild West and I drove to Mebane, NC to the Conservators' Center for "Howl With Us." This was a twilight tour of the facitily which offers a view of over 90 rescues exotic animals. Check out the website below. All of these animals have their own stories, some of which are heartbreaking.

http://www.conservatorscenter.org/

Our tour guide was Frank, awesome guide! He should have his own comedy show! The tour was over 2 hours long and we saw a plethera of animals, some of which Wild West and I had never heard of such as a genet and a binturong. The guide fed several of the animals as we walked around. The lions, tiger, and wolves oh my downed the meat in no time. The cool thing about this tour is that you are up close and personal with the animals. My face was only feet away from a giant lion, tiger, or fox oh my. You would never get this close in a zoo.

At the end of the tour, we asked to go back and try to make the wolves howl. Frank obliged and we all starting howling. We got some yips and roughs, but only 1 howl, which was amazing.

The other neat thing, is that you can sponsor an animal. If you sponsor and animal, you can go visit it once a week or month or however often you feel like it (within reason). You can also volunteer. How cool would that be.

Disclaimer: As much as I would like to say "I'm the circus lady that sticks her head in a lions mouth." these are still wild animals. And although I may do a lot of crazy things, I'm not stupid and don't intend on trying this at home.

Make adventure #39, your next adventure. It is completey fantastic!

Week 41: Virginia Creep Trail

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Virginia Creeper Trail Bicycle Ride

The quick overview.

Got up at 5 AM to drive 4 hours to Damascus, VA. On the way, I somehow ended up on a dirt road and thought I might be taking a detour, but kept on driving. I was not lost; I never get lost. Turned out to be a beautiful scenic route and shorter than the highway that I took on the way home. I saw tons of Christmas Tree farms. Arrived and got my rented bike, met up with the group, and a van took us to Whitetop, NC to begin the trail. Road 17 miles down hill toward Damascus. The view were fabulous. Ate lunch, ate ice cream, road another 17 mile mostly flat with some uphill at the end in Abington, VA. Saw a tree house. No not a kids tree house. An adult tree house - I want one! Got to the end, saw a train. Took a van back to Damascus. Drove home arriving at 9:30 PM. Long day, my butt hurts, sleepy.

I saw a random Pepsi vending machine along the trail. The power wires were hung from trees across the yard to a trailer. Not a nice trail, but what looked like a junk yard.

The smells were magnificent. Fresh fallen leaves, creosote, apples from an orchard.

The temperature changes as you road the trail. A cool spot, a warm spot.

It was a ride for the senses.

The Virginia Creeper Tail History (just for my dad). See the following link: http://www.vacreepertrail.com/history/vacreeperhistory.htm

And just for GC and the WTG - a sign:

Week 40: Deliciously Unique Dinner

My apoligies for the pictures in advance. I took them with my cell phone - a terrible way to take pictures. But I couldn't exactly take my big camera into a 4-star joint could I? Well, I could have, but they discourage it.

Shotgun Betty and I were treated to a deliciously free and unique dinner. We went to Heron's at The Umstead. We looked at the wine list first and were planning to buy $100 bottle of wine. Why? Because it was free and I've never bought a $100 bottle of wine before. The wine list was ridiculous! There were bottles of wine for hundreds of dollars. I even saw a bottle for over $2500. I can't imagine that the taste of a $2500 bottle of wine is worth that much money. There comes a point when wine just tastes like wine, right? 

We decided against a bottle of wine and instead went with a wine pairing. It was paired with the Chef's Tasting Menu. This combination was a 5 course meal. We were first served a scallop in apricot sauce. This was not part of the tasting. It was just a small appetizer. It was delicious.

Course 1: Marinated Blue Crab topped with Osetra Caviar, Heirloom Cucumber, Pickled Onion, Creme Fraiche. Paired with Prosecco from Borgo Magredo in Veneto, Italy.

The caviar (fish eggs) were quite salty. Not quite what I expected.

Course 2: Japanese Amber Jack with Clamshell Mushrooms, Baby Root Vegetables, in Yuzu-Barley Broth. Pair with Chardonnay from Smith-Madrone, Spring Mountain, Napa Valley, CA.

This meal came complete with PLASTIC. Yes that's right. I found plastic in my fish at a 4-Star restaurant. They did serve me up a new dish and topped our wine off frequently.

Course 3: Grilled Foie Gras with a side of Brulee of Peach, Vanilla Mascarpone, and Wild Huckleberries. Paired with Pinot Noir from Kenneth Volk, Santa Maria Valley, California.

If you don't know what Foie Gras is, that's ok. I didn't either before this little food adventure. Well, let me fill you in. Foie Gras is fatten duck liver. I know, it sounds disgusting but it actually tasted pretty good after you get over the fact that you are eating the thing that cleans the toxins out of your body. I'm sure I absorbed some duck toxin. Wonder what that does to you? The Peach Brulee was to die for though.

Now at this point Shotgun Betty had had just enough wine to make herself brave. She asked to meet the chef. That's right. Us there common folk would like to meet the chef of the 4-star restaurant that we could never afford to go to if my company hadn't footed the bill.

Course 4: Milk Poached Hen with Savoy Cabbage, Matsutake, Cippolini Onion, and Grain Mustard Cream. Paired with Syrah from Tardieu-Laurent, Cotes Du Rhone, France.

Now I'm not sure where the mashed potatoes fit in, but something certainly tasted like mashed potatoes. Some poor chef is reading this going "No, no, no! This crazy girl doesn't know what she is talking about. She is calling my masterpiece mashed potatoes." However, it was very delicious.

Also at this point, Shotgun Betty started going on and on about Cotes Du Rhone. I must admit is was some scrumptious wine followed by a scrumptious chef. That's right, Chef Greene can out to speak to us. Did you think he would say no after I found plastic in my food? Of course now. Chef Greene was very nice and personable, not at all like the mean chefs on TV.

Course 5: Olive Oil Cake with Lucques Mascarpone, Sweet Tomatoes, Mozzarella Sorbet, and Pistachio. Paired with Semillion from Oriel "Ondines", Sauternes, France

I'm not sure where the "Ondines" fits in. There must be a reason behind the quotes. But mythically speaking, Ondines were mermaids or water creatures of some sort.

After dinner mint: We were served an assortment of chocolates that were delicious!

  

All in all is was a fabulous dinner. The food was excellent! Shotgun Betty and I had an upper class night on the town. Oh and according to Shotgun Betty, I'm going to be famous or so she told the waitress. And yes I did take a picture in the powder room.