I love trains. Enjoyed my recent Seattle to Vancouver trip on Amtrak. Cost was about the same as fancy buses, about double Greyhound. Cheaper than the fast ferry Seattle to Vancouver.
I’m reluctant to take Amtrak mainly because of their horrible on-time performance.
The film Lion is very intense. I cried several times.
Great cast: Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, …
Five year old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple.
Twenty five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.
The Starlight Room is a collection of comfy chairs, couches and loveseats where you lounge to enjoy a fine film. We ordered a bottle of red along with meals served just at the start of the film.
The night we were there guest speakers discussed the film both before and after the showing. Very interesting.
I was surprisingly impressed with these ruins and how they are presented.
Arizona had only 4 rivers in the past. The question Rangers try to answer is why & how did native people survive and thrive in this very harsh environment.
Answer = irrigation.
circa 1900
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument consists of the ruins of multiple structures surrounded by a compound wall constructed by the ancient people of the Hohokam period, who farmed the Gila Valley in the early 13th century.
“Archeologists have discovered evidence that the ancient Sonoran Desert people who built the Casa Grande also developed wide-scale irrigation farming and extensive trade connections which lasted over a thousand years until about 1450 C.E.” …
Carlsbad Cavern includes a large cave chamber, (The Big Room), a natural limestone chamber almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at the highest point. It is the fifth largest chamber in North America and the twenty-eighth largest in the world. …
“The Chandelier” in the Big Room
They do a good job at Carlsbad. But the most interesting thing I learned was the existence of the much larger and more impressive Lechuguilla Cavenearby.
… with 138.3 miles (222.6 km) the seventh-longest explored cave in the world …
They are not likely to let tourists into this one in my lifetime.