Crazy Horse

While the faces of Mount Rushmore are carved into the side of a mountain, the Crazy Horse Memorial is actually being carved out of the mountain. Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota warrior who fought the US Cavalry in the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. The monument was commissioned by Lakota chiefs in response to Mount Rushmore- to let "the white man ... know that the red man has great heroes, too." 

The sculptor they hired started work in 1948. Work has been slow, as the sculptor worked alone for many years (that's right, one man worked mostly alone carving a mountain- to increase his workforce, he had 10 kids) and the site is nonprofit, refusing state or federal money, and surviving on donations and entrance fees.  After 50 years, they had the face and top of the arm finished. Though there is a long way to go, the scale is quite impressive. In comparison, the sculpture of Mt Rushmore would fit on the side of Crazy Horse's head.  When (or if) all is said in done, it will look something like this model:

If you look closely at the first picture (click to enlarge it), you'll see the outline of the horse's head painted on the side of the mountain. When asked once about his tribe's claims on territory, Crazy Horse is said to have replied, "My land is where my people are buried," and this is why he is pointing.  If they ever finish, it'll be the largest sculpture in the world- several million tons of rock have already been removed.   

Patriotism Swells In the Hearts of an American Pair

As wonderful as Portland was/is, the trip home also provided Rob the chance to show Erika his home state, the majestic South Dakota (easily the better of the two Dakotas).  Surprisingly, Erika had never been to South Dakota before, so Rob really wanted to impress her with all the state had to offer.  Wasting no time, we headed from the massive (not really) Rapid City Regional Airport to the greatest symbol of South Dakota, found on the state quarter and every license plate: Mount Rushmore.  

Now, Mount Rushmore is a curious thing.  Carving the likenesses of our leaders into a mountain seems like an ancient civilization kind of thing to do and you can't help but wonder about future civilizations debating the meanings of each face- "Well, there are four gods, one for each of the seasons?"  But, when you visit Mount Rushmore, you are struck by its beauty and scale and you do get that sort of grade-school sense of civic and national pride, which for us was augmented by the dozens of 2nd through 4th graders running around, identifying each president or finding their state flag along the viewing area.  We even listened to a park ranger give a talk about the carving of the monument and while he was mostly speaking to the rows of little kids sitting cross-legged on the floor, it was pretty cool for the big kids, too.  

He's standing in front of the old working model of the monument, which is beautiful in its own right.  You'll notice that the presidents were modeled from the waist up, which was the original intent.  But, if you look at the first picture, notice the dark rock at what would be the belly of Washington (near the tree line).  That black rock is not suited for carving and so they decided to just stick with the heads. 

Mount Rushmore was beautiful, but just the start of Erika's journey into the heartland of America.  More to come, including giant Native Americans, palaces made of corn, and of course, prairie dogs.  Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in this post's title. 

50 Pounds Heavier

After two and a half weeks of home cooking and visiting favorite restaurants and bars, we're ready for our post vacation diet. Of course, most of that 50 pounds came in the form of the clothes, shoes, and other stuff we bought in an attempt to get a little relief from the exchange rate. In addition to the shopping, we had a fantastic trip, managing to see our families, our friends, and, Rob thinks, everyone in Portland that Erika has ever met. 

Of special note, we were lucky enough to see all of the Other People's Kids (see links at right). Denali and Kerala were in town for the first week of our vacation (Rob was too busy playing with Denali to take any pictures), and Connor and his parents stopped by for brunch one day. As Connor is a somewhat less demanding playmate, Rob was able to snap a couple shots. Here he is with his mom, followed by a glamour shot of the pose he uses on all the ladies:

It was great to see all the Other People's Kids and, of course, all the Other People, too.  We had a nice flight home and we're thrilled to spend a day with our friend, James, who was visiting from Australia.  We toughed out the jet lag and had dinner with friends- okay, Erika toughed out the jet lag and had dinner with friends.  Rob couldn't keep from falling asleep on the couch and so excused himself from dinner and went home and crashed.  Not all was lost, however, as Erika did bring him a slice of cheesecake, which of course only adds to the weight gained from the trip home.  Maybe the post-vacation diets start tomorrow...

Sooo Big!

We knew our first year in Amsterdam was flying by, but we recently had a wonderful reminder of just how long we've been here:

That's Andrew, who moved here a month after we did (and was born two months after that). Seeing how big Andrew is reminded us how long we've been living it up here in Amsterdam and that we haven't been home in a while. So, we're headed back home to see family and friends for the first time in a year.  

The first year's been amazing and we were so happy to have so many visitors. If you didn't make it this year, you're still invited to come (it's not like the dollar's going to get stronger anytime soon, so why wait?). But until then, if you'll be in Portland or the great state of South Dakota (for you Portlanders, it's about halfway between Portland and New York) let us know and we hope to see you when we're home!

Baarle-Hertog

Earlier this month, Rob noticed several blogs mentioning the town of Baarle-Hertog, near the Belgian-Dutch border.  The town is noticeable because it's both Dutch and Belgian, but in a very odd way.  Instead of one border running through the town, like along a main road or a river, the town consists of 24 plots of land, with some Belgian enclaves inside larger Dutch plots and some Dutch enclaves inside larger Belgian plots. 

So, as you walk through the town, you are constantly crossing between the two countries. Anyway, Rob looked it up and since it's only 15 minutes from Bier Paradijs, he dragged everyone there to check it out.  He's such a nerd.

If you didn't know about the town's unique property, you probably wouldn't notice just by driving through. On foot though, you discover several signs, some more obvious than others. We parked the car and wandered into the town center expecting a clear sign of the two countries' territories- something like little Belgian kids throwing rocks at their Dutch neighbors or something: "Dutchie, Go Home!" Of course, there's nothing so dramatic as that, and we wandered for a couple blocks, a little disappointed, until Paul pointed out that we had just crossed the border:

(As we were taking pictures, the townspeople in the nearby restaurants were getting a kick out of us.  Don't think they get too many tourists in Baarle-Hertog.)  The line of crosses becomes a line of raised silver studs as it enters the road, and as you walk through town you spot it frequently.  The line above splits two buildings, but there are several buildings and houses in town that are split by the border.  As the town changes between the Netherlands and Belgium, so do the street signs and the building numbers.  So, if the border intersects a street, the numbering system totally changes.  It's gotta be tough on a postal worker.  Somewhat helping simplify things, the house numbers feature the flag of whichever country they are in:

Anyway, it was a neat little detour and we were able to enjoy some Belgian food.  At least we think it was Belgian- we were definitely on the Belgian side, but we're pretty sure the waitstaff was Dutch... 

Day Tripping

It's been raining all week, but the skies cleared on Saturday and so we took advantage with a little day trip with our friends, Paul and Simon.  

Our first destination was the National Park De Hoge Veluwe, near Arnhem. The park was formerly the royal hunting grounds, but the only deer we saw were in pens. There is a wonderful free bike program, so we were able to tour through the forest on bikes. The park also hosts the Kröller-Müller Museum, a beautiful fine art museum with a large collection of Van Gogh and other European masters. Outside the museum is an immense sculpture park with over 100 sculptures, including this floating piece:

This piece, made of cable and aluminum, seems to defy physics- it looks like it should blow over or fall to pieces:

The view from underneath is pretty cool:

We could have spent the entire day in the park, but we wanted to stock up on 'supplies,' so we headed to our favorite border rest-stop: the Bier Paradijs.  Just over the Belgian border, the Bier Paradijs is an awesome warehouse full of Belgian beer at (relatively) cheap prices (it's still in Euro, after all). You can buy full racks of beer or fill racks with individual bottles.  This picture's a little blurry- we got there right before it closed and they were turning off the lights.  

We stock up whenever we're in the neighborhood, and with the help of Paul and Simon, managed to fill up the car:

Not a bad haul, huh? 

Luxembourg

The last stop on our trip was Luxembourg.  The city is built on a hill, surrounded on all sides by rivers or deep valleys, which made it a virtually impenetrable fortress for centuries.  Most of the fortress walls were eventually destroyed, though not in siege, but as a demilitarization act after Luxembourg became a neutral state.  Now, only some of the city walls remain and two of the 'casemates.'  The city was fortified with three rings of walls, forts, and other works and the casemates were the underground tunnels used for storage, shelter, and other defense-related activities.  Most of the casemates have been sealed or destroyed (over 90% of the city's defenses are gone), but they weren't able to destroy the Bock casemates without seriously damaging the city, so it's been preserved.  

It was cool to wander around the tunnels, though there were more than a couple 40 ft stairways to nowhere- you mean we have to turn around, again? The casemates also offer a terrific view of the gardens below:

Finally, we wandered through the pleasant town center, found some lunch and enjoyed the view of the spectacular Pont Adolphe:

Ultimately though, Luxembourg got something of a short shrift from us.  We were tired and ready to be home (and to be sure, our hotel and its neighborhood didn't help.  Here's a tip- avoid the hotels across from the train station.  It's a very seedy area.  Lucky for Rob, he had the protection of two fierce women, so he was never too scared).  So, we piled back into the car for the last time and headed home.  

Somehow it's taken longer than the trip to write about it, but we're finally putting the pictures up on our Flickr page.  Enjoy!