Museum of Things Found With Metal Detectors

My youngest son got a metal detector for Christmas. Luckily, the Museum of Things Found With Metal Detectors isn't very far from home. Honestly, I'm not sure it would be worth a lengthy drive unless you're also planning to check out the covered bridges in the area or the Linn County Historical Museum, which is totally worth a road trip. But to get a kid excited about his new metal detector, it was fun to visit. 

The museum is at White's Electronics and they have a huge display of the metal detectors and geiger counters they've been making since the 1950s, along with things found with metal detectors...and things not found with metal detectors.

The teapots found in sunken ships were some of my favorites, along with a coral encrusted sword and a few old rifles that were barely recognizable as guns.

Now we have to research artificial reefs and whether coral can be removed from metal artifacts...

The Living Rock Studios

We've been out and about again, this time to the Living Rock Studios in Brownsville, Oregon. It was one of the first destinations that I put on our list when we started that museum a month thing, but it's close to home so I was saving it for an easy option when our schedule was busy...and then our whole schedule went to hell and we never did get there. 

Last Saturday, my youngest and I were watching Youtube videos about people who'd created and done unique things and he told me he wanted to do more things like the Hands on History event we'd attended the week before. So we hopped in the car and went.

I must have had the world's most serious case of pregnancy fog on our last visit because I had no idea...

There are artifacts built into the stone walls, along with agates and thunder eggs and every type of local rock you can imagine. The camera on my phone couldn't capture the living rock pictures, which are biblical scenes created from thin slices of rock and illuminated from behind.

That cast iron pot is half in, half out of the wall. I love all of the details in this place! Those glass bricks with specimens of rock inside? They started out at Folgers coffee jars.

The upper floor is equally, or maybe more amazing with a rock "tree" stretching up to the roof. The owner's daughter painted and hung a leafy canopy.

I somehow didn't get pictures of the intricate little wooden carvings, or of the life size paintings of Oregon birds because there was just so much different stuff to take in.

Like the book on the history of logging. It sits on a special turntable and each of the massive wooden pages is  two by three feet and features an original painting.

Did I mention that all of this was built by one man, Howard B Taylor? His family and friends helped with the building, but  the paintings, the rock pictures, and the carvings were all his creations.

The Living Rock Studio couldn't have been more of a stark contrast from our visit to Petersen Rock Garden last summer. Howard's daughter and son in law gave us a guided tour and it's obvious that they love the place.  If you're not close enough to visit yourself, they have a tour on their Youtube channel. If you are close enough to visit, you definitely should!

Saying Goodbye to the Undersea Gardens

How many times have you seen this in your social media feeds as the click bait image for an article about "Wild Animal Encounters You Won't Believe?" 

That's not a diver being attacked by an octopus, it's part of the signage for the Undersea Gardens in Newport Oregon and has been for as long as I can remember.  On Tuesday I saw a headline that the attraction had closed. It didn't seem like news -- over the past few years I've seen a lot of stories that it was going to close or had closed. What was news was that they were offering free admission to the building for the next few days.

Twenty minutes later, the whole family was headed for the Oregon Coast. Even in its prime the Undersea Gardens wasn't all that great, but we didn't have any better plans for the afternoon.

You descend these stairs into the people-quarium, ten feet under the surface of the bay...

And then you look out these windows into what's supposed to trick you into seeing what's in the waters surrounding you. The illusion isn't all that great, especially since they've added a bunch of concrete garden statues over the years.

Those illuminated pictures of the fish are the only informational signage so unless you already know what you're looking at or attended one of the narrated dive shows, you're out of luck. 

In the mid-60s, this was probably an educational experience. Today it pales in comparison with the Oregon Coast Aquarium or the Marine Science Center. From the outside, though, it looks absolutely amazing and I'm glad I got the chance to let the kids see what was under the surface -- without spending almost a hundred bucks on the admission!

Hands on History

Yesterday, the Linn County Museum (you might remember my post about them that kicked off our whole museum a month thing) hosted their second annual Hands on History day. 

We started out with spinning and wool carding on the lawn of the Moyer House. I've been wanting to see the inside of that place for years, so as soon as I could pry the boys away from the wool (We've got fleece and a set of carders at home!) we went inside and they chatted with a man in the parlor who was demonstrating Victorian toys while I wandered into the kitchen and watched the butter churning.  

I've got more than one butter churn here at the house, but the woman doing the demonstration knew more about the history of butter than I would have thought possible. Did you know that it was originally used as a lamp oil and not for food? Now I've got to research that. 

One of the volunteers told us that there was an embalmer setting up in the park. What impression do we give off that lets strangers know we're going to drop everything and send us in that direction?

We must've stood there for at least half an hour hearing all about embalming during the Civil War and it was absolutely fascinating. He stayed in character, but not obnoxiously so, and went into a ton of historical detail without dwelling on the gross stuff.

I thought I took more pictures than I actually did. My two younger boys tried a cross cut saw, which had me holding my breath the entire time. I didn't think they were going to lose a limb, but I was definitely worried about the saw. They panned for gold and we got our picture taken with a hundred year old camera.

And we sort of tried to lean to dance. I love the image of my son in his zombie Shakespeare t shirt danging with a woman in a hoop skirt. He definitely caught on faster than I did!

There was a mule drawn wagon and a man riding around the streets on one of those old high-wheeled bicycles.

I'm so glad my husband let me know this was happening! We learned a lot of things that may lead to other things...or may not.  Either way, we all had fun and we're looking forward to next year.

The Albany Carousel

I knew that there was a carousel in Albany and I'd been planning to visit, but somehow I never got around to it or even figured out exactly where it was. It was even on our list of museums we wanted to visit last year.  Earlier this week we discovered that it's right down the block from one of the Row by Row Experience shops. 

I'd also seen on Facebook that they offer free tours...so I was completely and totally out of excuses. One of those had been that Salem has a carousel and we'd been to that one more than a few times over the years.

There's no comparison. The animals in Albany are fabulously detailed...

They have some old animals and artwork on display. (Please let me know what you think is going on in those two panels. I want to see if your guess about the lady on the left matches ours.)

There are lots more animals in progress and I loved seeing the partially carved ones with their concept art.

I think I'd forgotten how much I love carousels....and that I didn't realize new ones can be absolutely amazing.

Somehow, I didn't get any still pictures of the actual carousel...but I did get a bit of video.

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A post shared by Michelle Marr (@romantictangle) on Jun 26, 2019 at 9:22pm PDT

Tide Pools Instead of Museums?

Remember last year's plan to visit a different museum at least once a month? I didn't pull it off. Going places was possible, but spacing them evenly out, let alone spacing them evenly out and getting them to mesh with the actual calendar...that didn't happen. 

I thought we'd go to the Marine Science Center while we were at the coast, but it turns out they don't have an octopus on display right now. Since the octopus and the touch pools are the main attractions, we didn't go.  Instead, we spent a couple of afternoons clambering around on the rocks and looking at actual tide pools. 

There weren't informative signs, or helpful volunteers to answer our questions but we know most of the creatures by sight and we have smart phones that helped fill in the gaps in our existing knowledge. 

This was a lot more fun -- and a lot more exercise -- than walking through a museum reading signs. 

I've still got a  whole long list of places we plan to visit, but I'm scrapping the idea of doing one a month.

I Want a Hundred Year Old Greenhouse

I do understand that there are lots and lots of reasons why I can't have an old glass greenhouse, but let me dream for a little bit. Because the one we visited yesterday was GORGEOUS...

It was the annual Christmas open house at Deepwood and Bush House and all four kids and I thought it would be fun to go.  Back in 2016, we missed the greenhouse. I remembered that it was there, from the days I used to walk through the park almost every day with the stroller, but I had it confused in my head with the ones over at Deepwood...and those were locked. 

Look at all of the succulents (and also look at how I manage to avoid figuring out the plural of cactus)...

There's not much room to maneuver between the wide tables. If I had a greenhouse like this one, I'd want a cozy spot to sit in. Not a realistic dream, since I can't manage to keep plants alive. The hens and chicks in the ladle are still hanging in there and I hope I can get them through the winter. Whatever it is that I put in the wishing well planter has been thoroughly trimmed by the chickens. I don't think that one is my fault and I did move it out of their reach once I figured out where all of the trailing bits had gone. 

I've also killed way too many house plants over the years to even consider wanting a separate structure to keep them in. But that won't stop me from loving the idea.

{Museum a Month} Oregon Coast Aquarium

The Portland Attractions Marketing Alliance attraction for November was the Oregon Coast Aquarium, so our family headed for the coast. We'd been looking forward to this one all year. 

Over the years, we've been to the aquarium plenty of  times. My husband and I went to see Keiko, the whale from Free Willie, while he was there. The kids and I slept in the Passages of the Deep tubes one night, with sharks swimming over and below us. (For the record, I don't recommend trying that with an infant, a toddler, and two school age children. They had fun. I survived the night.)

And there have been trips just to see the seals and sea lions and sharks and jelly fish.

The current exhibit is Secrets of Shipwrecks.

We enjoy our occasional visits to the aquarium, but admission for a large family isn't inexpensive. The nearby Hatfield Marine Science Center is free (with a suggested donation) and although it's not nearly as large, it does have a touch pool and the octopus is always better than the one at the big aquarium. (Although I just checked the octocam and they don't have one on display right now)

{Museum a Month} The North Lincoln County Historical Museum

If you're spending some time on the Oregon Coast, I definitely recommend  stop at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum in Lincoln City. Admission is free, there's a lot to look at, and it gives visitors a wonderful glimpse of how the coast used to be.

Can you imagine a time when little kids could scramble around on what was left of wrecked ships? I've got to admit that I'm jealous of Mrs. Carmichael's mother, who told that story. There are lots of stories from local residents included in the displays and I wound up wanting to buy every locally published book in the gift shop so that I could read even more of them.

There's a video about early tourism on the coast that is definitely worth watching (and this is from someone who never wants to sit through those things.)

Can you imagine camping on the coast in the 1920s? Exhibits like this one make it a lot easier to picture. As much as I don't like camping, that looks like fun!

The Pixie Kitchen and Pixie Land were before my time, but from everything I've heard about them, I would have absolutely loved them.

I wish the miniature version hadn't been so far back from the railing so that I could've gotten a better look. And yes, the whole reason I put this museum on our to-visit list was so that I could see this display. It was a bonus that the rest of the museum was so fantastic. 

Petersen Rock Garden

Back in June, we took the boys to the Petersen Rock Garden in Redmond. I'd been there as a kid and again as an adult, but it'd been a very long time and the youngest two had never seen the place at all. They've closed and reopened a number of times over the years and I'm afraid that what was once a really neat attraction may not be with us much longer.   

You already know that I love dollhouses and tiny houses of all kinds, so this place is right up my alley. One man, Rasmus Petersen, built it himself with petrified wood, agates, obsidian, and other rocks he collected in the area around his ranch. He started in 1935 and was still adding to the displays until his death in 1952.

I love old tourist traps and this one is practically in our own backyard. One of the travel sites I visited to confirm that they were still open said that admission is by donation, but that wasn't the case. There's a drop box for admission fees and the signs make it very clear that they expect you to pay. We saw a handful of employees working on the landscaping and I kind of got the impression that we weren't welcome. Signs warn you to stay on the path...but it's not too  clear what is and isn't path.

Despite the disrepair and unwelcoming atmosphere, I still kind of love the place. My husband told me not to recommend it to you guys, but if you like old roadside attractions and keep your expectations kind of low, it's a one of a kind place that's a lot of fun to wander through.

If you're interested in finding out more about the history and current state of the garden, there's a lot of information on Friends of Petersen Rock Gardens over on facebook.

{Museum a Month} Columbia River Maritime Museum

Our museum of the month for June was the Columbia River Maritime Museum because they're the participating member of the Portland Attractions Marketing Alliance for this month and our annual membership at Deepwood (the historic house where the love of my life and I got married twenty-seven years ago) got us in for free.

This post is going to lack pictures because, even though I thought I was taking lots of them, I apparently wasn't...and the ones I did take have the pattern of my dress reflected in the glass. (Did I mention that I'm still learning to use the camera on my new phone?)

There's a tremendous lot to take in at this museum, which also helps to explain the lack of pictures. We learned about shipwrecks in the local area, and current Coast Guard rescue operations, and the history of map making and navigation from hundreds of years ago to today, and Astoria's canning industry, and World War II, and I think there was something about current weather mapping technology near the end but by then my brain was full.

I don't think it's even possible to absorb it all in one visit. The displays are complex, with artifacts and detailed signs and video to explain what you're seeing (although a few times the sign we needed was hard to find and once it didn't exist at all.)

There are full sized boats on display...including a Coast Guard boat tipped up at a frightening angle...and models of boats, and the actual bridge of a World War II destroyer. Outside, the lightship Columbia is docked. The destroyer bridge and tugboat bridge inside were too crowded to really explore, but we had the Columbia pretty much to ourselves as we went through.  There's a brief orientation when you first board the ship, then you wander through the rest of the publicly accessible areas on your own.

You have to be interested in boats, or the ocean, or the history of maps...or have a mind that's curious about random things...to enjoy this one. There's not a lot for very young children so I wouldn't make a trip just for them, but my kids are the perfect age.

{Museum a Month} Thompson's Mills State Heritage Site

There were factories before there was electricity. You probably knew that already, but I wanted the kids to see how water could actually power the equipment. As soon as I came up with the idea of visiting a different museum every month and started making a list of destinations, I put Thomson's Flouring Mills and the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill high on the list.

Last week, the whole family went to the Thompson's Mills State Heritage Site and took the guided tour. We visited years ago, but all three boys were too young to remember and back then we did the self-guided tour which doesn't cover nearly as much of the mill. 

The volunteer who guided us through the mill was obviously passionate about her job. Here, the boys got to turn the gears by hand to see how the system worked. She also showed us the clips used to repair broken belts...which are an older version the same type my husband uses at work. 

It's amazing how many things tie together. We also learned about water rights in Oregon and watched swallows scoop mud from the riverbank and carry it up to their nests in the eaves. I can even tie this in with quilting because the mill packaged their flour in those print sacks we all love so much...

After the demand for flour dropped after the first World War, the mill shifted its production to animal feed. Then it was used to generate electricity.  What's on display now is  a combination of equipment from both eras.

The self-guided tour we took years ago didn't let us down into the basement and we didn't get to see the water rush through and start turning the gears, which is pretty impressive.

I absolutely recommend this state park if you're in Oregon or travelling through. Admission, including the guided tour, is free. 

{Museum a Month} Lan Su Chinese Garden

The month was coming to an end and we still hadn't made time for a museum visit. This month's participating attraction for the Portland Attractions Marketing Alliance is the Lan Su Chinese Garden. So we went.

The garden takes up an entire city block and was designed to replicate the garden of a sixteenth century bureaucrat scholar. (It's also considered to be the most authentic Suzhou-style Chinese garden outside of China, built in 2000 as part of a partnership between Portland and its sister city.)

I knew the garden was in the middle of town, but I still expected it to feel more separate. Tall buildings are visible above the garden's architecture and the sound of traffic was always there in the background. At one point the bass from someone's car stereo was almost as loud as the tour guide's voice. 

Definitely take the guided tour if you happen to visit. There's symbolism in everything, and so much history about the garden and why it's the way it is. You could thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the place without knowing the details, but the tour adds a lot. 

The garden would have been the daytime dwelling of a scholar and his wives.

Another tip -- the brochure is worth reading. I'm always so busy keeping track of kids that I just put the brochure or map or whatever into my purse, but this one is really interesting. Even if it did take me a bit too long to figure out the interactive window feature.

{Museum a Month} The Frontier Heritage Fair

Last week we visited a building that "museum" on its sign but no actual exhibits and I picked up a flyer for the Fort Umpqua Muzzleloaders Frontier Heritage Fair. That flyer totally made up for the wasted trip because we went and it was the most wonderful fantastic educational experience we've had in ages. 

I was expecting more demonstrations. What we did find were about half a dozen talkative vendors who were passionate about their hobbies and willing to share that with my kids. 

We wrote with quill pens, which is considerable more difficult if you're left handed, and saw how they're cut with a fancy device from the late 1800s. 

All three boys got a chance to try the pole lathe, which is different from a treadle sewing machine because sewing machines use a circular motion and the lathe is reciprocal... 

There was also a guy who had a display of old powder horns (old in this case meaning before the signing of the Declaration of Independence) and made new ones.

It was an amazing afternoon and I picked up flyers for three museums that I hadn't heard of before.