FANTASY
VACATIONS: HOLIDAY ESCAPES
THAT MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
It's all about experimenting
with
style,
especially in times of uncertainty.
Try on some of your wildest
dreams,
and see what happens.
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Newspaper
Rock in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. This newspaper served as a gathering place for anyone hungry for news. (Photo © dgphotography) The
Dixie National Forest in Utah, near Bryce and Zion National Parks, was once home to a sizeable population of Native Americans
between 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Sierra Club invites you and your family to drop by and do some exploring. For 7 days in August, you can help them search for artifacts and rock art and learn how to do archaeological
surveys to map the area and understand where the ancient people lived and how they did their daily duties. In between archaeological work and listening to speakers in the evening, you will have lots of opportunity
to swim, fish, hike, or go mountain biking. The elevation is between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. This expedition is classed as "moderate to strenuous," largely because of the elevation,
and because the daytime temperature of about 90 falls to about 40 at night, chilly in your tent. Driving there takes about 3 hours from Las Vegas, and about 4 hours from Salt Lake City. Meals are provided; there is a maximum of 20 participants in a group. Seven days, adults: about $500,
kids: $400. 
Camping among canyons provides some very beautiful moments.
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DIG FOR DINOSAURS The American Museum of Natural History invites
you and your family to spend an event-filled week in Colorado, searching for Apatosaurus and Allosaurus fossils. This trip includes not just digging in a
quarry once inhabited by some of the most ferocious dinosaurs on the planet, but also learning how to make plaster casts
of the fossil bones and footprints. Because the area is some of the most beautiful country in the world, you can do some
horseback riding, too. Nights are spent in a Doubletree Hotel with a pool. Not bad, after a hard day's work. One week trips, leaving July 24 and July
31, accompanied by a museum paleontologist, Jack Conrad or Jonathan Cooley. Adults: about $3,300; kids: $2,800, includes
meals. For
more information: call 800-462-8687; or see:
A hungry Allosaurus Dinosaur recreated
in a park in southern Germany. (Photo ©
nilky) Not
as big as Triceratops, Allosaurus was nevertheless as good at being carnivorous, as its giant teeth suggest. They ruled
parts of North America, Australia, and Africa between 155 and 145 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic.
Hunting for traces of Dinosaurs began around 1854 when the first dinosaur
was discovered near the Missouri River in the Midwest. For more on Dinosaurs, see www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinosaur.html For videos from the Discovery Channel,
see dsc.discovery.com/videos/dinosaurs/ |
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Can it cross the desert, plow through
snowstorms, climb steep hills? And does it have a mild steel exhaust (a requirement)?
(Photo © PattieS)
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THE PEKING-PARIS
MOTOR CHALLENGE
This rare race, the fourth
since 1907, pits all kinds and sizes of vintage cars
against each other in a timed competition from
Peking, across Mongolia
and the Gobi Desert, along the Silk Route, through Turkey, Greece,
and Italy, to Paris.
Drivers in pairs can elect to sleep
in tents, or, like the 1907 contestants,
under their cars. You
can use GPS, but your car must be easily repairable
--
(one from the 1907 race is still in the Gobi); and drivers must be able to withstand
extreme
and sudden climatic changes.
Cars depart Peking September 10, arrive
in Paris October 16, 2010.
The Race
Committee, based in Oxford, England, handles preparations,
including
visas, and things like money:
in the first race drivers
travelled with silver bars.
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Alien portraits tend to be very similar around the world
MAKE CONTACT What do we have to do to encourage visitors from other planets to feel at home on earth? What
kind of social protocols kick in when we meet creatures who are seriously more advanced
than we are? If you're interested in addressing these questions, you can join a small group and spend a few nights
under the stars using special techniques to attract UFOs and link up with aliens. The Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) invites you to become an "ambassador
to the universe" at any of their gatherings around the country throughout 2010. Initiated by Dr. Stephen Greer who believes
Earth has been visited by alien spacecraft for centuries with an uptick after 1947 and the Roswell Incident, the 6-night ET
trainings take place in June at Crestone, Colorado; in August at Mt. Shasta, California; and in November at Joshua Tree, California.
After afternoon lectures designed to help you understand with a "nonlocal mind" how and why
ETs travel here, you will be trained to work from 8PM to midnight, using flashlights and aligning your energy with the universe.
CSETI is controversial; not everyone believes in alien creatures or in our ability to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Dr Greer, a physician, aims to promote peace. Please see www.cseti.org for information. The 6-night trainings are $995; lodging and meals are extra. CSeti is sponsoring a Conference on Contact and Disclosure to
be held south of Tucson, Arizona at a resort in Rio Rico where the night skies are crystal clear. Workshops will focus on
energy technologies, crop circle evidence, and Phobos, an "artificial" moon of Mars. October 2 to
4, about $500 for the conference. See: cseti.org/contact/
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Miles and miles of Western desert. This one is near Siwa. (Photo © erwinf) EGYPT, EXTREME AND RARELY VISITED This 9-day exploration of the western side of the Nile into the White Desert has been
called a "Tour of a Lifetime" by National Geographic Traveler. This is the territory where Greeks from Alexander's
time and Romans buried their dead, and where some tiny villages clustered not far from oases exist relatively unchanged from
Roman times.
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