I’ve just realized that we have a travel style that can probably be described as eclectic. Or maybe simply geeky in a sciencey way, with a twist of highbrow culture and finding good vegetarian food.
We’ve visited the La Brea Tar Pits (fossils), Vasquez Rocks (no Gorns, but lots of White-Headed Sparrows), Westminster Abbey (dead scientists, and a few kings & queens too), and the ancient tombs at Gamla Uppsala (dead Vikings).
We’ve hunted for mud volcanoes near the Salton Sea (and failed), endangered Palilas on Mauna Kea (and succeeded), and the tomb of Anders Celsius in Uppsala (actually, we came across this one quite unexpectedly).
We’ve visited three meridians: in Greenwich, Stockholm, and at the Basilica de Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome.
This summer, we’ll be doing a random tour of the Western Great Lakes region, with possible stops at Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Bell Museum of Natural History, Taliesin, Science Museum of MN, Field Museum, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and Royal Ontario Museum. We’ve sadly concluded that visits to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and Spam Museum are probably too out of the way, as is the nesting area of the Kirtland’s Warbler. Still undecided on The House on the Rock.
We’re especially looking forward to the ROM, because it’s the place we ordered the “Primeval Predators” toys that became our wedding cake toppers.
Any suggestions for other interesting/geeky sights to see in the general areas of southeast MN, south WI, north IL, and Toronto?