The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 7: New Mexico to Ohio

This is the seventh post in a series. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth posts before this one. Today I'll be picking the city in New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Ohio that I most want to visit, then listing my top 2 attractions in each location. 

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The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 7: New Mexico to Ohio

 

We have visited a lot of neat places in New Mexico, but we haven't made it to Taos. I've heard so many good things and hope to visit someday. My top priorities are the guided tour at Taos Pueblo and the Taos Trolley Tour. 

Jamestown is a small town in western New York and the birthplace of Lucille Ball. It is home to the National Comedy Center, as well as the Lucy Desi Museum. I would travel significantly out of my way to visit both. 

The town I would most like to visit in North Carolina is Monteo, on Roanoke Island. My top priority would be visiting Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. I'm fascinated by the Lost Colony and want to know more. The second place I would visit is the North Carolina Aquarium. 

The place in North Dakota that I most want to visit is the tiny town of Dunseith (which apparently does not have a logo or seal of any kind) because it is home to the International Peace Garden. Ever since I learned about this botanical garden with half located in the US and half in Canada, I've wanted to go there. Unfortunately, it is a fair distance from other destinations or major cities in both the US or Canada. The North American Game Warden Museum is located within the International Peace Garden, so I'm not counting that as my second attraction. Instead, I'm picking Lake Metigoshe State Park. 

The city I most want to visit in Ohio is Cincinnati. There is a lot of interesting history, as well as unique foods and fun traditions in Cincy. I most want to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and William Howard Taft National Historic Site.

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If you have recommendations of places to go in these states, let me know in the comments! 

Gold, Silver, and Coal Mine Cart Craft

Today I have a 3-in-1 craft for you. Follow the simple steps to make a traditional mining cart out of paper, then "fill" it with gold, silver, or coal. It's a great project to accompany a study of the role that gold, silver, and/or coal mining played in your state's history. Affiliate links below. 

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The most famous gold rush in history took place in my home state of California. Following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, approximately 300,000 "forty-niners" poured into California the following year, hoping to strike it rich. California isn't the only state with a gold rush. The Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) is almost as famous. Approximately 100,000 prospectors hiked through Alaska on their way to the gold fields. Other states with significant gold rushes include North Carolina (1802), Georgia (1829), Colorado (1859), and South Dakota (1874). 

What do Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and New Mexico have in common? Each of these states had a silver boom in the late 1800's. Nevada, nicknamed the Silver State, had the first silver rush in the US in 1859, following the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City. Nevada remains a major silver producer today, along with Alaska, Idaho, and Utah. 

Pennsylvania is the birthplace of the coal industry in the US. It had the largest anthracite deposits in the world during the 19th and early 20th centuries. West Virginia has been one of the top producers of the softer bituminous coal. Kentucky, Illinois, Wyoming, and Montana all have played a significant role in the production of coal. 

Gold, Silver, or Coal Mining Cart

Materials: 

• cardstock (medium and dark brown)
• scissors
• black ink
• craft glue
• circle punch
• black colored pencil
• gold, silver, or black glitter paper

Steps:

Cut a 6" x 3" rectangle of medium brown paper and set it aside. Then cut seven strips of medium brown paper, each approximately 6" x 0.5". Ink the edges of the strips, then glue them to the rectangle. 

Cut 1/4" strips of darker brown to make the metal trim that secures the boards. Glue the pieces in place (2 horizontal and 3 vertical) as shown below. Then trim the edges to give the mine cart its trapezoidal shape. Punch a pair of circles from the dark brown. 

Use a colored pencil to add grain, knots, and shading to the wood. Add dots to mimic rivets on the metal. Draw spokes on the wheels. 

Glue the wheels in place and you have your mine cart. 

Cut a piece of glitter paper (gold, silver, or black) and glue it behind the mine cart. 

I wish I'd thought of this idea a couple of decades ago so I could have made these with my 4th and 5th graders. I had a space above my chalkboards that would have been perfect for displaying a long line of mine carts holding gold.

Travel Adventures in Arizona and New Mexico, Part 14: Albuquerque to El Paso

This is my fourteenth and final post about our adventures traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. I recommend that you read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh,  twelfth, and thirteenth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received comped passes, media rates, and other benefits for several of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no effect on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

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Travel Adventures from Albuquerque to El Paso

After leaving the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get to our next destination. We made two short stops along the drive. The first was to get a quick photo in San Antonio. These Official Scenic Highway Markers are all over New Mexico (approximately 650 statewide) and I love them. This one marks the birthplace of Conrad Hilton. 

A bit more driving and we came to Valley of Fires Recreation Area in Carizozo. Valley of Fires is located at the Malpais Lava Flow, important because it is one of the largest volume young lava flows. 

Unfortunately, the Visitor Center had just closed when we got there, so we headed directly out on the trail.  

We followed multiple switchbacks to get down to the lava fields. It was great to stretch our legs a bit.  

This was the second "malpais" (badlands) we'd visited in three days and we enjoyed both immensely. 

Onward! We drove for another hour or so before reaching PistachioLand, home of the world's largest pistachio. 

  

They were about to close when we arrived and they'd stopped ice cream sales, so we weren't able to try their famous pistachio ice cream. Nor could we take a farm tour. But we did enjoy checking out their large store. It's packed with all things pistachio. 

  

  

The store is 98% pistachios and 2% aliens. I assume that is because Roswell is near. Well, sort of. It's 110 miles away. 

There's a free pistachio tasting bar at PistachioLand that we enjoyed. We tried most of the 15 or so flavors. I never would have guessed that Margarita Lime would be my favorite. Steve's favorite was Lemon Lime. Citrus and pistachios go together really well!

  

I really would have liked to try the ice cream. 

But that would have ruined my dinner and then I wouldn't have enjoyed the excellent food at D.H. Lescombes Winery and Bistro. 

Steve and I shared potstickers, french onion soup, and a steakhouse salad. Everything was really good. 

Our home for the night was the Holiday Inn Express Alamogordo. This hotel offers the usual amenities of the brand (free breakfast, free parking, etc) but if also offered one perk I've never seen anywhere else: free sled rentals. While we were checking in, a happy family dropped off the sleds they'd been using that day. 

As you might imagine, there was no snow in southern New Mexico on that sunny day in April. The sleds aren't for snow - they're for sand. Alamogordo is about 15 miles from White Sands National Park. 

Or is it White Sands National Monument? 

White Sands was a national monument from 1933 until 2019, when it became a national park. Most of the signs are updated, but not all. It preserves the world's largest gypsum dunefield, as well as the world's largest collection of fossilized footprints from the Ice Age. 

We started in the Visitor Center. I really enjoyed this exhibit about some of the most common tracks seen out on the dunefield. 

There were other interesting exhibits, but it was really crowded and we couldn't get decent pictures. We watched the park movie, then set out on Dunes Drive to experience the park. Fortunately, there were no missile test closures (!!). 

We listened the audio tour as we drove and stopped at several of the points of interest along the way. We walked along this trail, then up onto the dunes. 

Yup. It's sand. It's white. 

Because the sand is ever-shifting, the trails are marked with posts. Follow the blue clubs symbol for the Dune Life Nature Trail. 

Full disclosure: I don't like sand. I hate touching it and I don't like walking on it. The gypsum sand at White Sands is definitely better than the normal silica sand, but I still didn't enjoy it. It's pretty though. It looks like snow.  

I'm glad there was such a beautiful blue sky when we were visiting White Sands NP. 

If you've never been to White Sands, take a minute to picture what you think the picnic area looks like. 

Is this what you'd imagined? I sure didn't!

It's hard to properly express how much white sand there is at White Sands. We enjoyed looking at the pristine areas that didn't have footprints. People's footprints, that is. We were really excited to spot roadrunner tracks, which I never would have recognized without going to the Visitor Center first. 

We left White Sands and had a 90 minute drive to the airport in El Paso, Texas. It was the closest and best option for getting home. We flew to Phoenix, then went to the gate for our long layover. Steve, not in the mood to sit and read, walked through the whole airport. Thank goodness he did - he discovered an eegee's!! I thought we'd had our last-ever eegee a week earlier!

Steve and I had a great time exploring Arizona and New Mexico together. I hope I've inspired you to visit this area of the Southwest. There are so many fun and fascinating things to do. We packed in as much as we could, but it still has so much more to offer. We'll be back!