Heading out of town with your beloved four-legged companion can be a challenge.  Make your outing a little easier and check out AAA’s Traveling with Your Pet 2013 guidebook, a quality resource to help you locate pet-friendly lodging around the country.  If you’re doing your own research, be sure to read the pet policy details and contact the lodging facilities to ask specific questions before you book your reservation.  Some hotels proudly promote their pet-friendly accommodations but have weight limit restrictions, charge additional fees, and are strict about pets left unattended in the room while you cruise the town or the backcountry.  And remember the Pets Neighborhood.  It’s where you can find great books to teach you how to train your pet.  Plan ahead and everyone will be happy!

photo: Kim and Anna on Cottonwood Pass in Colorado

Much of what we know about the culture and activities of the Kansa Indians is from artifacts and data collected via archaeological fieldwork.  What happens during an excavation?  Find out at 2:30 when Tricia Waggoner, archeologist and principal investigator of the Fool Chief’s project, speaks about last summer’s field school at the known site of Fool Chief’s Village (1830-1844), a large Kansa Indian habitation located on the north side of Topeka.   Waggoner will talk about the goals of the project–among them questions related to trade, lodging style, and how this particular village compares to other documented Kansa sites.*  Find out what was discovered and learned from the material retrieved during the field school, bring your questions for the experts, and get in the spirit of this year’s summer reading themes!

Discover Kansas Archaeology
Saturday, May 4, 2013
2:00-3:30 p.m. (archeologist presentation at 2:30)
Marvin Auditorium 101BC

*source: Kansas Preservation, Volume 34, Number 1, 2012

Here are 10 ways to kick-start your long-awaited outdoor getaway:

1. Become an ecotraveler this spring.  According to the Nature Conservancy, ecotourism is “environmentally responsible travel to natural areas in order to enjoy and appreciate nature and accompanying cultural features (both past and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact, and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples.”  The spring edition of Prairie Fire has an excellent article about ecotourism in Nebraska and the Great Plains.
2. Pick up free copies of Kansas Outdoors and the official Kansas Travel Guide at the library.  Find out about lodging, hiking, camping, horseback riding, and where to take kids fishing.   While you’re in the library, check out a copy of Marci Penner’s 8 Wonders of Kansas Guidebook or the Kansas travel bag (both are in the Travel Neighborhood) and you’ll be set for your weekend getaway.
3. Go to Travel Kansas to find out when weekend festivals start.  Plan ahead–check for a Saturday morning farmer’s market in the area and arrive early.
4. Visit Kansas Cyclist to see a calendar of upcoming bike rides in the state.
5. Pack a picnic lunch and explore a state park or a National Wildlife Refuge you’ve not visited before.  Near Great Bend is the Quivira Wildlife Refuge and the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, which is across the highway from Cheyenne Bottoms.  KWEC offers educational programs and has a quality gift shop.  Take a detour on the way home and hike the Horsethief Canyon trails in Kanopolis State Park.  Across the border, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City, Missouri, and Weston Bend State Park are two superb wildlife viewing areas with hiking trails.
6. Enter the Kansas Birding Big Year competition hosted by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.  Take photos of your excursions (the towns you visited along the way, restaurants you liked) to share with friends and consider recording your wildlife observations in a journal.
7. Ask a friend to participate with you in one of the many 5K walk/run events happening in the region.
8. Stroll through the Overland Park Arboretum, Powell Gardens in Kansas City, or Wichita’s Botanica Gardens to get inspired to transform your own garden.   Arbor Day in Kansas is April 26, a reminder to plant a tree or donate toward ensuring a tree is planted where others will enjoy it.
9. How long has it been since you’ve seen the Kansas City Zoo or Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo?  Extend your zoological experience and check out the nature books in the library’s adult and youth sections (577-599), and mark your calendar for Zoo Animals Live, a fun, educational, and animal-focused event presented by Topeka Zoo staff the first Thursday of every month at 3:45 p.m. in the library.
10.  Challenge yourself to learn more about Great Plains ecology.  Visit the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan or the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City and acquire a renewed appreciation of the unique and complex landscapes in our scenic state.

Enjoy the outdoors this spring, make an effort to travel with the environment in mind, and experience something new!

(photo credit:  bumblebee on buttonbush flower taken by author)

• Portable foreign language phrase books for Russian, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Japanese are in the Travel Neighborhood.
• Language learning audio CDs (great to listen to while driving), dictionaries, and study guides begin in the 430s in the West Wing.
• The popular Mango Languages online learning course is available free with your library card.  Explore 40 foreign languages at your own pace and feel more confident in your destination.

• Are you ready to advance your Spanish language skills or do you want to read a novel, cookbook or popular magazine written in Spanish?  Estos libros y revistas están cerca de las biografías en la sección de adultos.
• In Overdrive, click the Reference and Study Aids heading and search “language” for downloadable ebooks. Search for language learning audiobooks by typing “language” in the search box for audiobooks.  Click the Travel heading for travel-related books and guides.
• Challenge yourself further and try a different format.  Listen to the language of the culture you’ll be immersed in by checking out the world music collection of music CDs in the Media Center–limit 10.
• Hundreds of foreign films are also in the Media Center. These DVDs are arranged alphabetically by title and have color-coded language labels for easy browsing–limit 6 entertainment DVDs.  To find a list of foreign movies set in India, search the catalog by subject for foreign films India.

Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road

The sunny Hawaiian islands gushing with green vegetation and flowing lava seem irresistable right now, but looking up at a night sky illuminated by the aurora borealis is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.  Fairbanks, Alaska made Lonely Planet’s top 10 U.S. destinations for 2013, primarily because this year is the end of an 11-year solar cycle and it is one of the best places in the U.S. to see the northern lights.  Bonus: Denali National Park and Preserve is just a two-hour drive south.  Experiencing the interior of Alaska–just 200 miles from the Arctic Circle–has moved to the top of my list.

After seeing tens of thousands of sandhill cranes fly in, stage and roost along the Platte River in Nebraska during their extraordinary annual spring migration the past few years, and witnessing the arrival and departure of more than one million snow geese in one day at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge last February, I’m ready to experience migration on the East Coast.

Why there?  The Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey is the place to go during the fall for the famous Hawk Watch where you can see hawks in great numbers on their flight south for winter.  Winds and cold fronts can cause hawks and other migratory birds to stop and rest at this peninsula during their migration.  In the spring, Cape May Point is promoted as a supreme spot to watch songbird and shorebird migrations, and in late summer monarchs and dragonflies migrate through the area.  Big numbers, the intricacies of migration, and the expected coupled with the unexpected translates to an unforgettable wildlife viewing experience.

Signing up for a volunteer vacation is high on my list.  It can be pricey and you’re often responsible for funding the trip expenses, but the opportunities to make a positive difference here and abroad are diverse and there’s something for everyone if you’re up for the challenge.

Crossing an ocean to help humanity or to complete a valued project isn’t required.  Recently I watched a National Geographic production about the challenges and rewards of hiking from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Curiosities led to research revealing there are various ways volunteers can help maintain the PCT for foot and equestrian traffic.  While I enjoy day hikes in mountainous terrain, unless a drastic change occurs I will never become a thru hiker on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.  But volunteering to work on a section of the trail would get me out there amidst the gorgeous scenery that I associate with “being on vacation.”

So, what’s on your 2013 travel wish list or your travel bucket list?

If you’re into planning ahead or curious to learn more about what’s out there to explore, remember to stop by the Travel Neighborhood where memoirs, essays, travel bags, foreign language phrasebooks and hundreds of guidebooks detailing the world can be checked out free for three weeks.

Puppyhood: life-size portraits of puppies at 6 weeks old

Here are large (life-size!) professionally photographed pictures of some of the cutest puppies you’ve ever seen, all set against a bright white background.  The dogs’ names and breeds are included and text is minimal.  Arguably the best centerfold is Gage the Husky with eyes the perfect shade of blue.

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs

This would be a great gift for dog lovers.  Or give yourself a treat and check this out for three weeks. Poetry, the famous New Yorker cartoons, and stories from authors such as Ian Frazier, Malcolm Gladwell, and Susan Orlean make this a book to treasure.

The Life and Love of Cats

“They are wild at heart, with a veneer of domestication that helps them live alongside us.” — from The Life and Love of Cats

Lewis Blackwell has compiled an extraordinary book of close-up images, profiles, and generally spectacular photographs of cats and kittens.  This oversized book is one to be displayed in a prominent position, with cover face-out, on your book shelf.  It’s a unique collection of artistic photographs and not-to-be-missed macro photography.

Smokey has a dramatic life story.  She was a pup living in a den when a prairie fire swept through the area and killed her siblings.  She was found by a rancher who rescued her and made sure she received proper treatment for her burn injuries.  She was in rehab for some time and lived at the Stone Nature Center where she was an educational animal for several years, teaching people about coyotes and their adaptations.  Smokey is the color of prairie grasses in the fall, and is quite tame due to her exposure with humans during her rehabilitation. When she came to the library program in September everyone got to pet her.

Coyotes (Canis latrans) may be seen throughout Kansas and live alone, in pairs or travel in packs.  They will often use hollow logs or shrub thickets as den sites.  In the spring, a coyote may produce a litter of 4-7 pups.  They are omnivores whose diet includes rodents, birds that nest on the ground, fruits and berries, and scavenged meat.  They can be a nuisance to farmers and pet owners as they will also kill poultry, small livestock, cats and small dogs. (source: A Pocket Guide to Common Kansas Mammals by George Potts and Bob Gress)

George the pronghorn did not come to the library but Dennis made sure we learned more about these intriguing mammals.

Pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) are herbivores found only in North America. Their preferred habitat includes open plains, grasslands, brush, and desert. In Kansas, they are in the western quarter of the state.  Look closely on your next drive to Colorado and you just might see them roaming the landscape.

Pronghorns have excellent vision to detect predators and are the fastest North American mammal, able to run up to 60 mph.  Males have black horns that are forked, or “pronged,” while the females may be without horns or have smaller unforked horns.  The branched, hollow, hairlike horns are unlike those of deer, elk or cattle and are shed every year.  Females typically have one or two fawns in the spring that are vulnerable to predators such as the coyote.  Surprisingly, pronghorns rarely jump fences, so increased land barriers and conversion of grasslands are threats to their habitat and survival. (source: A Pocket Guide to Common Kansas Mammals and fws.gov.)

If you missed this program, Rachel Kilian, Education Specialist at the Topeka Zoo, comes to the library the first Thursday of every month at 3:45-4:30 to present Zoo Animals Live!, an all ages program focusing on a wide range of topics and various animals.  It’s always entertaining, informative and you may be surprised by how much you didn’t know about regional wildlife and the more exotic species that live elsewhere. 

Dog World

The December copy of Dog Fancy is on the shelf in the magazine room for you to review. You’ll see tips such as how to keep your dog happy and safe during the holiday season, including a list of websites with helpful info to make traveling with your pet easier. Advances in canine cancer research are featured, and the breed profiles this month–including beautiful photos–are the Bernese Mountain dog, the Alaskan Malamute, and the Redbone Coonhound.   If you’re searching for a specific breed or breeder, check out the lengthy dog breeder directory toward the back of the magazine.

When you have a minute take a look at Dog Fancy the next time you’re in the library and see what you think. Back issues of magazines (a few older issues of Dog World are still on the shelf) may be checked out for seven days.  It’s a perfect opportunity to save money and still enjoy the magazines you don’t want to subscribe to.  And remember the Pets Neighborhood where you can explore books about specific dog breeds, find out how to effectively train your puppy, and learn more about what you can do to maintain your senior dog’s health.

This Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. Chuck Otte, President of the Kansas Ornithological Society, will present tips to help you learn how to identify hawks seen in Kansas.  Bring your questions and plan to learn something new!  This event, in Marvin Auditorium 101BC, is co-sponsored by the Topeka Audubon Society.  All ages welcome.

If you can’t make it to the library Thursday evening but want to learn more, browse our catalog for these books:

The Guide to Kansas Birds and Birding Hot Spots
A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors
Hawks of North America (a Peterson field guide)
Hawks From Every Angle
The Crossley Guide to Eastern Birds

photos (most likely an immature Red-tailed Hawk) by Kim Sain

My first stop was the Decorah fish hatchery, a recent tourist attraction because it sits across the road from an enormous cottonwood tree housing the famous bald eagles’ nest.  After watching the Raptor Resource Project’s eagle cam for several weeks this spring, it was thrilling to hear the recently fledged eaglets vocalizing and to see their 6 ft. wingspans overhead while their parents perched like sentries nearby. The manager of the fish hatchery greeted the binocular and camera adorned group absorbing this wildlife spectacle, answered questions and asked everyone to mark our hometown on a map. Towns in Maryland, Virginia, Kansas and Minnesota were pinpointed.

Many morning and evening hours were spent at the hatchery while the afternoons were dedicated to seeing the town’s other attractions. Decorah has a rich Norwegian history which, if you didn’t already know it, becomes obvious when you see the flag of Norway displayed alongside the U.S. and Iowa flags at the town’s entrance.

The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and gift shop on the main street downtown seemed like a good starting point to learn more about the town’s cultural heritage.  A large collection of artifacts and folk art featuring rosemaling is exhibited in this museum known as ”the most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant group.”

The Porter House Museum in the heart of town is easy to find because it’s nearly impossible to miss the hand constructed rock wall surrounding the formal Italianate style home. The Porters were adventurers enamored with South America and subjects like butterflies, insects and, of course, rocks.  Their travel memorabilia, butterfly art, and taxidermied collections of birds and waterfowl are displayed inside.  Pick up a chart that identifies the rocks and minerals in the exterior wall.

If you’ve been to the Grassroots Arts Center in Lucas, Kansas and appreciate the folk art creations there, don’t skip the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville, a few minutes south of Decorah. Pay for the guided tour and find out about the two brothers who designed and carved magnificent clocks (many with moving parts) you’ll never see anywhere else.

What some people still call the World’s Smallest Church (St. Anthony of Padua Chapel) is near Festina just a few miles south of Decorah in a serene setting off a gravel road and next to a cornfield.

The stone building with a tall steeple is tiny, seating only eight people, and appears to be in good structural condition. Pick up a free brochure inside to learn more about why this chapel was built.

Preservation gardens and heirloom seeds and plants are highlights of the Seed Savers Exchange and Heritage Farm about five miles outside of Decorah. It was sunny and cool the morning I went–perfect for walking around the gardens, historic apple orchards and vineyard. Ancient White Park cattle reside and breed here, ask at the visitors center where you can get a close view of the herd. The gift shop sells heirloom dry beans, seeds, and cooking, gardening and nature-themed products.  If you appreciate this approach to gardening, call ahead for tour information and plan to spend some time on this beautiful farm.

For serious exercise, the popular Trout Run Trail in Decorah is a mostly paved 11-mile loop trail for bicycling, jogging and walking, and part of it follows the Upper Iowa River. If you prefer to be on the water, the Upper Iowa River is known for quality kayaking and canoeing.  A bike rental shop is downtown, and regional outfitters can help you enjoy the waterways.

There’s much more to see and do in Decorah, a town Midwest Living magazine has listed as one of the 100 best small-town getaways in America. This quiet, scenic corner of Iowa demands another peek during the cooler and more colorful months of autumn.

Be sure to visit the Travel Neighborhood to help you plan your fall road trip!

photos by Kim Sain