Postcard: Dragons

Our first postcard from The Dalles came back today!  The artwork is by Jesse. This time the boys really wanted to try doing the entire postcard on their own, including the address.  They're at a point where that bit could go either way--clear and readable, or utterly confusing (we just got Jesse's letter to his San Antonio cousin returned last week because the poor postie couldn't read the zip code, and neither could I!)

But this postcard came back to us just fine, and it had a fun little note on the back.

The note says:  Hello!  I am from a small town called the Dalles.  The Dalles is in Oregon.  I think this postcard idea is a good one, so you can learn about others.  

Sincerely,
Milo [redacted]
age 12

Milo, thanks for returning our card!  I've removed your surname for safety.  In case you don't know, "redacted" is a legal word that means "this part was removed for security reasons."  

We love your name.  It's the name of a character from a favorite movie (Atlantis!), and also of a little black dog we had once.

And you're right--we learn neat things about other people doing this project!  Thanks for writing to us!

Postcard: Pine needles

Sometimes the cards we get back return to us with fun notes or comments...and sometimes they just return.  We're happy either way, though we love the notes.

In early May, I went with my mother-in-law to San Antonio so she could cuddle her 52nd grandbaby, a little boy born after three adorable little girls.  I had such fun making postcards with my little nieces Lily and Sadie!  I left the postcards with them to hide in their own library the next time they went, and I'm super excited for their pretty drawings to make their way back to me (and then back to them!).  It could happen any day now, because yesterday we got the first return from San Antonio: one of mine.

Library feature: The Dalles Public Library

One thing we want to do here (but have been terrible about) is keep a better record of the libraries we've visited.  From my first visit to the Twin Falls Public Library with its cement lions guarding the door, I've loved these places.  Of course, there's the books.  But there's so much history and creativity and culture in the development of American libraries, and every library has its quirks, eccentricities, and little-known secrets...

Like The Dalles.  (The Dalles itself just begs to be researched.  How many cities are there that begin with a definite article? And what are dalles, anyway?)  We stopped at The Dalles Public Library on the way home from a trip to the Oregon Coast, and learned some neat things about it.

First--it has some fun artwork:

Bears on a log.  More on these later, but aren't they adorable?

This appealed to my calligrapher's heart.

A puffin.

 The bear sculpture outdoors sits in the middle of a big deck shaded by a London sycamore tree that was planted in about 1870.

Once, the bears were stolen.  I can only imagine how the librarians and patrons felt to see them gone. What a loss.  And then, just as suddenly--they were returned.  The whole thing remains a mystery.

Like many across the country, The Dalles Public Library is a Carnegie library.  And like many Carnegie libraries, it has outgrown its original building.

The original Carnegie building.

The current building.

Spacious first floor, with more around the mezzanine upstairs.

One of this library's biggest claims to fame is that it's at the end of the Overland Trail and is a repository for many local genealogical records.  Genealogists come for pilgrimages here, to pore over old documents.

There's also a geocache hidden here.  As in--IN the library!  (Note to self:  Find that handheld GPS or buy another one!  The boys are the perfect age for geocaching.)

Another fun thing we loved--the library has "check-out sketchbooks!"  Blank bound books are among the holdings here. Patrons can check one out, look at drawings by patrons who have checked them out previously, then add a sketch or three, and return them.  Annually the library has judges look through the sketchbooks and award prizes, and there are plans to make a book featuring the winning sketches.

How absolutely cool is that?