The Peterson Pack on the Move

First off, I want to thank everyone for the many birthday wishes I have and will receive over the next two days. An interesting side effect of having a leap year birthday is that three out of four years, I receive messages that say, “Happy Unbirthday” or “Happy Birthday?”. Even my closest friends and family aren’t always sure how one celebrates a day that isn’t there. So, every four years, it is fun to see such confidence in my friends’ “Happy Birthdays!”   As many of you know, I have always had a small fascination with the fact that one’s birthday celebrates not just their own birth but also their personal completion of the 580 million mile journey around the sun. If you multiply your age times this number, you get a really impressive number of miles travelled in your life. It is of course relative travel but I think its cool. For leap year birthdays, the question is always asked, “when there isn’t a 29th, when do you celebrate your birthday, Feb 28th or March 1?” And the answer,...

We took an amazing surf lesson.  We were traveling in the Bay of Fires area of Tasmania.  We stopped at a beach called Dark Hollow Creek.  We met our instructor, Gary. The 42-South Surf School is a great place to learn how to surf. The first thing you do is change into a wet suit.  It's really hard to do. It's so tight!  Second, you carry your boards down to the beach.  It's kind of a long walk. We got our first lesson, which started on the beach.  We practiced laying on the board, popping up and where to put your feet.  It's challenging to learn to get on your board and how to stand up properly.  After that, you go out on the water and try to get up onto a wave and stand up.  Next, you get coaching on getting up on the board but this happens throughout the lesson. I did not catch a wave on my first try:). It was very, very tiring getting out to the starting point.  There was a strong current pushing me back towards the beach. ...

Photo credit Tre Peterson A Tasmanian devil is an animal that lives in Tasmania.   It is mostly black with white spots on its rump and chest.   As adults, these animals can weigh between 20 and 30 pounds.   They can grow up to about two and a half feet long.   They are best known for their very, very powerful jaws. Wild devils live in wilderness areas such as, national parks and forests, but also in farm lands, coastlines, and sometimes even in the suburbs. They are also found all over the world in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.   Tasmanian devils got their name from early European settlers. These people thought they made scary screams, grunts, and growls that sounded evil.  When devils get excited or aggressive, blood rushes to their ears which makes them turn red.  Also, they have sharp teeth and powerful jaws. So the settlers thought they looked like demons or devils. Tasmanian devils are marsupials. Their scientific name is sarcophilus harrisi...

 A few days ago my family and I were lucky enough to visit a wildlife sanctuary on our way to the town of Bicheno. It was certainly different from Alaskan sanctuaries: kangaroos lounged all over the place, echidnas waddled around in their enclosures, and Tasmanian devils raced around behind fences. We were actually encouraged to feed and pet the kangaroos, but we had to be careful not to let the wombats or Tasmanian devils get too close to your fingers—they bite (even if the wombats do look like walking ottomans). The animals in the sanctuary were extremely different from the ones we were used to. Many are endemic to Australia, and some are found only in Tasmania. Australia is home to a very select breed of mammals, a group called marsupials. You've probably heard of them—the funny little guys with pouches? Some of the better-known marsupials are kangaroos, wombats, possums, and Tasmanian devils.  Another unique group of animals found in Australia are monotremes, which are egg...

        While I was writing my last science blog post, the one about Australian Animals, I realized that I was rambling on and on about echidnas. I was trying to keep to relatively short (at least for me) descriptions of each animal, and echidnas were clearly a flaw in that plan. Seriously, I love these little guys, and when you combine that with my tendency to ramble...well, you get the picture. So I decided to give them their own blog post. For those of you who read about them in the previous blog post, you might end up hearing a few repeats.    Echidnas are an  incredibly  interesting animal. They're adorable, like a cross between a hedgehog and an anteater, and they look so funny when they waddle around, snuffling at the dirt to look for their favorite foods: ants and termites.     One of the most interesting facts about echidnas is that they are monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals. There are only five species of monot...

 Chapter 2      When Glory woke up her dad was right above her, shouting orders. Oh, did I mention Glory's Dad was a chief? So Glory was basically a princess!       Glory said, "What's wrong?"     Her Dad said, "We under attack by huge birds!"     "Why?"     Today Glory didn't go to the stream like she was supposed to.       "Climb up to a high branch, but not too high, otherwise the Haast's Eagle will get you," said Glory to her dad.      Glory's dad gave the order to the village and they all scrambled up into the trees.      Soon the birds were gone and they were finally safe.      The next day Glory woke up really early. She went straight for the creek, hoping Moona was there. She waited for what seemed like hours, but was probably just half an hour. Finally Moona arrived with a very angry face on.      Glory said, "Sorry I could not co...

 We have been in Tasmania almost a week, exploring Hobart and the east coast of the island. Here are some highlights: Tassie has some of the “best beaches in the world”. We agree the beaches here are perfect. We also agree that making lists of the “top 10 best beaches” or any other natural formation is ridiculous and only diminishes the experience.  The colorful rock lining the shorelines is amazing.  We haven’t seen a live wild kangaroo or wallaby, yet. (Though we have seen dozens as road kill).  We did get some quality time with this mob (or troop) of Forester Kangaroos at a wildlife sanctuary.  The maritime culture of Tasmania, especially in the area around Hobart, is pervasive.  There are distilleries sampling their creations everywhere, in the outdoor markets, at the ferry dock, on main  street.  Fruit grown and sold locally. This is 8 kg (17 lbs) that we bought at an orchard for $5 US. Four days later we are almost through all of it.  W...

 Chapter 1:      Once upon at time a girl named Glory was born on a sailboat. The boat was going to "Where-the-Whales-Came-From" and coming from the Pacific Island Nations. Glory's people were trying to get to a place, a new homeland, where they could raise their children in peace. The truth was that the people of some of the island nations were being hunted by the great white sharks! So they were trying to find a safe homeland. Glory was raised on small islands and sailboats. On the way they kept stopping to get more food, so by the time they go to "Where-the-Whales-Came-From" eight years had passed since Glory was last on the beaches of her home. It was quite a surprise to see all the trees when they landed.       At first she was loud and clumsy but after a week or so she got the hang of swinging and climbing. She was the first of the tribe to learn it, so it was very easy to sneak off and go explore. That is what she did. The second time she w...

     The city of Hobart is an interesting place. It's very old, the oldest settlement in all of Australia. The houses are predominantly variations of cozy brick cottages with little lawns full of rose bushes. The city itself spans several hillsides, and many houses have retaining walls because of the steepness of the land they were built on. The harbor is full of the masts of sailing ships and, as I write this, many businesses are closed for the Royal Hobart Regatta, which is a public holiday in the southern portions of the state. This all adds up to a very picturesque scene. But, at least to me (and I think you'd agree, too), Hobart holds something far more interesting than sailboats or cottages.      The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. It is accessible by either a twenty-minute drive from Hobart or a short ferry ride up the river. The museum is situated on a point formed by a curve in the...