(Pictured here: Always learning…that’s a tip kids, write it down.)
Fun Fact #20: The Platypus (see “Summer 2019 – Part 3” upper left in last photo) also hails from Australia, and is a monotreme. [Look it up kids…always be learning!] Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #19: Per Daniel Immerwahr (see “Behind the Scenes”) (Call us Dr. I!): The United States maintains some eight hundred overseas military bases around the world. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #18: Only 5% of bees are social – so hives are important but not the ” ‘bee’ all and end all.” (Sorry, A.B. loves an occasional pun.) Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #17: One-third of the food we eat depends on bees. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #16: From Ranee (a Master Gardener!), seven Mason Bees pollinate the same number of plants as five hundred and forty-five Honey Bees! Go all bees! Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #15: The official state beverage of Oregon is milk! (This is also the official state beverage of Arkansas…all must be very wholesome.) Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #14: Mt. Rainier National Park was the fifth national park created by Congress. Fun Fact! (Bonus question: How many of the four parks created before Mt. Rainier has Adventure Bear visited?)
Fun Fact #13: Among the 55,000 artifacts found at the Ozette archaeological site were nineteen pieces of fishnet. These were used in a court case heard by the Ninth Circuit Court in 1974. The state contended that the use of fishing nets was not the Makahs’ practice aboriginally, and therefore was not protected by the 1855 treaties guaranteeing fishing rights. The judge disagreed based at least in part on the evidence from Ozette. He ruled that the treaties guaranteed the right to continue fishing as they always had. As one elder commented: “I kept telling them that we had been using nets for hundreds of years…I got to say [after the net fragments were found] ‘I told you so.’ ” Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #12: The western side of Olympic National Park gets up to 14 feet of rain each year, yet A.B. and his crew had sunshine every day. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #11: Yes we did visit the Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland! Here is A.B.’s Fun Fact from that field trip: the State of Oregon passed the nation’s first compulsory minimum wage law in 1913. (Massachusetts passed a related law in 1912, but it apparently did not establish a standard wage.) Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #10: The friendly volunteers at Vista House at Crown Point told A.B. that Vista was built as the first public restroom on a major highway. Although we have not been able to independently confirm this, those gentlemen seemed to know their business. So – Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #9: Sure Multnomah Falls is the most famous along the Columbia River Gorge – but it is also the most crowded. [It is possible A.B.’s schedule was leaked to the press and those were just hundreds of fans…who can know for sure? What we do know is there was no parking and throngs of visitors.] Sometimes the less popular natural attraction is just as good or better. Hence the photos from Wahkeena Falls!
The word “wahkeena” (as in Wahkeena Falls) translates from the Yakama language as “most beautiful.” A.B. thinks the Yakama had it right. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #8: Perhaps you appreciated the photo of the Columbia River Gorge? A.B. hopes so, because there are more of those to come. The Columbia River Gorge was designated a “National Scenic Area” by the U.S. Congress in 1986. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #7: Perhaps you noticed the photos of Adventure Bear at the Idaho state capitol building? Idaho and Texas share the same official state insect: the Monarch Butterfly. Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #6: While at the Idaho state capitol A.B. learned that it is the only one in the nation heated by geothermal water, pumped from a source 3,000 feet underground. (He is not sure what that means entirely, but it sounds cool! Or hot, such as the case may be.) Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #5: Did you know that Idaho was the fourth state to grant women the right to vote?? Fun Fact! (Bonus question: Which state was the first in which women had the right to vote?)
Fun Fact #4: Perhaps you admired the photos of the beautiful wedding? Carrie and Jay have been married for 22 years! Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #3: Perhaps you noticed that Adventure Bear declined a dip in the Great Salt Lake? No thank you! Too much salt is bad for the fur. The lake’s saline count is so high (the only place saltier is the Dead Sea) that nothing can live there other than brine shrimp and brine flies (whatever those are). Fun Fact!
Fun Fact #2: Perhaps you saw Adventure Bear’s awesome Welcome sign at his Albuquerque stop? The magnificent bear featured on the sign is an actual bear, whereas Adventure Bear is actually a marsupial! Fun Fact!
However, per the welcome sign, A.B. does enjoy salmon – particularly on a salad. One can only eat so much eucalyptus…
Fun Fact #1: Perhaps you saw the picture of Adventure Bear with the giant Armadillo in Abilene? Did you know that the Armadillo is the Official State Small Mammal of Texas? Fun Fact!
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