Cripple Creek Overnight in the Jail

The jail is also a museum. They had to pay an employee to stay all night with us in the jail. She was very knowledgable about the comings and goings of the ghosts in the jail. She even knew the names and which rooms we would find them.

We headed down to Cripple Creek Saturday afternoon for our overnight in the Jail. I had never been to Cripple Creek. It is a city that has basically turned into a casino town. Old storefronts have been transformed into casinos. There was a snowstorm predicted and we ran into some whiteout as we went over the pass before we got to town.

Here is the town of Cripple Creek. There are beautiful mountains surrounding the town. Great views on the drive there. There are old mine buildings all over.  Very historic.

Sharon and I left later than some in the group who were heading to hike before. We had some time before we were to meet everyone for dinner. So we drove 4 miles further to see the town of Victor.

We did not see many people at all here.

It was fun to walk down the street. In the prime time of the city of 1900 the city had 18,000 residents. Now the population is 400 people. Gold mining was the mineral of the mine shafts.

This diagram shows the use of the many mine shaft hoists that were seen all over. They were used to lower people into the mine.

Dinner at the Imperial Hotel and Casino. It was a good Italian meal- even had gluten free pasta.

This was the room where dead bodies were stored in the winter until the ground thawed  to bury them. Amy the ghost was in here and liked it when we read the bible to her.

This is the center of the jail and how we got into each cell to sleep for the night. Three ladies left after our ghost tour and declined to sleep here.

This picture shows Orbs (the circles). What is an orb ?  Why do they visit ?  Where are they from ? This unique phenomena is considered to be spirits of people that take on the shape and appearance of traveling balls of light energy, or possibly ectoplasm. Orbs are a temporary mode of travel for spirits of deceased people who have crossed over into the afterlife. And there are other theories as well.t

They had costumes we could put on to take a picture. This was a lot of fun with a great group of people. Several husbands came along but mostly just some Adventurous Women.

This is the cell where I slept. I brought a cot and it was kept at 60 degrees. I slept well except we had to get up at 5 am to clear out by 6 AM.  We all met at another casino (Bronco Billy's) for a 49 cent breakfast before heading home.

The Art of the Cincinnati Museum Center Union Terminal

mosaics that lined the rotunda and the concourse. The two large murals in the rotunda illustrate the history of transportation, westward expansion and the growth of Cincinnati. The concourse contained fourteen murals highlighting workers in significant Cincinnati industries and companies, including Procter &. Gamble, Baldwin Piano Co., Kahn's Meat Packing, Crosley Broadcasting, and Rookwood Pottery 

A visit to Ms. Maxwell in the Art Room

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a fellow art teacher in her room. We had conferences so I was able to get there in the afternoon. Ms Maxwell has 30 children in her art classes. She was teaching a clay monster class so I wanted to give her a hand.

She used a projector to explain the lesson before the clay was given out. The class was 4th grade. I just had taught a similar project with my class. It was fun to see the different results of their creativity.  The students were so polite and I enjoyed seeing a different teaching method.

Another project I got to help with is with the 5th grade  collograph printing project.

Here they are rolling on the ink getting ready to pull the prints. They used red and black for the Chinese dragon theme.

It was a fun afternoon.

The first grade project of the day was a snowy day collage.

Heres the collograph before being printed.

Snow Sculptures in Breckenridge

This was the last week for the snow sculptures. There is a sculpture designed and created for different countries around the world. It was Super Bowl Sunday and we were glad to miss the traffic. 

We started off with some snowshoeing. There was SOOO much snow we didn't last too long.

Driving through the town it was like a winter wonderland. So much snow drifted halfway up the houses.

The stores looked beautiful with all the snow and icicles.

Check out the Cannabis club. Next door at the spice merchant , we laughed at the sign they posted in the window. Click on the photo to read..

The ice and snow on the trees were magical.

After snowshoeing we headed to town to grab some lunch and then to see the sculptures. The town was clearing out by now since the game had started.

We had a very pleasant drive home. We decided to make this a tradition.