Category Oddities

Time Travel Mart

The Mar Vista Time Travel Mart stands apart from its neighboring stores along Venice Blvd. Perhaps it is the pacifist robot in the shop window. Perhaps it is the reassuring gold window dressing reminding you that "Whenever you are, we're already then." Perhaps it is the robot toupee and dinosaur eggs for sale. Regardless, it's the place to go to outfit your pre-adults with "future adult" t-shirts with the warm knowledge that profits from this time travel themed market go to support an educational program for local children.

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The Museum of Jurassic Technology

It is a maze of twilight truths. Darkened, mysterious rooms hold strange oddities that might have been picked out of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford or have been designed by an artist inspired by history and the occult. Rooms delve into ancient medical traditions, a tragic actress, trailer parks, early space travel, and a monk's studies into magnetism to explain the divine's intangible but powerful influence in the world.

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Maryhill Stonehenge

Maryhill Stonehenge on the hill

No, not that Stonehenge, the other one. The one along the Washington-Oregon border that some road baron built along with his utopian society. Samuel Hill had dreams of creating an ideal quaker community. Instead, his home is now an art museum and he is, possibly best known for his concrete reproduction of Stonehenge. The Maryhill Stonehenge happens to hold the distinction of being the first WWI memorial in the United States built to honor the dead. It may have helped that it was built before the war was even over. At the time, scholars considered Stonehenge to be a place of human sacrifice. As a Quaker, Hill considered building his Stonehenge as a reminder that people were still being sacrificed to the god of war.

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The Holy Grail

Almost The Holy Grail at the Grand Junction Museum

The Holy Grail is in Grand Junction, Colorado. It sits in a plexiglass case case in the Museum of the West. At least, they thought it was the Holy Grail. In 1910 when the Chalice of Antioch was first discovered, it toured the world as the Holy Grail. It competed for attention at the 1933 Chicago World Fair. It took over thirty years before anyone noticed that the piece was from the 4th or 5th century. To add insult to injury, the spoil sports at the Walters Art Museum question whether the artifact even warrants the title of chalice as it is more likely an ornate lamp.

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Doc Holiday’s Grave

The grave marker for Doc Holiday...which does not mark Holiday's grave. Or does it?

While driving through one of the most scenic highways in America (a stretch of highway 70 through White River National Forest) we discovered that we would be driving past Doc Holiday's Grave in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Apparently, he came to Glenwood Springs for treatment before succumbing to consumption. We had just come through Tombstone, AZ a few months before, so we considered this an appropriate stop. While the hike to the graveyard was only half a mile, the elevation had us huffing and puffing. But we were rewarded, not only with the monument to Doc Holiday, but a spectacular view.

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Starr Kempf’s Kinetic Sculptures

Most people go to museums to experience professionally curated art. We rely on the road and serendipity to guide our experiences. Such was the case when we had an hour to kill in Colorado Springs and a general heading—one that took us near the house of the kinetic artist, Starr Kempf. While Kempf may be constructing etherial whirligigs beyond this mortal coil, several of his striking structures still grace the front yard of his former home.

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Monument Rocks

We love National Parks with massive rock formations. But the title of "National Park" tends to also be synonymous with "overcrowded." There is, of course, a paradox in National Parks: they are meant to preserve unique natural wonders but also share them at the same time. Rarely are those two missions compatible. That is why it is great to visit stunning parts of America that haven't quite become National Parks. Instead, they could be, say, a National Natural Landmark like, Kansas' Monument Rocks.

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City Museum

Crawling through the winding passages of the museum can be a truly surreal experience—particularly when traveling through spiraling wire mesh, unsure where, or even if, you will get out.

Yes, we are back in St. Louis and this time, it's serious. We woke up at 5 am to arrive with enough time to explore the City Museum before it closed at 5PM. Oh, it was worth it.

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