Goal: Every park in Hutchinson in one day

On Kaci and Mommy play day, we hit many a playground, to say the least

The plan was simple - a day of playing in every park and playground in Hutchinson on a Sunday afternoon.

My husband and I are the parents of three girls - the oldest being our 6-year-old twin girls, Brett and Kaci. Often, the twins get lumped together in many of their activities, whether it is softball or school. However, several months ago while talking during our morning devotions, my husband and I decided we needed to have play dates with our twins individually - one-on-one bonding time with each one of us without the other twin.

The girls love the time alone with us, and we've done a lot of cool things so far. For instance, in

February, Brett and I toured the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, and John and Kaci went roller-skating. We've gone to movies, fished, and spent time at the zoo. But on this warm day in early May, Kaci and I mapped out our mission for our day out - a play date at every Hutchinson park. I knew by the time it was all said and done we would accomplish a daunting feat that few, I'm guessing, have ever attempted.
 
Hutchinson, in fact, has plenty of places for playing - more than I even realized. There are more than two dozen playgrounds and parks across the city - the majority of which have some type of playground or, at least, a place to play ball. 

While some might complain about our park conditions, I think these parks are fantastic - especially when you have an imaginative, sporty daughter like Kaci. I, after all, grew up in an era of straight slides, swing sets and a few monkey bars - long before the advent of playscapes like today.
 
I even found my inner child as we swung high, slid down the slides, played in teepees and pretended we were on a pirate boat, garnishing a few curious looks from the parents sitting on the benches.
 
The day started with a picnic at Lake Talbott at the Kansas State Fairgrounds, then playing at the Fairgrounds Park, which has baseball diamonds, a playground and a free city sprinkler park.

At Grandview Park

Kaci’s favorite parks: 

All of them, of course, she says, recalling different fun aspects of each one we visited.  

n Grandview Park might have been one of her favorite. She liked climbing on the equipment and running around the spacious area. Grandview, once the site of an old elementary school, has a playscape with plenty of activities, along with a climbing tower of sorts. There is also a baseball diamond and swing sets.

n She also loved Rice Park. The park has a walking and bicycling trail by the creek, along with more specialized play equipment, basketball courts, ball diamonds and swings. In addition, you can walk a little ways down the trail and more equipment and fun at a park also known as Vic Goering Park.

n Carey Park has everything a child could ever want – fishing holes, a flowing river, a zoo, water park, skate park, ball diamonds, golf course, Frisbee golf and, of course, plenty of areas with play equipment. 

We stopped at almost every spot in the park with equipment. Kaci liked the tall metal slides, which had plenty of zip on this day. There also is a cool climbing rock near the zoo. We spent a majority of the time, however, playing in teepees and on a homemade covered wagon. This spot also had a wooden fort and a spinning top that Kaci could lay on or sit on and spin around and around.

At Elmdale Park - her least favorite park.

Worst Park: Besides the ones with no equipment – George Pyle, Crescent, Centennial, Ashmeade, Harsha, Martin Johnson and Green, to name a few, Kaci didn’t care for Elmdale, which has a small play set with a space theme. It was too childish for her, she said, telling me she was sorry we even stopped.

Other parks with equipment

n Bernard White Park, 600 W. Fifth Avenue: It has a playground, picnic area and basketball. The playground was small, so we decided to move ahead to our next spot on the map.

n Farmington Park, 3009 Farmington Road: This is a park we missed – but I know Kaci would have loved. It has a playground, basketball and volleyball, along with a picnic area.

n Herman Bunte Park, 35 Circle Drive: There is a playground, and picnic area.

n Garden Grove Park, 3108 Garden Grove: It has a picnic area and playground.

n Shadduck Park, by Boys and Girls Club on West Second: We didn’t stop at this park, thinking it might be trespassing onto Boys and Girls Club property, but according to the city, Shadduck is open to the public and has playground equipment, picnic area and volleyball.

Other parks in town

n Avenue A on Main: The city operates a free water park here. Follow the creek under the bridge to the grasshopper park. Kaci climbed up on the giant grasshopper so I could take a cool photo with the huge Hutchinson mural in the background.

n Dillon Nature Center, 3002 E. 30^th: we didn’t make it here on this day, but it’s a park we love. The natural playscape is a great addition and there are ponds to fish, walking trails and, of course, the nature center.

Reno parks tour
It looks like we'll have to continue our park hopping to Reno County. Moreover, Brett has decided that her "Mommy and Brett" play date later this month will be the same as Kaci's.
Reno County Extension is again doing its Parks Quest 2013.

Between June 8 and Aug. 10, hit the road with your family to explore six parks and communities in Reno County. Enjoy the parks, complete the quest form (your passport), then meet up at the Hutchinson Zoo on Aug. 10 with your stamped passport for snacks, activities and prizes.
Parks include Pretty Prairie, Haven, Nickerson, Sylvia, South Hutchinson and Hutchinson.

For more information, call the extension office at  (620) 662-2371 , email jmsteen@ksu.edu, or stop by the South Hutchinson location to register and get a passport.
I don't know if we can do all those parks in one day, but I guess we sure can try.

Spinny thingy at Carey Park. It makes you dizzy.

Spinny thingy at Carey Park

A tunnel at Carey Park

The glory of mustard

School lunch with mustard before I learned more ...

Brett and her corn dog WITH mustard

Little did I know I was carrying contraband.

But I should have known better when I saw the looks from the wistful children as I squirted mustard on my school lunch tray. Or maybe I should have noticed there was no mustard in the serving line or situated at any table. 

Caught red-handed, I stashed the bottle back in my purse - feeling somewhat like I had brought a pack of cigarettes into the school instead of something as healthy as mustard.
 
It was corn dog day at Burrton Elementary School, and Kaci - my kindergarten daughter who would eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I would let her - wanted me to join her and her twin sister, Brett, for lunch.
 
I hadn't had a school lunch in years - in fact, probably not since junior high school, because I hardly touched them in high school. Nonetheless, on a recent late spring day, I found myself standing in line 
with those half my height, waiting for my tray of food. And deep in my purse was the bottle of mustard.
 
I've read the stories about Michelle Obama's renovation of the school lunch program in an effort to tackle obesity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants more vegetables and fewer fats. This school year, federal officials set limits on calories and sodium and phased in whole grains. They set limits on meat but expanded portions of fruits and vegetables.
 
I've heard the complaints, as well - largely that there aren't enough calories for active high schoolers, that the portions are too small, and that some condiments like salt are frowned upon.
 
Not quite sure what I was up against, I decided it was better to be prepared than suffer. Corn dogs, after all, can hardly be digested without a generous helping of mustard.
 
The family school lunch outing began my quest to find out what Mrs. Obama has against mustard, among other condiments. Mustard, after all, doesn't have calories. It's known to boost metabolism and it's helpful for digestion.
 
Moreover, it gives a little zing to bland foods. OK, so it is true. I have a zealous love of mustard - from mustard sandwiches to mustard with a little corn dog, hot dog or French fry.
 
So I sat in Burrton head cook Debbie Matlack's office last week, watching her pore over a book as thick as any college chemistry book. It was laden with recipes and guidelines for three different ages - outlining how much fat, sodium and other measurements she has to maintain per lunch each week.
 
For instance, a student in kindergarten through fifth grade can't have more than 643 calories per lunch and a weekly sodium level of 1,202 milligrams.
 
Grades 6 through 8 can have 667 calories and 1,223 milligrams of sodium. High school students are limited to 814 calories and 1,339 milligrams of sodium.
 
Thus, it's all about the weekly numbers, said Matlack, who notes she's still trying to get used to the new school lunch rules. It's not that mustard is bad, but following the USDA recipes closely, it's easier to leave out mustard rather than go over on sodium for the week and get in trouble.
 
One teaspoon of mustard has 56 milligrams of sodium. One tablespoon has 169 milligrams.
It's not just counting sodium in mustard, she said. She no longer puts salt in mashed potatoes. For a few main courses, she puts a tablespoon of salt in a recipe that serves 220 students. She can serve dressing with salad - but students can't have more than an ounce and it has to be fat-free.
 
They can't have butter on their rolls, but jelly is fine, she said. In addition, in the next few years, things will only get tougher.
 
The federal government's nutritional guidelines are expected to get stricter, she said.
 
The 1A school's head cook admits she never expected to be a dietitian or nutrition director when she took the job.
 
Yet at many small schools, head cooks are now learning the ropes of a nutritionist - a position most large Kansas schools fund to staff, said Burrton Superintendent Jeff Shearon.
 
And Matlack said that as she learns more, she can adjust the recipes so she can serve more mustard with corn dogs or butter for a roll. In coming weeks, she will take a class to learn more about the government lunch and breakfast regulations. Breakfast guidelines will be implemented next year.
 
Do new school lunch rules go too far? Not necessarily. I can see why some things need to change. 

However, it doesn't address the fact that kids these days are more sedentary and many are likely to go home after school and eat unhealthy snacks as they watch television and play video games.
 
I will admit I'm glad my school lunch days are over. Moreover, I'll still smother my corn dogs with mustard.

Read more blog entries at hutchnews.com/hutchandstuff.

Help a local child

Smalltown Kansas.

This Third-Thursday seems to be dedicated to a fictional superhero. And while it's all fun, I want to stress a real-life situation going on in our town of 40,000-plus.

There are 179 children in foster care in Reno County. That's a lot of kids not living with their biological parents - kids with troubled pasts, kids who need someone to look up to - a strong guidance from solid, caring adults.

There are 34 licensed foster care homes in Reno County. But that is not nearly enough.

Of those 179 children - 73 are placed outside of the county due to lack of licensed foster care homes in Reno County. Another 42 homes, at least, are needed. And sadly, the need continues to grow in our county.

It is National Foster Care Month - and sometimes, I think, it's easy to "dehumanize" the situation that surrounds us in our fair city. But these are children - real children with dreams - children who need a push in the right direction to help them realize those dreams.
Also some people think foster parents are in it for the money. I won't say those situations don't happen, but the funds received is barely enough to cover a child's needs.

The word "foster" means to help someone, or something, grow and develop. It also means to take care of someone's needs. Foster parents, then, are people who provide a safe place for kids to be cared for. And Reno County needs more good, quality people to take the reins.

Why is it important to keep these 73 children in Reno County? The goal is to keep as many children in their home county to keep something in their life constant when everything else in their life is mixed up. Moving can just add struggles and challenges to the issues they already face.

Keep the child in the same school and activities and sometimes the school is the most stable thing they have. They can stay close to their friends. And, when working with the family to get them back into their home also means less travel and is easier on the family and child.

My husband works in this field, trying to find foster parents for Saint Francis Community Services. He works across our central Kansas region. And Hutchinson, at present, is one of his biggest challenges - it is a one of the larger need counties in the western half of Kansas.

Tonight during Third Thursday, amid the hype of Superman, he'll be having an event at Grasshopper Park to raise awareness during National Foster Care Month. There will be a gallery of Kansas kids who are up for adoption. And, there will be an event taking place about 6:30 p.m.

Just to give you a hint, the community theater will be there telling us all that these children need "A Hero" in their lives.

For more information visit http://www.st-francis.org

Here's a list of children waiting for adoption

Happy 60, George Brett

Here's to George Brett, my all-time favorite KC Royals player, who turns 60 today.

George storms the field.

In honor of the day, let's go down memory lane. It's crazy, but it was 30 years ago this season that George Brett and pine tar became one and the same.

George smacked a two run home run in the top of the ninth inning, which gave the Royals a one-run lead. The umpire, however, after being alerted by the Yankee's manager, ruled Brett out for having too much pine tar, which would have caused the Royals to lose the game.


The Royals protested, the homer was restored.

It has become the "Pine Tar Incident" ever since.

And, 30 years later, the Royals are doing pretty well -- only 2 1/2 games out of first place.

Kaci and Brett, right. Yes, they are named after my favorite baseball team - The Kansas City Royals. Both are Royals fans. This picture is from a game last season.

May Day! May Day! May Day is a fading rite of spring

It might be the only day it’s appropriate to knock on your neighbor’s door and dash away.

However, you have to be quick.

It’s a tradition I grew up with here in rural Kansas. My mother and I would make cone-paper baskets and fill them with fresh-cut flowers from around our home, as well as homemade cookies. I’d creep up to the neighbors’ doors and ring the bell and hide, thinking they surely couldn’t fathom that it was the little, brown-haired, four-eyed girl from next door who had left them a gift each May 1.

Yet fewer children these days know of the tradition of leaving a construction-paper basket filled with flowers and cookies on someone’s doorknob then running for cover.

The centuries-long spring custom of May Day, it seems, is fading away.

“It makes me sad it might be a custom going in fashion,” said Karen Madorin of Logan, who recently talked about the disappearing annual rite on her blog and during her Saturday program on High Plains Public Radio. “It’s a tradition I had growing up.”

The May Day tradition, after all, is steep in history – the reasoning for the celebration lost years after our European ancestors first settled here, she said. She grew up knowing a little about its rich roots, that it was related to the Gaelic festival of Beltane – a pagan celebration honoring the beginning of the pastoral summer. And, according to several historians, the day is half a year from Nov. 1, another day of neo-pagan festivities.

Historians also associate it with other pre-Christian festivals, such as the festival for Flora, which honored the Roman goddess of flowers.

However, because the Puritans of New England considered May Day to be pagan, “They forbade its observance and the holiday never became an important part of American culture,” according to the 

Encyclopedia Britannica. In the late 1800s, May 1 in many countries honored International Workers Day and the fight for workers rights, including an 8-hour workday.

Nevertheless, the tradition still stayed with some families as they migrated to America and the Midwest. But in my quest to find people who still celebrate, it became difficult. However, I was amazed at the many memories people shared and the excitement in their voices as they recalled the tradition.

Those memories are still being made at my house.

On Monday, my 6-year-old twins, my 1-year-old and I made May Baskets out of construction paper. With the cold April, there are no flowers blooming in my yard, but we baked cookies and the girls filled the cone-shaped baskets with candy.

On Tuesday, we began the tradition of knocking and running although the girls weren't too sneaky. They squealed as they ran from each doorstep - running just far enough away so they could see each neighbor receive his or her gift.

As I watched my girls, the event reiterated something Madorin told me in our phone interview. Put the history of the day aside. It doesn't matter if May Day has a lengthy Paganism tradition or that it has strong political meaning in some countries. May Day is about giving. It's about showing friendship. It's about doing it because you want to, and not expecting anything in return.

But as we walked home from our first day of May Day basket giving, one of our neighbors walked out of her home with her own homemade basket. She gave it to the girls as a thank you. She recalled her own May Day experiences and those of her children.

Maybe the tradition will be revived.

Brett and Kaci ready to deliver baskets.

Brett colors on her cone-shaped basket.

Jordie wants to try to make one, too.

Jordie is 1 1/2.

Kaci and Jordie making baskets.

Even in Hutchinson there is some "road rage"

Dear Ask Hutch:

This concerns 17th and Faircrest Drive. When you are gong west on 17th, it is two lanes when you stop at the light at Severance Street. Then, just west, you come to Faircrest Street on the right. Barely west of Faircrest 17th narrows to one lane.

Frequently, the vehicles in that right lane merge into the left and only lane - and so often it is not safely done. Why isn't there a sign east of Severance saying those in the right lane must turn right? There is a lane to turn right off Severance onto 17th when coming from the north. This is a dangerous place at 17th and Faircrest and a bad accident could happen and could be avoided.

I brought up the question here in the newsroom as I was trying to search out the answer. But the comments and discussion made us realize this is more than just an Ask Hutch question. Most agreed with the question asker. Jason immediately got riled up about the people "who jack wagon" into the left lane of traffic, cutting off the people who are in the "correct" left lane. Jim said he makes allowances for out-of-county and out-of-state tags, but added Reno County residents should know better.

There are other uniquely Hutchinson traffic problems, as well.

* 30th and Main - Head west on 30th past Main, and the same one-lane issue appears.

* Avenue A bridge on Main - Go south on Main past Avenue A, and many of us often get confused as to what lane ends as we're driving over the Avenue A bridge. Somehow, it always works out.

* Fifth Avenue near Dillons - One I hate the most, however, is probably Fifth and Adams by Dillons. The left lanes ends as you are heading west on Adams. If you're not in the right lane, plan on being patient.

If you're heading west on 17th, it turns into a one-lane road just past Faircrest.

* 11th and Plum - Even newbies soon have this one memorized. If you are heading west on 11th by the Cosmosphere, you have to be in the left lane, otherwise turn right on Plum.

* Hutch News Facebook reader, William Hirst, reminded me not to forget 11th Avenue and K-61. "What genius thought of that?" he writes.

Kansas State Fair's "Sunflower Shake"

Kansas State Fair took part in the "Harlem Shake" fad.

The fair posted a video this morning showing employee Denny Vick getting out of state fair tram in the fair's Expo Center show ring. He begins dancing and soon is joined by other fair staff. They called it the Sunflower Shake.

I am disappointed that I didn't see Fair Manager Denny Stoecklein in the video, although he might be hiding in the background. Assistant Fair Manager Lori Mulch Hart is posing as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

The video ends with the maintenance crew continuing to "sweep up the mess" and the Oz characters holding the number "100."

The fair will celebrate its 100th birthday this year. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who loves the fair more than me. I did cover the fair one week after giving birth to little Jordie, who attended her first fair in 2011 at 10 days old.

I rode the zip line, too.

PETA talking of using drones to monitor hunters

As many of you know, I'm an avid hunter. Thus, it should be no surprise that my ears perked when I learned of this announcement released earlier this month by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA said it plans to watch hunters and farm operators using drones.

"PETA will soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves," the group said in a release dated April 8. " The group is shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds."

According to the group, they hope to catch people using spotlights, illegal baiting, as well as those drinking alcohol while in possession of a firearm.

PETA also intends to fly the remote-controlled aircraft over “factory farms,” fishing holes and “other venues where animals routinely suffer and die.”

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk says, “The talk is usually about drones being used as killing machines, but PETA drones will be used to save lives. Slob hunters may need to rethink the idea that they can get away with murder, alone out there in the woods with no one watching."

The animal rights group's announcement is coming when the talk of the government using drones to monitor farms seemed to be dieing down. Could it be another PR stunt similar to what the organization did just before the opening of the 100th Kansas State Fair?

Reno County hunting guide Jim Call says he doesn't care that PETA is using drones. In fact, it could be positive, Call tells me.

"I have nothing to hide," he says, adding that the effort could curb the county's poaching problem - something that has become worrisome over the past few years.

He said there are even area guides who are breaking Kansas hunting laws.

Future duck hunters.

Deep-fried guinea pig, anyone?

When in Peru, do as the Peruvians, right?

But the dining experience that requires trying to pull off a small morsel of meat from the carcass of a bony rodent that stared up at me with a toothy glare wasn't quite what I was after as my two-week adventure through Peru came to an end.

Last month, I journeyed to Peru as part of the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership Class XI. Guinea pig was one of the many eye-opening experiences.

In America, we call these cuddly creatures pets. In Peru, especially in the rural areas, guinea pig is a vital source of protein  - especially in poorer, rural communities.

"Even the poorest family can afford to raise guinea pigs," Gloria Palacios, director of a small-livestock farm at La Molina National Agrarian University in Lima, told The Christian Science Monitor in 2006.

After all, guinea pig, or cuy, as the Peruvians call it, is a delicacy. They usually are cooked whole, the heads, feet and tail left on, then served to the diner. And, they aren't cheap, either. For roughly $64 sols, or about $30 American dollars, you can try guinea on your next Peruvian excursions.

However, according to this recent NPR story, the country wants to import more guinea pig into the U.S. food system. According to one U.S. newspaper, Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pig a year.

I'm a meat and potatoes person myself, but when in Peru, I figured I better act somewhat cultured. I also didn't want to disappoint my children, who were fascinated and somewhat repulsed by the idea. So, on one of our last nights in the country, five of us decided to order one guinea pig and split it.

My couple bites were a couple of bites too many. But, then again, I could see a new Kansas State Fair food for the 100th anniversary in September. Deep-fried guinea pig, anyone?

Guinea pig, anyone?

It seems happy, with that toothy grin ...

Wilburton, A Morton County Dead Town

A stone at the Wilburton, Kansas cemetery. The stone says the cemetery was established in 1916.

Stones in the cemetery.

The first burial was Katherine Hesston Leake, who died in 1916. She was 30.

A few old outbuildings at Wilburton.

An abandoned bus

As several populated the area, a town was formed in 1912 halfway between Elkhart and Rolla. They named it Tice, the name of a high official of the Santa Fe Railroad. They platted out lots on 20 acres along what would eventually be the Santa Fe track.

But when a post office was built in 1913 by Mrs. Nellie D. Wilbur, the town became known as Wilburton, according to the history book.

At first, the train at Wilburton never stopped. The outgoing mail was hung on a high post near the track. When the train passed, the incoming mail was pushed out of the train and the out-going mail was grabbed from the pole.

Eventually, when area residents began to ship cream, hides and other products, the train would stop. The depot was an old boxcar that sat besides the tracks, the name Wilburton on a board across the top.

It didn’t take long for the little town to bustle with residents and commerce. Wilburton boasted two dry-good stores, two groceries, a church, garage, grain elevators, a feed yard, bank, lumberyard and florist. There also was a stockyard, boarding house, shoe repair shop and telephone exchange. The grade school and high schools had more than 100 students.

“The population of the town for many years was in the hundreds,” the book states. 

This Kansas Memory photo shows a dust storm passing through Morton County in the 1930s. Morton County, in the southwest corner of the state, was among the hardest hit areas during the Dust Bowl. Dust storms, such as the one depicted here, could blow for a full day, coating everything in their path with a layer of dirt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When 2-year-old Rena Coen died of dust pneumonia, the closest cemetery was covered in drifts of dirt.

So the Morton County farm family with seven sons buried their only girl in the Rolla Cemetery – just one of several causalities of the Dirty Thirties.

Her brother, Dale, now 91, recalls those days well, remembering how as a teen he would watch the billowing clouds of dust roll in, darkening the sky and leaving dust covering almost every foot of the family farmstead – a dust that was easily inhaled deep into the lungs.

It also blanketed the Wilburton cemetery.

“It was blowed under from the dust,” he said, adding the cemetery wasn’t well-kept, either. “A bunch of us boys, four or five of us, dug it out, got the markers dug out so the graves wouldn’t be lost.”

Wilburton, too, didn’t survive through the dust storms and the Great Depression. Today, only a few homes dot the prairie landscape where a thriving community was stood.

 

Machu Picchu - the lost city of the Incas

The fog and clouds are lifting as we get the first glimpse of Machu Picchu.

Part of the city.

Paula Landoll-Smith, Marysville, and I at the start of the ruins.

Al and John walking the paths around Machu Picchu.

Part of the ruins. Only 40 percent has been restored.

Large drop-offs surround the city, which overlooks a river.

Our group heads down one of the narrow paths.

Shirley and Ron Suppes, Dighton, and Debra Bolton, Garden City, listen as our guide, Wilbert Ramos, tells us about how the Incas used these water pools lined in silver to study the stars.

Work continues to keep the site repaired.

The only way to Aquas Calientes is by train or by foot, the small village that sits at the foot of the lost city of the Incas.

As the sun breaks, so do the people from their hostels and hotels, beginning the journey up the winding mountain road. It’s foggy – almost misty-like along the narrow path that leads up the “old mountain.”

But by mid morning, the clouds roll away and a mystical city appears, revealing itself to the hundreds that flock to get a glimpse on this March day.

Here, amid the tropical mountain forest, I get my first view of the ancient city roughly 600 years old -- Machu Picchu -- with its ramps and walls, its agricultural rock terraces and its family huts and royal presence – an opportunity of a lifetime.

It’s nearing the last day of my journey to Peru, and my Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership class is up at dawn to see the remains. Half our group is lead by Wilbert Ramos, a local of Incan decent himself who knows the history surrounding the ancient city of his ancestors.

He guides us on our morning journey across the historical site, built on a hilltop with large drop offs to the Urubamba River valley below. It felt as if we were close to heaven as we walked the Inca paths – a steal-your-breathe-away experience I can now mark off the bucket list.

After all, this place in the clouds is an engineering marvel. Construction started sometime it the late 1300s and ended around 1460 – the end result a royal governmental estate or administration center that housed about 700 people. Wilbert notes that about 200,000 Incas worked on the construction for decades – almost like ants as they funneled precisely cut stones for their structures.

Inca engineers and architects designed the 13 square kilometers of rock structures, even building models, he said. The city had homes, factories, places to keep food cool and a funeral-type hut to mourn the dead. They built stone terraces up the mountains to cultivate crops – something still seen on many Peruvian peaks today.

Machu Picchu was a place of religious ceremonies honoring the sun and Pachamama – or Mother Earth. It guarded at least a dozen different access points and supplied the royal family, who lived in Cusco, with food and coca leaves.

But within a 100 years after it was built, the Incas fled Machu Picchu as the Spanish invaded Peru about 1532, Wilbert said. The Spanish began a conquest in search of the Incas gold and silver to ship back to Spain.

The Spaniards enslaved some Peruvians and killed their ruler.

Some of the Incas fled to Machu Picchu, which was abandoned at the time, hiding their treasures in mummies, Wilbert said. They blocked off all but four access points into the city, barricading themselves before eventually fleeing the city, burying their treasures along their route.
The Incas last settled Vilcabamba before disappearing into Peru's jungles.

Over the years, both German and French explored this area, but never found Machu Picchu, the city remaining lost until 1911 when Yale University Professor Hiram Bingham discovered the remains, which were overgrown in trees.

Bingham, in the country originally to research military campaigns, was traveling through the Sacred Valley of the Incas along the Urubamba River when he met a farmer who told me about some ruins on the “old mountain,” and Bingham paid him one coin for his troubles. When he reached the area, he found two families farming the steep sides of the mountain. But it was an 8-year-old child named Pablito of one of the families who led the explorers to the archeological remains.

Bingham returned a year later with a research team and began cleaning up the overgrown site. He eventually found a little of the gold and silver, along with 40,000 artifacts that the Peruvian government allowed him to take back to the United States to study, Wilbert said.

Only about a thousand have been returned, most of which are on display in a museum in Cusco, Wilbert said.

This is just a bit of the rich history of the area and there’s still debate on the history of the site, however. Inca oral history and Spanish archives differ about some of the events. Meanwhile, Wilbert said, only 40 percent of the site is restored and archeologists are finding more artifacts, including another mummy a few weeks ago.

It is now an Unesco world heritage site, one of 962 sites protected by the United Nations group. The organization prohibits more restoration of the ruins.

Today, it is one of the seven wonders of the “new world” – and a famous attraction. It draws more than a million tourists a year, according to the Peruvian Times. That number continues to grow.

The more adventurous types don a backpack trekking four days along the legendary Inca Trail, one of the old access roads into Machu Picchu. We, however, take the easy route, a scenic and relaxing two-hour train ride along the Urubamba River, from the small town of Ollantavia to Aquas Calientes. We stay overnight in one of the hostels then venture upward in one of the buses that travels the zig-zagging roads back and fourth from the site daily.

We took a short hike on one of the cobblestone trails, which led to a ledge that overlooks the city. As the misty clouds parted, the city appeared – leaving us all speechless at its presence, followed by the clicking of our cameras.

As I walked among the ruins, exploring roofless houses, ancient water systems and painstakingly fitted walls, I felt inspiration and wonder. I felt thankful for what I have. And I felt thankful I was able to make this special journey here that many can only dream of doing.

There could be no more fitting ending to such a wonderful trip.

More food pictures

This is pork and rice - not too bad, but we were a little late getting to lunch so it was a a little dry.

This is fish cooked in a lime juice. No, I didn't not try it. The plantanes were good, however. They are the dried banana-looking food.

Potatoes in some type of tomato sauce, a type of spaghetti and chicken. I tried a little.