The highlight of our last week was the trip to Breitenbush Hot Springs-a wonderful place to relax AND learn science.  Breitenbush is entirely off the grid, being remote in the Santiam mountains and generates its own hydroelectric power and heats with geothermal.  We were able to take a tour with one of the engineers.  We started with the fish ladder where river water is diverted for drinking and for heating.   The hot tubs, pools and sauna, clothing optional, are in site of the river and so wonderfully relaxing.  Meals are also provided, wonderful vegetarian buffets that Conor pronounced "the best ever!" each time.  We even had a sack lunch that we were able to request for our day of nordic skiing.  Evenings we passed also in the cozy library reading quietly, or playing checkers, or reading in our sweet, little cabin.  Sunday we drove another hour or so up the mountain to Hoodoo Butte for some lovely nordic skiing in the sun.

Conor is going to tell you about the tour:

Geothermal energy is heat produced by the earth.  At the resort they drilled wells about 700 feet down and send the river water down to the bottom where it is heated up and used to provide heat everywhere.  The river water also runs through turbines to provide hydroelectric power.  The hot tubs are filled with the water from the earth that has to be cooled.  It is filled with many different minerals and smells pretty stinky.  I liked to think about whether it may also have gold in it also.  

Before we left for Breitenbush we had our weekly math class.  Homework was assigned and was actually done before we got on the road that night-once Conor gets into something he is committed to finishing.  We also brought along a Brainquest workbook which inspired some wonderful writing exercises, including one about idioms.  Conor filled the page with literal drawings of all the idioms he could fit on the page, it was a delight.  This week was his 2 days with the sitter, which were wonderfully sunny and therefore mostly spent outdoors.  Whitney, the sitter, inspired an interest in photography and gave him a camera and set him free  It was fun to see what he had been doing while I was sleeping, and so fun to see his enthusiasm.