Recently my class and I went on a field trip to learn about the Manhattan Project. To do that we had to go to a few different places in the states just south of the Canadian US border. We drove from Vancouver all the way to Portland then back up to Washington stopping in Hanford then coming back to Vancouver this was a three day trip that we took as a whole class. On this trip we learned very important information that we needed for our projects as 70 some odd years ago this is where it all took place.
Like I said we first stopped in Portland. We first stopped in Powells book store. If you don’t know what that is, it is an extremely large book store that basically takes up one square block in the middle of a city. It is absolutely gigantic the book store has absolutely every kind of book you could possibly ask for, it has some books that are quite old and others that are brand new. I’m not a huge fan of reading as I only do it from time to time, but this place blew my mind. While we were there we were given two assignments one was to find a book with a cool title the other was to find a title that me and few friends could act out. Sadly the photos of both have been lost but, I did end up making a purchase at Powell’s, besides the coffee that I had at the Café. Besides that I also bought I book that is about one of my biggest inspirations and my favourite athlete of all time. I bought a book about Bo Jackson as it is one of the few books that actually made me interested and also it was under $10.
We then went to a restraunt called Fire on the Mountain. Fire on the Mountain is a wing place, they have a variety of flavours that I was very excited for as soon as I found out that we were going here. I had so many different flavours I don’t know if I can remember all of them, for starts there was the mild wings which were pretty basic. Then there was the medium hot wings which had nice kick to them but pretty similar to the mild wings, there was then hot wings which had a bigger kick to them, but that is not where the fun ends it is where it begins as there are flavours even hotter that only a select few in the class decided to try. If just straight hot flavours wasn’t your thing they had other flavours such as my favourite which was some sort of peanut sauce that was quite lovely, and if none of these appeal to you, you can stand up put down your device and walk away. Everybody else can continue to read.
The next day we made more stops as we spent a lot less time traveling. The first thing we had to do was go to the Reed Reactor which is Reed College. We stopped there first because it is in Portland aswell, but the reason on the other hand is that Reed College also happens to have a working nuclear reactor. It is also a reactor that uses water to cover it which is different than most as they are generally covered by metal. That doesn’t sound too special until you think about it because having water covering it means that you can look right at the actual reactor. It was a really cool thing to see, and I probably wont see anything like it ever again.
Later that day we went to Maryhill Museum, your probably thinking that it was just some boring museum you walk through, nod your head at the art, yawn, and repeat. This was a little bit different as it had some of the coolest and weirdest art collections in the world. They have the largest chess set collecition in the world, they have really creepy dolls that almost gave me nightmares, on top fo that they have an amazing are devoted to indegenous art. Lastly they have a very large collection August Rodins’ sculptures and if you don’t know who that is, he is the guy who made the famous statue called “The Thinker”.
While we were at teh museum we were given the task of talking about a piece of art and give your opinion on what the message of it is.
That night was one night I may never forget. It was the first time I ever went to Red Lobster, you may be thinking that that isn’t a very big deal but you are very wrong, as it was during the time of endless shrimp. Every year that PLP goes on this FIeld Study they stop at Red Lobster and students challenge themselves to see how many shrimp they can eat. Our teachers had been preparing us for this night for about a month like we were about to go to war. I made sure I came prepared. I did my best to take down as many shirmp as possible, it took a very long but I was able to cram 142 shrimp into my stomach which was the best in the class by 2. I was proud of myself even though my body hated me so much at the time.
The next day I was surprisingly fine and ready to tackle the day even though we woke up pretty early for a tour of the B-Reactor. The B-Reactor was one of the main reasons we went down to the US as it is at one of the sites the Americans used for the Manhattan Project. It was vital to the manhattan project as they needed it to create the Nuclear Bombs. It was a very interesting tour and it was a good way to wrap up our field trip as it made it so we got information consistently throughout each day right to the end. After the tour was over we got back on the bus for a long bus ride home, which I ended up sleeping and watching movies most of the way. This field study was one of my favourite as it truly opened my eyes to what actually went on during and after the war involving Nuclear Sciences.