* * * * *

               Isengard, a spooky place, and a gang of turtles

The weather permitted.

We saw Isengard [1]!

[Isengard! It seems the Uruk-hai have yet to show up] [2]
[3]

Okay, it's really Bok Tower, a rather large and imposing musical instrument
[4] which is acoustically engineered such that the sound only carries to the
immediate vicinity around the tower itself.

We learned that there is an elevator inside, so the carillonneurs don't have
to climb twenty flights of stairs to get to the keyboard.

We also learned that there are very few pictures from inside Bok Tower, and
the few that do exist (of the first floor) are mostly in black-and-white.

After leaving Isengard, we then found ourselves at a nearby attraction, Spook
Hill [5].

[I think it's an optical illusion] [6]
[7] [Wow! We really are moving backwards!] [8]
[9]

The illusion is pretty good. Stop the car at the white line, place it in
neutral and let off the break, and yes, you do start rolling backwards. The
perspective makes it appear as if you are moving up the hill, but that's all
it is—an illusion. A darned clever one, but only an illusion.

Once back at Chalet Suzanne [10], Bunny asked if I could take pictures of the
turtles in the lake. I cheerfully obliged and started taking pictures of the
happily swiming turtles, but then, things turned ugly—they started bum
rushing me!

[The turtles are out to get me!] [11]
[12]

Well, it wan't much of a bum rush—they are turtles after all, and I could
easily outpace them back to the safely of the room. But they did rush towards
me, sticking their little heads up at me, daring me to defy them and their
territory.

Well … something like that.

By then, it was time to dress for dinner anyway …

[1] http://www.boksanctuary.org/
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/thumb-p4200047.jpg
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/p4200047.jpg
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spook_Hill
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/thumb-p4200060.jpg
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/p4200060.jpg
[8] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/thumb-p4200061.jpg
[9] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/p4200061.jpg
[10] http://www.chaletsuzanne.com/
[11] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/thumb-p4200078.jpg
[12] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2013/04/20/p4200078.jpg

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