The Lanyons arrived!!!

My sister, Daisha, and her family (Edward, Dakota and Tabitha) had a whirlwind visit across the US for one of their holidays this year. My sister lives just outside of London, and has been in the UK for 8 years now, I think. She married a British chap 4 years ago and has happily settled in a small village close to London. When they vacation, he wants to go to the US and she wants to go to Europe. He grew up vacationing in Europe, and she in the US, so they compromise and do both. This time they flew in to NY and visited her friend, June, then visited Mel and family in NC, then drove across the US, meeting up with route 66 and visited lots of places Edward has been wanting to see. They finally arrived in Ashland on Monday, and since their schedule was pressed, we went down there to see them. I haven't seen Daisha since Dec. 2006, so I was anxious to catch up with her! We chatted until late into the night and then on Tuesday we went to the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex. It's in Gold Hill, and though I've lived within 60 miles of this place most of my life (I even lived in Gold Hill while pregnant with Talea), I've never been there. It was interesting, but I was wondering how much was optical illusion and how much was real. Edward was a huge sceptic, much to the chagrin of our tour guide, and still thinks it's a bunch of bologna, but it was still worth going to at least once to say we've been there. I did find some things hard to explain away, and I'll show you some of the pictures to see what you think.

Here we are starting the tour. I don't know how to get rid of the shadows sometimes, so bear with my lame-o pictures.


The vortex is a half-acre radius of unexplained phenomena. According to the tour guide, there are no animals there, other than bugs, lizards and the occasional bird that hops around, but doesn't fly above. It was feared by the Indians and later a mining shack was built there, which slid off it's foundation years later and has become the House of Mystery. Your perception of things is way off when you're there, and so for unexplained reasons, people appear to get taller or shorter when they're on level ground (proved with actual levels that you set down on the ground), bottles and balls appear to roll uphill, a broom stands on end, etc. Edward was doubtful, and a lot of it I think is just optical illusion, but it is definitely strange how someone can appear almost the same height as someone, then way taller just by trading places. See for yourself.

During a demonstration, a bug crawled by and Talea, of course, had to catch it.

Because of Edward's scepticism, the guide had Edward and Daisha perform one of the demonstrations. Okay, Edward, explain to me why the bar looks only slightly off level in one picture, but has an obviously greater slope in the next. Hmmm.


Next they tried the one where you touch the shoulder next to you and it's supposed to feel different when you change positions. They didn't notice a change.


And here Talea only looks slightly taller than Tabitha, but in the next picture it looks like she's grown much taller. Hmmm.


Daisha and Edward tried it and Hyrum and I tried it, and I have to say I can tell a difference.


I look shrimpy here (and 6 months pregnant, though I'm only 3 months...dang the not losing Kiersa's baby weight thing)...

but not quite so shrimpy here.

The overall verdict: Worth going to once while the kids are free admission, but the phenomena isn't as impressive as anticipated.


The get-together was way too short, especially because we had to spend part of our time shopping for things we can't get in our area and have been needing for a while, but we played a fun game of Apples to Apples that night, and then had lunch with several siblings the next day before we left (Dane and Shira joined us). Good thing we're going to England next month or else I'd be crying for how short the visit was. It's always a fun time when Daisha and Edward visit.

Oh, I almost forgot! My mom and I showered Daisha's family with American flag paraphenalia for next year's Lanyon 4th of July celebration, since you can't find much US flag stuff in the UK. We got them red, white and blue curly and mullet wigs, tattoos, shirts, plates, napkins, bowls, 2 large flags and I surprised Daisha with one of those cheesy airbrushed trucker hats you make at the fair. We had one made for Edward last year, so we had to get Daish one this year. Edward's says "Daisher 'n Ed" and Daisha's says "Eddie's #1 Fan", and if those words confuse you instead of making you burst out in laughter, you don't know the inside jokes to go along with them. We enjoy bringing white trash into Edward's life since he had very little, if any, experience with it before the Cluff family. Edward had never been on a horse, shot a gun, rode in a semi, or wore a mullet wig until meeting Hyrum and I. We feel proud to have exposed him to the trashy side of life. It's hilarious, and he plays along so well, even if he didn't warm to horseback riding and won't go in public with his trucker hat!