Ten things I learned on vacation.

[Rain Man]

My niece just got married (no pictures, but yes, she's hot), and my wife and I went out to the East Coast to watch it. We took an extra week and did a driving tour around the Southeast, and visited a bunch of different attractions. Here are the ten facts that I learned during our travels:

You can make a cool dress that looks like a cloud, and Iris Van Herpen is a very creative person that I could hang out with. Source: High Museum of Art, Atlanta.



During World War II, many of the most valued paintings from the National Gallery of Art were transported and stored in the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, North Carolina. The guy who built this 178,000 sq. foot house was the youngest of the Vanderbilt kids and thus got the smallest share of the family fortune. Source: Biltmore Mansion Tour.



The National Whitewater Center near Charlotte would be a really cool place to hang out for a day. It had manmade rapids, really long zip lines, rope courses all over the place, and lots of trails. Source: New South Trail Half Marathon



James Madison studied for months about the history of non-king governments to design the concept of the Constitution, and his proposal really drove the issue during the Constitutional Convention. The library where he studied (in his home) has been called "the most important room in America". He was the youngest delegate at the Constitutional Convention.



Thomas Jefferson had a device on his desk that mirrored his pen's motions, so he could automatically create a copy of any letter that he wrote. He was the first secretary of state, second vice president, and third president. He did not count being president as one of his top three accomplishments in life. Source: Monticello Tour.



James Monroe's wife was a real hottie, and he had great taste in furnishings. He cut the Louisiana Purchase deal on his own because Napoleon offered it as a surprise when he was in France, and he couldn't communicate with America quickly. Source: Monroe Estate Tour.



Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, but it was not a building. Appomattox Court House was the name of a town, and the surrender was at a house owned by Wilmer McLean. Nearby, the battle of Chancellorsville took place not in a town, but in the vicinity of an inn that colloquially was called Chancellorsville. Source: Tours of Appomattox and Chancellorsville battle sites.



Homo Erectus dominated the earth for about five times longer than Homo Sapiens has (to date). The average height for this species' males was about 5-10, which is much taller than the Neanderthals who came long after them (5-4). Source: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.



The last human species to go extinct is one that was found recently, called Homo Floresiensis. They lived on small islands in Indonesia, and adults were only about 3 to 3.5 feet tall. Their habitat overlapped with that of komodo dragons, so at one point in human history we had hobbits fighting dragons. Source: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.