Core Arboretum

Bloodroot. The roots of this plant, if broken, will ooze a red liquid that looks like blood.
But do please take my word for it, and let these little beauties flourish!

Thursday was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day, and we needed some sunshine! We headed down to Morgantown to the Core Arboretum to see some spring wildflowers. While Pittsburgh is still waiting for our spring bloom to begin in earnest, West Virginia is there! And since it's only about an hour and a half south, it was calling to us.

Core Arboretum is next to the Monongahela River, on land that has never been cleared. It's now owned and protected by West Virginia University. Wildflowers are therefore well established. These are wildflowers that grow and bloom in the first days of spring, when the warming rays of sun reach the forest floor, unobstructed by the tree leaves which have yet to fill in. A friendly guy from the Department of Botany at WVU was greeting visitors (I think he might be the Arboretum director).  He tipped us off to the best trail to follow for the biggest show; a loop including the Rumsey and Sheldon trails in the center of the Arboretum. I explained that I had learned about the Core Arboretum from the website of the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania, which had a field trip there the previous Sunday that we were unable to join. He said that our timing was perfect, because the BSWP had planned their field trip a few days too early when not much was blooming yet. Still, it's obvious that the BSWP knows all the best spots for wildflower peeping in the area.

Yellow trout lily.

Dutchman's breeches.

Yellow violet.

Yellow trout lilies.

Spring beauty.

Bloodroot.

Sessile trillium.

Virginia bluebells.

Sessile trillium.

Blue violets.

A sign proclaimed that this was the sight of a wagon road leading to the river, in use
in the 1800s when the Monongahela River could still be forded.

I believe this is a scilla, an escaped ornamental plant.

Cherry blossoms.

After our ramble at the Core Arboretum, we stopped by the West Virginia University campus for a quick ride on their famed Personal Rapid Transit. It was impressive, and great fun to ride! It cost us a grand total of 50¢ (exact change) per person to ride it. Riders punch a button on entry, which programs a little 8-seat car to go nonstop to your preferred destination. There are 71 little cars, which have been shuttling students from campus to campus since 1975 with no breakdowns and no serious accidents so far! It was a prototype of sorts, designed by Boeing and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and they have faced some major hurdles as the system ages. Despite the fact that it is beloved by all, they don't exactly have plenty of replacement parts whenever they need them, which makes it more and more expensive to operate. I hope it continues to charm for many, many years to come! 

From the window of the PRT.

While in Morgantown, we grabbed lunch at Cairo2Go. Much of the menu is standard Middle Eastern fare, but it is all somehow seasoned differently than we've had before. I haven't had enough Egyptian food to have any clue if that's a regional difference, or simply the personal flair of their chef, but either way it was tasty! We also couldn't resist checking out "Mountaineer Gun Sales and Ice Cream", a place that, in a bizarre juxtaposition, sells both 64 delicious flavors of Hershey's ice cream, and shotguns! And novelty socks with bug-eyed aliens, and seashell night lights with scenes of Jesus, and just about everything else you can imagine. Sadly I was too chicken to try the "Magical Unicorn"  ice cream flavor. (Or maybe too sensible?) But there were plenty of appealing alternatives.