We were on the way from Hutchinson to Chicago for a short spring break. For many years I had wanted to take my family on the train. We all had been to Chicago four years ago, and the kids loved it. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, too, so the thought struck me again last fall to ride the train to Chicago. Of course, flying would have been faster. But I don't think flying is easier, especially these days, with all the security and waiting in lines at airports.

    Though we were tired in the middle of the night, the kids got on the train with the exhilaration of this adventure. “We're moving,” my son William shouted happily with big eyes as the train began to pull away from the Hutchinson station.

    I removed my shoes and lay down to try to finish my night's sleep. The sleeper car would have better enabled that, but the ordinary train seats were not too bad. An airline flight is a more miserable experience for me: not enough room, two hours of pain with my knees almost touching my chin, the hard seatback in front cracking my kneecaps (膝盖) with every move of the body planted in front of me. On the train I could almost outstretch all of my 6-foot-2-plus body in the generous legroom.

    The journey didn't feel at all as long as it was. We all found the train ride a joy. The car ride would have felt every minute of 13 hours. But on the train you are free to walk around, sit in the observation carriage for a while and enjoy the scenery out the windows, have a nice meal in the dining car, read a book, or play a board game.

    In short, the train is all about enjoying the trip, which isn't something I do so much when traveling by airline or by car, when the trip seems more of a mission (任务) to get there than an experience to enjoy along the way.

    Chicago offers much to do for a family. This time, getting there was half the fun.

    Today's museums include plenty of high culture, but you can still find shrines（圣地）to the extraordinary. Here's a look at five curious museum stops across Canada.

Vancouver Police Museum

    The setting, terrible enough, is the old Coroner's（验尸官）Court and forensics lab, including the morgue(room where dead bodies are kept). Artifacts, from the 1870s on, include badges, uniforms, police equipment, items from criminals, and even preserved organs—all in all an arresting experience.

Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station

    Designed to resemble a spacecraft, the Treck Station celebrates Vulcan's coincidental relationship to Mr. Spock's planet, Go to a building that features an 800-piece collection of Star Trek memorabilia — including Spock's ears and floor-to-ceiling space paintings. If you want to know more about it, click here: http//www. Vulcantourism. com

Accordion（手风琴）Museum

    Through instruments, photos and recordings, the museum traces the history of the accordion and its influence on Quebec culture. They've even acquired Asian instruments that show the use of the free reed— call them ancient ancestors of the accordion—that date back 4000 years.

Chocolate Museum

    It's chocoholic heaven — whole museum featuring displays on how chocolate is made, hands-on exhibits, collections of historic chocolate boxes, and antique candy- making equipment and, of course, lots of chocolate treats ,located in an old candy factory building. Click below to learn all about their hours and admission rates. http:// www. Chocolate museum .com

Potato museum

    A 14--foot high potato greets you at what's billed as the world's largest exhibit of potato artifacts. Explore the humble potato's role in the economy, a collection of farm tools related to growing and harvesting potatoes, Hall of Fame.

    Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own，not because they have no one to travel with，but because they prefer to go alone.

    Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. ＂It opens up your mind to new things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.＂ Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.

    In foreign countries，with no one to help you read a map，look after you if you get ill，or lend you money if your wallet is stolen，it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.

    Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website，The Aussie Nomad，to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. ＂The people you meet，the places you visit，or the things you do，everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person，＂ said the 30-year-old man.

    Richardson describes traveling alone like ＂a shot in the arm＂，which ＂makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything＂. He said，＂The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I'm dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.＂

    The great 19th century explorer John Muir once said，＂Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.＂

    Electric devices can seem like a “third party” in Some relationships because some partners spent more time on them than with each other.

    When Amanda Gao, a 26-year-old white collar worker in Beijing, went to a hotpot restaurant with her boyfriend on Friday night several weeks ago, she expected that they would have a good time together. To her disappointment, however, it did not turn out that later. As soon as they were led to their seats and she began to order dishes, he buried himself in his mobile phone.

    “It seemed that his phone was making its way between us. A date that should have belonged to us turned into one where my boyfriend dated a third party and I felt left out.” Gao said. Some people, like her, have found electronics have been sabotaging(破坏) their romantic relationships.

    A study, published in the journal Psych010kY of Popular Media Culture, in April, 2017, questioned nearly 200 college aged adults who were in committed(真诚的) relationships to report on their and their partner's smartphone dependency. The results showed people who were more dependent on their phones were less sure about their relationships, and people considered their partners excessively(过度地) dependent on their devices were less satisfied in their relationship.

    Lin Yuan, a relationship advisor in Beijing, noted that as more and more electronics come out and spice up people's lives, they are at the same time becoming a third party in relationships, especially for young people.

    Lin said she knew of some people who suggest that electronics should be kept out of bedrooms, which she considered challenging and hard to be put into practice for most couples. She recommended that if people are feeling neglected in their relationship, they need to respectfully let their partners know their feeling. “Communication is always the best and the most efficient way.” she said.

Love for language

    Very few of us become fluent in another language by studying it in high school. I went to university and then moved across the country, pursued a demanding career, married and raised children.

    I made an effort to maintain the little bit of French that I learned in school, but eventually realized that this was pointless. I was well aware that new languages are best learned when young, and that our abilities in that regard decline with age. However, just before my 50th birthday, I signed up for French classes. After I was tested to see which group I belonged in, I was placed at almost the introductory level. When I looked around at my first Saturday morning class, I was struck by how many of the students were learning French as a third, fourth, or even fifth language.

    Contrary to my assumption that learning a new language was impossibly difficult, there were people who learned new languages as a matter of course. I found that it really was true that certain linguistic (语言的) abilities fade with age.

    While I'd always thought of myself as a quick learner, that was no longer the case. I absorbed new vocabulary very slowly. What I learned one week seemed to slip away as soon as I learned the next skill. I looked up the same words and language structures over and over again.

    Now, a couple of years in, I can listen to the news in French and catch 90 percent of it on the first try, read a novel if the language is not too difficult, and hold up my end of a conversation if it doesn't go too fast.

    Who knows what I might still accomplish?

    I've learned so much beyond grammar and vocabulary. I've met people from around the world and all walks of life who have the courage to make fools of themselves in order to learn something new.

    I've been taught by patient and inspirational teachers from many corners of the world, including France, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Africa.

    Listening to the news as it is presented to the people of France, I have a renewed understanding of how something can look completely different from another perspective. I've learned that a language is not just a set of words, but a way of thinking. But most of all, I've learned that it really is never too late to learn something new.

    In the U.S. state of Washington, a road called ^Interstate 90^ cuts through a wild, mountainous area to reach the city of Seattle. For the area's many kinds of animals, the busy highway greatly limits their movements. Crossing 1-90—as the road is called—is a risky but sometimes necessary act. But soon, animals will have a safer choice for crossing the road. They will be able to go above it.

    To help the animals, the state is finishing work on its largest-ever wildlife bridge. The 11-meter-tall, 20-meter-wide structure begins in the forest. It forms two arches above the highway, one for each direction of traffic. Workers are adding fencing and plants to help guide the animals across the bridge. Two-meter-thick walls will help block noise from vehicles below.

    The 1-90 Bridge is part of a growing number of wildlife crossings across the United States. Some are fences, some are overland bridges, and some are underpasses. They all aim to keep drivers and animals away from each other. Collisions between animals and drivers are rarely deadly to people. But they are often deadly to wildlife. In Canada's Banff National Park, studies have found that wildlife crossings reduce the area's animal-driver collisions by 80 percent.

    Most of the wildlife bridges are in western states. But experts have noted many other areas that have a need for such paths. Jen Watkins, whose organization has helped campaign for animal crossings, says finding for more crossings is "the number-one barrier."

    Patty Garvey-Darda of the U.S. Forest Service has worked on the 1-90 crossing from the start of the project. She says the $6- million bridge will one day pay for itself because the highway will not have to be fully or partly closed each time a large animal is struck. She said, ^"If you shut down Interstate 90, you shut down interstate commerce."