Posted by barb on Nov 5, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels 
With the conference behind me, Andrew and I have a full weekend to play in Boston and Cambridge. Today we walked to Harvard to check out the Natural History Museum (and Peabody Musuem, which are both in the same builing). We walked through campus to get to the museums (that’s Memorial Hall in the picture – Felicia’s there, too, if you look very closely).
The Natural History Museum had a nice collection of minerals and the requisite room of stuffed animals and skeletons. There was also a room full of glass flower models. A fun surprise was the Day of the Dead displays in the Peabody Museum.
After that we walked to the MIT Museum. There was a fun exhibit of kinetic sculptures by Arthur Ganson (very hard to get a good picture of, though, given that the museum doesn’t allow flash photography). There was also an exhibit on Harold Edgerton on his work creating pictures of fast processes (like the milk drop pictures, and pictures of cats lapping water, etc.). Definately a fun museum for the nerds in the family.
I’ll post all my pictures later – I’ve got some of them up on my Flickr “Boston Pics” set
Tags: museums, trip report
Posted by barb on Nov 4, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels We went to the conference banquet last night, held at the Boston Museum of Science. It was pretty cool, because we had the museum to ourselves, so we could really see most of the exhibits with a minimum of children (the local participants brought their children, but there weren’t too many of them). We also got to go through the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. I’ve made a Boston Pics set on Flickr. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels
I went with a group from the conference for a tour of Kitt Peak National Observatory. They gave us scientist-led tours of the Mayall 4-meter telescope, the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Wow!
Update (9/20): I’ve posted all of my Kitt Peak pictures in my photo album.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2005 in
Travels I’ve posted the rest of my pictures from the Desert Museum. They aren’t linked from my photo album yet, but I’ll add a link after I get back home.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 16, 2005 in
Pictures,
Travels I played hookey from the first couple sessions today and ran off to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just a few miles outside of Tucson. Wow! Best $9 I’ve spent in a very long time. The museum is part science museum part zoo part botany lesson. It’s situated smack in the middle of the desert, and it seems that the designers of the museum tried to disturb that desert as little as possible. The trails are lined with native cacti, many of which were flowering or with fruit today. There are several live-animal exhibits — from a river otter to a black bear to praire dogs to ocelots. There are also two aviaries – one with a variety of birds and another with hummingbirds. Winnie and I spent about three hours at the museum, and were able to see much of it, though we missed the “Desert Loop Trail” with the coyotes and javelinas. I highly recommend this museum if you ever find yourself in this neck of the United States.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Sep 2, 2005 in
Recreation,
Travels Back in February I made some noise about going to Egypt for the total solar eclispe next Spring. Well, we didn’t get our deposit in early enough, and landed on a wait list. Turned out to be a good thing, though, because both Andrew and I have been watching the situation in Egypt, and have been a bit nervous about travelling over there. It’s true that things could get better after the elections, but things could also get worse.
In the meantime, though, my boss pointed out a Mediterranean Eclipse Cruise that will be viewing the eclipse at sea next Spring – we jumped on this opportunity, and have already booked the cruise and airfare. The cruise will make a one-day port call in Cairo, so we will still have the chance to see a little bit of Egypt, and if the situation is bad there, we have the option of staying close to the cruise ship (or on the cruise ship if we’re feeling really uneasy).
I’m really looking forward to this trip. The cruise itinerary will bring us to Rome, Cairo, Cyprus, and Naples. And, of course, we’ll get to see the total solar eclipse.
The only thing I’m worried about is sea-sickness. I know that the general wisdom is that cruise ships are too large for people to feel the water movements, but I’ve talked with a couple other very sensitive people who have gotten seasick on cruises. The good news is that this cruise is in the Mediterranean, which is generally very calm. I’m going to consult my doctor, too, to try and procure some other motion-sickness remedies before we go.
Posted by barb on Jun 2, 2005 in
Books,
Travels And she had a great time browsing the shelves.
We bought a lot of books, but the pile that Felicia and I bought will be shipped later, when a could other books arrive. So much for instant gratification.
Tags: build-a-bear, trip report
Posted by barb on May 31, 2005 in
Science Musings,
Travels Felicia presented her poster at the AAS meeting yesterday, so I took a few pictures for her to remember her trip.
Here she is asking a question about the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
She also stopped at the American Astronomical Society booth to ask about membership.
When Felicia passed by the Glast booth, she saw that JD was having some trouble with a Python script, so she stopped to help him out.
At the end of the day, she had picked up just about every give-away she could find in the Exhibit Hall – she could barely lug her bag back to the car.
We’ll post all of her pictures from her big day after we return home next week.
Tags: build-a-bear, trip report
Posted by barb on Apr 23, 2005 in
Travels …and a bit of mini-golf.
We’re heading off for a long weekend, so things will be quiet around here until Wednesday or Thursday. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. Topic: How can the moon be compared to a giant block of cheese?
Tags: comfort
Posted by barb on Feb 15, 2005 in
Random Thoughts,
Travels A couple weeks ago I was perusing the Astronomical Society of the Pacific website for information on their upcoming meeting in September and I stumbled upon this page. It’s an announcement of a tour of Egypt next spring (2006) that will coincide with the solar eclipse.
Solar Eclipse? And a tour of Egypt? Drool!
The tour includes visits to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, Alexandria, Luxor, and 4 nights cruising the Nile. Originally Andrew and I had planned on taking a trip to New Mexico this fall as a first anniversary celebration, but this is just too good to pass up. So, we’ve decided to postpone the New Mexico trip and put all our time, effort, and (especially) savings into this Egypt trip.
We were a bit concerned about the safety of travelling to Egypt, but according to the US State Department’s travel advisories, Egypt is relatively safe, except for a few select areas (like up near the Gaza strip), which the tour will be avoiding. If anything changes before the tour, we’ll re-evaluate the risks.
Now to scrimp and save… oh, and read up on Egypt!
