Fresh Air in Five Counties

This is the 170 mile trip we took today.  Dumfries -> Annandale -> Clifton -> Culpeper -> Sperryville -> Warrenton -> Dumfries.

Lots of green trees, blue sky, and rural roads. Five counties: Prince William, Fairfax, Fauqier, Culpeper, and Rappahannock.

Virtual Vacation: to the stars

August 24 I broke both my feet in a freak accident. Apparently I can't walk and carry the recycling bin at the same time. I had surgery on the worst foot this week. So now I'm laid up for about 8 weeks or more while the bones knit. This is the perfect opportunity for a virtual vacation. This particular one is based on a great book Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America (Scientific Traveler) .

So, here's our itenerary:

1. Washington DC: National Air and Space Museum; the Meteorite Gallery of the National Museum of Natural History; and the US Naval Observatory.
2. Virginia: Udvar-Hazy Center; Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, and the Wallops Flight Facilty on Wallops Island.
3. West Virginia: National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
4. Florida: John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral
5. Alabama: Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville
6. Mississippi: Stennis Space Center
7. Texas: Johnson Space Center in Houston; McDonald Observatory at Fort Davis; Odessa Meteor Crater; and the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery at Fort Worth.
8. New Mexico: Chaco Cnayon National Historical Park; Meteorite Museum in Albuquerque; National Solar Observatory; New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo; Roswell; and the Very Large Array in Socorro.
9. Arizona: Kitt Peak National Observatoryin Tucson; Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff; Meteor Crator; and the Museum at the Center for Meteorite Studies in Tempe.
10. California: Ames Research Center at Moffett Field; Dryden Fligh Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base; Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles; Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena; Lick Observatory in San Jose; Mount Palomar Observatory in San Diego, and the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena.
11. Hawaii: Keck Observatory
12. Colorado: Chimney Rock Archaeological Area; Hovenweep National Monument at Cortez; and Mesa Verde National Park.
13. Kansas: Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center at Hutchinson
14. Wisconsin: Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum in Sparta. Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay.
15. Illinois: Adler Planetarium in Chicago
16. Ohio: Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland
17. New York: Hall of Meteorites in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and the Rose Center for Earth and Space Science

Virtual Adventure: Aurora

CNN reports that a significant northern lights event will occur in the next day or so. The sun hurled a bunch of plasma directly at Earth on Sunday. It will impact our atmosphere on August 4.

Here's the projected viewing area for the aurora. The green band will have aurora directly overhead. The green line farther south indicates the lowest possible places where you might be able to see the aurora on the low horizon.

So, after checking the weather for northern Maine (too much rain over the next 48 hours), let's fly to Minneapolis, MN, rent a car, and drive six hours to the border with Canada. It's pretty rural there so the skys will be darker, and the weather forecast looks pretty good.

Recent road trip to South Carolina

This is an overview of the road trip I took with my parents recently. The straight milage shown is about 1465. But there was a bit of extra driving around that isn't shown in the major stops.

So first we went to the Norfolk area, where Dad taught a training class. We stayed the next night at Washington, NC, and then the next morning drove to New Bern, NC, (spot C) to tour Tryon Palace. After that, drove to North Charleston, SC, (spot D) where we spent a few days. Dad taught another training class, and Mom and I drove around and toured things like the Tea Plantation (spot E) on Wadmalah Island and the Drayton Plantation. Then we all left town and went to Kingstree, SC, (spot F) to do some genealogy. Which lead us to Hemingway, SC, (spot G) to visit a historical society that had some more information Mom wanted. Then high-tail it to Anderson, SC, (spot H) to spend the night. Next morning did some more genealogy type stuff and then decided to drive home a day early.

National Aquarium at Baltimore Inner Harbor

Beth posted when we went to the Baltimore aquarium. She still hasn't posted any pictures from that trip. Here are mine.

These are Tetra...we had several tanks full of these when I was young.

In the lower left corner is the fish that "Dory" was in "Finding Nemo"

AMAZING purple on these. And in the upper right corner is a black fish with glowing blue dots, but you can't see him well in this photo.

These beauties dig themselves into the sand when they are frightened.... See the green snout in the lower left corner?

Anem-monem-anemones. Don't hurt yourself, kid.

Large stingray on left, small stingray on right.

Giant turtle on top (who is missing his entire left front limb), large stingray on bottom.

Me, the packmule, beside these neat bubble towers that remind me of Ancient technology from Atlantis.

The new dolphin show arena. It was a cute little show.

Beth has all the dolphin show photos and movies, cuz her camera can do 10x digital zoom while mine only does 3x optical so you cant really see anything.

Graduation Celebration Trip: Day 13

When we got up today, we packed in preparation to fly home. Our plane was early afternoon, so we went for a scenic drive into the mountains.

On our way to the airport we stopped and had lunch at a park.

Waiting at the airplane gate for our plane to arrive, the clouds look ominous out the window.

But we get airborn on time, and here we're flying over Mt. Ranier. (or maybe Mt St Helens??)

After a lot of drama at the Long Beach airport, which involved waiting in an overcrowded lounge with a zillion teens that were going on spring break tour trips and then boarding a plane, deplaning because the door alarm wouldn't arm, boarding another plane, etc.... our red-eye finally arrives home at Dulles.

Dad picked us up, and we went straight home to get some sleep. I tried napping on the plane, but Mike didn't sleep at all. The graduation celebration trip is finally over and we're glad to be home. Once more Mike swears it will be a cold day in hell before he flies anywhere ever again. We'll see about that :)

Graduation Celebration Trip: Day 12

Wednesday, April 8.

Mike gave me a tour of Oak Harbor, showing me the places he lived and what he did for fun there. We went on the open part of the base to the base exchange to search for P3 tshirts. Didn't find any, but got a few other P3 items like a shot glass and Christmas ornament. This stuff is disappearing just like the squadrons are.

Then we headed south on Whidbey Island. In Coupeville we drove out to the west coast of the island to find the house that my whole family helped build. We all loaned my dad money so that we could have this really nice house built on the ocean-front property that they had owned for more than 30 years. Finally admitting that they weren't going to retire to Whidbey Island. It's a beautiful house on a cliff over an agate beach:

Mike & I parked at the state park at the end of the road and I went for a walk on the beach back up to the property.

So many beautiful colors of rocks.

The cliff face is partly clay. Here an animal has taken advantage of a little cave to break open and eat a whole bunch of clams..the shells are all the white debris at the cave mouth.

As every other beach in the area, there was a ton of driftwood. Entire massive trees.

The white in the middle there is flesh of some ocean creature or maybe seaweed.

More driftwood.

Closeup of the beautiful texture of the above log.

This tree had somehow gotten a huge rock tangled in its roots.

Another closeup.

The cliff face had a lot of next textures. At the top of the photo is turf that is sticking out about 6-9 inches into thin air above where the cliff used to be.

We left Coupeville and drove the rest of the way to the ferry at the south end of the island. Shortly after reaching the main land, we stopped at the Boeing Future of Flight museum. It is pretty expensive entry fee, and the exhibits weren't really that great. I'd recommend skipping it.

From the parking lot we got a good view of the bizarre DreamLifter.

For an extra $8 per person, this was by far the best part of the museum. It is a 3-d flight simulator...it is not just a movie that jerks you around... YOU are in control and you can do as many barrel rolls as you want. The person who gets into the left side of the cockpit is the pilot and is totally in control of moving the pod around. The person on the right is the gunner. You are in a dogfight situation. I was gunner. I think I got 2 planes. Maybe 3.

A neat plane hanging from the ceiling: has double delta wings, and the propellers are in the BACk there.

We continued heading south, driving through downtown Seattle.

This is the closest we got to the Space Needle.

Our hotel for the night was in Auburn, across the freeway from a huge mall. It was in a really bad part of town. We were very tired, and I was getting sick, and traffic had been horrible. We decided to change our airline tickets and go home the next day, 2 days early.

Graduation Celebration Trip: Day 11

This was Tuesday, April 7. We got up super early so we could haul ourselves from Bellingham over the the Ferry terminal at Anacortes. Here's the sun coming up over the mountains to the the west as we drove south.
The Ferry harbor at Anacortes.

We got there in plenty of time, and were first in line for the ferry to Orcas Island. The incredible red trees here are Pacific Madrona...they're so beautiful. I also love the three color bands of rock near the water level.

Once on Orcas Island, we drove up Mount Constitution in the Moran State Park. The views were incredible. But the observation tower is not a place for those that have agraphobia.

Mt Baker again, with no telephone poles at all this time :) I love the various blues of the foothills as they receed in the distance.

Back down at sea level again:

Again, houses clinging to the cliffs in order to have a view:

This is the marina at the Rosario resort. I love how quickly the water gets deep enough to change colors, and yet that it is still clear enough to see the rocks:

This is a park on the north side of Orcas Island, where once again I waded into the frigid water up to my ankles. I picked up a few very pretty rocks here, and watched a giant log float along the current just off shore.

Looking off at the mountains in the distance.

Waiting for the Ferry again at the Orcas Island terminal.

The Deception Pass bridge comes into view as we prepare to drive onto Whidbey Island.

Crossing the Deception Pass bridge:

The sun is getting low in the sky to the west.

I asked Mike if we were likely to see any P-3 Orion aircraft. He said absolutely not. But as we approach the north side of Oak Harbor, low and behold we see at least one P-3 that is practicing its takeoffs and landings (bouncing). We take an abrupt right turn in order to follow it to the beach.

At the beach we find we are just a few hundred feet from the north side of Ault field. Those are aircraft hangers and whatnot there beyond the huge amount of driftwood.

We wait a few minutes and there goes the P3 again.

The sun is truly setting so we go check into the hotel. I mention that to the desk clerk that I was surprised at how loud the airfield was. She smiles and says, "That's the sound of freedom." I love it.

Night!