Tucson - A Very Scary Place

No doubt you have heard that if you are bitten by a vampire you become one.  Well, that is not the only way you can become something scary–you could go to the Desert Museum and be bitten by a big-eared bat and voila’ you would look like this:

Be very careful not to be bitten by a turkey vulture or you could end up looking like this:



or this:



Fortunately we rushed Ali and Kate to get the antidote and were able to restore them back to abnormal.

Wednesday evening we ran into a colorful lot at the Gaslight Theater.  Maybe you have seen them around, after all they do have a sort of familial appearance.

There were Luke and Lea, the Ghostblasters, and of course the Lone Stranger and his trusty companion.

The show at the Gaslight was about the Freedom League of America successfully fending off the Romulan destiny by using their super heros: Megaman, Lady Liberty and The Streak.  Had it not been for the great encouragement from the audience (especially in section AAA on the eighth row) no doubt the earth would even now be under Romulan rule.



But, as you might expect, not everything was fun and games.  There were those times when Grandma and Grandpa were slave drivers.  Ali and Kate had projects to do, practicing to do, and exercising as well.  Each day was plumb full of to-dos.



At times they were so involved in the project that the project became almost a part of them.  There was no holding them down.

The girls were not only up to the tasks, they excelled!

They were simply maaaaaavelous!

Fun with Ali & Kate at the Desert Museum

Ali and Kate have written great posts about our adventures at the Desert Museum.  Here are a few more photos....

Enjoying a little refreshment in the air conditioned cafe

\

After the museum, we headed over to SAS Fabrics to choose material for place mats.  Ali and Kate decided to make place mats for the dining room.  They found the perfect fabric with the same gray and white chevron pattern as the rug in the dining room--more on that project to follow!

Chinese for dinner!

We ended the day in suspense after watching the first episode of the second season of "Granite Flats" at www.byutv.org.  The first season is only available now on Netflicks, so we brought them up to speed on the story line before we watched the episode.

The Arizona Desert Museum by Kaitlyn Call

  I got the chance to visit the Arizona Desert Museum. I loved everything we did!!! On the way we learned how to make our pictures have a better look. Below are some pictures we took. Some pictures you will see are plants, cacti, animals, and something under a microscope.

  The picture below is the first picture I took while we were on the road. We also learned about the different buttons on the camera. Usually I press random buttons and hope one of them works but now I can use a camera without breaking it.The plant that you see is an ocotillo plant. Behind the ocotillo you may be able to see some houses and mountains. It was such a great view from on the road!!!!! 

My First Picture

  When we were officially in the museum with our tickets we rushed to the "Live Animal Show" but we couldn't wait to take pictures of these flowers until after the show. So since we had a few minutes until the show began, so we took these photos. The first flower in the upper left is a sunflower. If you look close enough there is a bee in the middle. The pictures on bottom left and upper right I don't know what they are but they are pretty so I took some pictures of them. Lastly, the plant on the bottom right is a cactus with a flower. We came at the perfect time, when there was previously rain. The plants seemed a little bit more alive after the rain.

A collage of flowers

  After we took pictures of the flowers we went to the "Live Animal Show". Since we actually made it to the show a few minutes early we got front row seats. The whole time I thought I am going to be the first one who gets eaten by these animals because we were so close. But the animals didn't even attempt to eat me because they were so well behaved. First the Parrot came out and the museum animal girl described the bird as "a flying three-years old with a hammer and pliers who lives to be eighty". The bird did some flips and tricks for us at the end. Next was the Chuckwalla and he is a relative of the iguana. It was hard to get a picture since the chuckwalla was in someones hands so I didn't take a picture of him. After the Chuckwalla there was a porcupine. I was SO scared because he was facing towards me. If the porcupine released his quills I would get quilled. When the Porcupine was gone I felt a little bit more calm but then a Skunk came out!!! Once again I was scared I was going to get sprayed. But, later on in the show someone asked if the Skunk could spray, I was relived to find out the Skunk could NOT spray me. It was a pretty cool show. I really enjoyed it.

The Parrot by Kate

The Hooded Skunk by Ali

The Porcupine by Ali

Below are some pictures of some of the animals in the Grassland habitat. The first picture is a frog. There was a pile of frogs in another spot. The second picture is a Algae Eating thing with it's mouth open. The third picture is an up close picture of the Harris ground squirrel. Ali and I found a "Kids Only Rock path" so we had to try it. There is a picture of us trying not to bonk our heads on the rocks through an opening .That was such a cool exhibit.

Frogs by Kate

Algae Sucker by Kate

Harris ground squirrel by Kate

Ali and I in a rock by Grandma

This is a picture of the mountain lion, also known as the cougar. The cougar jumped and ran around and put on a show for us. He posed for some pictures and he played in some bushes. Cruz, the mountain lion, jumped from rock to rock. I was so amazed at his skills.

Cruz, the cougar by Grandma

This is a picture of my arm under a microscope. You can't tell that your arm hairs are that prickly or your arm is that scaly. Under the microscope we played around by putting different objects under it. We put our hands under it and saw some dirt in our hands. It's crazy that you can see dirt through a microscope that you can't see without it. We continued to look around to see if there were any objects that we could put under the microscope. It was very amusing looking at every object closer. That was my FAVORITE part!

My arm under a microscope by Grandma

  Here are pictures of different kinds of cactus. The background picture has a Saguaro cactus in it. The picture on the left is a Saguaro cactus with fruit. The middle picture is a prickly pear cactus with fruit blooming. The last picture is actually not a cactus. It is a plant that looks like a cactus called agave. There were so many beautiful flowers, cactuses, and a lot of beautiful landscaping.

Cactus Collage

I had so much fun at this museum. All the exhibits were fun but they were all different. I want to come back here another time. I had so much fun and I learned so much.

Desert Museum by Ali

Visiting the Desert Museum was really fun. All the plants were beautiful. I thought that all the blooming flowers and cacti looked so pretty. Below are some pictures of flowers and plants that I took.

We went into one exhibit called the Hummingbird Aviary. It was neat to be in the habitat of the hummingbird. It was cool because they were flying all around us. I was able to capture this moment of one of the birds eating.

My favorite part of the Desert Museum was the show that we saw as soon as we got there. One lady from the staff did the show. She brought out different animals and told us about them. We learned about their sizes, diets, life span, etc. First, she brought out a beautiful parrot, who stayed with us the rest of the show. He was described as "a flying three-year-old with a hammer and pliers who lives to be eighty." He was pretty cool. Next, she brought out a chuckwalla, relative to the iguana (which I did not get a picture of). Then we saw a porcupine and a skunk. It was a fun and interesting show. After, we hung out for a little while longer and went over near the parrot. He enjoyed flirting with us. It was pretty entertaining.

The whole day was super fun. It was cool to see all the animals and different exhibits. I had a really good time and learned a lot.

Fun with Tytan and Brie in NJ, Oct. 8-15, 2014

I got to spend time with Tytan and Brie while Camille and Bryan went to look for housing in Michigan where Bryan accepted an offer to work for Ford in treasury.

The morning after I arrived, Camille, Brie and I took Tytan to school.  Camille wisely had me do the driving so I could get used to the car and learn the routes.  Tytan was very excited to tell his teacher and Mr. Freddy, the security guard, "My grandma's here!"  Best welcome ever--I felt like a celebrity.

After school, Tytan and Brie enjoy the playground until Mr. Freddy says it's time to go home.  Note Brie's Cinderella dress and "glass" slippers.  She wore them every day I was there, rain or shine.

Next we picked Bryan up early from work at Goldman Sachs on the Jersey side of the Hudson.  He has enjoyed a magnificent view of Manhattan from his office.  Brie enjoyed a fun twirl with her dad!

We dropped Camille and Bryan off at the airport that evening and I was on my own with Brie and Tytan asleep in the back seat.  With the help of the car navigation system, I managed to avoid taking the Holland Tunnel into New York City and made it almost all the way home, until there was a policeman blocking the road I was supposed to turn onto.  He told me to turn the opposite direction and then the system took me back to the freeway and then at the last minute into Jersey City.  Fortunately, Camille and Bryan were still at the airport, so I called and Camille talked me through the turns until I got to their neighborhood.  Whew!

On Saturday (and again on Columbus Day), I took Brie and Tytan to the nearby Liberty Science Center.  They loved playing with the interactive exhibits and I loved watching them have so much fun.

Watching bees coming and going to their hive

Tytan and Brie playing a video game where one is a virus/bacteria and the other is a white blood cell that gobbles up the bad guys.

 Brie and Tytan enjoyed the Bernoulli effect exhibit most!  Tytan was concerned about losing the "Drug Free" badge he had gotten at school, but he found it again.

On Sunday morning we took a long walk before church.  It was wonderful to feel the warm sunshine and see the beautiful views that Camille and Bryan have enjoyed while living in New Jersey.  

 

We look forward to more adventures with Tytan and Brie and their parents in their new home in Michigan!

Scorpions and the Forbidden City

It is hard to know if the weather was unusual or not during our visit.  One thing is for sure and that is that we were often in a humid cloud, sort of drizzling and hot.  It made the granite pavement in the heart of town look rich and elegant.

We were surprised to see only a few bike carts in town.. It turned out that bikes were restricted and couldn't go in to the center of the city during most hours of the day.

Rickshaws

We had been walking by this little entry for a couple of days before we decided to see what was here.  This was right in the middle of the city coming off the main street of the upscale shopping district of Wangfujin.

Entrance to street food alley off Wangfujin

Upon entering this little alley we were overwhelmed by the sights and smells of different foods.  Some were enticing others revolting.  Hardest to resist were the bugs on a stick, not to mention the live scorpions.  Skewered on a slender stick, their legs and tails were still wiggling wildly. Who wouldn't want to have them deep fried nice and fresh?  How could anybody think of having stale scorpions anyway?  I am sure it makes all the difference in the world to have them fresh cooked.  Because the alley was crowded and there was not a place to sit down and enjoy a snack, we were disappointed as we passed by without indulging. 

What a perfect way to show off the car and bike parts--all cleaned up and presented on a lace table cloth.  It kind of makes you want to become a mechanic and wear white gloves as you work.

The proper way to display hardware

Our favorite store on Wangfujin

Toys, toys and more toys.  There was an assortment from high tech to ancient traditional toys.  We had a ball trying to figure out some of the Chinese puzzles.  Even Craig was stumped on occasion.

The entrance to the Forbidden City, oddly enough, featured a large picture of Mao.

It was not unusual for people to see Craig and want to have their picture taken with him.  As any kind-hearted celebrity, Craig accommodated their dream and posed smiling as if they were long time friends.

Craig and Bruce comply with fan photo request

Another fan request

Photo op in the heart of the main entrance to the Forbidden City

The ornamentation and decoration was quite amazing. Everything  made by hand, every stone hand placed, the terrain hand smoothed, portrayed a thousand life-times of work to make this place happen.  Amazing.  Once constructed only few were allowed to enter and even fewer to come into the very center palaces and temples.  The Chinese have literally thousands of gods--each having some particular specialty.  The visitors would purchase little sticks of incense which they would place burning at the base of the sculpted gods.  They would then kneel and worship quietly appealing for help with their needs.

You can see that it was hard to distinguish us from the local people.  We blended right in.

Security forces marching in formation keep a watchful eye.

The grass surrounding the moat surrounding the Forbidden City created a peaceful place to take a break.