Balboa Park, The Nat and Science Museum April 19, 2013

St. Paul's Cathedral is close to Balboa Park so I decided to see what was happening there today. They were erecting kiosks for Earth Day on Sunday. The International Houses are only open on Sunday so I stopped into the gift shop, a deadly place for me, TeeHee. I found out because of Earth Day they won't be open this Sunday and it will be super crowded, so I am glad I came today.

One open out of 3,
glad it's the Gift Shop.

Many counties have a little house
to share their culture.

Scandinavian, of course.

Close up of the Tomte', good elves.

The Swedish Christmas Goat.
Skylar and I always watch the
Gavle goat in Sweden to see
how long it will last.

My family knows how much I
love advent calendars and they
will be surprised this didn't find
it's way into my basket!

African creche'.

Another African one.

From Peru

Tiny, precious, holy families from Mexico

 I parked just below the Speckles Organ Pavilion, a beautiful place that Skylar and I listened to an organ recital back in February. This time I got to go on-stage and look out. It's great either way, looking in or out.

Even the parking is pretty.

Looking out.

Looking across.

I cropped the chairs, the stairs, and
the hedge so you can see what can be
seen from the stage, The Mall.

Good memories of being with Skylar.

This is the side view of the gardens
leading up to the Mall.

San Diego Natural History Museum, otherwise known as "The Nat"

I only had 2 hours before it closed. I'm sure you could
spend much more time if you read everything!

Thought it was an Ansel
Adams exhibit, but NOT!
Artists inspired by him.

Loved this pendulum and watched it
longer than I looked at the exhibits!
I'm sure my James Uncle that tried to
invent the perpetual motion machine
would have loved it too!

The pendulum is not a perpetual motion machine.
Because of air friction and gravity the pendulum would eventually stop swinging, but a magnet encircling the cable pulls on the cable with each swing. Electric current controlling the magnetism is turned on and off with each swing of the pendulum.
The pendulum is not a clock.However, the time it takes to go around the circle is predictable. Imagine yourself hovering above the Earth's axis at the North or South Pole. The Earth below appears to be spinning like a merry-go-round. The pendulum would complete the circle in 24 hours.
Now imagine yourself hovering above the equator.
The Earth appears to be rolling like a barrel. As the pendulum swings, it does not move around the circle at all. Latitude determines the length of time required for a complete trip around the circle. Here in San Diego, the pendulum makes its way around the circle in 44½ hours!

Glad these things aren't roaming
my neighborhood these days!

Never know where you will find something!

Camp-O-Saurus
In the atrium is this
delightful playroom for kids.

Aaaawh

"Jaws"

Our beloved Manatee.

Wonderful exhibits in natural habitat
with lots of interaction.

Ah, California has them, too!
Or, used to have them!

Interesting way to show us how
we think maybe they looked.

Easy to recognize this is a turtle,
but one of long ago.

"On the Trail of Ansel Adams"
Many used the printing process called platinum printing.

Lewis Abulafia
"Yellowstone Winter #1" 2008
Archival Pigment on Cotton Rag 25 x 33 Framed

John Ford "Denaili Summit"
Alaska; 2011 Pigment Print 16 x 20

Water, A California Story

Ah, my love for topographical maps.
Now, let's see, Where have I been?
and where am I going? Oh,
I'm supposed to be looking for water. LOL

Some of California water comes
as far away as the Hoover Dam

Over the hill isn't cheap.

Shows the baleen, how whales eat.

Gray Whale

MOSASAUR (moh za sore) Cretaceous Period Approx 85 million years ago.
This large, extinct marine reptile is not a dinosaur - it is a mosasaur! These are
ocean-going relatives of monitor lizards. Fossils have been found in San Diego.

A chuckle in the gift shop.

These were in a wonderful exhibit
that moved, made noises and the
colors changed. I was expecting to
smell swamp odors any minute!
It made the scene very real.

BARYONYX (bah-ree-ON-icks)
Wonderful exhibit. Not only did the
head and paw move up and down,
the fish swam around and around.
Funny, the fish never got caught! LOL

Close-up

The Science Museum is right across the courtyard and stayed open later. It was already rush hour and I didn't want to drive on these freeways, so I figured I'd enjoy what was here and could drive after the rush. And it worked out well. They had an I-Max show about discovering the flight of the Butterfly from the Great Lakes into Mexico and that gave me time to rest before the drive home.

They had three sized chairs
to show perspective.

Where to start first? It's so much to see.
plus all the rooms on the sides.

Love biology and the anatomy of cells
From what we see, smaller, and
smaller, and smaller. So interesting.

From the body to a single hair.

Parts of the cell.

3-D show it well.

A display on stem cells.
Explains what exactly is a stem cell
and why they are important in today's
search for repair of our cells.

More information by screen.

Thought about Skylar again.

Here was an interesting experiment.

"Flight of the Butterflies" told about the 40 year search by Dr. Fred Urquhart in Toronto, Canada which lead to finding where the monarchs winter in Mexico in 1975. Dr. Urquhart tagged butterflies and asked for help all over the USA to chart the migration pattern. Thousands helped by sending their location to him. It's a heart rending story when Dr. Urquhart travels to Mexico in his old age and finds a butterfly with his label.

Two Monarchs. The chart shows
California migrations go to several
places in the mountains.

From the Science Museum website.