I just love my flowers in the spring.
Granddaughter and Diva - Maycee is pretty too.
15 years ago
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Pretty Things
Spring is always my favorite time of the year. I like to think our house is the most colorful in the neighborhood.
I just love my flowers in the spring.
Granddaughter and Diva - Maycee is pretty too.
I just love my flowers in the spring.Granddaughter and Diva - Maycee is pretty too.
Mormon Battalion Historical Site (San Diego, CA)
On Memorial Day we visited the Mormon Battalion Historical Site. The Mormon Battalion was formed by Mormon men who were crossing the plains heading for Utah. The US Army enlisted them to create a wagon trail from the old Santa Fe trail out to San Diego, California in 1846. They were to fight any Spanish troops they were to encounter. They fought no battles but did walk some 2000 miles. The money they earned was desperately needed to help pay their way to the Rocky Mountains. My 2nd great granduncle, Richard H Carter, was one of the 500 recruits. He took sick in New Mexico and died on the way back to the main Mormon encampment on the trail to Utah. He was 26 and left a wife (who died of smallpox a few weeks later) and three small children.
The current building was remodeled in the past year or so and has a much improved experience for tourists who visit it. It is located in Old Town San Diego - right downtown.
Here are Hannah and Topher directing the firing of the cannon. The Battalion was a true military group and pulled cannon with them all the way to California.
Here are Barbara and I standing with a Battalion soldier in front of the visitor center.
The visitors go through 5 rooms learning about the Battalion experience. It is very high tech. You start in an assembly room where you sit in front of some pictures of real people (well almost) from the Battalion. The pictures actually come to life and begin to tell you their story. They guide you to the next room (not pictured) where the story of the recruitment of the troops is told by movies shown on the sides of pretend camp tents with the characters from the pictures playing key roles.
You eventually get to this room where the troops are outfitted. Hannah and Topher became honorary Battalion members and got to wear some of the garb the troops wore. In this room the characters would come to the window and talk to us.
This room represented a camp along the way. The sky became the screen and we learned about being "attacked" by a herd of long-horn cattle, the sickness and trials of the troops, and their final arrival in San Diego.
After the presentations we were taken into a room (not pictured) where you could get your picture taken and you could explore people who served in the Battalion. Then you could go into the patio and mine for gold and do other hands on things.
Why pan for gold? After the Battalion was mustered out some of them traveled home through the San Joaquin Valley and then worked briefly for a Mr. Sutter at his saw mill and became the people who actually discovered the first gold of the gold rush.
All in all this was a very well planned and organized visitor center.
The current building was remodeled in the past year or so and has a much improved experience for tourists who visit it. It is located in Old Town San Diego - right downtown.
Here are Hannah and Topher directing the firing of the cannon. The Battalion was a true military group and pulled cannon with them all the way to California.
Here are Barbara and I standing with a Battalion soldier in front of the visitor center.
The visitors go through 5 rooms learning about the Battalion experience. It is very high tech. You start in an assembly room where you sit in front of some pictures of real people (well almost) from the Battalion. The pictures actually come to life and begin to tell you their story. They guide you to the next room (not pictured) where the story of the recruitment of the troops is told by movies shown on the sides of pretend camp tents with the characters from the pictures playing key roles.
You eventually get to this room where the troops are outfitted. Hannah and Topher became honorary Battalion members and got to wear some of the garb the troops wore. In this room the characters would come to the window and talk to us.
This room represented a camp along the way. The sky became the screen and we learned about being "attacked" by a herd of long-horn cattle, the sickness and trials of the troops, and their final arrival in San Diego.
After the presentations we were taken into a room (not pictured) where you could get your picture taken and you could explore people who served in the Battalion. Then you could go into the patio and mine for gold and do other hands on things.
Why pan for gold? After the Battalion was mustered out some of them traveled home through the San Joaquin Valley and then worked briefly for a Mr. Sutter at his saw mill and became the people who actually discovered the first gold of the gold rush.All in all this was a very well planned and organized visitor center.
Palomar Observatory (Southern California)
Mom, Maree, Hannah, Topher, and I took a tour of the Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope this past Saturday. The observatory is at 5500 feet on a mountain north and east of San Diego. It is operational some 300 days of the year (with a few down days for maintenance and bad weather closures. Planning started in 1938 and the telescope was finally assembled in November, 1947 (the month I was born!)
This is a model of the telescope. The part that is going vertical (up and down) is the actual telescope. The part going more vertical is the mechanism needed to turn in within the observatory. The whole apparatus weighs some 55 tons and was put together on site though parts were shipped from all over the US to here. This is a reflective telescope meaning light is let into it and reflects off a concave mirror that focuses it on a focus point and that is where you "see" the image. At one point it was the biggest telescope in the world. It still gives more detailed views of the stars than the Hubble Telescope out in space. In the diagram the mirror is at the bottom of the vertical apparatus and the focus point is at the top.
The mirror is in the round holder in the picture below. It is 200 inches in diameter and was constructed of the state of the art "glass" in 1938 - Pyrex. Pyrex was a recent invention of the Corning company and was better than regular glass as it didn't change shape much with temperature change, thus allowing for very well focused images. It was cast in NY and shipped by train to California going only 25 miles per hour tops to keep the mirror from cracking. The final polishing of the mirror wasn't done until it was installed here in California. It is coated every 18 to 24 months with a fine layer of aluminum, which is then polished to a perfect reflection.
This is where the focal point is located and where the camera are found. Up in this housing a astronomer sits through the night (sometimes in a flight suit for warmth) adjusting the focus and pointing the telescope where they want it to view the sky. He is up to 135 feet up in the air.
This is a picture of one of our astronomer guides with Topher and Hannah. All in all this was a fun little day trip.
jfla
This is a model of the telescope. The part that is going vertical (up and down) is the actual telescope. The part going more vertical is the mechanism needed to turn in within the observatory. The whole apparatus weighs some 55 tons and was put together on site though parts were shipped from all over the US to here. This is a reflective telescope meaning light is let into it and reflects off a concave mirror that focuses it on a focus point and that is where you "see" the image. At one point it was the biggest telescope in the world. It still gives more detailed views of the stars than the Hubble Telescope out in space. In the diagram the mirror is at the bottom of the vertical apparatus and the focus point is at the top.
The mirror is in the round holder in the picture below. It is 200 inches in diameter and was constructed of the state of the art "glass" in 1938 - Pyrex. Pyrex was a recent invention of the Corning company and was better than regular glass as it didn't change shape much with temperature change, thus allowing for very well focused images. It was cast in NY and shipped by train to California going only 25 miles per hour tops to keep the mirror from cracking. The final polishing of the mirror wasn't done until it was installed here in California. It is coated every 18 to 24 months with a fine layer of aluminum, which is then polished to a perfect reflection.
This is where the focal point is located and where the camera are found. Up in this housing a astronomer sits through the night (sometimes in a flight suit for warmth) adjusting the focus and pointing the telescope where they want it to view the sky. He is up to 135 feet up in the air.
This is a picture of one of our astronomer guides with Topher and Hannah. All in all this was a fun little day trip.
jfla
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