Day 145: A day out

Well, I moved. Okay, I moved over a year ago. The problem with that is I have been so busy with everything, I haven’t had a time to get out and see the sights. Sure, I’ve visited a few places, but in the terms of what this new city has to offer, I have yet to see pretty much anything outside of school. So let’s take a look at my visit the local museum of natural science!

Okay, so I lied, the first stop was the Japanese gardens. It was an interesting visit, but it was starting to rain so it was short, I did get a couple of good photos though so let’s take a look.

Entrance to the garden, the stone explains the history and why it was built.

To be honest, from the outside it looked somewhat small, but it was much larger than some of the other gardens I’ve been to.

The photo doesn’t do it justice, it was really nice.

There were a lot of different birds hanging around, so every once and awhile you had to stop and let it cross.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Who knows, but clearly this isn’t a chicken.

And of course there were some really cool water features, I mean what’s a garden without a water feature, am I right?

Next up was the museum, it was a little bit of a walk from the garden, but it was on the way, which is why I went here first. Unfortunately I was mugged along the way…

Feeeeed me!

This little shit decided to harass me for the bulk of my walk, apparently he was hungry, but I didn’t have food with me, so he was out of luck.

Here he is again much further along the path (notice the wall in the background of the first photo compared to where it is in this second one.

I know you have some food for me…

Once he realized I was a broke grad student, he left me alone and it was time for the museum! I would’ve invited him along, but they have a no shoes, no shirt policy. On the way in, I was greeted by Zoltar (if you are unfamiliar, might I suggest the 1988 hit movie, Big starring Tom Hanks)

He gave me the most boring fortune ever, basically you will be very busy this week. Which to be fair, I have been.

Once inside I got to see some clips of the moon landing, plus I’ve never seen the moon this big before…

That’s no moon! Wait, no, it is… my mistake.

Then it was off to see some history, the history of the world! Which started with some fossils.

Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite, he just trilobite. *rimshot*

After a few million years, I got to meet this guy, which dat head tho…

He was labeled as a boomerang headed amphibian, but the more formal name is Diplocaulus (If I got that right). His friends call him Dave though.

Here’s another shot of this guy since he looks so happy.

This was still the stage in evolution where all the animals had their mouths open.

Next up we got some dinos, yes I know that I’m jumping way ahead, but they are so cool!

He’s right behind me… isn’t he?

We also have this clever girl…

Welcome to Jurassic park, we spared no expense.

Next up, everyone’s favorite dino, the Trex

Then of course we need some triboy action…

After some time, we start to see some human-like ancestors on our tour of earth history.

Evolution at work

Wait, who took a photo of my reaction every time I log onto twitter?

That pretty much wraps up that exhibit, but wait there’s more! Before I left I wanted to visit the ancient egypt exhibit. The entrance looked pretty intimidating.

The lighting wasn’t as good as the dino exhibit, but I get it, light can be bad for some of these things. Let’s take a look at the few photos I did grab though. First is this sarcophagus.

Next was this ornately wrapped mummy head. I say ornately because it was covered in gold leaf. It was probably attached to someone at one point or another, but humans can be pretty shitty (read up on mummy unwrapping parties to see what I mean).

He looks how I feel most days…

Lastly, you may have heard of the software Rosetta stone, but do you know where the name comes from? It’s actually taken from the actual Rosetta stone,the thing that let us decipher egyptian hieroglyphs. Ironically the inscription is rather mundane, but it was a key find and  was key to understanding ancient Egyptian literature! Pretty impressive, right?

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this is just a replica and not the real deal. Still interesting to see up close.

Well there you have it, sometimes it is good to get out and explore. Next week it’s back to some serious work, so it was important to get some time to get out of the house and the lab. I would hate to finish my PhD and only have been a handful of places in the city when it’s all over and I (probably) move again for my postdoc. I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I did!