Oiotári
Tol Eressea
Since I've only briefly mentioned in the past few Fiesta threads what I was doing in my month of traveling, I thought I'd finally share a more complete version... with pictures!
The first two weeks of my travels I spent at Fermilab, a particle physics lab near Chicago. We (the other scholarship recipients and I) spent a lot of time during those two weeks on the 15th floor of the high-rise. Here's a view out at the reflecting pool and lab from the 15th floor and at the tevatron ring. The Tevatron is the particle accelerator used at Fermilab to do the majority of their research. Right now their focus is on finding the Higg's boson. It is underground, but you can tell where it is by the berm that was built over it.
Both weeks at Fermilab consisted of mostly lectures at tours of the various facilities. The first week was spent with with a group of Japanese students. Together we made a pair of cosmic ray detectors. They aren't much to look at, but they're functional and we used them to take and briefly analyze data
During the intervening weekend we enjoyed ourselves in Chicago. We arrived Friday evening, at which point we went to Millennium Park to look at the fountain and the bean. We walked along the river toward navy pier, where we managed to weave our way through the various building. We wandered into a stained-glass museum and as we progressed, noticed fewer and fewer people. By the time we exited the museum area the building was minimally like, so we probably weren't intended to be there, but since there were no signs or locked doors, we kept going and eventually found ourselves in the grand ballroom (and another picture) to the bewilderment of those outside, who were wondering how we got in (the doors that led directly in from the outsider were locked). Upon exiting we took some pictures of the skyline and returned to the hostel.
Saturday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (big surprise being a bunch of science geeks). I don't really have much for pictures of the inside, but here's one from the outside. Afterward we went to the beach for a bit. All of our traveling that weekend was greatly impeded by the shooting of Transformers 3, which made it quite difficult to cross the river at some points. Anyway, we walked more on the river, this time in the daylight. At one point we past this lovely looking tavern. That night we went back to the bean and there was a performance which used giant animatronic insects, though my pictures of that are sub-par since it was dark and they were lit up and moving.
Sunday some of us when the the Art Institute. The garden / courtyard outside of the museum was very calm and relaxing. The chance to see some famous painting was pretty spectacular. This guy remind you of anybody? (one more pic). We left to go back to Fermilab that afternoon/evening. Here's one last shot of Chicago.
On to the next week at Fermilab. More lectures. More tours. Here's the old 15 ft bubble chamber, which was used to detect particles and trace the paths that they took when they went through the chamber. Though our tour-guide called it "the world's most expensive lawn ornament." And this is a mock-up of a telescope (used to look for evidence of dark matter I think) that they're installing elsewhere in the world (Argentina maybe, I can't quite remember). Underground (whew, it's a long way down) we saw the neutrino detectors Minerva and Minos. The pictures are very different views, but the construct of each is very similar.
We then departed Fermilab (here's something for all you Star Trek fans) and flew to the Homestake Mine in western South Dakota, where there's an underground physics lab. Well, we didn't go there right away. First we had a day to enjoy ourselves, so we went to a lake to go cliff jumping. There was one that was particularly high - and fun. Perfect day.
I actually had to leave there before actually getting to Homestake, so that I could go the the Jet Propulsion Lab in California for a few days for my summer internship. Here's a shot of LA (well, Pasadena) out from my hotel. While we were there we got to see them building the next Mars rover and the mission control center. We also were shown on a map (it was like Google-earth, for Mars) where exactly one of the current rovers was now (well, it was "now" then) and some pictures it had just taken.
Then it was back to my summer campus housing for less than 24 hours, when my family came by and we headed out to Glacier National Park. Over the long drive it was cool to see the terrain change from plains to foothills to mountains. We arrived in the afternoon and went on a hike outside of Glacier, in the Flathead area, even though we knew we wouldn't have time to finish, it was nice to be active again, instead of sitting in the car. Here's some pictures from the hike: 1 2 3 4 5
Next day we made the short hike out to Avalanche Lake, which was of course gorgeous, it seemed like a popular spot. There was swift stream at the beginning of the trail that carved the rocks in fascinating ways: 1 2 3 The trees on the path were along beautiful (heck, the whole park is beautiful). Here's the lake, my brother at the lake, and another shot of the lake form the other side. And lastly, my dad and I.
The day after we intended to go to Iceberg Lake, but it was closed for bears, so we went to Cracker lake instead. It was a sunny day going out when we set off: 1 2 3 (different lake, not Cracker). The landscape was varied, with some stands of trees, a plain, as well as an open rocky slope and a forested area. The weather became significantly worse as we approached Cracker Lake, at which point it turned into a lightning storm. Here's a shot from near the trailhead when we returned. This was probably my favorite trail we did. For some reason the rain made me really smiley, maybe a bit loopy.
I'm not sure what the days of the week were, but no matter. The next day we hiked up Huckleberry Mountain. I wonder where it got it's name... Here's a picture from midway through the trail and one later when we finally spotted the watchtower which was our destination. Almost there, here's the tower again. There was a lot of smoke blown in from a fire in Canada, making it hard to see clearly: 1 2
Our final day of doing anything that could be called hiking in any sense we went to Hidden Lake, apparently a very popular spot, as there was a board walk for a good portion of the way in order to keep people from damaging the tundra. I quite liked the rock formations beside the trail and the snow. There were a lot of mountain goats around, but unfortunately they seemed to be used to eating what the tourists would accidentally drop, or give to them. Here's the lake from above, then when we when down to the shore. and of course the obligatory view of some distant mountains.
Don't give up reading, only one more day to go. On our last day we saw a few random things. There was a waterfall who's name escapes me. We also went to see Sunpoint (another), the rocks at which were cool (well they were really hot, but cool to look at).
I hope you enjoyed my "picture book"
If you have any questions or want to see or hear more of some part feel free to ask [
]
The first two weeks of my travels I spent at Fermilab, a particle physics lab near Chicago. We (the other scholarship recipients and I) spent a lot of time during those two weeks on the 15th floor of the high-rise. Here's a view out at the reflecting pool and lab from the 15th floor and at the tevatron ring. The Tevatron is the particle accelerator used at Fermilab to do the majority of their research. Right now their focus is on finding the Higg's boson. It is underground, but you can tell where it is by the berm that was built over it.
Both weeks at Fermilab consisted of mostly lectures at tours of the various facilities. The first week was spent with with a group of Japanese students. Together we made a pair of cosmic ray detectors. They aren't much to look at, but they're functional and we used them to take and briefly analyze data
During the intervening weekend we enjoyed ourselves in Chicago. We arrived Friday evening, at which point we went to Millennium Park to look at the fountain and the bean. We walked along the river toward navy pier, where we managed to weave our way through the various building. We wandered into a stained-glass museum and as we progressed, noticed fewer and fewer people. By the time we exited the museum area the building was minimally like, so we probably weren't intended to be there, but since there were no signs or locked doors, we kept going and eventually found ourselves in the grand ballroom (and another picture) to the bewilderment of those outside, who were wondering how we got in (the doors that led directly in from the outsider were locked). Upon exiting we took some pictures of the skyline and returned to the hostel.
Saturday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (big surprise being a bunch of science geeks). I don't really have much for pictures of the inside, but here's one from the outside. Afterward we went to the beach for a bit. All of our traveling that weekend was greatly impeded by the shooting of Transformers 3, which made it quite difficult to cross the river at some points. Anyway, we walked more on the river, this time in the daylight. At one point we past this lovely looking tavern. That night we went back to the bean and there was a performance which used giant animatronic insects, though my pictures of that are sub-par since it was dark and they were lit up and moving.
Sunday some of us when the the Art Institute. The garden / courtyard outside of the museum was very calm and relaxing. The chance to see some famous painting was pretty spectacular. This guy remind you of anybody? (one more pic). We left to go back to Fermilab that afternoon/evening. Here's one last shot of Chicago.
On to the next week at Fermilab. More lectures. More tours. Here's the old 15 ft bubble chamber, which was used to detect particles and trace the paths that they took when they went through the chamber. Though our tour-guide called it "the world's most expensive lawn ornament." And this is a mock-up of a telescope (used to look for evidence of dark matter I think) that they're installing elsewhere in the world (Argentina maybe, I can't quite remember). Underground (whew, it's a long way down) we saw the neutrino detectors Minerva and Minos. The pictures are very different views, but the construct of each is very similar.
We then departed Fermilab (here's something for all you Star Trek fans) and flew to the Homestake Mine in western South Dakota, where there's an underground physics lab. Well, we didn't go there right away. First we had a day to enjoy ourselves, so we went to a lake to go cliff jumping. There was one that was particularly high - and fun. Perfect day.
I actually had to leave there before actually getting to Homestake, so that I could go the the Jet Propulsion Lab in California for a few days for my summer internship. Here's a shot of LA (well, Pasadena) out from my hotel. While we were there we got to see them building the next Mars rover and the mission control center. We also were shown on a map (it was like Google-earth, for Mars) where exactly one of the current rovers was now (well, it was "now" then) and some pictures it had just taken.
Then it was back to my summer campus housing for less than 24 hours, when my family came by and we headed out to Glacier National Park. Over the long drive it was cool to see the terrain change from plains to foothills to mountains. We arrived in the afternoon and went on a hike outside of Glacier, in the Flathead area, even though we knew we wouldn't have time to finish, it was nice to be active again, instead of sitting in the car. Here's some pictures from the hike: 1 2 3 4 5
Next day we made the short hike out to Avalanche Lake, which was of course gorgeous, it seemed like a popular spot. There was swift stream at the beginning of the trail that carved the rocks in fascinating ways: 1 2 3 The trees on the path were along beautiful (heck, the whole park is beautiful). Here's the lake, my brother at the lake, and another shot of the lake form the other side. And lastly, my dad and I.
The day after we intended to go to Iceberg Lake, but it was closed for bears, so we went to Cracker lake instead. It was a sunny day going out when we set off: 1 2 3 (different lake, not Cracker). The landscape was varied, with some stands of trees, a plain, as well as an open rocky slope and a forested area. The weather became significantly worse as we approached Cracker Lake, at which point it turned into a lightning storm. Here's a shot from near the trailhead when we returned. This was probably my favorite trail we did. For some reason the rain made me really smiley, maybe a bit loopy.
I'm not sure what the days of the week were, but no matter. The next day we hiked up Huckleberry Mountain. I wonder where it got it's name... Here's a picture from midway through the trail and one later when we finally spotted the watchtower which was our destination. Almost there, here's the tower again. There was a lot of smoke blown in from a fire in Canada, making it hard to see clearly: 1 2
Our final day of doing anything that could be called hiking in any sense we went to Hidden Lake, apparently a very popular spot, as there was a board walk for a good portion of the way in order to keep people from damaging the tundra. I quite liked the rock formations beside the trail and the snow. There were a lot of mountain goats around, but unfortunately they seemed to be used to eating what the tourists would accidentally drop, or give to them. Here's the lake from above, then when we when down to the shore. and of course the obligatory view of some distant mountains.
Don't give up reading, only one more day to go. On our last day we saw a few random things. There was a waterfall who's name escapes me. We also went to see Sunpoint (another), the rocks at which were cool (well they were really hot, but cool to look at).
I hope you enjoyed my "picture book"
If you have any questions or want to see or hear more of some part feel free to ask [
]
]
