Strasbourg, France. First trip to Europe in 2011

Tom had to go to a Europrise meeting in Strasbourg, France. Europrise is the group coordinating the European HIV vaccine effort. Strasbourg is located at the border of France and Germany. They have a really amazing gothic cathedral.



There was a spiral staircase that took you all the way to the top. Many, many spiraling stairs. I did make it to the top.



I have always thought that flying buttresses were so cool. Building this cathedral was stated in 1015 and the spire was completed in 1439. Amazing old structure.



View down on the main chamber of the cathedral from the top.



Just to prove I was there!

Member's Night at the Field Museum

We love the Field Museum. And it was the 60th Members Night. Its like a big science fair for much of the research going on at the museum. I talked to a bunch of graduate students who were doing their thesis work at the museum. You get access to the working part of the museum. This time we went into an area where we had never been before. Two floors of basements. The storage areas for the parts of the collection that are not on display. You can also get free passes to the temporary exhibits. We stopped in front of Sue for a second as were entered the museum.



Bart and Alex checking out some preserved oddities in the Mammals Research room.



Here is a fish that lives at great depths in the ocean. This one is a Fangtooth or Viperfish. It has the biggest teeth relative to headsize for any fish. Luckily they are tiny.



Diane with one of a bunch of large archeological artifacts in the storage area.



One of the traveling exhibits was called Whales. Prepared by New Zealand, it showed Whale evolution and the history of whaling and whale interaction with humans in the South Pacific.



They had a model of a whale heart. It was big and kids could crawl through the vessels and chambers. Alex loved it!




They had two complete adult sperm whale skeletons. Quite a sight. The male was 58 feet long.



They also had an exhibit called horses. It was pretty neat but after walking through Whales it seemed less grand. I guess I have seen many horses and ridden a few.



Bart and Alex pretend to be in a rodeo.



Time flew by and it was closing time before we got to see all we wanted. I saw these elephants when I was a kid. Its always great to see them again. Hopefully we can get back soon.

Bart's Art

This week Bart was part of an Art Show at his high school. He got a second place for his drawing of an angry grizzly bear. Pretty cool! Nice job Bart. Keep it up.

Mother's Day 2011 - Go Cubs Go, Oh NO!

Earlier this week I asked Diane what she wanted to do for Mother's Day. She responded by saying, "wouldn't it be fun to go to a Cubs game. Are they in Town"? Well they were and we were able to get great tickets for the game on StubHub. A couple bucks under face value (not counting the extra charges). It was supposed to be a nice day, and it was! We were ready for a great day at Wrigley Field with the Cubbies.



We were able to get a nice picture under the iconic sign. As we arrived it was shaping up to be a wonderful Mother's Day.



We had great seats in the 5th row of the field box section. First base side. Here is a fun shot of the field with the panorama feature on my little digital camera. Alex is in the lower left hand corner. Alas, it was not the Cubs day. The (now) 15-18 Cubs lost to Cincinnati Red 0-2. Bummer. But we still had a great day. Maybe we can try again next year (depending on the Cubs schedule).