Snowy Days and the Lowell Observatory

December 09, 2016

Snowy Days and the Lowell Observatory

I just found these photos in the "draft" folder and thought I'd better post them before they get any further out-of-date. This was a few weeks ago, during our time in Williams, Arizona. Now we are in Portland, Oregon, in a much different type of snow! This snow has been mixed with freezing rain, so what we have now is a blanket of loosely-packed ice. When you walk on it, the sound reminds me of videos I've seen of pieces of iceberg breaking off of the main portion. It's pretty cool. I just noticed that the edges of the RV are covered in a garland of icicles from the rain last night. Wonder how long it will take for one of the kids to eat one? Not long, I'm sure! :)

But anyway, here are some photos of the last several days of our time in Williams and Flagstaff, and of our visit to Lowell Observatory.

While up in Williams, we spent some time in Flagstaff. We ate at Salsa Brava (yum!) and visited another ASTC Passport spot, Lowell Observatory. This is the observatory where Pluto was first discovered. We had a wonderful tour guide for this trip, who taught us a lot about the history of the observatory. Snow began falling heavily as we walked to the tower. By the time we finished the tour and returned on the path, everything looked like a winter wonderland. Like they always do, the kids said, "Look--it's Narnia!" I don't know if the area is very pretty normally, but it was gorgeous covered in snow.

This learning center is really cool! When you first walk in, you have to sign in as a space explorer. You get to pick your own name (fun names like "Astrid Skywalker") and then you scan yourself in with your badge as you go from station to station. The challenges aren't for younger kids, as they require quite a bit of reading to learn all about the various displays before you can answer the questions. Jordan's favorite part was the badge-making in the entryway! Ha!