Holly in Wonderland 

Monday, June 19: I think it's safe to say that just about everything we did today was fascinating. Most of the day was spent at the Bradbury Science Museum. First, we got a brief history on Los Alamos and a short tour of the museum. The lecture really showed how all of the science is linked together.  He also confirmed my preconceived idea the scientists often work on their own leads. The exhibits at the museum show the different LA projects; I feel honored to be staying and working at a place that is at the front of so many scientific fields. After lunch we learned about CCD imaging. I was okay until Corinne started manipulating the data, and then I got lost. Hopefully, it will become more clear once we are at Fenton Hill. After dinner, there was a lecture given by Ed Fenemore on "Debunking the Scientific Method." It was so interesting. I agreed with what he said about connecting different branches of science and not trying to set a structure to the process of discovery. On the other hand, the theories about the origin of the universe and how much science we will know clashed with my religious beliefs. So far, this has been the first time we've seen scientists who just can't conceive of ...say... a spiritual world. This really opened up tons of conversation for Christine and me. We discussed our views of the universe and science. Then we sang Christian songs together while she played her guitar. This was soooo awesome! God definitely knew what he was doing when he put us together. On the whole, we all had more fun with each other today. There was much more joking, laughing, and conversation.

Tuesday, June 20: Everyone has loosened up a lot! Owen tells the funniest stories of him hurting himself; he's broken just about every bone in his body twice! Today was our lovely GET training test. I can't believe I had to take a test! I haven't gotten out of school yet.:-( Then, was the fun part. We went to Santa Fe. (Every time I hear that name, I think of the song from Newsies.) All of the buildings were adobe, and there was a neat little park in the middle. There were street venders, but I didn't get to buy anything because we didn't have enough time. Next, we were off to the Santa Fe Community College Planetarium to watch a show "In Search of New Worlds." Everyone but me fell asleep. :-) At 7:00, we got a lecture from Ed Fenemore about Gamma Ray Bursts.

I must admit that it was a little over my head because I don't know all the details about such things as time compression and magnetic fields or positrons, but I could get the gist of what he was saying. Finally, we got to go to Fenton Hill Observatory. On the way up, Owen entertained us by sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" a capella - very funny! Once there, we got a tour of the trailer, the pad, and the Ops building. We became familiar with the night sky and learned the basics about the telescopes. We could see the Milky Way, and the big telescope found M13 - I think. It is really neat to lie on the pad and just watch the stars. Dad, you'd love it!!! We left at about 3:00ish and yacked all the way back. By this time, it was Galen's 50th birthday. After he'd gone home, we painted the white rock in White Rock. We also stole a construction sign and put it and decorated posters in Galen's yard. It was fun, but I got to bed at 5:00 am.

Wednesday, June 21: Today we attended a colloquium given by the last astronaut and only scientist to walk on the moon with the Apollo 17 mission, Harrison Schmidt. He shared his pictures of the moon, the Earth from the Moon, and his work on the moon. It was really incredible. There were kids in the audience, and they asked the best questions like, "What was the funniest part of the trip?" to which the answer was that Mr. Schmidt's partner lost his expensive scissors and was given a hard time jokingly. Afterwards, we had a private discussion with this former Senator of New Mexico about his new company which plans to extract He-3 from the Moon to be used in fusion as a replacement of fossil fuels. He predicts this process will lead to the colonization of the Moon in 15-20 years and eventually Mars. Sounds a little outrageous, but it would be totally cool if he made it happen. It was very evident that he was very self-assured!!! Today is Galen's 50^th birthday, and his wife invited us to their house to eat tacos and celebrate. They have tons of musical instruments, some very unique, so we had lots of fun. We went up to FHO, and it turned out to be a pretty clear night except that the Moon, once it rose at about 12:00, was very bright. We compared binary stars at 10:30 to the same ones at 1:15. It was fascinating to see that there was a change. I looked up a bunch of Messier objects, but could hardly see anything. I'm glad I'm learning how to operate the telescopes. We also looked at the Moon's surface. It was so cool to see the definition, something I've only ever seen in pictures. I also took two ccd images off into the middle of nowhere. The second image was three minutes, so trails were visible. I was also excited to find more constellations like Scorpius, Draco, Cephius, the Little Dipper, and Hercules,- something I've never done before due to city lights and bad atmospheric conditions in Burbank.

Thursday, June 22: Housekeeping woke us up twice. Oh well. I never had trouble getting back to sleep. Much of the day was spent at the Bradbury Museum working on the web page and catching up on whatever we needed to catch up on. We had dinner at Home Run Pizza when it started raining. Then we went back to the museum and received a lecture on the Exploration of Mars. It was a bit repetitive, but pretty cool. Taking notes raised the interest level. Afterwards, someone from The Mars Society basically tried to recruit us to support them in their expedition to Mars. They think this will happen in 10 years. Now, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and wish them the best, but I highly doubt humans will be on Mars with in the decade. Good luck to them. It would definitely be cool. We got home at about 9:00 and Christine and I were hyper, so we jumped on the beds and walked through the rain to the Conoco store. I got a cool gummy alien. The rest of the evening was spent with Jake and Owen with whom we watched some pretty stupid tv shows.

Friday, June 23: Tsankawi was pretty neat. I've never been too into archaeology of this sort and the Native Americans, but I had a really good time hiking, looking at the view, and finding traces of past societies on my own. It was hard at times because of the altitude; I felt kind of out of shape. Next, Galen gave us a lecture on "Galaxies and Cosmology" which also included the Big Bang. Most of it was very interesting, though some I didn't understand. I think I've come to the conclusion that science is just the explanation of how God created the universe. At this point, we were free to do what we wanted until 7:00, so I worked on the web page and ate dinner with Christine and JW. Christine and I think sooo much alike. We understand each other because we act the same way with people and boys, and her no dating thing is like my no chocolate thing. JW has turned out to be an awesome guy to talk to. He agrees that most guys are stupid, and he understands girls... well, as much as a guy can. The lecture on ROTSE was pretty good because we already understood CCDs and the lecturers made sure we understood what they were saying. Going to ROTSE was neat because it was the first time I actually got to set coordinates, minus the dar, and divide by the flat. Christine and I shot the Dumbbell Nebula and we got two satellites through it. Just being at the ROTSE site was fun; I got to leap and we laid on our backs watching shooting stars and satellites. At FHO, I was pretty lazy, but at least I was warm in my sleeping bag:-) well, at least until Owen took it over and fell asleep.

Saturday, June 24: We had an introduction to radio astronomy which was pretty cool, but it would have been better if I wasn't half asleep. When the lecture was over, we got ready to go to Galen's house. We went swimming at the White Rock neighborhood pool and played water basketball, which was tons of fun. Don was totally into it, and I even made a basket. We didn't get to stay very long, and soon we were back at Galen's house eating yummy food and playing exotic instruments. I learned how to play the krummhorn, and I relearned how to play the scale on the flute. Christine, Ellie, Susan (Galen's wife), and I sang "Pie Jesu,". There was a of badminton outside, and it took me forever to get down my serve (I don't know why) but it was still fun. At one point we were playing in the rain. Eventually, we got around to watching "Contact." It was kind of fun to hear all of the commentary from people who have been to the VLA and know about science. The canyon in the movie is really in Arizona.:-)

Sunday, June 25: We got up really early to go to church at Don's Methodist church. JW, Christine, and I went, and we were there for the contemporary service and the Sunday school portion. The worship wasn't quite as involved as both Christine and I are used to, but the message was useful. I especially like how people said their prayer requests to the whole congregation; it gave a sense of unity. Don introduced us to everyone, and they were all very friendly. In the high school portion, the we talked about the grace of God, and once Christine started a group discussion, it got really interesting. After church, we got to tell Owen all about it, and I know he didn't really understand all of it because it's hard to understand someone else's experience, but I know it will click in the future. Next we went to Bandelier National Monument. This wasn't as cool as Tsankawi, maybe because we didn't have a guide, so I didn't learn as much, but some parts were really cool. To get to the ceremonial caves, we had to climb forever and a day, but it was neat. We threw skittles down into the kiva. On the way back to the visitor's center, we got delayed because of a bear and her cubs. That was a first; I don't think I've ever seen a bear in the wild before. We went up to FHO, and I actually did work. But first, we had a picnic on the pad, and it was sooooooo cool because I started a burping trend that went on for about half an hour... very cool... and funny! We looked at a bunch of Messier objects, and it was cool because there was really good seeing. Then, I went to sleep in my sleeping bag; it was so peaceful. After I woke up a couple hours later, all the girls sang "Phantom of the Opera" songs... very funny. Christine and I also found out that we both know "Joshua Fit the Battle." Some people got chicken in the back seat of the van on the way home!:-)

Monday, June 26: Today, we had an interesting lecture on the Solar System, but it was hard to keep up with what the speaker was saying. I learned a lot, though, which is always good. He had samples of meteors. He even had a necklace with Mars rocks in it; I want one of those. Afterwards, we ate again at Central Avenue Grille and made more pictures on the tablecloth. I wish I could draw, but I am very thankful for the talents that I do have. we went back to Bradbury to hear about Northern Lights, Solar Winds, and Magnetic Storms. I can truthfully say that this was fascinating! I've always interested in these topics, but I've never really known about them. We got to see an aurora on video - it was soooo cool. I'd love to see one here in Los Alamos. When we got back to the hotel, Christine and I sang Christian songs, and I recorded one of her original songs. Then, Owen stopped by and we made a late night run to Furr's for ice cream. Back in our room, we watched "Back to the Future" and some other stuff and eventually dozed off.

Tuesday, June 27: One thing I've notice about this trip is that no one makes anyone do anything; we have to be self motivated. This is good, but sometimes I think I haven't gotten as much out of this trip as I could have because I can always be more motivated and participate more. We were going to have a geology tour today, but our guide got some sort of viral infection, so instead, we went up to FHO and started setting up the radio antennae. While we were in the neighborhood, we went to the legendary restaurant, Spike's. The dirty menus contributed to the unique ambiance. Back at Bradbury, we had a lecture about Lodestar. I tried to be positive, and it wasn't that boring, but we didn't really learn about anything useful - I mean, everything's useful in some way, but... oh, you know what I mean. Jim and Daryll played chess the whole time.:-) Anywho, we ate at the Hill Diner, and Owen made communist flags and a Loch Ness Monster out of a star wrapper - very funny! Then, he was Superman over the tops of the seats in the van - even funnier!

Wednesday, June 28: Today was our trip to the VLA but unfortunately not to MRO. We were supposed to meet up with Sheila from the Durfee Foundation, but somehow we missed each other. We actually got to climb into the 28th dish and crawl around. The view was beautiful, and I've never seen such defined lightning. It even caused a blackout in some of the buildings. Then, we got a tour of the control center where Jodi Foster was for "Contact." Indeed, there is no canyon at the VLA. I didn't really understand half of what our tour guide said about the scientific aspect of the VLA, but I tried. We stopped in Socorro to eat, and the food wasn't very good. I don't know what is wrong with me; I haven't wanted to eat anything on this trip. Even if I have hunger pains, I feel full. On the long drive back to Los Alamos, Owen undertook a big prank of tying JW to just about everything in the van. Once JW discovered he was a prisoner, and before too, it was very funny. Owen was under the seats for about an hour.:-)