So, after the exciting Kitt Peak Adventures, Jenny came back to Tucson with me to stay a few days (this was planned before I even knew about Kitt Peak). She rented a car (YESSSS), so we could actually do things around Tucson, which was indescribably nice.
Can I take a moment to rant about Tucson real quick? Yes? You look forward to it gleefully? Ok.
Besides being as hot as an O star (ha, get it?...), Tucson is the most sparsely populated city I've ever seen. Ok, maybe not sparse. The population is very diffuse here. Wow, can you tell I've been doing science all day? Especially when I try to edit this like vi, and press $ to get to the end of a line. Ok, I PROMISE, I'm done with dumb astronomy jokes. The point is, Tucson is very spread out and feels very empty, even though it's not. There are more than half a million people here (Indy has ~million) but the population density is very low. So to do anything in this city, you need to have a form of transportation. While a bus pass will get many places, the buses here, for lack of a better word, SUCK. They are late, run infrequently, and stop running early in the night. Also, while I'm insulting the city of Tucson, can I also just say that the majority of people who ride the public bus look like:
1) Terrifying gangsters
2) Mentally insane people talking to themselves/hobos
3) Wary redheads trying to look as intimidating as possible
Anyways... I was talking about something before I started taking a crap on Tucson... Oh right, Jenny's stay here. She had a rental car, so we COULD actually do things in this city and the area. One thing we did was go to the Titan Missile Museum, located a bit south of Tucson. This was really cool, and very interesting to see the old missile site. They have the disarmed missile still in the underground facility. There were something like 30 of these underground facilities in the '60s but they disassembled all missiles but this one. We went on a tour of the site above ground, and also underground.
We also went to Colossal Cave, which was pretty lame, and completely overpriced.
We went to the other REU students' apartments one night to have a little shindig as well. Lastly, we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. So, everyone and their mom has told me to visit this place while in Tucson. Since it's a bit of a drive, Jenny and I left early in the morning to beat the heat. Well, when I heard the words 'Desert Museum' I figured this would be, you know, a museum, which I really don't think is unreasonable given it's in the name. It turns out it's not a museum at all. It's more like a zoo and wildlife center. It's practically all outdoors. You walk around to all the exhibits where they have animals/plants that are for the most part native to AZ. Amongst some of the things we saw...
There were lots more exciting animals that I'm too lazy to put pictures of/we didn't see. There was a neat walk-in aviary with birds and another one just for hummingbirds. There were 2 mountain lions, but when we went they were sleeping just out of view. We also saw Mexican wolves and lots and lots of cacti species. There was also an indoor reptile and bug room with lots of nasty crawly things like tarantulas, spiders, and scorpions.
It was also great to see Jenny! She is off to grad school at University of Colorado-Boulder soon to study astronomy, so that was probably the last time I see her for a while :( But the best of luck to you Jenny! Ho! Ho! A boojum!
Can I take a moment to rant about Tucson real quick? Yes? You look forward to it gleefully? Ok.
Besides being as hot as an O star (ha, get it?...), Tucson is the most sparsely populated city I've ever seen. Ok, maybe not sparse. The population is very diffuse here. Wow, can you tell I've been doing science all day? Especially when I try to edit this like vi, and press $ to get to the end of a line. Ok, I PROMISE, I'm done with dumb astronomy jokes. The point is, Tucson is very spread out and feels very empty, even though it's not. There are more than half a million people here (Indy has ~million) but the population density is very low. So to do anything in this city, you need to have a form of transportation. While a bus pass will get many places, the buses here, for lack of a better word, SUCK. They are late, run infrequently, and stop running early in the night. Also, while I'm insulting the city of Tucson, can I also just say that the majority of people who ride the public bus look like:
1) Terrifying gangsters
2) Mentally insane people talking to themselves/hobos
3) Wary redheads trying to look as intimidating as possible
Anyways... I was talking about something before I started taking a crap on Tucson... Oh right, Jenny's stay here. She had a rental car, so we COULD actually do things in this city and the area. One thing we did was go to the Titan Missile Museum, located a bit south of Tucson. This was really cool, and very interesting to see the old missile site. They have the disarmed missile still in the underground facility. There were something like 30 of these underground facilities in the '60s but they disassembled all missiles but this one. We went on a tour of the site above ground, and also underground.
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| The 2 foot door to protect from nuclear attacks. |
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| Everything was set on springs (including the floor!) to protect from the shock of any nuclear attacks. |
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| Jenny got to simulate a missile launch! Here she is receiving a call from the president. |
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| The missile! |
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| Cave bacon on the right! That was the only cool thing about this cave. |
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| Mineral collection... such vibrant colors! |
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| Awww, coyote. Even though they're common, still cute! |
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| Hmmm, one of these is not like the other... :) |
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| Javelina! They are a wild pig/rodent thing out here. I'm gifted with words. |
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| AWWWWWW. Praire dog! :) |
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| Rattlesnake! |
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| A wild Jo on Tortoise. |
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| The real thing. |
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| Jenny as a tortoise. |
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| It's Jojo! (not jojoba of course...) |
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| I thought this was cute (besides the bees). |
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| The gila monster! |
It was also great to see Jenny! She is off to grad school at University of Colorado-Boulder soon to study astronomy, so that was probably the last time I see her for a while :( But the best of luck to you Jenny! Ho! Ho! A boojum!
2 comments:
I like the rant about Tucson:):) And the crazy cactus:)
Is that a "Hunting of the Snark" reference?
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