A Day at the Natural History Museum of Utah

What’s up everybody?

Well, we had a little impromptu adventure this week.  I should say that I had one, since Erin had to work and wasn’t able to join me.  To be honest, she didn’t even know that I had went.  I guess that I should have told her but like I said it was an impromptu adventure and I didn’t even know that I was going.  I had some time off of work and had nothing better to do and I had recently heard a radio advertisement for the Natural History Museum of Utah.  I hadn’t been there in a very long time, so I jumped in the car and was on my way.

The Natural History Museum of Utah is housed in the Rio Tinto Center on, or just off of, the University of Utah Campus.  301 Wakara Way Salt Lake City Utah, 84108 if you want the exact address.  If you are familiar with the area it is right next door to Red Butte Garden.

The History Museum first opened in 1969.  At that time it was housed in the George Thomas Building located on the U of U campus.  If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was off of Presidents Circle.  Like I said, it has been awhile since I was there.  The idea behind the museum was to consolidate the artifacts that had been placed throughout the University.  Over the years the collection has grown.  It now contain over 1.6 million artifacts.

In 2011 the Museum moved to the state-of-the-art Rio Tinto Center.  I will have to tell you, it is a really cool building.  I’m not big on architecture, but its quite a site to behold.  The building is made to blend in with the surrounding hills.  It is easily recognizable by its 42,000 square foot copper roof.  The intricate pattern of horizontal bar of varying sizes are made resemble the layered rock formation that are found throughout Utah.  The copper is mined from Utah’s very own Kennecott Copper Mine.

I Don’t know about you, but for me when I think about history I think about human history.  I often forget about the natural side of history that makes up our planet.  Humans are only a small part of the picture. We have made an impact but there is so much more to our planet than just us.  Natural History Museums give us a chance to get more in-depth than what we are used to.

The NHMU has plenty of permanent exhibits to explore but they also have an area that is dedicated to rotating exhibits.  At the that I was there, they had an exhibition on animal movement.  If you think of it, animals are incredible and highly adapted to the world around them.  In this exhibit we get to look at muscle and bone structure and how its adaptation help animal in their daily routines of survival.  I found the display about birds wings fascinating.  I’ve never really took the time to look closely at them.  Even though they seem like they would all be built the same way, they are actually all very different in the way they work.  I wish I could explain it a little better than I am but oh well.  Unfortunately this exhibition is no long there.  It was in it last week while I was there.  I’m sure that it has been replaced by something that is just as interesting.

Maybe its the kid in me, but my favorite part of the whole museum was the Past Worlds exhibit.  It also happens to be the first exhibit that you encounter as you enter the museum.  I will admit that I did spend the majority of my time here.  Past Worlds is filled with dinosaur fossils found through out Utah and the surrounding areas.

Most of the fossils came from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, located in central Utah.  The Quarry itself is surrounded by mystery.  It has the densest concentration of Jurassic animal fossils ever to be found in one place.  Most of them came from the fearsome Allosaurus.  There are currently three major hypothesis on what caused this high density, but nobody really knows the truth of what happened.

At the end of this exhibit is a display that shows the waterline of Lake Bonneville.  You may or may not have heard of Lake Bonneville, it is a ancient lake that used to cover a large portion of Utah.  It was over a thousand feet deep and stretched high in to the mountains.  It lasted until about 15,000 years ago when the lake finally broke through to the Snake River and drained a large portion of it.  Changing temperatures would eventually dry up the remnants of the lake.  All that remains of the ancient lake is: the Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and Sevier Lake.  The shorelines can still be seen in the mountain surrounding the city.  Its hard to believe that the Salt Lake Valley used to be covered by a thousand feet of water.

I don’t want give away all the secrets of the museum.  There is still plenty for you to explore if you choose to visit the Natural History Museum of Utah.  I had a lot of fun learning about the history of what is now Utah and I hope you will to.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next.

Josh

Epcot

What’s up everyone?

Well we have finally reach the last stop in our Disney World adventure and of course thats Epcot.  I will have to admit that I really wasn’t looking forward to going here.  The first time that we were there I was a little disappointed with it.  In fact, we ended up leaving the park early and spending the rest of the day hanging out at our hotel.  A shame really, that we didn’t give it the chance that it deserved.  This time around it became one of my favorite stops.  I think the problem, the first time, was that we had burned ourselves out at the other parks.  We didn’t know what to expect, since we had never been there.  Plus, it was in August.  It was hot and humid.  We just went too hard for too long and wore ourselves out.

Epcot feels different than the other parks.  Even though Epcot has some intense rides, as a whole the park has a very laid back and an easy going feel to it.  It is only divided into two areas: Future World and the World Showcase.

Once you enter the main gate, you are greeted by the giant golfball, better known as Spaceship Earth.  As you approach Spaceship Earth, you enter into Leave a Legacy Plaza.  This is actually a pretty cool area.  In the Plaza you will find several megaliths ranging in sizes.  If you look closely at them, you will discover names and images of park guest from around the world.  The Leave a Legacy program was started in the fall 1999 during Disney’s Millennium Celebration.  They wanted guest to have “the opportunity to leave a little piece of themselves at one of their favorite places”. (disneyworld.com)  Unfortunately, they shut the program down in 2007.

Lets face it, if someone mentions Epcot your mind immediately pictures Spaceship Earth.  It has become the symbol of the park and it would influence the tone of the rest of the park for years to come.  The ride takes you on an adventure throughs mans evolution of communication.  Starting from the earliest cave paintings to the moon landing and beyond.  It is a easy going ride, narrated by the one and only Judi Dench.  Once you exit the ride, you enter into Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future.  Project Tomorrow is an interactive area for the young and old.  Games and exhibits are awaiting for you to discover what the future can hold.

My favorite ride in the Epcot is the Test Track.  It has had a whole new make over since the last time we were there.  Before you get on the ride, you are given a chance to design a car to test.  Throughout the ride your car is used to calculate its performance in the different tests.  Each test earns you point towards the total outcome of your cars performance.  Over all the cars we designed faired pretty well.  Mostly above average but nowhere near the days top performers but thats ok.

The ride itself goes through a series of tests that you would find on an actual car test track.  Brake check, skid control and so on.  The best part is when the car goes outside.  It speeds up to about 65 mile per hour and throws you into a corner before slowing down for the exit.

Mission: Space is based on authentic NASA astronaut training.  On this ride you experience what it would feel like to fly in a shuttle.  Four people can ride at a time.  Each person is assigned a crew position to operate the shuttle efficiently.  Each crew member will have a specific task that they will need to perform throughout the mission to return back to Earth safely.  There are two levels of intensity that you can choose from before getting on the ride.  Green which is easier of the two and Orange which is really intense, from what I hear.  We had just ate and we weren’t sure if our stomachs could take too much, so we chose Green.  Maybe next time we’ll do the Orange one.  Either way it was really fun.

There are a lot of other cool rides within the park but I do have to mention Journey Into Imagination With Figment.  On this ride you take a tour of the Imagination Institute.  You encounter Figment, a purple dragon.  He takes over the tour of the institute and madness ensues.  It was a fun little ride.  Nothing too spectacular in my opinion, but thats not what made it special to me.  It was the only ride in the park that my nephew really wanted to ride.  We was wait very patiently to get his chance to ride it.  It was starting to get later in the day and I didn’t want him to miss out.  I did what any other responsible Uncle would do, I kidnapped him and took him to the ride.  We have been living in different states for a long time now, so we don’t get to see or do as much with each as we used to.  Being able to hangout just the two of us was special to me and I hope it was for him as well.

There is more to Epcot than just the rides.  As I mentioned before Epcot is divided into two areas and the second one is the World Showcase.  The World Showcase is a loop around one of the many lakes that can be found throughout the Disney World Resorts.  As you traverse the loop you will be transported to different countries.  Eleven of them to be exact:  Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the American Adventure (United States), Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and our neighbors to the North Canada.  Each of these eleven areas are designed to mimic the architecture and culture of the actual country it represents.  You can virtually travel the world in the matter of a day.  If only it was that easy.

There are only two rides in the World Showcase:  Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros and Frozen Ever after.  Gran Fiesta can be found in Mexico.  It is a gentle boat ride that take you through the sites of Mexico.  Frozen Ever After is found in Norway.  As you can probably guess, it is based on the movie Frozen.  I would say skip the rides and see the many live performance and shows that are put on.  We saw a drum battle in Japan and it was amazing.  I would have liked to seen the Chinese acrobats.  I have heard that it is an awesome show.  Maybe next time.

Lets face it,  you’re not in the Showcase for the rides.  You are there to experience other cultures that you may never actually be able to go to.  The World Showcase is a foodies paradise.  All types of food can be found here.  Candies, drinks, pastries, meals and even fancy restaurants.  If you can think of it, you can find it.  I know we had our share, and probably the next person share.  I’m pretty sure we sample something from every country and over did it in France.  Dang them and their fancy deserts!

Like most Disney Parks, Epcot has a firework show when the sun goes down, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.  In my opinion, this is not the most spectacular show of the parks but it cool none the less.  It takes place in the lake surrounded by the World Showcase.  In fact, it uses the buildings from the Showcase as part of the show.  Boats shoot off fireworks and jets of water as the travel around the lake.  They use the smoke from the fireworks to create a laser show.  All this is happening while a lighted globe of the Earth spins in the center.

This is our last stop in our Disney World adventure.  We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to go back.  I can’t say that it will be anytime soon but we’ll get there again.

Thank you for join us.  Until next time.

Josh and Erin