The wonderful world of Anatomy

Today was a quick trip to Boston. My friend Allie was picking up two friends at the airport and there is an awesome exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science right now that we all wanted to go to. So after the airport we headed to the museum and entered the world of Plastination, which is the chemistry of body preservation.


Multiple skeletons, internal organs, nerves, muscles, fetus and mother, and much more on display. All bodies donated and preserved and then put on display in new, unique positions in order to see what certain muscles or joints do during things like basketball, ballet, swinging a baseball bat, sitting and more. It also had a great display of organs infested with cancer, tumors, hemmorhages, or completely healthy. There was even a huge camel on display. I really wanted to take pictures, but of course, it was against the rules. So, here is a little picture of the brocure for you all to see. All real stuff, not fake, just preserved very well and invented by a Dr. Gunther von Hagens.

Me, Kayaking?

So, yesterday I tried out kayaking for the first time. I was a little frightened of tipping the kayak over and drowning, but luckily, that did not happen. It ended up being very fun and a great workout for the upper body. I went with my enthusiastic friend, Allie, who has been so gracious to invite me to do things with her and her friends.


Here is another picture of Burlington. Kind of gives you all a clue of what the downtown looks like. Mt. Mansfield is in the background, scroll down the page and you'll see pictures of hiking that mountain.

A Day at Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms: A touristy, 1000 acre working farm with a small cheese factory, hiking trail, restuarant and inn, and a kid section with a lot of animals (petting zoo). It was a beautiful day and a well kept farm. Nice looking barn huh? It was huge. The hiking train, which of course I did, was a little boring, but had some great views of fields and the lake in the background.

Smuggler's Notch

Today I went with another friend to Sterling Pond. Another steep hike, 3 miles to the pond and 3 miles out. This is in a very grand section of the mountains where there is a little pass in between called Smugglers Notch. Famous for many years of smuggling liquor into the USA (1920's) and a passageway for slaves to get out of the state into Canada. Now it is a big ski resort and hiking area during the summer.

Another wonderful day in the NE, the trees are starting to change ever so slowly to oranges, yellow and red.

The Beach

Here was my day today, sitting on a nice warm (low 70's) beach next to Lake Champlain. There was a wakeboarding contest on the lake so tons of people on the North Beach. Downtown Burlington is in the far background of the picture. I'm trying to enjoy the weather as long as I can, I figure it won't last forever.

So, yesterday I went to climb Camel's Hump with a new friend, Allie. Started up on the east side of the mountain, it was a great hike and fun to be with someone else for a change. We climbed to the top, enjoyed the view for a bit and then started hiking back down. After hiking down for about an hour and 45 min, we came out to a completely different parking lot than the one we were supposed to be in. Hmmm...Obviously my map skills had failed me. After figuring out that we had completely missed the junction where we should have turned right (east) and went left (west) instead, we debated what to do next. Allie needed to be back to Burlington by 6pm, at the time it was 4:15 and we were at least 5 miles of hiking from the car. Humbly we started asking for a ride to our vehicle that was almost 30 mile drive around the small mountain. I say humbly because I don't like asking for things or admitting that I got a little turned around (in other words, LOST) I was more than willing to just turn around and hike up the mountain again before asking for a ride, but Allie had time constraints. So, as we asked some random people at the trailhead, we kept coming across people who also had time constraints and couldn't spend the time taking us back to my car. Finally three people with three white terriers graciously agreed to take us to Allie's house in Burlington. Much later in the evening when Allie was free, she took me back out to get my car. Quite an interesting end to the day.

The trail down the mountain.

Allie and I near a little pond with Camel's Hump in the far background.

So today was Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont. Anyone can drive, ride a gondola or hike to the top. I decided to hike. 3.5 miles one way, 2700 elevation gain, it was quite a climb to the top.

But the view was worth the climb, as it is every time.