In which Moominmama visits one of the bayous of Louisiana and has a scare.... Moominmama had no intention of feeding the alligators and watched very carefully where she put her feet for fear of slipping into the giant alligator feeding dish of the bayou. I was in the Barataria Bay Preserve which is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park south of New Orleans. Moominmama was walking in the steps of the pirates! Jean Lafitte and his crew supposedly smuggled goods in and out of New Orleans using the bayous of Barataria Bay. Even the name of the bay has a crazy history. The name is taken from the novel "Don Quixote," where Quixote's trusty but gullible sidekick, Sancho Panza, is promised an island to govern. That imaginary island was called Barataria by author Miguel Cervantes. The name got applied to this bay off the Gulf of Mexico! I wasn't literally walking in pirate footsteps, however, because the nice National Park Service has built an elevated walkway th...
Rochester, N.Y. and the Genesee River on a typical cloudy day! In which Moominmama wishes everyone a Happy Mothers Day and celebrates daughter's recovery from surgery... Moominmama is back to mothering for a short time and is pleased to report that all went well with older daughter's surgery. Daughter is experiencing some pain and general discomfort but also knows that this will pass. She remains in good spirits. While she was getting some much-needed rest, I ducked out on a rare sunny afternoon for a walk in my all-time favorite park, Highland Park. This time of year, it is spectacular, and I'm happy to be here to watch the lilacs come into full bloom in the coming days and weeks. For those of you who don't know Rochester's Highland Park, it is home to about 1,200 lilac bushes, representing 500 different varieties. Over 50 new varieties have been developed by horticulturists here but some of the original bushes, dating back to 1892, also remain. Though Rochester...
In which Moominmama visits Los Alamos to learn about the Manhattan Project, a contrast with an earlier journey to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.... In 1932, we have the first recorded, successful splitting of an atom (a lithium atom). Less than a year later, Adolf Hitler became head of the German government. By 1939, the Germans forbid the sale of uranium from a mine in Czechoslovakia. There were good reasons to fear that Germany knew about the potential of fission and was exploring the development of an atom bomb. This was the background that led to Project Y, also known as the Manhattan Project, America's bid to build the most powerful weapons in the world and to get them first. Ironically, the war with Germany would end before the American effort was successful. Instead, the two slightly different atom bombs were used on Japan. Hiroshima was the first, and for its people, there was absolutely no warning. If you recognize the picture above, you'll know it's not New...
I take it you did NOT get wet from the trip!
ReplyDeleteNope, that would have been a mighty chilly dip!
Delete