Birthday Trip 2016

So I told Robyn that this year I wanted a trip for my birthday.  However, one of the funnest things about a trip is actually planning it.  So I also told her I wanted to plan my trip.

The trip began on my birthday, and I told her that my birthday was up to her to plan.  She did an excellent job.  She told me to get off at 3, and she bought us tickets to see the new X-Men movie.  So I got to hang out with my friends Jean, Cyclops, Wolverine, Mystique, and Professor X.  It was a fantastic way to kick off the trip.  That evening was spent in a hotel in Salt Lake to give us a head start in our travels.

For my trip, I decided that I wanted to see a few of the things in Utah that I had heard about but never actually experienced.

The first of those things was the Golden Spike National Historic Site.  Every child in Utah learned the song about how the transcontinental railroad was completed in Promontory, Utah.  It's a little site in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere.  But we drove out there and checked it out.

You have to get a picture next to a sign as proof you were there.

They had a whole reenactment where the train pulled up and people gave speeches and then drove in the final spikes.

Who doesn't love trains?

It was just like in 1869.  I bet back then everybody at their phones out taking pictures.

I made Robyn stand on the railroad for a picture.  She totally didn't get run over by a train.

The next location I took us to was the Spiral Jetty.  It's also in the desert in the middle of nowhere.  It sits on the shore of the Great Salt Lake.  It was made by a sculptor and depending on the level of the lake, sometimes it is below water and sometimes it is not (like right now).

Selfie with the jetty.

I made Robyn walk the whole spiral with me.  She tried to cut across, but I wouldn't let her cheat herself from the full experience.  We got to the center and had to take a precious pic.

Doesn't she make the spiral look precious?

The next event wasn't a place I'd heard about my whole life like the first two, but it was on my Utah bucket list.  We went to the Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden.

They had mosquitoes in amber, so I'm not sure what the holdup is.  They should clearly have clones some dinosaurs by now.

There were lots of bones to look at.

They had an indoor museum that was more of the traditional natural history museum, and then outside they had lots of dinosaur statues.  There were little signs that could teach you about the different dinosaurs, so it was fun.

Just hanging with the triceratops.

Look how calm she looks even though she's about to be eaten.

That concluded our Saturday activities, but fear not!  There was more fun to be had on Sunday.

We wanted to have some sort of church experience, and another thing on my Utah bucket list was to attend a taping of Music and the Spoken Word.  They were doing a memorial day special and it was really fun.  There was a TV that was showing the live broadcast, and I liked to watch the cameras move around and see how they achieved the shots that were being shown on the TV.

Before the broadcast they explained to us that it was live and that the acoustics in the tabernacle are very good, so we need to be very quiet.  I was totally reverent.

We didn't take any pictures inside the tabernacle (they weren't allowed during the broadcast and before and after there wasn't much to take a picture of.)  But naturally, we got a selfie in front of the temple on our way out.

The next Sunday event was to visit Gilgal garden.  It's a little garden tucked away in a residential neighborhood.  I had seen pictures of the Joseph Smith Sphinx and had wanted to check out the whole garden for a long time.

Pictures of signs: very important.

When I saw it I just started grinning and laughing.  I think Robyn was embarrassed to be with me.

I told Robyn I needed a picture of her in front of something.  She chose this arch and those giant books behind her.

At this point, it was about lunch time and Robyn wanted to be home.  I only had one more stop on my list and it was the Summum Pyramid.  It's a pyramid that actually performs mummifications.  (Who knew that was still a thing?)

Robyn didn't even get out of the car, so I had to take my selfie with the pyramid.  After seeing X-Men: Apocalypse, I was pretty sure Apocalypse was hiding inside and probably acquiring new powers he would use for world domination.  But I didn't see him.

Finally, we could head home and take a good afternoon nap in our own beds.  I'd say it was a successful birthday trip.

Grounds For Sculpture

As I've mentioned earlier, I was on a business trip in New Jersey this past week.  I had to work all day, but I had some free time in the evenings to go see some local sites.  I didn't know what their was to see, so I relied heavily on Google.

The first thing I had a chance to see was a little place called Grounds For Sculpture.  It's sort of an outdoor art museum.  There are several acres of green space littered with various kinds of sculptures.   I really enjoyed it.  It's like I'm cultured or something.  Here are a few highlights.

A few of the pieces were 3D realizations of famous paintings.  Here we have The Scream.  Naturally, we screamed together in a selfie.

Lots of the sculptures were just people going about their business.  The main difference between sculpture people and regular people is that sculpture people let me take selfies with them.  (If regular people would let me take selfies with them all the time, you'd better believe I would do it.)

Selfie with the mailman

Selfie with a violinist.

 I should have taken a picture of the violin case full of money.  It totally looked real.  I had to feel the money to make sure it felt like metal.

Another thing that was really strange was that the sculptures looked real from far away.  This close up of this girl drawing is clearly a sculpture.  But from a few hundred feet away, it totally looked like a girl just sitting in the park working on her art.  (Don't worry.  I felt her paper, just like I felt everything else.  It didn't feel like paper.)

It was kind of like a treasure hunt.  There were sculptures that were hidden away behind trees and bushes.  This couple having a picnic were completely hidden behind thick schrubbery.  Naturally, I found them, photographed them, and touched all their food.  Normal people don't let me do that.

I came upon these nice men in the middle of a poker game.

This guy probably thinks his 3 kings is a good hand.  But he should fold.

Nines full of aces is even better.

Remember I mentioned that some of the sculptures were depictions of famous paintings?  Here we have American Gothic.

You'd never guess it from the painting, but they're about 20 feet tall.  That made the selfie more complicated, but I still pulled it off.

Several times I saw a sculpture from far away and wasn't sure if it was real or not.  This little kid was an example.

The strangest thing about the Grounds for Sculpture was that there were tons of sculptures randomly on the street in the surrounding area.  There were sculpture people standing on the sidewalk.  There were sculpture people admiring larger sculptures.  (Totally meta.)  And, naturally, there was a giant tooth.

The random sculptures on the street had me really confused.  I stopped at a stop sign and waited for someone to cross in front of me, only to realize that they were a sculpture.

So I'm like totally cultured, right?