New Orleans Vicariously

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My daughter attended the American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans last week with her research students. She sent a few pictures of the place that reminded me of the two visits I made to the city years ago…and something added to the skyline more recently.

She took a walking tour of the French Quarter…and took a picture on the river as it ended around sunset.

The next day she photographed the sunset from her hotel window. Her room was on an upper floor and the window was grubby…but it made the picture look ‘painterly.’

The second picture (only a minute later) highlighted a strange shape with a blue light on the horizon. It looked like a spy plane at first glance! I did some research. It is the Bollinger Canopy of Peace that spans across The National WWII Museum’s campus…built after 2015!

The next day my daughter and her students (and some others from the conference) did a late-in-the-day visit to the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans. It was established in 1990 – long after my last visit to New Orleans for a Computer Measurement Group meeting in December 1981 (the first visit was in Fall 1977 for a King Tut exhibit).

It was fun to get her impressions of the city. A lot has changed in over 40 years, but the French Quarter is still the hub – hotels and museums and walking tours cluster around it. I also savored that both of us have the experience of traveling to interesting places as part of our careers.

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2023

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I picked my 10 little celebrations for May…then grouped them in to 3 categories: playing tourist (5), emotional experience (3) and getting outdoors (2). There was a lot to celebrate in May!

ArtsFest in Springfield. An interesting event and great weather too. We went with my daughter and son-in-law. I had heard about it in previous years from my daughter but it was my first time to experience it. It was a way to celebrate great spring weather and the artists of the area.

Springfield Botanical Gardens/Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Another way to celebrate springtime…savor the flowers…the new growth everywhere.

Fantastic Caverns. The easiest way to tour a cave…riding on a tram. I celebrated that this one had visible fossils in the ceiling that were visible too.

Springfield Art Museum. I celebrated the pottery/ceramics which is the focus of one of the exhibits now. Somehow art that has the potential to be something functional always appeals to me.  

World of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium. Celebrating the improvements in presentation of taxidermied specimens (meticulous attention to the depiction of the ecosystem around the animal)….and best aquarium in this part of the country!

Mother’s Day. A hearty breakfast then a hike alongside a meadow with my daughter…celebrating the relationship (and motherhood).


A sister’s successful surgery. Health of ourselves and people we have close relationships is always somewhat emotion. It’s great to be able to celebrate a procedure that was successful.

In-range blood work results. I celebrated some recent blood work that indicated that everything being checked was in the normal range. As we get older, we tend to be more aware that there could be some challenges ahead…and it is reassuring when the results indicate everything is still fine.

Coopers hawk over the Pocket Prairie. It’s always startling to see a raptor in a suburban area. I heard the racket of other birds before I saw the hawk swoop over the pocket prairie at Josey Ranch and into the neighborhood across the street. I celebrated that these small hawks evidently have thrived in that environment.

Rhododendron Flowering. I missed the rhododendron blooming last year…was thrilled when the flowers opened. It was a big part of the celebration of spring in our back yard!

Zooming – May 2023

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So many photography opportunities in May…flowers are blooming, birds are out and about, we traveled to Pensacola FL and played tourist close to home when my sister visited. The first pictures are from Pensacola…then from Texas (Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and Carrollton)…then close to home (Lake Springfield, Fantastic Caverns, and World of Wildlife). It was a busy month!

I use the zoom feature on my Canon Powershot SX70 HS for almost every picture. My goal is to compose the image in a way that I don’t need to modify it later. The strategy saves time and focuses my creative energy while I am in the field when I can almost always try another shot – get exactly what I want.

Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium

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The Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium is next to the Bass Pro Shops National Headquarters in Springfield, MO. It’s a place we passed by frequently over the past year but had not toured; the visit from my sister was a good prompt to finally buy tickets!

My main interest was the Aquarium but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the museum portion – history of hunting, fishing, and conservation with sculpture, taxidermy animals/models in realistic habitats, paintings, artifacts (fishing lures, taxidermy versions of ‘largest’ bears, boats). The animal exhibits were a much-improved version of the Natural History museums I toured as a child and I found myself picking up details of the scenes….enjoying them more than I would a zoo where the animals so often look stressed and uncomfortable.

The aquarium has a living fish, of course, but there were also models of animals too. The sperm whale with giant squid was one of the first that I noticed. There were models of different kinds of sharks on the wall – making it easier to notice the shape and size differences.

One of the larger tanks had a ‘shipwreck’ theme. I took a few pictures as we walked through the aquarium areas. The octopus tank seemed small for the animal…hopefully there was another space that gave it more room to move about.

The jellyfish were probably my favorite exhibit. Their shape and movement are somehow calming…and I’m always surprised at how different they can look.

There was also a smaller exhibit with different kinds of coral.

Toward the end of our tour, there was an area for lesser flamingo and a great egret. It was relatively dark. I liked the picture I took of the egret…but I wondered if the birds were rescues since a dark habitat is not what I associate with these birds. Earlier on we had seen some great horned owls that were rescued birds. Their habitat allowed them to be well away from the people and they seemed calm enough…but probably very different than they were in the wild.

Overall – an interesting place but I’d rather be outdoors. Next time we have someone visiting, I want to visit Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory Grounds and Aquarium

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Continuing from yesterday’s post about our visit to Belle Island, Detroit, Michigan….

The conservatory has a koi pond that had some large specimens that seemed particularly dense near the waterfall. I liked the turtle fountain…reminded me of similar ones at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. I wondered what happened to the koi pond during the winter. Detroit must get very cold.

The structure of the conservatory has some high portions and there are some plants that have grown very tall…filling the spaces.

The grounds are grassy areas with some flower beds that were beginning to fade. I took a few macro images

There was a black squirrel that zipped across the very wet grass (we dodged the soggiest areas). There were black squirrels in London, Ontario too – more than the gray/brown ones.

The grounds also included a Japanese lantern and tower.

We went into the Aquarium. It reminded me of the

Washington DC aquarium that was in the Department of Commerce building; it closed in 2013 but I remembered touring it when I was pregnant with my daughter back in 1989…and becoming very queasy from the fish smell.  The aquarium in Washington DC was completed in 1932. The one on Belle Island has been operational since 1904! They used the lull during the pandemic for renovation…it seemed to be in great shape (and no fishy smells). The lighting was such that it was easier to get reasonably good pictures through the glass! I particularly enjoyed the puffer fish, brittle stars, sea horses, and anemones.

Overall – our visit to Belle Island took about 2 hours. We headed back into Detroit to find a restaurant before we continued our journey to London, Ontario.

Philip Henry Gosse Books

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Back in October, I enjoyed browsing 8 volumes published in the mid-1800s by Philip Henry Gosse available on Internet Archive. He was an active naturalist and popularizer of natural science with his ability to create appealing/accurate scientific illustrations for his books. I found out from Wikipedia’s biography of him that he was the inventor of the saltwater aquarium in early Victorian England too. Enjoy browsing a Gosse book or two or three…

A Year at the Shore (1865)

The Rotifera (or, wheel-animalcules) volume 1 and 2 (1889 assisting Charles Thomas Hudson)