Tag Archives: Fish

Jul30

The Vienna Natural History Museum – Naturhistorisches Museum Wien – Part 1 (The Natural History)

Posted on July 30, 2024 by perfectusvarrus

Monday, 01-July-2024

After an equestrian tour, three churches, and a crypt, I was ready for some SCIENCE.

Now… where had I seen some SCIENCE recently? Ahh yes – the Art History Museum!

Well… sort of. You see, dear readers, the Art History museum has a twin. Literally, a twin building, immediately across the gardens, built as a mirror. Art History, presented as one part of a twin pairing with Natural History. Kind of a neat idea, isn’t it?

I thought so. So did Emperor Franz Joseph, who opened both buildings simultaneously in 1891. Guess I’m in good company, huh?

I walked over. Bought tickets, had a slice of Vienna cake and a coffee, and then ventured into the exhibits.

Holy crap were there exhibits. Rows upon rows, ranks upon ranks. Minerals, gems, meteorites, fossils and placards.

I tried my best to focus and enjoy and learn, but… I’m going to be honest here. I got pretty saturated. There was just so much to see, so much to enjoy and to appreciate and to just take in. Descriptions of how gems formed, detailed analysis of the mineral deposits found in Austria and abroad and how they impacted history. A full walkthrough of an ancient salt mine, in more depth than even the Wieliczka mine got into. Plants and animals and even an Animatronic Dinosaur! Placards in German and English, some in just German…

I walked, I learned, and I became overwhelmed. I enjoyed it, until I didn’t… and then I simply walked. I didn’t stay longer than I wanted to, but I will admit that the last few rooms and exhibits definitely went by a bit quickly.

Thankfully that was expected and planned for, though, and those final rooms were examples of taxidermy animals from… drumroll please… North America! That wasn’t an accident either – I’d made a point to save those for last, just in case I got overloaded… so they made for a nice little send-off before I headed out, and set my sights on dinner…

Jul5

My friends come to visit – A drive around Mt. Hood

Posted on July 5, 2023 by perfectusvarrus

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Saturday and Sunday, 20-May-2023 and 21-May-2023

Ohh man… it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to hang out with Dave! I think the last time was when I was still living in Hood River… and all I really remember was that we had a fire on the porch, wrapped Dave up in a sheepskin rug, and had him pose with a dwarven sword and a battle axe.

Those’re the kind of things we remember.

Anyways, Dave and his wife Lakay came to visit in May!

Saturday, 20-May-2023

Technically this story begins on Friday night… but the summary for Friday was “Dave and Lakay got into the airport, we drove home, hung out for a bit, and then fell asleep.” Simple and easy.

The real adventure begins on Saturday morning.

Our goal for this visit was to… well, visit! But every good visit needs a framework, and we settled in on doing something I haven’t really done before – visiting spots from a movie! Lakay is pretty into Twilight, and since it was filmed in Oregon and Washington we had an awesome opportunity to check out a few spots from the movies. The main town of Forks, up in Washington, was a bit out of reach for a weekend trip… but thankfully a few spots were nice and nearby.

Our plan for the day was simple and elegant: Relaxed morning, movie location lunch, then do a clockwise tour around Mt. Hood!

Breakfast was a nice meal at home, followed by some catching up and prepping for the days adventures ahead.

Then, our first stop on the tour – The Carver Cafe! Apparently it was a whole scene in the movie, and the super neat part was that we got seated exactly where the main actors sat in that scene!

From there, the legendary Multnomah Falls! Kinda interestingly, I ran into a coworker there who owns property in Oklahoma near Dave and Lakay… kinda weird, but definitely cool!

Then, a quick stop for views of Hood, a drone flight or two, and a it of poking around the White River sno-park.

Finally, our ultimate destination of the tour – The Timberline Lodge! We got to play on the snow a bit, had an amazing dinner, and then got the best present of all from Mother Nature… a full lightening storm, shattering the sky off to the East of the lodge!

I can’t overstate how cool the storm was – Lightening is much more rare in Oregon than it is in a lot of other spots I’ve lived, so in and of itself it was a treat… but the storm was limited to one specific cloud formation off on the horizon, which meant we could easily just gaze over at it and appreciate the cloud-to-cloud bolts, and knew when to expect the air-to-ground strikes.

We seriously just parked by an overlook, and sat on the hood watching the storm. I don’t know how long we stayed out, but it was at least an hour or so until the sky got dark and the storm finally receded into the distance.

<I didn’t get any pictures of this… forgive me, but my photography-fu isn’t quite strong enough to capture lightening yet>

A seriously good end to an excellent round-the-mountain adventure.

Jul15

A Washington Adventure – Seattle Aquarium!

Posted on July 15, 2022 by perfectusvarrus

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Saturday, 18June-2022

It’s been a while since I’ve had an adventure like this, hasn’t it? One big adventure with a few different blog posts dedicated to it? Well… Here we go! Adventure to Seattle, solo-style!

A while back, I was granted citizenship to Austria, through an update to the Austrian Constitution allowing repatriation for descendants of those displaced by war. I compiled paperwork over six months, sent it all in, and then waited almost nine months. Then, out of the blue, I get a package in the mail – a very official package with my “Bescheid” included – my new citizenship!

Now that I have it, though, I need a passport… and the closest consulate is in Seattle. I haven’t been for a few years, and I’ve never had an opportunity to either explore the city on my own or to go backpacking in the Olympic National Forest… which happens to be right across Puget Sound from Seattle…

Of all my adventures and exploration around Seattle, the Aquarium takes the note as the one I wanted to dedicate an entire post to. Simply because there’s so many pictures!

I mean… how can you NOT stand and play photographer to a darling Giant Pacific Octopus? Or phosphorescent coral? OR THE OTTERS???

Anyways. I went to the Aquarium with my friend Nicole, and we had a blast! It was my first time there, but her second, so she played a bit of a tour guide for me… pointing out neat things as we wandered, and making sure to comment on my ability to poke sea cucumbers and urchins.

Yup. They let us poke things! Of all the parts of the Seattle Aquarium, I have to say the tide pools are my favorite… not just from an animal perspective, but from an engineering perspective… See, the Aquarium is right above Puget Sound, and they have pumps and channels that actually pull water directly from the sound into the building!

That water is then… somehow… turned into waves? And those waves feed the large enclosed pools that fill the first room you go into – all of which have animals safe for human contact! It’s so cool!

So, without further ado, please enjoy the many awesome sights!