Day 4 – 10/26 – Up to Greeley

We were up at 4:15, cleaned up, packed up, and were on the road shortly after 5:00 heading for the  Denver airport.  We dropped K and S, grabbed some breakfast, and headed downtown to the Museum of Nature and Science.  We arrived there at 8:00 and napped in the parking lot until they opened at 9:00.

Our intention was to spend a couple of hours there before visiting the Molly Brown House Museum and then on to Greeley.  Of course that didn’t work out.  We should know better by now not to start the day at a Natural Science museum.  There will be a couple of posts about the museum.

First we headed for the Dinosaur Discovery exhibit.  The museum staff has done extensive work on  southern hemisphere dinosaurs.  It was interesting to note the differences that occured in evolution as the various populations were isolated due to continental drift.

That’s right, they had information on continental drift.  Che was in HEAVEN!

This display showed the position of the continents at each period in history – and projected into the future. I didn’t think she would EVER let me play with it.
Just a few of the many dino models on display. The curation here (and throughout the museum) was excellent!
Model of a dino-in-egg

Following lunch we moved to the exhibit of “Animals as machines.”  Again, this was an excellent and fascinating review of the mechanics of life.  They covered everything from how a giraffe gets blood to its brain to why an elephant can break a leg simply stepping down from your front porch.

We started with a high-speed analysis of why the cheetah is the fastest thing on legs.

And from there got so caught up in the displays that I forgot to take pictures.  You’ll just have to go and see for yourself.

Next we moved to the exhibit on Native North Americans.  There are lots of pictures from that exhibit so they will get their own post.

By the time we were done there it was time to leave Denver and head to Greeley.  We had intended to visit the Molly Brown House Museum but, well, that’s what happens when you start at the Natural History Museum.  We should know that by now.  That’s probably our learning for this trip.

Anyway, we drove to Greeley (no small feat in afternoon traffic leaving Denver) and arrived in the waiting arms of Mike and CJ Petersen.  We spent a bit of time catching up, then headed downtown to the Rio Grande cafe – an excellent Mexican restaurant that serves, among other things, killer margaritas (not literally, but not far removed either).

After dinner (and more catching up) it was back to their place where we broke out the dice and Randy proved himself to be an unremarkable competitor.

That’s the end of this thread for today.  The next post will be the Native North American experience at the Museum.  Then we will proceed to day 5 – About Town in Greeley.

TTFN,

R

3 Comments

  1. c-EXCELLENT museum. The display on different developments of flying also included a flying snake (it spreads out all it ribs which widens it width and makes the underside concave then launches itself from a tree branch in an “s” shape and lands further away either on the ground or another tree)!

  2. c-As we left the museum we could see a storm pouring over the tops of the mountains. We drove through very slow heavy Denver traffic and snow storms before finally arriving at Petersons.

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