Travel – Page 28 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Cambridge, Maryland

Posted on August 10, 2013 by geek

I visited Cambridge, Maryland this afternoon. It is a cute little town on the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I have to admit the town makes me a little sad because it is a historic town and many of its buildings are in disrepair. They seem to be having a bit of a revitalization, which is great, and I hope it continues. Many of the downtown buildings have been renovated and have new businesses. Many of the gorgeous, historic homes have either been maintained all along or have been renovated. There are still many buildings and homes though that need some serious help.

Downtown Cambridge

Law Offices

High Spot

Cambridge Creek towards Choptank River

Cambridge Creek towards inlet

Cambridge Municipal Yacht Basin

Choptank River Lighthouse

Choptank River Bridge

Boat Ride from Chincoteague Island

Posted on August 10, 2013 by geek

I took a two hour cruise around the waterways of Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island today with Chincoteague Cruises and Nature Tours. It was a lovely day for a cruise, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Unfortunately we didn’t find any dolphins, but we did see some birds, Chincoteague ponies, horseshoe crabs, and jellyfish. We saw lots and lots of jellyfish in fact, such that I would never swim in the area where we cruised. The area is just beautiful, and the beauty becomes more clear when you can get away from all the tourists.

Assateague Island

Chincoteague Ponies with Cattle Egrets sitting on top of them

Chincoteague Ponies

Assateague Island Lighthouse

Jellyfish

Female and male horseshoe crabs

Female horseshoe crab

Dead horseshoe crab

NASA Wallops launchpad

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on August 9, 2013 by geek

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is lovely, but it really should just be called mosquito paradise. If you go here and want to walk on any of the trails, insect spray will be necessary. I hate bug spray, but the mosquitoes are so bad, even I resorted to using it. However, the walk around the swamp was nice except for the mosquitoes. There were more swamp rose mallowes (Hibiscus moscheutos) in bloom than I have ever seen. I saw a few birds, but not that many. I would guess however that this is a great area to bird during migration season.

Swamp

Swamp with swamp roses

Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)

grass

ferns

Common Cattail (Typha latifolia)

Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)

Greater Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and another shorebird

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca), Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), and another shorebird

Shenandoah National Park

Posted on August 4, 2013 by geek

I spent the day hiking and driving in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. It is a beautiful park, and the weather was perfect. I was also treated to many insects going nuts on the flowers. The park has wonderful views of the area, including views that make it clear how the Blue Ridge Mountains got their name. I have identified the insects that I can. If anyone who happens to read this can identify or correct my identification, please contact me. I love to get the identifications correct. Edited to add: Thanks to Derek and friends on Twitter who have helped me identify the animals on this page!]

Beautiful views

The Shenandoah River makes an appearance twice in this view

Panorama view

Blue Ridges indeed

Beautiful forests

Crack in a rock seems like a good place for a fern to take root

Berries of some tree

Millipede, Narceus americanus-annularis-complex

Bee ?

Bee ?

Evidently a very good thistle with an Easter Tiger Swallowtail and two bees

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe)

Luray Caverns

Posted on August 3, 2013 by geek

Unlike Skyline Caverns, which I visited yesterday, Luray Caverns let visitors take self guided tours through the caverns. This was very nice, as there were employees along the way to ask questions of if you had one, but I didn’t have to listen to a guide telling me what the various formations look like. Luray Caverns has fantastic stalactite, stalagmite, and column formations. It has a couple of small ponds that create perfect mirrors for the formations above, and it is absolutely beautiful and amazing to view. Luray Caverns also has the Stalacpipe Organ, which plays music by hammering stalactites instead of using pipes. It is rather interesting to hear.

Cavern formations

Flowstone with columns

Up close view of flowstone

Drapery stalactite

Mirrored lake

Two huge columns

Close up view of column in photo above

Even more up close view of column in two above photos

Flowstone cross section

Stalactite cross section

Below is a video of the Stalacpipe Organ. It has a few still photos of the organ’s parts, and then a video with audio of the Stalacpipe Organ playing. Turn the volume way up to hear it.

Skyline Caverns

Posted on August 2, 2013 by geek

I visited Skyline Caverns today in Front Royal, Virginia. I have decided that caverns and other attractions that have some science involved need to have two different tours: one for people interested in the science, such as the geology of cave formation, and others who just want to see the pretty stuff and be told that a particular formation looks like Snoopy. Skyline Caverns has some nice formations and some neat underground rivers and lakes, The lakes are really neat to see because the water is completely still and forms a mirror reflecting all the formations above it. The best part of the tour of Skyline Caverns was the anthodites, which are absolutely beautiful six-sided calcite crystals. According to the tour guide, their existence was first discovered in Skyline Caverns by Walter Amos, the geologist who discovered the caverns.

Underground lake

Flowstone

Drapery stalactites

Stalactites

Water dropping from forming stalactites

Anthodites

Tiny growing anthodites

Anthodites

Anthodites with moss

Central Park in June

Posted on June 6, 2013 by geek

I love New York City’s Central Park. Then again, I suppose anyone who has ever been there loves it. I spent part of my recent trip to New York wandering around Central Park. Here are a few photos from my visit.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

The Lake

stone staircase

rock outcrop

metal bridge

ravine

rose

flame azalea

allium flower

Belvedere Castle

carved concrete column

My First Trip to Brooklyn

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geek

I’ve been to New York City numerous times, but for as many times as I’ve been, I’ve never ventured outside of Manhattan. My guess is I’m not the only tourist who has done this. On this past trip, I decided I need to explore a bit of Brooklyn, partially because I wanted to go to the New York Transit Museum. Brooklyn is huge, so I couldn’t see everything, but I walked around a bit of downtown, Brooklyn Heights, and DUMBO. Downtown Brooklyn has some nice office and municipal buildings and a nice little park.

Brooklyn Borough Hall

Cadman Plaza Park

Then I walked to the Brooklyn Promenade, which is just a lovely elevated park-like walk area with spectacular views of Upper New York Bay, downtown Manhattan, and the East River.

Brooklyn Promenade

view of downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Promenade

view of Statue of Liberty from Brooklyn Promenade

view of East River from Brooklyn Promenade

Then I walked to the area around the Brooklyn Bridge tower.

Underneath the Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Bridge as seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park

I then walked to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). It has a nice waterfront area as well as some neat shops. Also, it has hipsters.

Manhattan Bridge Arch

Finally I walked around Brooklyn Heights. It is a lovely area with classic tree lined streets of row houses.

Brooklyn Heights

Those are the highlights of my first trip to Brooklyn. There is still more to explore. I shall return someday.

Central Park Turtle Who Loves Being Photographed

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geek

Wandering through Central Park yesterday, I encountered this turtle. He was in the grass right off of the Turtle Pond within a foot of the fencing to protect either the grass or wildlife or both. He totally wanted his photo taken. He just sat there while people walked by and would helpfully turn his head a bit so that everyone could get his best side. Really though he was so cute, he had no worst side. Then when he had had his paparazzi fix, he walked slowly back to the water, knowledgable that at least one photographer (me) would post his photos in a blog post and at least two photographers (my sister and me) would post his photo to Twitter. Life is good when you are a turtle in Central Park.

My questions for the Internet are: Can anyone identify for me what type of turtle this is? And what is that thing beneath his mouth that kind of looks like a tongue?

Update: I’ve had a suggestion that it is red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), which appears to be correct based on photos and NYC Central Park’s website. Still not sure what the thing below his mouth is.

NY Transit Museum

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geek

As should be completely obvious from the name of this site, I am in fact a geek. Specifically, I am a geek about about all things science and engineering. I visited the New York Transit Museum on my most recent trip to New York City, and I loved it. I can see how if you are not a geek or into mass transit, you might not enjoy it. The museum is housed, quite fittingly, in an abandoned subway station in Brooklyn.

The museum starts with exhibits on how the subway tunnels were built. It does a really good job of portraying the amazing work and hardships the workers endured and how they had to fight for the pay they deserved. We now have modern tools, tunnel boring machines, and much stricter safety standards. They for the most part had picks, wood, concrete, and brute strength. It has some exhibits of the tools used including surveying tools. I took surveying in college, so I went into geek mode when I saw the below exhibit. I used a transit in surveying, but it was a more modern one. [Modern surveying is done with a theodolite, but you have to learn the basics first with a chain, transit, and plumb.] Next to the transit in the photo is a linked chain. It is labeled as a surveying chain. Personally, I think they should label it more properly and specifically as Gunter’s chain, which by the way is 66 feet long, and the tool by which much of United States and other countries were originally surveyed. I had never actually seen a Gunter’s chain before, so I enjoyed seeing one. In surveying I learn to throw a chain and survey with a “modern” chain, which is a steel tape type chain.

It has exhibits on how the subways are powered, including information on electricity generation and transmission.

It has a history of mass transit in New York City, including the various forms of mass transit starting with horses. It also has exhibits on buses, and when I was there, it had a special exhibit on the past Miss Subways, which I had no idea had been a thing. They used to have a beauty pageant for everything I guess. As it is housed in an old subway station, on the old station platform, they have several old subway trains from the first models up to modern ones. You can walk through them, which is kind of neat.

Also within the subway platform is, what I think they called, a subway switching tower. It was the control area to watch and regulate where the trains were.

Finally upstairs, they have some exhibits that I am fairly sure you just have to be a geek to love. They have an exhibit of old turnstiles.

Perhaps my favorite, is an exhibit of various subway coin slugs that people have used to try to avoid paying the fare. Some were quite inventive. Some were just hilarious.

That was my visit to the New York Transit Museum. If you love mass transit, or you are a geek, go check it out when in New York.