While in Grand Rapids for my lovely cousin’s lovely wedding, my family took a trip to Meijer Gardens. It’s a combination botanical garden and sculpture park, and the exhibit while we were there was of Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures. It’s a pretty fun experience, actually – sort of like a treasure hunt to find all the sculptures that are hiding in the ponds, waterfalls, and fields. Or at least as many as you can manage before you melt from the heat.
Chihuly Cranes in the thicket
Ryder in Summer Dance
Grand Rapids Arch
with The American Horse
a man of letters
see all the pictures
A sculptural tour
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Water Rocket
If only I had a video camera to capture this – this rocket launches fast (the 3 pictures above were all taken within one second). Ryder built it out of PVC pipe and a 2 liter bottle for our church’s VBS program. The short story of how it works: slide a half-full 2 liter bottle on the end of a PVC pipe. Hook up a bike pump to the other end of the pipe. Pump until highly pressurized. Pull string to release bottle. Get wet. Over the 4th of July, we took it out on the river with Ryder’s family and had a blast (ha ha ha) with it.
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Ryder’s cut-out flower clock
Ryder made this wooden clock using our scroll saw, and then wood-burned the detail onto it. The only part I don’t like is that this was a birthday gift for his brother, so we only got to enjoy it for a few days.
Posted in Crafts, Family
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Budgies & more budgies
A few months ago, Zoo Atlanta had a “special” Tech day at the zoo – admission was $1 less than the normal student rate. Woo hoo. We took advantage of the “deal” and braved the sweltering heat to see some animals. We ended at the Budgie house:
This pairing was probably the smallest gathering – in the small budgie area there were hundreds upon hundreds of budgies. You could buy little sticks of food to feed them with, but we quickly discovered that the end of the afternoon was not the best time to try to entice them. We had expected them to fly down to the food, but after hundreds of little food sticks, they seem to have realized flying was not necessary. The only way they’d eat the food was if you stuck the stick right in front of where they were already perched.
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Cacti
Cacti at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.
I was trying to think of something clever to say, but I have nothing. I posted a few more photos of our trip to the gardens over in my photos.
Posted in Photos, Random
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