I happen to disagree with him, and noted that being an animal, he has the definite advantage to being able to see that stuff in the wild than I would, and furthermore, that he was just as likely to be left stuffed in a history museum as any other animal minding its own business.
Sitting on the train!
Here we go!!
Out the window...
Fenway!
See?
And so we rode. And we rode. And we rode. And then switched trains and rode some more. And the number of people that got on was quite simply claustrophobic. And I was afraid to breathe. Or move. Then, a sneeze made its way up, creeping slowly from the back of my throat and I became terribly afraid that the young man standing in front of me may get the entire contents of my nose. And so I literally did not breathe. At all.
Finally we made it to our station destination, and I let out a grateful kerchoo.We then walked through Boston for a couple of blocks to Harvard!! Let me tell you, as soon as I walked past, I was sure I felt smarter, and I hoped maybe Locksley gained a couple of points on his I.Q. too.
Harvard
The day was extremely warm, and when we sighted the building we were looking for, it was quite a relief.
Made it!
It was a blessed relief when we entered the coolness of the building. Looking around, I was a little disappointed. The Harvard Museum of Natural History was very underwhelming from the inside. There was a small desk in a small room, and a small staircase that lead to the second floor. But we bought our tickets, and headed up those stairs.
Boy was my first impression wrong! The first room was huge, and packed with so many different kinds of rocks and mineral formations, that I was unsure the room would ever end!! And everything was so beautiful. I love nature, and the wonders within it, and I felt I had entered heaven, or some kind of wonderful nirvana anyway. The rocks came in every colour and texture I had ever imagined, and some I hadn't. I could easily have spent all day in that one room taking picture after picture. But my impatient companion jumped from one thing to another in quick succession, so I only managed to stop for a few shots of the ones that most intrigued me.
This thing was HUGE!
A rock with fiber optic type fuzz!
The ceiling lights got in my way on this one...
This was actually a deep, gorgeous green.
A piece of a star?
Amethyst rock. This was the main feature in the rock and mineral room. And my favorite color!
I looked at this one for a while.
Looks like bubble art!
The minerals looked like moss...
After that we moved to a room that had a sign that read "Glass Flowers". I was curious. The room was dark, and in each of the glass cases were flowers that looked like they had been preserved in the height of their beauty. And then I realised. They were all blown glass! Roots, petals, leaves, everything captured scientifically. Perfectly. In glass. My mind was as blown as those glass flowers. They looked so perfect. So real. I tried for a few pictures, but the room was so dark, most did not come out. Here were the few that did:
A purple flower. I think it was an aster.
Some sort of tube-shaped flower. Look at those roots!
A black-eyed Susan.
A different room held fossils and shells:
Fishy!
A primitive starfish... or two.
A shell fossil. Take a look at the patterns!
The next room was a room full of stuck bugs. Bugs of pretty much every kind make me shiver, and I get the creepy crawlies for hours after, convinced that something is crawling on me. But I had to admit, some of them were very cool, and I conquered my fear to snap a few shots.
Ok... I'm not technically terrified of butterflies at all...
I have a dress in these colours!
So Pretty!
Iridescence.
Ok... I'm not scared of dragonflies either.
Pretty blue!
This gave me the heebie-jeebies... But I liked the rainbow arrangement.
I actually cried as I took this shot. I don't need to get into my terror, or Locksley inappropriate reaction to my distress...
Then we moved to birds, but in between the winged creature rooms, there was a giant red squirrel thing. I think it's technical name is actually giant red squirrel, but I can't remember.
Giant Red Squirrel...
The bird room:
Parakeet...
I was eye level with this thing.. good thing it was stuffed.
Egg spiral. Smallest bird egg to largest bird egg...
And here is where our story takes a tragic turn. When we left I may or may not have forgotten to fully plug in my camera battery for charging... either way I did not notice that it had not been charged. And at the exact moment after this photo was taken, I pulled a 180 to take a picture of a penguin and baby... and the camera shut off. I was unable to get it to restart, much to my chagrin. (Note to self... invest in back up batteries. Plural.)
And so we wandered through the huge museum.. where there were rooms upon rooms upon rooms of dead stuffed animals, skeletons, and DINOSAURS! I was so mad when Locksley and I discovered the dinosaurs and me with my camera dead. (Note from Locksley: It would appear that clarification on this sentence is necessary. Lizzy and I were still alive. The dinosaurs and the camera were dead.)
Anyway; we wandered through until a kind old security guard informed us that closing time was approaching, and that if we needed to use the bathroom, it was a good time to do so before he locked the room in which they were. So we made our way back... stopping briefly to inspect some creepy dead eels that had been pickled, and gave me almost as many squeamish feelings as the bugs had.
The ride home was quiet. The trains were pretty packed, but the train we switched onto to get home was pretty empty, and Locksley fell asleep in my lap, poor baby. There was so much to see, and not enough time to do it in, and not enough juice in my camera to get more pictures. So one day, we will go back, back-up batteries ready.
But for now we are yours,
