Hooray!
We had an anniversary on Friday!
I wore the new lace top I got in honor of a special day.
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| top: Tommy Hilfiger (Macy's) skirt: Rekucci (Amazon) |
My new earrings arrived, and they're even better than I expected!
We celebrated first on Wednesday with my parents
by going to the Alamo Drafthouse to see a movie.
This theater is fun because we get to order food and eat DURING THE MOVIE!
I feel like a little girl getting so excited about that,
but it's really fun.
I got some memorabilia glasses (as in to drink out of) and my parents
had a big box of popcorn to go because they got bottomless popcorn.
I love the funny things they show before the movies!
We had a good time!
On Friday (our actual anniversary), Greg and I went to the Arizona Science Center.
Mostly we wanted to see the Pompeii exhibition.
On the drive in, we saw the stadium.
And some other really interesting buildings.
These billboards for APS (the power company) were creative and cute.
There it is!
We got our wristbands and headed pretty much directly to the Pompeii exhibit,
since we arrived only slightly earlier than our check-in time (noon).
The carpet looked good with my shoes!
It started with a description of the city and what happened
(eruption of Mount Vesuvius
that covered the city so completely that a few years later
no one could even remember where it had been!)
Then the doors swung open and we walked into a simulated atrium in a Roman home.
Check out this dude's butt muscles!
They stick out like a table!
We northern Europeans have no such gluteals.
This mosaic was made out of tiny pieces of marble
(probably left over from other jobs).
In the middle is a scary face that acted to scare away intruders or
bad guys.
These are some little gods the Romans would have in their homes
to protect them and guide them. They look to me like game pieces.
Here's a layout of how many homes in Pompeii were laid out.
Notice the blue/green rectangle near the middle -
that's the area in the atrium where rain fall was allowed.
This cooled the house. The water was used for various things.
They typically had statues in their atria.
This deer was beautiful.
Lion looked as if he needed some sandwiches.
The thing on the left is an example of an interesting tool that Pompeiians had
in upper corners of their homes - it was mounted on a stick (in the middle) and would spin around, pushing air around sort of like a fan!
I was impressed by the technological ingenuity of the Romans -
this is the bottom for a folding table!
The pan looks pretty much the same.
The things on the far right and second from the left are
sieves/colanders. Very pretty perforations to let the water flow through.
They knew how to make class and terracotta.
Romans had some interesting dietary habits.
GARUM = a sauce made from fermented fish. EW.
Pompeii was known for its great garum.
This was a home for dormice.
They could run up and down the spiral ramps along the sides of the vase.
My favorite Pompeiian technology was the hypocaust.
This is a system in which a furnace blew hot air into the area underneath the home.
The hot air heated the floor (which was made of stone) and then traveled up through
pipes in the walls, heating the walls (also made of stone!)
VERY SMART!
There was a special little hallway with some more adult images and history.
They used a lot of phallus symbols to attract prosperity.
See the flying phallus (it's at the top of the photo
with its front cone pointing up and out - and it has WINGS!)?
I was impressed that the public baths had cubbies for everyone's clothes
(like a modern-day health club!) I like the names of the different rooms, too.
The last pool was the "frigiderium" - a cold dip before returning to regular life.
Here are some medical supplies (and a mirror!)
We pretended we were actually there in the streets of Pompeii.
They had the weirdest, least-flattering lighting of anywhere I've been recently.
Doesn't this next photo look as if I'm wearing a beard?!
They also made gorgeous jewelry.
The necklace near the top of the photo is gold and emeralds.
This is a bracelet.
They had theater (these were masks symbolizing different characters).
There were a bunch of neat sculptures, too.
This is an unknown person wearing a toga.
The fact that stone can be made to look like skin and hair and draped fabric is amazing.
And of course, gladiators.
There was a movie simulation of the volcanic eruption with some
comments from people who were nearby at the time.
And then we saw molds made when archaeologists poured
cement into the holes left in the rock-hard ask by the bodies of
people who'd been killed.
It was sobering and sad.
This man was trying to breathe by covering his mouth and nose
with his cloak/coat/shirt.
This dog was found outside his house, probably guarding it.
The metal grommets from his collar can still be seen.
This mom and child were found in their home, in addition to a dad and
another child.
That "boxing stance" (arms up, looking ready to punch) is what happens
to the human body when exposed to extreme heat.
This is the other child in this family.
After the Pompeii exhibit, we checked out the rest of the museum.
This is an early John Deere wagon!
There's a Sky Bike, which is extra super neat.
Because I was wearing a skirt, I was ineligible to ride it (but I wanted to!)
The stairs have questions on them and remind us all to
"never stop wondering". Great motto!
My second favorite area was the brain area,
with lots of info about the brain.
I tried a logic and memory-strengthening game.
I pushed buttons that needed to be pushed.
We learned about Einstein's brain (which was different from typical brains!)
And then we played a brain waves game.
The goal was to get the ball to your side of the table
using brain waves.
There weren't many directions, and I thought I was supposed to push the ball
towards Greg. He was pulling it towards himself.
You can see our brain waves to the left.
The goal was to RELAX as much as possible.
At first I tried to focus hard on that ball.
That didn't do much.
Then I tried to use my meditation techniques, but I'm not very good at it.
Greg said he focused on his headache (focusing on unpleasant sensations instead of pleasant ones is a Zen Buddhist medication technique) and he won!
Here's how the set-up looked.
Another interesting exhibit was about how houses are made -
with special focus on houses here in the Arizona desert.
Water was initially carried by these wooden pipes!
I was sneaking up on Greg to try to get a photo where he wasn't making a crazy face.
They had some cute models of different buildings that
existed as Phoenix was built.
On our way out, we checked out the cute little cafe.
I love the menu! Look how cute (and healthy!) it is!!!
When we were done inside the museum, we checked out Heritage Square,
which is a bunch of buildings from when Phoenix was brand new.
They have different purposes now.
This one has crafts.
The pillars are wrapped by colorful crochet!
With paintbrushes!
This pergola was getting set up for a wedding.
This couple was getting married on our anniversary!
This is a very cute area,
with another small museum and gift shop, as well as some other
museums (a children's museum and a history museum).
There was also a little library box.
We left around 3:30 pm, and waited quite awhile to get out of the parking structure.
While we were waiting, I noticed that the ASU building had this animal on it.
It's definitely not a sun devil (ASU's mascot) . . .
I thought the views through the slats in the parking structure were pretty
with the feathery trees and the church.
There's downtown Phoenix, with the stadium on the left.
The next day was St Patrick's Day, and the road signs were updated appropriately.
Thanks for joining us on our anniversary adventure!
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