Tucson Bucket List

Tucson Bucket List:

1. Have a slushie at Eegees

2. Go to the Kartchner Caverns

3. Visit the Sky Center on Mt. Lemmon

Check, Check, Check

With only a few weeks left living in Tucson we made the treacherous trek (i only threw up on the way down) up Mount Lemmon last night to see the stars. We got a great deal on groupon.com for the "night sky program," which was a 4.5 hour long program and included a delicious meal.

Evan was eager to "volunteer" to rotate the dome roof in order for the group to see the brightest star, Sirius, while it was still light out!

Looking at the sun-with a special sun looking telescope

Waiting for the "green rim" while the sun set...using the fancy binoculars they lent us. Editor's Note: I actually looked at the sun a little too early before the sunset to look for a greenish haze around the sun, and was told I just burned my retina...oops. The next week I checked my vision at the office I've been working at and my vision went from 20/13 to 20/10! Not really, it stayed at 20/13 so the consequences of my actions have yet to take effect.

Evan in front of a privately owned and operated telescope by some South Koreans. They access it remotely and serves as South Korea's national telescope. Evan is standing with his star chart, which is used to help locate different stars and constellations. Now if only he had something to help him locate his keys.

If you want to see all the rad stuff we saw visit this website

Editor's Note: I really gained a greater sense of the vastness of the universe. One of my "whoa!" moments when pondering living forever...forever ever, is thinking how much space there needs to be for everything that is going to happen. Quite frankly it gives me the heeby jeebies. Here is a perspective building analogy that the "tour guide" gave us:

If our solar system was the size of a penny the next closest solar system would be 220 yards away. Then if all the solar systems (pennies) in our Milky Way Galaxy were placed 220 yards apart from each other, then it would take up the entire continental USA. Now the distance across our galaxy (contental USA) is 1 light year, and we were looking at galaxies 30 trillion and 50 trillion light years away...That's a lot of freaking space. So, I have yet to get the heeby jeebies when wondering if we're all going to fit.

It also gave me a greater appreciation for the knowledge that Heavenly Father is really there and that he hears and answers every child's prayer...even mine.