Fickle Flora At The Vancouver Aquarium

If you're a science, nature museum, you try to make the exhibits as natural as possible. No one wants to see a fish in a swimming pool. Unless you're into that fetish. The Vancouver Aquarium has stuffed real flora in various exhibits, dioramas, enclosures. Mostly real plants, fake walls.

Fresh lake. Tough to see where the concrete and plastic ends and the real plants begin.

Real turtle and mini sun. We believe! Mossy swamp. And wall.

More marsh.

Walls, poured and placed. Hello tiny frogs.

Another "natural" display, looking a little Trader Vic's tropical restaurant decor. Time for a drink.

Seeing A False Sea At The Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium has done an admirable job designing the big seal, sea creature tank areas into something that looks natural. Looks, not is. A big, fun to photograph difference.

Everybody and thing waiting on the next show.

Seals (sea lions?) cruising the rocky coast of urban Vancouver.

Levels of real. Trees, water, absolutely. Rocks? Enjoy the mystery.

More tank illusions.

Back to showtime. As long as the audience is focused on the action, the backdrop is believed.

Seeing Life At The California Academy Of Sciences

The big science museum in San Francisco has all sorts of fun stuff. A rainforest, aquarium, animals from Africa, little things to make you jump.

And live penguins! Beats any large screen TV.

Pinned dead rodents and lizards in a jar. Seems like the best way to see those beings. Meet Methuselah, the oldest aquarium fish. An Australian lungfish, aged 93 years. What do you get the fish that has everything? More fish!

Hanging out at the coral reef show.

Green stuff. Lizard in a habitat tank and the grassy, enviro-friendly, otherworldly roof.

Meet Claude, an albino alligator. He'll be sure to make it a one time meeting as he eats you.

A Big Whoop For The Whoopie Pie Festival

Whoopie pies supposedly originated in Maine and every year the small town of Dover-Foxcroft throws a big festival in the iconic dessert sandwich's honor. You had us at Whoop!

The festival takes over the downtown. Lots of stalls selling crafts, various foods, all sorts of things to exchange for money.

Getting down to business. Tons of whoopie pies available, heaps of vendors, millions of flavors. Time to get stuffed.

Clever. A little whoopie pie knit work.

Once you've received your sugar rush, head over to one of several diversions. A little parking lot pro wrestling? Don't mind if I gawk!

Exit through the swag booth. 2024 festival consumed, rack it.

Meandering In Maine

A little time in Maine in the summer of 2024 brought a few random memories.

A rainy afternoon in Belfast at Young's Lobster Pound.

The lobster lunch, destroyed. Hand painted, wood ice cream cone sign at Carrier's Mainely Lobster restaurant in Bucksport.

Wearing shoes on the hands at Tinder Hearth in West Brooksville.

Views at Mount Cadillac in Acadia. Wedding pictures and a long look.

Desolate times. The closing of a local, longtime grocery, Merrill & Hinkley, in Blue Hill.

The People's Public Security Museum

Seems like a safe place to visit. It's also called the Police museum and there also are displays of fire, rescue trucks. Maybe it's Civil Servants who Will Save Your museum? The museum is definitely a grab bag of curious.

Out front. "We come to bring peace."

First curiosity: an elaborate miniature diorama you peek into. Something about drug, leftist caves? Seized money. All about the Benjamins the world over.

Drugs and traditional textiles don't mix. Unless you want to hide the drugs.

More nefarious implements. Mounted guns and mounted pipes.

Back out front, various vehicles, ready to respond. Well, not these vehicles, they're now forever stripped and mounted. No worries, someone will show up when you need them.

Spying The Kayson Phomvihane Memorial, Part Two

Time to check out some of the many intriguing details seen at the Kayson Phomvihane Memorial. A great leader's life distilled down to objects.

Living room trophies. Killed, stuffed, varnished, mounted.

All shoes belong here. In the nightstand for polishing, on the floor for exercising and lounging. Stationary bike.

Phomvihane's closet. Winter coats for the big visit to Moscow.

Colognes and telephones.

At the nearby meeting hall, key props for a successful conference. Board for info, clock for expediency, Lenin statue for ideology. "Let's get down to building a nation."

Spying The Kayson Phomvihane Memorial, Part One

Starting in 1955, Kayson Phomvihane was the leader of the Communist Lao People's Revolutionary Party and he became the first leader of an independent Laos in 1975. He led the country until his death in 1992.

His post civil war offices and residence were part of a large former compound for CIA/USAID, affectionally labeled "Six Klicks City" because it was located six kilometers from the center of Vientiane. When civil war broke out, the Americans fled and easy, new digs were available.

Today, the house and nearby offices are a memorial. Much of Six Klicks City still exists and is part of the Lao military campus. Past and present history around the area is heavy.

View of one of the humble, cinder block houses. One can imagine the Americans quickly building a U.S. style, suburban neighborhood. Ranch design and cheap, a lawn, a bucolic headquarters as a base for havoc in Southeast Asia.

Front entrance and a library. Strictly utilitarian. Consider it Linoleum Floor Provincial.

Blue living room. Shag for groovy '70s, tusks for power.

Desk and bedroom. Are we in Vientiane, Texas? It's hard to tell by the interior.

Super important meeting room. The fate of a nation, decided in an American box kit sunporch.