Melyssa-with-a-Y

Homeward Bound  We got up at 8 – I smelled bacon! – and showered and went into the main house for breakfast. The Inn’s cook made us breakfast (we never got their names!) – scrambled eggs, toast, hash browns and Canadian bacon. Here, at least, the coffee was better. We were the only people staying in the house, so the staff sat and chatted with us for a while. We got an impromptu history lesson about Fort Davis – one woman’s mother had worked in town for Harvard University’s radio telescope astronomers (and that is why there’s a Harvard Hotel in town!) so she had been there since the late 50’s. She talked about how different it was once the NPS took over the Fort itself – kids used to go and climb on the ruins, etc. She also told us that there are four foreign exchange students staying in the house, and one of them is the Polish kid that we’d seen at Murphy’s and the Drugstore.   (aha!) We had to stop at the Davis Mountain Nut Co. store in town – we’d had their “mocha m...

Day 3: McDonald Observatory Wednesday morning, we started with some instant oatmeal in our room, rather than trying to hunt for a breakfast spot again. And here we come to lesson #4: The coffee in west Texas sucks .  Granted, it was hotel room coffee, but even the stuff from the lobby was bad. Even Alice’s coffee on Tuesday was bad. And the trend continued through McDonald and Fort Davis. Or maybe I’m just spoiled by the awesome coffee maker we have at home, and the ready access to Starbucks, which hasn’t made it out to Marfa yet. Just sayin’.  I stopped in the gift shop for a Marfa t-shirt, and we set off to the north for Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory . We stopped for lunch in Fort Davis at Murphy’s and had subs. They were really good. We also learned lesson #5: everything comes with a bag of Lay’s potato chips.   At first, I ate them, but later in the trip we just started hanging on to them, and came home with 4 bags in our “snack sack,” whi...

Marfa, McDonald and Beyond This is the wonderful trip John planned for me for my birthday (6 months ago) and only revealed in early July. When he had the idea in February, the first time the tickets were available to the special viewing at the 107” telescope at McDonald was August 21. So that became the central event around which the trip was built. We left on Monday and started the drive west. We stopped for lunch in Mason, TX – a quaint little town with a population of 2,104. The town’s claim to fame is that the largest blue topaz found in the US was discovered there. But of course that museum was closed on Mondays. (We should’ve sensed a theme…) We had lunch and looked around a bit, added a little gas to the tank, and got back on the road. (114 miles) Turns out Mason was exactly half-way to our first planned vacation destination, the Caverns of Sonora , in Sonora, TX (114 miles).  The caverns are a National Natural Landmark. The cave was warm and muggy (98% h...

In February, John decided we should go away for a weekend. Because of our schedules (mostly mine, sadly), we didn't get to go until this weekend. He chose a cute little B&B with individual cabins, in Fredericksburg, TX. Unfortunately, we waited a little too long to leave on Friday, so it took longer than it should have to get there. But, we picked up our keys and went to find some dinner. The food (and the beer!) at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company was just what we needed (maybe too much!), and John picked up a t-shirt that turned out to be perfect for our Saturday adventure. After dinner we went back and found our cabin at Barons Creekside . It was adorable! The cabin was originally built in Kentucky and brought to Fredericksburg. From what we could tell, it was sort of split in half, and they put the kitchen and bathroom area in the middle, between the living room and the bedroom. But it was just enough space for us. :) Saturday morning we got up relatively early and set...

All in one night! Ah, the contrasts of Austin. :) Saturday was "get your groove on" night. While we do absolutely loooove seeing Skyrocket or the Spazmatics at Cedar Street, sometimes it's nice to go hear music someplace where you won't sweat to death within 60 seconds (i.e. indoors). So on Saturday we decided to go to the famous Broken Spoke . Cowboy boots required! (well, not officially, but strongly encouraged!) We had to have dinner first, of course, so El Sol y La Luna was destination #1. Yummmm. A carpool of four turned into dinner for five - no, six! - and then a table for seven at the Spoke. The singer -- Dale Watson -- looked a good deal like Billy Bob Thornton, though with more hair (and a little more meat on his bones). The dance floor was packed most of the night. The people-watching was amazing - everyone from long-time-practically-pro-dancer couples, to little kids being held up by their (grand)parents as they spun around the room, to a sudden ...

Last month, I was reminded of the utter idiocy that abounds in (parts of) Texas. This month, I'm pleased to say, my position was upheld by some pretty smart people. Regarding the proposal by the Creation Institute to train "science" teachers in creationism in Texas : "The latest round of so-called creation science truly scares me and all of my colleagues here at UT Southwestern Medical Center," wrote Alfred Gilman, dean of UT Southwestern's medical school and a Nobel Prize winner in medicine. "Approval of this sort of nonsense as science in Texas will have a significant negative impact on our ability to attract the best minds to the state." HA! The one that really gets me is from another Nobel laureate: Steven Weinberg, a physics professor at UT-Austin and a Nobel laureate in physics, [said,] "In my opinion, it would be a blow to science education in Texas, and an embarrassment for Texas ," he wrote. But ...