Quote of the Week

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not sure I agree with all of these but it's nice to have affirmation of my trained early riser behavior

Quote of the Week

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Quote of the Week

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Uncle John's NASA SHERE project

My brother John sent a link to this video of one of the projects he works on. He says, "Here's a link to an excellent video Mike Fossum made of SHERE II (one the experiments I designed) during our first science runs on Monday.  It has been posted to the NASA web site, and it really shows off SHERE well!"

Astronaut Mike Fossum With SHERE

Flight Engineer Mike Fossum aboard the International Space Station takes a moment to demonstrate the Shear History Extensional Rheology Experiment. Known as SHERE, the experiment investigates the effect of rotation on the stress and strain response of a polymer fluid being stretched in microgravity. SHERE provides information that is critical for the evolution of containerless processing, an important operation for fabrication of parts used on future exploration missions.

Zucchini Casserole

This is a favorite in my extended family! I'm posting it here so we don't have to dig through Mom's recipe box for half an hour to find it. =D

Gayle assembles the casserole deliciousness:

And here's the recipe:

Recapping T's Birthday/Schotz's Big Bite Take 3

For T's birthday, July 24th, we did Schotz's Big Bite Take 3 (Schotz's Big Bite here, SBB Take 2 here) with the Guy's Big Bite episode "Boardwalk Wieners." We made hot dogs (wieners Rhode Island style), onion rings, peach cobbler, and T got a special present from Heather, his babysitter.

We started by slicing two onions (Texas Sweets) in buttermilk for an hour:

Next we made the chili...

... made the peach cobbler filling...

... and got ready to fry the onions. Seasoned flour is in the big pan, beer batter in the smaller one (we used Sweetwater 420 for the batter). 

Making the onion rings:

We boiled the hot dogs, steamed the buns and assembled the Boardwalk Weiners. Final product:

Baking the cobbler:

The whole dinner was a big success. T especially liked the onion rings (so much so that we didn't get a photo of the finished product!). The icing on the cake was this adorable "cookie T" that Heather made him:

Happy birthday T!

Wade Chapel

While we were at Lakeview Cemetery on Friday we visited the Wade Memorial Chapel.

The interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his studios in New York and it is stunning. The centerpiece is an enormous stained glass window at the front of the chapel:

Along the side walls are intricate mosaic murals (each one is 8 feet tall and 32 feet long) depicting sections of the Old Testament of the Bible. The docent, a former Latin teacher, shined a light on different areas and explained their significance. 

My nephew, Ethan, who visited in the spring with his gifted class, told us about the back entrance. The chapel is built on a hillside with the back a level lower so the horse-drawn carriage could deliver the coffin sight unseen. Inside the back entrance, a series of pulleys would raise the deceased up to the front of the chapel. 

On a side note, even the floor in the chapel was beautiful:

Learn more about the chapel here.

Terminal Tower Observation Deck

Saturday, T, Gram and I visited the Observation Deck on the 42nd floor of the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland.

Photo from All Things Cleveland of the Tower, taken from the Cuyahoga River

The Observation Deck is open Saturdays and Sundays from mid-April til mid-December on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Tickets are $5 per person and can be purchased online at http://terminaltowerodeck.eventbrite.com/ (with a small credit fee per ticket) or at the Guest Services desk in Tower City (cash only). We parked in the underground garage at the corner of W 6th and Superior - from the P2 level our elevator came out right in the lobby of the Tower. (Just be careful because many of the spots are marked reserved.)

We were really happy that the weather held (there was a 60% chance of rain). Here are our pictures from the Observation Deck: 

Looking to the north: Browns Stadium and Lake Erie; Key Building on the right.

close up of the wind turbine in front of the Great Lakes Science Center.

Cuyahoga River

Looking northwest. The dots in the lake are two lighthouses.

Zooming in on the lighthouses.

Looking down at Public Square.

The Observation Deck opened in spring 2010 after being closed for years. It's been restored to its original 1920s decor. One of the nice features is that at each of the windows there is a photo with major landmarks labeled so you know just what you're looking at. The whole building is beautiful. 

Compass on the floor of the observation deck area

lobby elevator doors

The staff told us visiting in December you can see all the holiday lights and decorations... so maybe we'll have to go back up!

Quote of the Week

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The Garfield Monument

Friday we visited Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland primarily to see the Garfield Monument. T has been really interested in the US Presidents lately; the monument memorializes the 20th President, James A. Garfield.

the front of the monument

The tomb is on the lower level (aka the basement). President Garfield and Mrs. Garfield are both laid to rest: the President's has the flag. Their daughter and her husband are in the urns.

On the main floor is the rotunda with this statue of the President. The room is three stories tall (maybe higher) and is beautifully painted all the way up to the top. The thirteen original colonies and his home state of Ohio are depicted in a series of stained glass windows and murals around the perimeter of the rotunda:

New York's window

Ohio's mural

One of the big attractions of the monument is the view. We climbed up 5 flights of spiral staircase to the balcony and said, "Wow!" 

In the foreground, you can see University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University. In the background, downtown Cleveland and Lake Erie.

In this picture you can see the lake better. In the foreground is the new "Village" residence hall complex and stadium at CWRU. 

More info on the Lakeview Cemetery website and on wikipedia.

Fairport Harbor Lighthouse

Wednesday we visited the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse (and accomplished one of the items on my Cleveland area to-do list!). It's a great little museum with a whole variety of artifacts on the local area. One of the big draws is the story of the ghost cat that is said to haunt the Keeper's house.

This is an 'official' photo of the lighthouse and museum (in red, the Keeper's house) taken down the hill (between the harbor and the site).

Accompanying us on our adventure were Gram, my sister-in-law and nephews. The highlight of the visit was the climb to the top of lighthouse. 

Gram, Ethan and Chrissy at the top!

The pretty but scary stairs to the top. There's only a railing on the wall side and the spiral is really tight. T and I made two attempts. One the first one, an older man ahead of us had to turn around so we went back to the bottom (there's not much passing room and I was feeling a little scared, I'll admit it!). On our second try, we made it past the 50th step (less than 20 to go), when Thomas said it was time to retreat. Not sure if he was worn out or claustrophic or afraid, but going down is much harder than going up! 

We were proud of Elliot because he didn't want to go up at all, but after an initial attempt that didn't succeed, he tried again and made it all the way up! To his left, above, you can see the "door" to the outside, which is actually a hole in the wall that you have to crawl out of to get outside!

We met for lunch at Fairport Family Restaurant, just across the street from the lighthouse, and would recommend it for an inexpensive meal - everything is made from scratch and was delicious! Service was great too.