View source for Friday 27 September 2024

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== Friday 27 September ==
=== Hermits Rest Bus Tour ===
Friday was a pretty open day.

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Image:IMG_3782.jpeg|Tammy getting up and ready!


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=== Hike at Shoshone Point ===
Friday was a pretty open day.

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Image:IMG_3782.jpeg|Tammy getting up and ready!


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=== Geology Museum ===
I can't recall exactly how we got onto the idea of checking out the [https://home.nps.gov/places/000/yavapai-geology-museum.htm Geology Museum], but we did.  It's out by Granduer Point, on Entrance Road about 3/4 of the way from Maswik to the Park Store and Visitor's Center.  I think we wanted to go to the Park Store for something, maybe snacks for the long ride on Saturday out to Antelope Canyon and back to Las Vegas.<br>

Anyway, we did, and it was fairly unimpressive and mostly meant for kids.  BUT, Grandeur Point was cool, you could see down to the river, and there was a guy there with a spotting scope (for hunting) letting folks take look.  He happened to mention there was going to be a skygazing/astronomy night that night at the Visitor's Center!  That was great news, as I had wanted to do that all summer, but the Park's website implied that all of those had happened for the season.<br>

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Image:Yavapai Geology Museum.jpeg|Yavapai Geology Museum
Image:museum road.png|location
Image:Merchandise-on-shelves-inside-Yavapai-Geological-Museum-Store-at-Yavapai-Point-Grand-Canyon-National-Park.jpeg|Gift Shop
Image:museum inside.jpeg|museum inside
Image:Museum view.jpeg|Museum view

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=== Dinner at "We Cook Pizza and Pasta, Tusayan, AZ ===
After a busy day, and being on a short carb hiatus, we had dinner at the conveniently located "[https://wecookpizzaandpasta.com/ We Cook Pizza]" restaurant near the iMax and Buck Wild in Tusayan.  Our tour guide had recommended it, and there we good reviews online.  It was actually quite tasty, and I over-ordered (16" didn't sound that big...) and I think I enjoyed the bread sticks more than the pizza, but it was all good.<br>

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Image:We Cook Pizza.jpeg|
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Image:we cook 3.jpeg|

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=== Cheering Hikers at Bright Angel Trailhead ===
We had a bit of time to kill after dinner, but waiting for the sun to set for the stargazing event... and John had some really good stories from Wednesday night when he'd walked from our lodge back down to the BA to see if folks were still coming up the trail.  We were all pretty intrigued, so we walked down to check it out, and give Elizabeth a bit of exposure to the trail itself.<br>

We ran into several groups of Rim2Rim hikers, one really big group that was missing one of theirs (she did turn up while we were there), and one older lady that came up while we were hiking down to the arch that told us about getting dehydrated while on the hike (yikes).  But Elizabeth was the hit of the event because she just couldn't contain her exuberance!<br> 

[[File:IMG_3587.mov]]<br>
Elizabeth Cheering hikers on!<br>

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Image:IMG_3580.jpeg|Selfie
Image:IMG_3581.jpeg|"USie"
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=== Stargazing / Astronomy Night at the Visitor's Center with Dean Regis ===
It just happens that Thursday night was Jupiter's closest approach to Earth, and [https://astrodean.com/ Dean Regas] ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Regasdea wiki]) (formerly of the [https://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/ Cincinnati Observatory] ([https://oldsite.cincinnatiobservatory.org/dean-regas/about-dean/ old website]), where we had previously met him during an Open House) was in town in the park that week, and leding a stargazing evening on Friday.  <br>

He had recently 'retired' from the Observatory, and was [https://www.threads.net/@deanregas/post/DAgN7dhP7Mu in town] to do a Rim2River (starting on the north rim, and North Kaibab Trail), stay a few nights at Phantom Ranch, and then hike up the Bright Angel to the south rim, and hosted the astronomy night beforehand.<br>

So, after dinner at "We Cook", we headed back to the Visitor's Center and started looking around for astronomers.  It was a bit confusing at first, as there was no big banner or anything saying there was going to be an event, but once the sun started to set you could easily see the red LED light strips leading you behind the center to the parking lot where they had setup.<br>


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Image:IMG_3590.jpeg|"Follow Me" to the stars
Image:Regas Tweet.png|Dean does his "Rim to Rim" (over 4 days)
Image:Regas 1.jpg|Dean at the River
Image:Dean Regas.png|Dean's Bio
Image:Drone_2Buildings-md.png|Cincinnati Observatory
Image:IMG_1923.jpeg|A green laser was used to point out targets to the audience
Image:IMG_3942.jpeg|Part of the Milky Way was evident above us

Image:IMG_3591.jpeg|Milky Way shots
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<br>
Go back to [[Thursday 26 September 2024|Thursday the 26th]] or on to [[Saturday 28 September 2024|Saturday the 28th]]<br>