(no subject)
What a fun and relaxing weekend.
My parents and sister (and her boyfriend-like-thing by the name of Russell) drove down to StL Thursday night and went to the zoo Friday while I was at work. I'm not really a zoo person, so this worked out fine for me. After I was done, I met them and we went out to eat at Il Vicino (translation: the neighbor), a very good pizza place just west of here. We were just looking for some new and different Italian food, but realized when we got there that we had actually visited the same place in Denver, CO, last summer (they only are in six cities). It was good just the same. We then drove to our hotel, Drury Inn, a very nice hotel off of I-44. We swam in the indoor/outdoor pool a bit before going to bed.
After a nice hot continental breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Six Flags, which opened at 10:00. Even at that time, it was already beastly hot (high near 100 that day), and we only rode one roller coaster (Batman) before spending most of the day (5 hours) in Hurrican Harbor, a small water park that is included in admission. Even though we slathered (literally) SPF 45 sun block on our bodies three times, each of us still managed to get burnt somewhere; I got red in the particularly sensitive region on my shoulders where my bra straps are :-(. Our favorites were the lazy river and the "family" water slide where we all ride in one large innertube. There were SO many people there because of the heat and it was hard to not bump into and be bumped by other people. After we dried off, we spent the rest of the evening in the main park, riding a few more roller coaster and sitting forever on a spin-y upsidedown ride thing before they decided it was broken. Overall we didn't really ride too many rides, but I still had fun.
This morning we headed off to the Science Center (ScienCenter??) after picking up Alisha. We spent a good five hours there. Highlights included a 20 minute show on plastics. This may not seem interesting to you, but plastics are made of polymers, exactly what I'm working with in my REU. I knew a lot of what they lady talked about and I was very proud to raise my hand when she jokingly asked if there were any polymer chemists in the audience :-). She had some cool demonstrations where she made a plastic bag out of the side of a milk jug and green goo out of Elmer's glue and laundry detergent.
I had seen my family only two weeks ago, but it was nice to hang out with them some more. However, having Russell there was not such a good idea. No one knows (not even they) know if Dana and Russell are still a couple. They bickered constantly. "Do you want to come with me?" "Do you want me to come with you?" and "Where are your tennis shoes, Russell?" "In my room." "Go get them." "I don't want to wear them." "Go get them!" I wanted to strangle them at least once an hour. It's nice to be in StL long term while they are out of my hair.
I was going to put these up the weekend of the 4th, but got distracted by events, so here they are:
Cherokee Landing Lodge where we signed our lives away and gathered before getting bussed to the take off point. Mukund is on the left.
Take off point. Mostly canoes and rafts. One kayak.
From my vantage point in the back of the canoe. The alcohol was abundant, but no one got drunk.
Me!
Yeah, there's a snake in the water there . . . kinda hard to see, though.
Back at Cherokee Landing.
Alisha and James hangin in my common room.
Jason was drunk. James put shaving cream on him while he was sleeping (the green-ish stuff). When he woke up (slurred, of course): "I spilled shit all over me guys . . . " Good times.
My parents and sister (and her boyfriend-like-thing by the name of Russell) drove down to StL Thursday night and went to the zoo Friday while I was at work. I'm not really a zoo person, so this worked out fine for me. After I was done, I met them and we went out to eat at Il Vicino (translation: the neighbor), a very good pizza place just west of here. We were just looking for some new and different Italian food, but realized when we got there that we had actually visited the same place in Denver, CO, last summer (they only are in six cities). It was good just the same. We then drove to our hotel, Drury Inn, a very nice hotel off of I-44. We swam in the indoor/outdoor pool a bit before going to bed.
After a nice hot continental breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Six Flags, which opened at 10:00. Even at that time, it was already beastly hot (high near 100 that day), and we only rode one roller coaster (Batman) before spending most of the day (5 hours) in Hurrican Harbor, a small water park that is included in admission. Even though we slathered (literally) SPF 45 sun block on our bodies three times, each of us still managed to get burnt somewhere; I got red in the particularly sensitive region on my shoulders where my bra straps are :-(. Our favorites were the lazy river and the "family" water slide where we all ride in one large innertube. There were SO many people there because of the heat and it was hard to not bump into and be bumped by other people. After we dried off, we spent the rest of the evening in the main park, riding a few more roller coaster and sitting forever on a spin-y upsidedown ride thing before they decided it was broken. Overall we didn't really ride too many rides, but I still had fun.
This morning we headed off to the Science Center (ScienCenter??) after picking up Alisha. We spent a good five hours there. Highlights included a 20 minute show on plastics. This may not seem interesting to you, but plastics are made of polymers, exactly what I'm working with in my REU. I knew a lot of what they lady talked about and I was very proud to raise my hand when she jokingly asked if there were any polymer chemists in the audience :-). She had some cool demonstrations where she made a plastic bag out of the side of a milk jug and green goo out of Elmer's glue and laundry detergent.
I had seen my family only two weeks ago, but it was nice to hang out with them some more. However, having Russell there was not such a good idea. No one knows (not even they) know if Dana and Russell are still a couple. They bickered constantly. "Do you want to come with me?" "Do you want me to come with you?" and "Where are your tennis shoes, Russell?" "In my room." "Go get them." "I don't want to wear them." "Go get them!" I wanted to strangle them at least once an hour. It's nice to be in StL long term while they are out of my hair.
I was going to put these up the weekend of the 4th, but got distracted by events, so here they are:
Cherokee Landing Lodge where we signed our lives away and gathered before getting bussed to the take off point. Mukund is on the left.
Take off point. Mostly canoes and rafts. One kayak.
From my vantage point in the back of the canoe. The alcohol was abundant, but no one got drunk.
Me!
Yeah, there's a snake in the water there . . . kinda hard to see, though.
Back at Cherokee Landing.
Alisha and James hangin in my common room.
Jason was drunk. James put shaving cream on him while he was sleeping (the green-ish stuff). When he woke up (slurred, of course): "I spilled shit all over me guys . . . " Good times.