Not My Ordinary Day Off

Last week my husband and I took a rare day off. We traveled with eight others in our church van to the Science Museum of St Paul.

Our next door neighbors are retired missionaries from Peru. They donated their collection from Aguarana Indians  to the Science Museum and we were invited to go see the private collection.

When we arrived at the museum we spent some time individually to see the exhibits and had lunch at the museum.

At 1:00 we met as a group to go to the collections area of the museum. Our neighbor, Dennis, directed us to the part of the collections where his collection was cataloged and stored in special cabinets at the museum. I didn’t take any photos of the collection because that requires special permission.

I was impressed at the collections that are stored in the museum that will probably never see the light of day to the average person because of the lack of funds and time to display them in the museum.  They are hoping to  post the photographic images of the collections online so people can see what the museum has in its collections department. People are welcome to see the collections if they ask permission and have a guide to show them.

While we were waiting to meet someone for our tour at the museum I looked out the window to the south of the museum and saw this riverboat.

When I was processing this photo I enlarged the sign on the boat to find its name and was surprised to discover that it is a bed and breakfast named the Covington Inn. I think it would be a very interesting place to spend a night or two. I may have to investigate the possibilities.

Another view out the museum window was of these trees. I loved the way it depicted a cheerful winter day. The science museum is about 100 miles south of where I live and it is unusual for there to be snow there but not at home. Right now our yard is nothing but brown grass and barren trees except for the pines.

One of my favorite inside photos was of this sculpture. In the entry of the museum an entire wall is covered with these blue acrylic tiles that look like sails complete with rigging. I loved how the tiles changed colors as the sun hit them. I love sailing and I had no trouble picturing hundreds of tiny sailboats at sea when looking at the sculpture.A  lovely reminder of one of my favorite summer memories.

Our day off ended as many do combining business with pleasure. On our way home they dropped off my husband and I at a transportation lot to pick up two vehicles for our lot. It was not without a bit of trouble. One of the vehicles had a dead battery. We had sent the others on their way home before we discovered the dead battery so we needed to go buy a set of jumper cables to get it started before we could finish our trip home.

Perhaps last Thursday was a glimpse into our retirement years when we will ride in vans or busses in large numbers to a designated destination. We were the two youngest in the group. The oldest was an 80 something retired teacher. I hope that when I am her age I will be interested in going to new places and seeing new things.

Every day you learn something new is a good day!