Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Today we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, overlooking Colorado Springs. The weather was beautiful. I won't bore you with lots of zoo pictures, but here is a picture of a meerkat:

Above the zoo is the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun:

The shrine, the zoo and The Broadmoor were all built by Spencer Penrose, who made millions in gold and copper mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We drove up to the shrine, and climbed the tower. Laura on the top of the tower:

To the right of Laura you can see The Broadmoor and downtown Colorado Springs. To the left of the flagpole (touching the pole) you can see the Garden of the Gods.

Denver Art Museum

I had a meeting in Denver on the afternoon of August 19 and the morning of August 20. On the afternoon of August 20, Nancy and Laura came up from Colorado Springs to Denver and we all went to the Denver Art Museum together. Laura especially wanted to see the special exhibit "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism."

The director of the Denver Art Museum is Lewis Sharp; he is the brother of John Sharp of Burlington. John Sharp, Tony Smith and I climbed a lot of mountains together in the winters of the 1980s and 1990s. We still get together once a year to catch up. Yet another connection—John's daughter Laura (who also hiked with us occasionally) taught chemistry at Colorado College for a couple of years.

After visiting the Denver Art Museum, we had dinner outside on the sidewalk at the Hard Rock Cafe on the 16th Street Mall. A passerby on the sidewalk stopped by our table and asked me if I was Mark Udall! (Mark Udall is a Congressman from Colorado who is currently running for the U.S. Senate.)

The Democratic National Convention is in Denver starting on Monday, August 25. We saw signs for the convention but no other unusual activity or crowds.

Laura Goes to Colorado

On Monday, August 18, Nancy and I flew with Laura to Colorado Springs for Laura's freshman year at Colorado College. The check-in line at the Burlington Airport:

At the airport we unexpectedly met Eric and Barbara Burnham. Eric is the only child of Clayton Burnham. (That earlier post mentions that Nancy and Laura attended the calling hours with me, but were out of town for a college visit on the day of the funeral; they were visiting Colorado College!) Eric and Barbara had been in Vermont to bury Clayton and take care of other family matters, and were returning home to Phoenix. You can see them in the background of this photo, but I did not notice them until a few minutes later when Barbara introduced herself:

We had uneventful flights and even arrived in Colorado Springs early.

August 18 was also Nancy's and my 29th anniversary. We celebrated by eating out (all three of us) at the Tavern at The Broadmoor. We ate in the glass-enclosed Garden Room. It was a delightful evening.

New Zealand Exchange Rates

Exchange rates for the past year [how many U.S. dollars (USD) one New Zealand dollar (NZD) will buy]:

Jeff Thredgold

Jeff Thredgold is an economist that I have heard speak a couple of times at Farm Credit conferences. He is interesting and humorous. He publishes a weekly newsletter online. The newslettter is called the "Tea Leaf," as in divining the future by reading tea leaves. This week's newsletter is titled "A Parent's Letter to My Children in School." It is good advice for people of all ages, whether you are in school or not.

Long Distance Relationships

Know anybody in this article in today's Burlington Free Press??

There is only mathematics

There is only mathematics; that is all that exists.

That is a quote from cosmologist Max Tegmark of MIT. Discover magazine published an interview with Dr. Tegmark in their July issue. Within the first three questions the interview mentioned both the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Surely, You're Joking Mr. Feynman! Dr. Tegmark is an interesting guy!

What is reality? For Dr. Tegmark, it is mathematics, which is not unlike saying it is a computer simulation (follow the link for the ideas of Nick Bostrom).

UPDATE: The idea that there is only mathematics is not new. It goes back to Pythagoras, he of the Pythagorean Theorem. No writings of Pythagoras survive, but Aristotle wrote: "The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics, not only advanced this subject, but saturated with it, they fancied that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things." (source)

Forehead on Mt. Mansfield

Nancy and I hiked up to the Forehead on Mt. Mansfield on Saturday, July 12. On top we met Heather Lutton and her roommate from last year, Erica. Erica had hiked the LT end-to-end earlier this year.


Flowers on top:

We hiked up the Frost and Maple Ridge Trails, and down the Maple Ridge, Rock Garden and Butler Lodge Trails. On the way down, Nancy rescued a lost dog—a chocolate lab named Vanilla!—by reuniting it with its owner.

Laura Goes to Paris

On Tuesday, July 8, Nancy went back to Logan Airport in Boston to put Laura and Eliza on a plane to Paris to visit Marion for two weeks. Lesley Ryan went with Nancy. Sorry, no pictures.

Laura, Eliza and Marion: Have fun! Hope to see some pictures of your trip when you get back.

Emily Goes to New Zealand

On Sunday, July 6, we put Emily on a plane to New Zealand. The check-in line at Logan Airport in Boston:

Brian came to the airport, too, to see Emily off.

Emily will be studying at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, and will return home in December. Emily, have fun! See you this fall when Mom and I visit.

Emily is keeping a blog of her semester abroad. The address of her blog is also in the sidebar to the right.

4th of July Parade

A few photos from the 4th of July parade in Jeffersonville this year..

In the first photo, you can see Thekla Lesure and Lynne O'Leary just behind the flags:

I don't know the woman who was Grand Marshall this year. In 1994 Pager was the Parade Marshal (that's what the sign said that year).


It was a beautiful day, and a good time was had by all!

Corolla Meets Chevy

Before Brian took the bus to Boston, he drove down a couple of times to look for apartments, etc. On one of those trips he got a little too friendly with a Chevy!