Uncle Howie

About a month ago, I spent a week at a workshop to learn a new technique to teach students. I was in Ashburn, VA and at the Janelia Farms Research Center of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. If you've seen "The Aviator" with Leo DiCaprio, you'd know who Howard Hughes was. This is a biomedical research facility build with the money he left behind. It is a state-of-the art, no expense too large, glass-walled structure that costed about $500 million! To receive a research grant from the HHMI means you are or well on your way to induction into the Academy of Science or winning the Nobel Prize.

Even though we were there to learn, we were pampered by stays in rooms that were beyond luxurious and food that was glorious. I gained 5 pounds in one week!


There are labs in there!

Beautiful sunset over the building and a small pond

A great blue heron lives by the pond in front of the research building.

May 25 London (Last day)

The British Museum is the home to perhaps the world's most extensive collection of artifacts from all corners of the world. In its height (around 1920), the sun never set on the British empire that covered a quarter of the world.
Many pieces were probably taken (stolen or robbed) unjustly. This is one chamber that housed many Chinese bronze urns dating back to 3000 BC, jade carvings, and various ivory items.
Jade horse

Mummified kitty cats (Sorry it's blurry)

Kitty replicas were also encased with the dead.


This is probably the most valuable artifact in the museum, the Rosetta Stone. Its discovery allowed archeologists to translate hieroglyphs. Top left corner shows 2 or 3 lines of hieroglyphs followed by large section of Egptian Demotic then Greek (bottom of picture).

Westminster Abbey

Houses of Parlament

Big Ben

You can bearly see the London Eye on the left, a ginormous ferris wheel. The view of London is suppose to be spectacular, but ticket to ride it was too expensive to tempt us.

Our stow-away makes another appearance.

Gate to Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace looks a lot bigger on TV. We missed the changing of the guards.

Picadilly Circus, London version of NYC's Time Square

May 24 London

Peter Pan, memorial to his creator J. M. Barrie

Swans in Hyde Park

The famous Harrods department store where everything is over-priced

Near the end of the afternoon, we ended up back at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was an interesting display in the main rotunda. The blue and yellow glass piece hung in the middle.

May 23 London

Today's tour included Tower of London! It's one of the main attractions in London.

This is St. Olave's Church. The gate had some morbid sculls on it I found interesting. We couldn't enter it to explore, just sat in its courtyard and ate some lunch. Lunch included French baguette from a couple of days ago. Even stale French bread tasted good!

The White Tower inside the Tower of London. The Tower of London was built in the 10th or 11th century by conquering Normans. It was more of a fortress and later used as a castle. Parts of the castle was used to imprison traitors. One most famous prisoner was Anne Boelyn, second wife of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth's mother. Anne was imprisoned and later beheaded. She's buried in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower.

Traitor's gate was where prisoners were brought into the Tower from the River Thames. Two excellent movies with scenes at The Tower are "Elizabeth" with Kate Blanchett and "A Man for All Seasons" about Sir Thomas More.

Front entrance to the Tower. The grassy area would be where the moat was. Inside the Tower also houses the Crown Jewels. I didn't find them nearly as fascinating. The little gem on my ring is worth more to me than all the diamonds, rubies, saphires, and gold, and silver in that collection of coronation regalia.

London bridge... intact... not falling down