Oasis Museum Trip
This morning I attended an Oasis presentation at the San Diego Museum of Natural History titled "Ocean's Oasis". The subject of the lecture, slide show and movie was exploration of some of the wilder parts of Baja California and of the Sea of Cortés.
This lecture was scheduled to begin about an hour earlier than most Oasis lectures, at 9:15. To complicate matters, when I woke it was raining. It had traffic at a standstill, so I decided to allow some extra driving time. By the time I was ready to depart, traffic was moving again, however slowly. It continued moving at least 20 mph on the freeway, for which I was thankful, and I arrived at Balboa Park about half an hour early, plenty of time for me to walk from the Organ Pavilion parking lot, where mine was the third car to park, up to the museum. By the time things were supposed to start there were about twenty of us standing in front of the museum wondering why they hadn't opened their doors.
As it turned out, they changed the entrance to the opposite side of the building two years ago but there was no indication at the old entrance that it was no longer in use. One of the four doors had a "Use Other Door" sign, but that was all. Somebody finally came to get us and expressed surprise that there was no sign explaining the change.
We quickly signed in and entered the museum lobby, where we stood around waiting for what seemed like a long time. Finally we were allowed into the theater, which was like a smaller version of the Imax theater at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Center. That is, the rows of seats were sloped up at an extreme angle so they seemed to be one atop the other and the giant screen, when moved into place after the lecture, occupied just about our entire field of view.
The lecturer had a laptop computer that allowed her to control a series of slides and text screens, which helped her presentation considerably (especially the maps). She covered some of the different geology present in the area, from small mountains to flat islands, then described the diversity of living creatures that resulted from the multiple habitats and relative isolation one from another.
The expeditions made in 2002 covered two areas of the Baja peninsula that were particularly remote and isolated, areas with few occupants. The expedition planned for 2003 is for an area even more rugged, remote and isolated, almost uninhabited.
After the lecture, the doors were opened to allow a couple of hundred kids to enter, to watch the movie. They were a bit confused in finding their seats but were generally well behaved and quiet.
The movie was visually impressive. It showed lots of neat marine animals, from whales to nearly microscopic shrimp-like creatures as well as some impressive scenery. It was, however, a little short on information. I suppose they figured that once they caught your interest they could always provide the information later.
Afterwards I wandered around the museum for a while. Their special exhibit at the moment has to do with the domestication of dogs and the relation of dogs to other canines. It was a rich source of information and the displays were appealing and interesting. On an upper floor there were several volunteers with small exhibits of an "up close and personal" nature, like snakes you could hold or pet. There was also something whose presence I am unable to understand: a miniature golf course.
I had lowered my insulin dosage last night because I knew I would be getting plenty of exercise, both in the long walk to the museum and in walking around the museum for, as it turned out, two hours. My fasting level in the morning was still low, 125, so I wasn't surprised when I started showing symptoms of low blood sugar a bit earlier than I had intended to leave. I had some shopping to do (I needed syringes for my insulin), but I thought it prudent to head home early and get something to eat before going on. It was my good fortune that Delia had prepared one of her good chicken soups, with plenty of potatoes and carrots in it.
Comments (5)
Traffic. Ick.
I like that kind of theater set-up. If there weren't so many idiots who go to the movies, I wonder if such a set-up would be feasible for mainstream movies. You know, I've never been to the Museum of Natural History there in Balboa Park...just the one in NYC.
Don't you love it when people neglect to tell you something important, like "entrance on other side of building?"
I don't know what happened. I started having trouble with Cox, my ISP, when the entry was about half done. I saved the half done entry, then set it to private and went on to complete the entry. By the time I was done, though, Cox had gone down completely. I saved my work with a text editor, figuring nobody could see the incomplete entry because it was private. Imagine my surprise to see the comments! I just finished updating the entry a moment ago.
This is a completely different entry to what I read yesterday!
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