An Intergalactic Staycation

We have had a little bit of nice weather the last few days, so I decided I had to get out for a visit to my local area. First off to Port Dover by motorcycle on Sunday afternoon. Lots of bikes parked near Tim Horton's but the Apple Fritter Place was open, so I had to go there instead. While I waited for my half dozen apple fritters to fry, I drank a hot chocolate and learned from one of the local customers a bit more about Port Dover, such interesting facts as it costs $3500 each time the lift bridge goes up. Wow, that's three and a half times the cost of my sailboat to lift the bridge up to let my sailboat through. It would actually be cheaper for the Province of Ontario to sink my boat there and buy me a similar boat launched on the other side of bridge each time I came through.

Second interesting fact was that the Friday 13th application for the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest single day motorcycle event on Earth was disqualified because they did not count the motorcycles as they paraded past one single road check. (instead they got people in town to fill out tickets which were then counted)

Next one is November 13th 2009 and I hope to be there, but not if it's raining or snowing as it will also be very cold. I don't need two problems at once.

Today I stuck closer to home and travelled by bicycle. The last time I wrote about a staycation I mentioned that the entire world seems to come to Canada, so by visiting ethnic restaurants you can feel like you are anywhere on Earth. Today I was reminded that within this area you can also travel backwards and forward through time, explore other planets and the entire galaxy. Travelling to the past is easy, because near Waterloo we have horse and buggy driving Mennonites, who also plow the field with oxen or horses (not sure which, Mary Ann is the one who knows more about farming.) This morning as I was grocery shopping there was a Mennonite couple in front of me at Food Basics, dressed in a costume I'm sure dates back to the 1800's. Except it was not a costume, it was their clothes. Then this afternoon I decided to go for a bicycle ride. In the middle of Waterloo Square was a huge tent with a display put on by the Perimeter Institute, an institution of theoretical physics in Waterloo. It was free admission and I hope to go back before the show ends (I think Oct 25?). The displays that were most spectacular were the prototype (or full size mock up) of the Mars Rover that will be sent up in 2011. I was surprised to find it was the size of a car. Then there was a cloud chamber to observe radiation emitted from a radioactive metal, and some cosmic rays from the universe. Not sure I saw the cosmic rays, but I certainly saw radiation from the metal. Also there was a superconductive magnetic toy track that you could send super cooled magnets around, hovering in the air. They continued circling so long that you could almost swear they were self propelled, but the magnets were just coasting on inertia with no friction. Also there was a 3-D tour of the galaxy from the beginning of time to the end, with a trip through the Milky Way Galaxy to the centre, and a look at the Earth's ocean currents and wind currents in a tornado. The amazing 3-D effects were observed through polarized eyeglasses.

In case you are still wondering, I did not eat all six apple fritters from Port Dover. I ate three there, took four home (I got an extra one for free), Mary Ann woke up from being sick long enough to down two of them, then I finished the last two off.