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And on into Flagstaff, and into the Hampton Inn, room 409 (she's so fine...). Our room is a box.
A quaint, southwestern style box, but a box nonetheless. We ventured into town to eat at Cafe
Espress, the local cafe/bakery/gallery. Bianca enjoyed spinach enchiladas with tofu, while I dug
the Montreal chicken on foccaica (sic).
DAVE: They make a great espresso shake here...
Flagstaff is kind of odd. It feels sort of Berkeleyish, kind of San Diego-ey, in a Southwest
manner. There's also hints of Long Beachitude. We walked around some of the stores and galleries,
most of which were closing as evening was coming on. We turned into the local alternative music
store and picked up some more musical necessities.
Photos - Click to Enlarge
That evening Dave finally had the chance to see Lowell Observatory, something he's wanted to do
for a long time:
The Lowell Observatory is a National Historic Landmark, and deservedly so; it was founded in 1894
by the mathematician Percival Lowell, and among the major advances made here was that of the
expansion of the universe and the discovery of Pluto. Our dear readers who see no importance
in these findings should skip the rest of this bit. ;)
Inside we were treated to a brief lesson or three in Astronomy (Timothy, you may know of this one:
find the Big Dipper, then "arc" to Arcturus, then "spike" on to Spica!), and a walk through the
gift shop where Dave urgently realized he needs more posters.
Outside, it was pleasantly eerie here above seven thousand feet, with the wind rustling through
darkened trees. Unfortunately the wind was too strong to see through the original telescope created
here, the Clark Telescope, since the huge doors on the observatory are over a hundred years old and
could well collapse. We did, however, see the telescope positioned on its counterbalance and the
large dome rotate, which was startling but exciting as we realized the entire roof was turning on a
series of truck tires. Smaller telescopes were available to see a very prominent Venus and Jupiter
below the treetops. We also saw galaxies M81 and M82.
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With Dave properly happy and Bianca tired but accomodating, we went back downtown into the
Wine Loft, a small upstairs lounge on San Francisco Street. Bianca sipped at a Toscolo Chianti, and
Dave tried an Onix Grenache Carinena, wishing he could buy that bottle of Bonny Doon "Heart of
Darkness" since it would look grand in the gothic area at home. He would also have liked to get the
St. Amant Syrah '99, but poopygirl doesn't like Syrah.
BIANCA: Hey, Kevin, to finish off the evening I had a Duvel Belgian Ale, in your honor.
And now to bed. Another tidbit about Arizona: there seems to be, no matter what time of night, a
Western on television.
DAMAGE REPORT: Dave's right eye has something wrong with it. He couldn't keep it open for more than
a few seconds, and it kept drying out. This went on for TWO DAYS. By the way, everything is going
to happen to Dave on this trip.
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NOW PLAYING: Van Halen - Fair Warning
