Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

One of my free days a friend and I spent at the Wildlife Refuge that is on property of the Kennedy Space Center.  Part of it, we walked and part, we drove through.  Here is a brief picture journal of our adventures.

My friend Tina King taking pictures at the beginning of our day.  Tina was an Einstein Fellow last year.

Large group of pelicans and ibis were in a pond right off of our trail.

The Scrub Jay is unique to Florida and the park ranger told us that we would probably hear them, but they were shy and hard to see.  Well, this guy was not shy at all and let us take several pictures of him.

I was told that the Wood Stork was becoming an endangered species.  We saw several groups of them.

Everyone that comes to Florida wants to see an alligator.  We found this big guy sunning just off the road.

I even got to see the manatee.  There were about four of them eating and swimming at the Manatee Lookout.  It is really hard to get a picture of them, but they are very big.  The brown spot in the picture is mostly its tail.  they stand on their heads as they feed on the bottom.  I learned that they are closely related to the elephant.  

Florida

Last week I was in Florida for a workshop and tour at the Kennedy Space Center.  I went on Saturday which was a couple of days early so I had some time to explore Florida on my own.  I had arrange before I left DC to go on a kayak tour of the Thousand island area.  It was great.  Most of the time the water was only a couple of feet deep.  Thousand Island is make up of mangrove trees. We paddled around for about three hours while the guide told us about the wildlife and vegetation and history of the area.  There was one other family in our group.  The grandmother gave me a hat to wear and sunscreen (I had come straight from the airport and not very well prepared).  The grandfather was 80 years old.  They had come to Florida from Washington DC because he was running in a half marathon the next day.  No pictures because I didn't have my camera with me.

I stayed in a hotel that was right on the beach.  I love the ocean.  Spent so much time walking on the sand on the beach that I got blisters on the bottom of my feet.  I could walk to Ron Jon Surf Shop.  My suitcase was fuller on my return trip home :-).

Cocoa Beach is where the TV show, I Dream of Jeannie was supposed to take place.  This street sign was only one block from where I was staying.

This bird and I were the only ones on the beach during during my early morning walks.  He seemed to be as curious about me as I was about him.

Congressman Mike Simpson

Congressman Mike Simpson is my representative in the Idaho Congress.  His office called and asked me to make an appointment to visit with him.  He had gotten notice that I was here as an Einstein Fellow and he wanted to talk with me about what that meant.  We had a nice visit.  He didn't talk about educational issue even when I tried to steer the conversation in that direction.  I did learn that he was a dentist in Idaho Falls and grew up in Blackfoot.  We talked about the diversity of Idaho with urban and rural.

Congressman Simpson did say that he thought the big problem with education in Idaho was a lack of trust and fear.  The Superintendent of Education doesn't trust the Board of Education who don't trust the Legislators who don't trust the Idaho Educators Association and the teachers don't trust anyone.  If he were the governor, he would bring together a representative of all stakeholders at some sort of retreat where they could talk and start some real communication.

NSF Einstein Fellows poster session

Each year, the National Science Foundation hosts a poster session for all of the Einstein Fellows that work at the Foundation.  We each create a poster that tells about our background and educational interests.  Program Directors and others are invited to come and see the posters and visit with the Fellows. The purpose is for people at NSF to get to see who the Fellows are and what they are doing at their schools and during their fellowship.  I am posting my pictures from last year's and this year's poster session.
                                                                                                                                                                       

What do you think?  I think that I'm not getting older, I'm getting better!  (By the way, this year's picture is on the left, last year is on the right)

Leland Melvin, NASA

Each month Einstein Fellows get together to talk about business and what is happening in the fellowship. We meet at different agencies so that we can see where each of us work and find different places around the DC area that are involved in education and education policy.

This month we met at NASA Headquarters in SW DC.  Our special guest speaker was Leland Melvin, NASA Associate Administrator for Education.  He shared with us an incredible story of how his life got to where it is now.

As a young man, he wanted to play football, which he did in college and professionally.  During college he had an injury and while he was healing, a mentor suggested he take some engineering classes.  His response was, "Why, I only want to play football."  But he took the classes anyway and ended up getting a degree in material engineering.  After college another injury took him out of football and he was encouraged to apply to be an astronaut.  He did and was accepted.  But during training, he was injured and lost his hearing.  This stopped him from going into space (for a time) and got him involved in educational outreach.  There are many details that I am leaving out.  The main thing I took away from his story is that he thought he knew what he wanted to do - play football, but life took him on many different turns and all of them somehow prepared him for where he is now.  He has had many wonderful experiences and great disappointments and all of them have lead him to a place where he does what he loves and that is to help  people to "believe, inspire, and reach higher."

Leland is seated, the third from the left.  The rest are Einstein Fellows.

Leland as he is telling us the story of how in high school football he played wide end receiver.  The game is tied and the ball is thrown to him and...he misses it!  Unknown to him there is a pro football talent scout watching.  His coach, instead of pulling him out of the game, sends him back telling him that he can do it.  The ball comes to him again and this time, he catches it and makes the winning score.  His message was that sometimes we need someone to believe in us and give us a second, (or third or fourth) chance in life.

Hiking near Great Falls, VA

Today I went hiking with some people from NSF.  Once again, I drove my car.  Getting to the trail head was no problem, but coming back to DC I was supposed to get off the I-495 Beltway and take the George Washington Parkway.  Somehow I missed the exit and ended up on the 395 N.  I made it home, but it took twice as long.  I have been venturing out much more often and believe it or not, I am getting better at driving in DC.  We went hiking on the Difficult Run trail along the Potomac River.  After hiking with the group, I decided to drive another 5 miles to Great Falls National Park and hike a little more.  Good news was that they were waiving the Park fee because of the holiday.

Difficult Run Trail with the Potomac River in the background.

I did not know any of the people that showed up for the hike, but everyone was friendly and I had a good time.

This is Great Falls on the Potomac River.

The Potomac River looks much different here than it does a few miles down stream when it goes through Washington, DC. There it is wide and slow.  Here it is deep and wild.

The park ranger is explaining the lock system that was built to get boats around the falls.

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

Because this is Martin Luther King Jr Holiday weekend, even though it was very cold, I decided to get out and walk down to his new Memorial.  On the way I stopped at Eastern Market and bought a knitted ear band to keep warmer and then the post office to mail one more Estimated Tax check.  Since they don't take any withholdings out of my fellowship stipend, I have to plan a lot more carefully for taxes.  The MLK Memorial is quite a distance from my house, about 24 blocks.  I walked down Independence Ave and up Constitution Ave.  This blog is a picture log of some of the sights along the way.

Jefferson Memorial viewed across the Tidal Pool

Lincoln Memorial.  Notice how blue the sky is.

"Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope" described on the side of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

 

I love to look at trees in the winter.  These are some of the cherry trees given to the US by Japan after WWII.  They grow all around the Tidal Pool and are the reason for the Cherry Blossom Festival in the sprin.

Korean War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Viet Nam War Memorial.  You can see my reflection as I am taking the picture.                                                                                           

             

I stopped at the Air and Space Museum on my walk back home.  This is Amelia A plane and The Spirit of St. Louis plane.  I watched a presentation called Journey to the Stars in the planetarium theater.  It gave me a chance to warm up and give my feet a rest.

 As I left the Air and Space Museum, I saw this tree that apparently is very confused by the weather we have been having here in DC.  Everything is brown and dormant, except this tree which is covered with blooms. Hope you enjoyed sharing my walk in DC with me today.  Wish you could have been here with me and seen it for yourself.  I would have loved the company.