Recap: Massachusetts vacation part 1.

I'm back!!! We've been back for a week, and I'm so sorry I haven't posted about our vacation earlier. My life has just been so busy. For those of you who didn't know where I went, this post is going to be all about it. :) My family took an eleven day vacation to Massachusetts, and we had lots of fun adventures. It all started on Wednesday, May 20th. Our family boarded a jet, and off we went. This was the first time that any of us girls had been on a jet; the takeoff was smooth, and the landing was...not so smooth.  We stayed with our sweet cousin in Grafton. (Before I get into the touring and sightseeing that we did, let me just tell you this: I took 954 pictures and videos altogether. So if I divide 954 by 11 days, that means I roughly took about 86 pictures a day. Well, a couple days I hardly captured any pictures.) So without further ado, here is a massive overload of pictures (times two). 
                                     What I saw when I looked out the window of the plane.

                                                          Flowers in our cousin's yard.

                      Bella is the dog's name. My cousin has 3 Shelties, and Bella is the oldest.

                                                         Here's a better picture of Bella.

 After we arrived in Grafton on Wednesday, our cousin drove us around the town and showed us where some cool places were. :) That evening she introduced us to Gelato, which is like ice cream, and it was so scrumptious.
On day 2, Thursday, our family got lost trying to find the Welcome Center in Boston. Finally, we made it to the city, and was able to enjoy a wonderful Duck Tour ride. We rode in a bus like this one, but ours was white. Our driver did a fabulous job at explaining what all the buildings were. I got to drive this bus in the water when it became a boat. It was pretty neat. Sarah and Deborah drove it as well. :)

    Here are some of the sights we saw while on the tour. 

 Here's a bus in the water. Now it's a boat. Here's something I learned from the tour guide. 

In 1919, on January 15th, there was a Boston Molassacre. A huge molasses tank had risen above 40 degrees F.  The tank was 50 ft. tall, and 90 ft. wide. It collapsed, and 2,300,000 gallons gushed out, creating a wave 25 ft. high, and 2-3 ft. in depth. Twenty-one people were killed in that sweet syrup. Isn't that awful?

 The next stop was intended to be Swan boat rides, but we never made it there. Instead, we walked through Trinity Church. 

 The inside of the church.

 You can see the pipe organs in the back of the church.

 

 After the duck tour, we rushed back to the car in the parking garage, because we had to leave by a certain time. Daddy was going to drive us back home, but then mommy suggested that we visit the USS Constitution. So we found our way there, only to find that the ship was closed and in dry dock due to construction. So we were content to walk around in the museum.

(You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them, if you wish.)

The 2 pictures above go together.

 

This little goat made noises when you walked on the staircase.

Mommy and the 2 girls walked back towards the car, while daddy, Sarah, and I took a little walk to see the Destroyer.

Friday morning we visited the Science Museum. It was 3 stories and very entertaining to walk through. In one section of the Hall of Life, there was a cage with chicken eggs in it. Two babies hatched and they were so cute!!!

We watched a lighting show. It was pretty cool.

 Beware: Giant Mosquito.

Platypus
 
Ostrich egg
 
 Guess what kind of animal this cute little guy is? 
A Pack Rat. I didn't even know these animals existed.

Here's what the sign said next to his home. (This is a stuffed Pack Rat. Just letting ya'll know that it wasn't running around the cage. :) 
 While packrats are found all over the country, those that live in the desert create very unusual nests. Because these rodents also use their home as their bathroom, the excretions form the structure of their dens, which eventually harden into solid masses called middens. Anything that the packrats collect; such as shotgun shells, fish hooks, and bones of other animals, can also become part of their homes. Generations of packrats build on to the same midden while living in the most recent sections. 

 This is petrified wood.

 

Deborah and I had the privilege of going inside the butterfly garden. There were so many different kinds of butterflies, and we got to look through this super small microscope and see a dead butterfly in magnification. That was so cool! 

I do believe this is a powder puff.

This is a giant moth that has laid lots of eggs, which won't ever hatch because they were never fertilized. She had to be locked up in a glass cage because she would fly all over the butterfly garden, and lay eggs everywhere she landed.

These butterflies were mating. I was watching one butterfly hover over another one, so I asked a man in there what they were doing. He said the one that was hovering was the male, and he put off this special scent that demobilized the female. I'm going to end this post with a creation moment about the Swallotail butterfly. They are truly amazing, God glorifing critters. :) Hope you enjoy it. 
The Light-Emitting Swallotail
Genesis 1:3 "And God said, 'Let there be light;' and there was light." 
Though tiny, the scales of the swallowtail butterfly's wing are similar in design to light-emitting diodes. We say similar because the design is closwer to a specialized light-emitting diode that puts out six times as much light as a standard LED.

The blue-green wing of the swallowtail is covered with millions of tiny scales. Each microscopic scale has three layers. The top layer is made up of thousands of hollow cylinders shaped in a honeycomb pattern. There is fluorescent pigment within the sides of those cells. The second layer adds the blue-green color to entering light, and the bottom layer reflects it back out. As the light enters, the top layer focuses and reflects all the blue-green light that enters it. The second layer turns any other color entering light – including ultraviolet light – blue-green, and the bottom layer reflects it back out.
The efficiency of the delicate structure has been compared to LEDs that have two-dimensional photonic crystals that put out six times as much light as regular LED. As one scientist put it, they had no idea that the design would be so "precise" and "refined." Of course it's precise and refined, showing an understanding of light! It was designed by the same Creator Who created light in the first place.
creationmoments.com

I will be writing another post soon. And don't worry! This time I won't take as long to post that one as I did this part 1. :) 
Have a fabulous week everyone, and I hope you enjoyed viewing the pictures and reading about our trip. 
Love,
Ashley