Kiting at Larz Anderson Park

We bought a ready made kite from Costco ($10) with very easy set up instructions. We tried our hand at kiting at the park. It was a day with moderate wind that came in short and varied bursts. But our kite still managed to have its moments.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LU LEI!

We went for a 3 course dinner celebration of Lu Lei's big day. The highlight of the night was the superb brownie topped with ice cream. Needless to say, I finished every single crumb.

Cambridge - Harvard University

We decided to hop on the T on a day trip to Cambridge this time. We first dropped by MIT and I have to say that it was VERY quiet. It was almost deserted and there were no signs of a major university nearby. We did not waste much time there after seeing for ourselves that the most crowded it got was the handful of people milling around in MIT's COOP. We decided to continue on down to Harvard square. There was where all the action was.

We found our way to Harvard Museum of Natural History and to our delight was able to go in for free (with Lu Lei's staff card).

Harvard Museum of Natural History is the most visited museum of the University. It has a huge collection of natural history and the world's only mounted Kronosaurus. They also have an impressive collection of meteorites, minerals and gemstones. It was an extremely educational afternoon, one which we would like to return to. It was not possible to cover everything in a couple of hours.

Lunar Eclipse 20th Feb 2008

The Lunar Eclipse this time was on the 14th day of the Chinese Lunar New year. We watched it from our front steps in the cold night. Lu Lei managed to take some pictures. It is quite something to witness it and to know that the next one will only be in 2010.

A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. There is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse.

You will notice in the last 2 photos that the moon looks red in colour. It was when the moon was in total eclipse (where the earth blocks sunlight from reaching the moon) but indirect sunlight still managed to reach and illuminate it. However, this sunlight must first pass deep through the Earth's atmosphere which filters out most of the blue colored light. The remaining light is a deep red or orange in color and is much dimmer than pure white sunlight.