Hiking and Star Gazing

Wednesday, March 15th, 2017

Today, we got up and got going a little slower than we wanted, but Tori wanted to do the Hike at Hancock Hill. Tony agreed to do that, while I stayed back and did some work, as well as greet new folks coming in and get rally bags to those that didn't have them yet.

Tony and Tori hiked the hill! Alpine behind them!

On top of the world!

Although they did not find the desk, they said others did not either. Apparently there are lots of trails up there, and they didn't want to get lost. Oh well, they had a good time!

While they were gone, I visited with a number of folks around the park.

After they returned from the hike, we decided to eat lunch. I made sandwiches and had them ready when they came in.

Both Tony and Tori were pretty tired, and they took a nap on the recliners while I did a little work.

For dinner, we headed over to eat pizza in town at Guzzi Up. We had a good meal, and even some live music from a guy playing guitar and singing 70s and 80s tunes.

At 7:15PM, many attendees had made reservations to go the McDonald Observatory for the Star Party at 8:45 this evening, so we caravanned there.

Because the event is outdoors, we were restricted from using our phones -- any white light would contaminate the viewing for ourselves and others, so we didn't use our phones from dusk onward. Here's a photo and one borrowed from the Observatory's website.

Tori at the McDonald Observatory

Heartlanders waiting for the Star Party to start.

McDonald Observatory outdoor amphitheater 

The program was amazing, because the stars were so bright! They used a laser pointer to point to the constellations and other stars and galaxies. Then, we could go and look through various telescopes set up around the perimeter of the seating area, to view up close the different things we were shown earlier with the pointer. It was really incredible.

While in line for one of the telescopes, Tony realized he no longer had his wallet. We were just trying to figure out what to do,  when an announcement came over the loudspeaker... "Tony Dorsey, return to the Information Desk!" Yay! Someone had turned in his wallet!

After he retuned, we looked through one more telescope, and decided to call it a night. Many of the other Heartlanders had already left.

Upon returning to the truck, we noticed a headlight was out! Why does this only happen on trips?

We made it back to Alpine just fine.

Full moon rising, about 10:30pm.

We quickly got ready for bed, and crashed. It was after 11PM!