Admit it, doesn’t that sound more appealing than exercising and giving up cheese for the rest of your natural born days?

According to the scale at the Fairbanks Museum Planetarium….

You’ll lose 25lbs on Venus, 107lbs on Mars… and damn Sam!

149lbs on the moon.

Someone get me Elon’s number, I need to book a flight.

So yes, the planetarium show.

It was fabulous. Full of stunning arrays of the solar system and the night sky.

Shame you won’t get to see any of it…

Because once again, cameras were banned.

*Note to self – do not search Giphy for the word boo.

The results will not be what you are expecting.*

Moving on…

The second floor of the museum was devoted to cultural oddities from around the world.

And of course the building itself was weirdly wonderful.

The woods were glorious, and that’s a barrel vaulted ceiling. An engineering marvel of it’s day.

Glass display boxes circled the railings….

And were filled with marvelous pieces of weird history.

Because really, isn’t that the best kind?

Everything a girl could want was in those cases… jewelry.

Hair accessories….

Manicure extenders….

And shoes!

There were shoes!

Native American moccasins….

And Chinese Lily Feet slippers….

Which I have always had a morbid fascination for.

Heck, I complain about bunion pain….. can you imagine having your feet deformed like this on purpose?

I love me some shoes.

But even I don’t love them that much.

 

Day 5 of vacation dawned and it was screaming museum.

(Okay, maybe only I heard that. But I’ve found it pays to listen to the voices in my head.)

 

 

Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium…  a bizarre place.

 

 

It was built in 1891 to house a wealthy man’s cabinet of curiosities which had quickly overtaken his house. It was a big house, but hey… he had 175,000 curiosities. Things can get cluttered quickly.

 

 

The building itself was a marvel of stone, turrets and arches.

 

 

And the first floor was dedicated to specimens.

 

 

No.

Not that kind of specimen.

 

 

This kind.

The natural world kind…

 

 

(A little bear butt for your viewing pleasure.)

 

 

Apparently filthy rich Victorians liked to the travel the world, kill what they saw, then bring it home and stuff it.

 

 

And old Fairbanks must have been a taxidermist’s dream.

That’s not to say things didn’t go wrong at times.

 

 

And sometimes, horribly wrong.

 

 

I’m pretty sure that cat wasn’t grinning during his last seconds on earth.

 

 

To say this man was bird obsessed is an understatement.

 

 

And while I enjoy a good Black Headed Goatsucker ….

 

 

And Common Hoopoe as much as the next girl….

 

 

The seemingly endless glass cases filled with dead fine feathered friends began to wear on me.

 

 

The Noisy Pitta wasn’t noisy…

 

 

And the Jungle Babbler certainly wasn’t babbling.

 

 

But I did manage to find some bugs before the scheduled planetarium show.

 

 

And what wonderful bugs they were.

 

 

You’re welcome.