the Rosicrucian Museum

When I was quite young, we lived near the Rose Garden in San Jose.  Not far from the Rose Garden is the Rosicrucian Museum, the largest repository of authentic Egyptian artifacts in the western United States. 

Not having visited in many years, we decided it was time to pay a visit.

The grounds of this Museum are something special and the gardens a real delight.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my regular camera, just my iPhone.  Still, once again, the camera in the iPhone 4s came through like a champ.

If you'd like, click on any image for a larger version.

Here's the entrance to the Museum.

I really like their brass doors.

And lots of mummies.

This is a cat mummy.

I don't remember what this mummy contains,

but I thought the intricate wrapping 

was quite beautiful.

Here's the beautifully decorated 

inside of a sarcophagus.

Then there are hundreds of beautifully cast figures.  

Most are quite small with amazing detail.

These are carved of stone.

The small ones are just a few inches high.

This was a large carving, 

quite lifelike.

A smiling baboon.

Falcon with headpiece.

These were for administering medicine,

I guess the faces 

were to make you feel better 

about drinking the foul tasting meds?

This is a reproduction headpiece.

It stands about four feet high.

Look at the detail on this piece.

It's in great shape considering its age.

This is an actual piece of a temple wall.

Over and over, we were in awe of the intricate carving.

Now on to my favorite part of the day,

the jewelry!

It amazes me that these pieces 

have survived for thousands of years.

This reminds me of some of the jewelry 

from New Mexico.

I'm particularly fond of these collars.

And here's a selection of small glass bottles.

Our time was running short 

as we had Doctor's appointments, 

but we will certainly go back.

Here's a shot of one of the outbuildings 

at the Museum.

One more outside shot.

And here's one final shot I wanted to include.  

The other day, we visited the big Apple campus in Cupertino.  

We drove around looking for a parking space, 

and finally found one next to this lovely machine.

When we got out 

and I saw the sign on the parking space 

I knew I had to take a picture.

Makes me wonder whose car this is?

That's it for today.

the Jellyfish

Consider this a memory post.  I'm posting a lot of pictures, even though they aren't of that much interest to most of you, but they'll be here so Terry and I can remember a great day.

The jellyfish, what can I say?  I really do love them.  Translucent, ethereal and sublime, I find them endlessly fascinating.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium 

pulled out all the stops for this exhibit

Here we go with the jellies.

These next two are a series of one jelly

captured in motion.

They're so smooth,

yet raggedy at the same time.

I can't remember for sure, 

I think these are crown jellyfish.

Most of these look much better

if you click to enlarge them.

I'd never seen black jellys before.

These are upside down jellyfish.

They live on the ocean floor.

So fluid

They also come in polka dots

These next shots 

are just because I love their motion

This reminds me of Mikhail Baryshnikov,

flying across the stage.

Just one moment later . . .

They also had a lovely art exhibit.

This was made from a plastic soda bottle.

Much better use of a plastic bottle

than throwing it in the trash.

I had pictures of Sea Dragons last time,

but had to include another .

This isn't an exciting picture, 

but I loved the "look" 

on the seahorses face.

I'm including this picture 

because if I ever get another aquarium, 

I want it to look just like this.

I took this with the extreme zoom on my SX40.

(most of these shots were taken with my iPhone).

I've never seen a seal smile before.

What a sweet face.

It was a truly wonderful day,

reminding me,

once again,

 that

Tiny Planet (Part 2)

I've written about this app before, but I had kind of forgotten about it till today. How could that be? This is such a cool way to play with your pictures.

Just look at this cypress tree, 

shot down by the ocean in Santa Cruz.

(Click to enlarge if you like).

Cranes at sunrise,

flying over Bosque del Apache.

This was shot 

from one of the Storybookland Canal Boats 

in Disneyland.

This is the exact same shot as above.

Through the miracle of Tiny Planet,

you can set the image 

to swirl from the inside out 

or the outside in.

This is a huge version of Maleficent.

It's made completely of Legos!

It hovers above the Lego Store in Downtown Disney.

I think this shot looks better than the original!

And here's the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Doesn't it look like it belongs in the film Up?

These last two were taken from the same image.

It was dusk, 

and we were driving through an aspen grove 

in New Mexico.

Isn't the light beautiful?

Isn't this a lovely app?  

It's available in the iTunes Store for just $.99