About Me

I am a 45 year husband and dad, currently adjusting to life back in the United States after living in Italy for a little over two years. I love spending time with my family, cycling, model railroading, mosaics and watching TV and movies.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

da Vinci Days

Katrina headed off to Linn Benton Community College this morning.  She had part 2 of her motorcycle course.

At 11 Brandon and I headed over to the da Vinci Days festival.  This 2 1/2 day festival of art, science and technology is held on the third weekend in July each year.  I actually volunteered with and was employed by the festival before we moved to Italy.


On the way to da Vinci Days we passed by this experimental solar car that caught fire on the way to the festival.  Not much was left.  The driver suffered some burns and was transported to the hospital. 

Before going in the gate, we walked through the Kinetic Sculpture area.  Kinetic Sculptures are works are art that move.  In this case, they race - over land, sand and down the river.  Each one has a theme.  







The two of us wandered around and checked out the exhibits.  Brandon was especially interested in the OSU (Oregon State University) booths.  In particular, he enjoyed the tsunami booth.  He tried to build some tsunami proof beach housing and did pretty well.  He also enjoyed building a paper rocket at the Evergreen Aviation booth.


A robot that was built with cooperation between NASA and OSU.




These students were doing demonstrations on the explosiveness of volcanoes.


Geology on display


Brandon runs a remote control car powered by hydrogen.


Building tsunami safe buildings.  


Learning how chemicals get washed into the water system.


Erosion 



Paper Rockets


And bubbles
 
We both enjoyed some Indian food for lunch, then Brandon spotted a friend and wanted to go play for awhile.  I sat near the Shady Stage and enjoyed the OSU Steel Band and a few other performances.  It was also good to see old friends that I worked with at da Vinci Days in the past.


The OSU Steel Band

This afternoon we headed home for a couple of hours to take a break before the evening music.

This evening Brandon and I headed back to da Vinci Days to see Rhys Thomas perform his comedy juggling act on the main stage.  He's always a crowd favorite and once again gave a great show.  Brandon didn't feel like sticking around for the music, so we headed home for the evening.   

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