Frau Doktor Doctor: Day 3: Coming Down the Mountain and Natural History Museum

Overnight the temperatures in the mountains plummeted. Anticipating this, I had left the wall thermostat on 72 when we went to bed--figuring the furnace would have to work overtime to counter the 22-degree low we were anticipating--but in the morning, I don't know if the AirBnB was even 60 degrees inside (since Dear Husband had to get completely dressed AND put on all his outdoor gear to feel warm). Apparently, our host had re-set the temp on his app, which we found out when I messaged him that we were so miserable we would be leaving early. He helped us set up a couple of space heaters that made the loft bearable for the morning.

Above, the view from the balcony, complete with our Jeep. Left, view of the barn-garage loft. We had some time before lunch, so we decided to head back to Park City to see the Park City Museum. For fun, we put Robert Picardo's Star Trek Voyager Doctor on Waze. This turned out to be a mistake, because he directed us up and over Silver Summit instead of down the roads that we knew were clear of snow. Actually, the ice turned out to be worse, and we got stuck. On a one-way dirt road. With a drop-off to our left. Using the ice scraper like a shovel and some dried brush for traction, we did eventually manage to get unstuck, turned around, and back to drivable roads. The aggravating part is that I had asked our host about this route before we came, and he had never answered my question. At that point we scrapped the museum and made the 45-minute drive to Emigration Canyon, pulling over to take the selfie above at the Little Dell Reservoir. Destination: the iconic Ruth's Diner, on our way through Donner Pass. Alas, that was not to be either, because they are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! So we regrouped and headed for the aptly named Emigration Cafe, where we enjoyed juicy, messy "handhelds" (burger for him, breakfast sandwich for me) and hot drinks (decaf mocha for him, golden chai for me). Then it was on to our final destination: the Natural History Museum of Utah, since we thought it was too early to visit the Red Butte Garden & Arboretum.

I really like the asymmetric, naturalistic architecture of the building. Above, entrance to the ticketing desk; below, the "Canyon" lobby. There are four floors of exhibits, and we managed to cover the two with the the larger half of the content.

We started by ogling the minerals and gems, because how could you not? Most are raw chunks of crystal in varying shapes and shades, but these pieces have been turned into art. Then it was on to their temporary exhibit, "Bug World," which we shared with some schoolchildren on a field trip. If it looks expensive and highly (overly?) designed, that may be because the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa commissioned it from Wētā Workshop, the five-time Academy Award-winning special effects masters behind the The Lord of the Rings movies and the Avatar franchise.

We learned about camouflage and how the nanostructure of iridescent blue butterfly wings has inspired currency designs that can't be forged (above right). Orchid mantises look like flowers and then eat other, unsuspecting insects (I bought the commemorative socks). We learned about how dragonflies (older than dinosaurs!) catch their prey, and how Japanese honeybees beat their wings to create a ball of heat around a hornet that has invaded their nest. The lower left image is of a complicated sculpture of a jewel wasp injecting venom--here represented by a moving blue light--into the brain of a cockroach, which she will then lead to her nest to serve as food for her offspring (singular!--they must do this repeatedly for every egg they lay). Finally, the lower right image is of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Justin Schmidt has let 83 Hymenoptera sting him and then rated the pain. For instance, honeybee and bald-faced hornet stings are a 2: "similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door," while a tarantula hawk sting is "blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has been dropped into your bubble bath."

Next we appreciated the craftsmanship of Utah's First Peoples knapping arrowheads; weaving textiles, baskets, and sandals (above); coiling and decorating clay pots; making a variety of beaded jewelry; and growing corn and keeping turkeys.

Then we wandered through the Great Salt Lake exhibit. 30,000 years ago, Lake Bonneville covered 20,000 square miles and was 1,000 feet deep in places. Under a colder, drier climate, it shrank to a relatively consistent size 13,000 years ago. Its high point in recorded history was an unwieldy 8,500 sq. kilometers in 1985, but it has shrunk rapidly to 1,600 sq. miles and a maximum depth of just 33 feet. The cause is not climate change but diversion for irrigation, which threatens the migrating birds who stop here to fuel up on brine shrimp. The salt has many uses, but not for human consumption.

Finally, we sped through prehistory with dinosaur walkway and the controversy over the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where hundreds of juvenile carnivore skeletons were found, but why?