Taxidermy Adventure

As part of the CityPass, I visited Harvard’s Museum of Natural History.  Kelly told me it was one of her favorites, and that it was important that I bring a sketchbook with me.

The museum is filled with animals.  This isn’t a zoo, but an enormous collection of skeletons and taxidermied creatures of every size and shape.  Rooms are devoted to mammals and birds from specific continents.  Divided by time, there are examples of dinosaurs as well as giant ground sloths and ancient horses.

[singlepic=711,320,240,,left]Spanning at least 40 feet is the full skeleton of a prehistoric water beast.  Needless to say, I was delighted to listen as touring children exclaimed happily, “This one eats people!”  I don’t think they ever sampled people-meat, regardless of the head-sized teeth…but I agreed with them.  I would not want to be caught in the ocean with one of these swimming below.

If I’ve never mentioned this before, I am a rather enthusiastic animal lover.  That’s not to say that I am a vegetarian, but ever since I was young I’ve had fantasies of becoming the next Jane Goodall.  Fighting for the rights of endangered species and keeping a few of them as pets seemed like a fun way to live.  While I am no longer on the college career path for “zoology” or “obsession with cool creatures,” I still enjoy admiring animals…especially the exotic ones.

[singlepic=724,320,240,,right]Kelly was right about bringing my sketchbook.  I ended up settling down by the African display case and sketching a rather beautiful African Hunting Dog.  I love how these canines are built, with their long legs, ears, and striped/spotted decoration.  It’s like mixing a skinny hyena, cheetah, and a fox together.

Which also makes me add: Earth has some pretty flippin’ crazy stuff.  More than once I was in awe at the size or the bizarre structure of the museum’s collection.  Moose are enormous.  I could walk right under one.  I can barely reach the top of a giraffe’s leg.  Birds come in practically fluorescent colors.  The dodo was a real bird–I mean, come on!  It looks fantastically ridiculous, and it actually existed!

[singlepic=741,320,240,,left]What I mean to say is that, as a fantasy author, I don’t have to look far to find fantasy creatures.  Forget dragons, unicorns and fairies!  There are leafy sea dragons, ice age ground sloths the size of a 4-door car, and aye aye-things that could have crawled out of my nightmares.  God is one creative entity.

In any case, there were not only taxidermy animals in the musuem, but an exhibit of glass flowers, a collection of gems and rocks, and also a connecting musuem with cultural displays from ancient civilizations. None of it was as cool as the animals, but, it was still educational–and I’m all about learning something new.

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Finished at the museum and starving for lunch, I cross through Harvard’s campus back to the subway.  I admit that I felt supremely jealous of the students taking classes there this summer.  To consider yourself a Harvard student is a pretty big honor, and my achievement-oriented self wants to compete with their, “better than you,” status.  If their parents have the money to pay a $50,000/year school…it irks me to wonder how many of them deserve the honor (Can you tell that I’m bitter?).

Then again, what is an unergraduate degree anymore?  We all make the best that we can with what we’ve got.  If you’re talented and you work hard, it shouldn’t matter where you went to school…still…sure would be nice to have that on a resume.

I’m so bitter. ^_^;;;

I met Kelly in the afternoon and we headed south of Boston to meet our “Other Kelly” friend in Marshfield.  As irony would have it, Marshfield is mostly a bunch of marshes.

We spent the afternoon in Kelly’s pool, which was an extremely nice repreive after such a hot day.  From her pool and hot tub we could see the marshes and I could smell the salt air.  Absolutely fantastic!

For dinner we walked to the beach and ordered carry-out from a local restaurant.  As I am typically landlocked in Ohio, I splurged a little bit on a stuffed sole (something I wouldn’t trust at most restaurants back home).  It came with yummy veggies and potatoes, and for the most part it wasn’t bad.  There was simply too much stuffing and not enough fish!  We ate by the ocean, staring out at the horizon as the sun set behind us.

I am the most peaceful when I am staring at the ocean.  Or rather, when I am anywhere near it.  The sound of waves, the smell of the air, and the ocean breeze in the evening…it’s perfect. I think it’s partly because I dream of becoming a pirate.  Sailing the sea– free and not a care in the world– that’s the life for me!  Of course, that’s not really what it means to be a pirate.  I’m not much for pillaging or plundering.  I don’t even have a pirate hat (yet).

Still.  One day I want a boat, and I want to sail my way to Europe and to Africa.  Across to India and back to Japan, stop at Hawaii, and squeeze through the Panama Canal. One day.

All too soon we were walking back to Other Kelly’s house and she was taking us back to the train station.  It is sad to say goodbye to friends.  I wish I had been able to stay longer.  Unfortunately, it was late, and Kelly and I had work to do before bed.