Visit to Houston Museum of Natural Science - A Twitter thread

A very Happy Newfamily, went for a trip to Houston. Houston is a 4 hour drive from Dallas and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the state of Texas. The city is named after Sam Houston who was the first President of the independent Texas Republic.

On the first day of our visit to Houston, we went for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The institution is more than hundred years old having being established in 1909 and is one of the most popular museums in the United States.

During the visit I clicked a number of pictures of the exhibits for which I created a twitter thread. I created the twitter thread rather than a detailed blog post as I found it much easier to maintain and update the thread rather than a blog post. I can easily update the thread from my phone where I have all the pictures stored. Doing all that for a blog post is a bit cumbersome.

I am still in the process of updating the thread with pictures and information on new exhibits. Also during the trip I did visit few other places of great interest for which I will be creating separate threads. So please keep watching.

Wishing you all a very successful and Happy New Year.

Platybelodon... mammoths with a shovel like tusk. Estimated to be there around 17 million years ago. pic.twitter.com/7wYuXnnQPi

— RaktimⓂ️ (@1cosmicguru) January 2, 2019

A day's trip to Kusu Island, Singapore

During our stay in Singapore for a few years we had the opportunity to travel in and around the island country to a great extent. Apart from Singapore we made to some of the popular tourist destinations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Singapore as we know is an island country. However apart from the main island there are a number of small islands around Singapore which are also part of the country. Most of these islands are uninhabited or used for military and industrial purposes. The uninhabited islands are promoted for tourism purpose. One of those many sister islands is the Kusu Island.

A day's trip to the island can easily be undertaken from Marina Pier. Ferries depart from the pier at regular intervals. As of last visit there was no over night lodging facility available on the island.

History of the Island:

In March 1616 Dom Jose De Silva, Spanish Governor of the Philippines was homeward bound with his fleet of 10 galleons and 2 galleys when his galleon grounded on a reef in the vicinity. Tradition has it that the accident took place at the Kusu Reef itself and hence the island became first known in the 17th Century as "Governor's Island" and Singapore Straits as the "Governor Straits".

A journey by Grapevine Vintage Railroad

We recently undertook a journey on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Main Street Station of Grapevine to Fort Worth Stockyards. It is a 21 mile route which is part of the once St. Louis South Western Railway also called the 'The Cotton Belt Route'. It generally operates with a 1896 ear steam engine or a diesel engine. The steam locomotive is called 'Puffy' and is the oldest continuously operated steam loco in the south. The diesel locomotive is known and 'Vinny' and is of 1953 make. 

The coaches are from 1920s era and are well maintained. There is one which is air-conditioned and one which is open; no windows. Guests can choose from either of the options. The coaches are well maintained and there are few refreshment options available on-board as well.we

Main Street Station of Grapevine is a historic station which dates back to 1888. The Fort Worth Stockyards came up in late 1880s to stock cattle which the the railroads reached the region. The current Stockyards station is housed in a building which was originally built in 1912.

Reminiscing Durga Puja days

When I was young I really thought whether Durga Puja is the exclusive festival of Durgapur; my birth place. Obviously that is not so but to me and many alike the definition of Durga Puja is stilled limited to the boundaries of this small town of West Bengal. Every puja holiday, I have so far afforded,  has been spent in Durgapur only. It is beyond doubt that celebrations in Kolkata overshadows anything anywhere but the soul doesn't achieves satisfaction till the lungs breath air of the hometown.

The meaning and way of celebrating Durga Puja in Durgapur has changed with time. When I was young it would start with the initiation of the Puja holidays. Though the holidays would start from Panchami, books would be packed for good right from Mahalaya. Those were the days of no FM or YouTube, so if you want to listen to Birendra babu it has to be on All India Radio at 4:30 am on the day of Mahalaya. The Mahalaya on radio would be followed by one on Doordarshan 1 at around 6:30 am; a more logical time to get up specially on a holiday.

The period between Mahalaya to Panchami would be spent around the under-construction pandal of our para puja. Climbing the bamboo structure along-with playing  hide and seek around the pandal would comprise our evening games. My para puja at that time was Edison Madhyapalli which used to be held in the field of Balaka Manimela; the pandal wouldn't be dismantled before Laxmi Puja. On Panchami evening we would celebrate our school closure with a prolonged adda in the fields of Central Puja. The adda would not end before 9 or 9:30 pm; which was almost equivalent to past midnight in those days.

Storm Cloud Formations Today (10/09/2018)

Today morning observed some threatening storm cloud formations over the city. There were warnings of severe thunderstorm and local tornadoes. Rain lashed all through the day but nothing extreme took place. However the cloud images captured today are not surely of regular occurrence. 

Place: Allen, Texas

Date: 10/09/2018

Camera: Samsung J7 phone camera

What is written on your license plate? Do you know why?

When I first time had a car in the United States in the state of New Jersey, the license plate had a legend which said 'Garden State'. I assumed that it could be a reference to the gardens and parks which the state has but, as I now know, my assumption was naive and incorrect. Then when I moved to Texas, the legend on the license plate changed to 'The Lone Star State'. However I didn't think much about it and it didn't arouse much curiosity in me.

But recently when I was travelling to North Carolina the tag on the license plates had me thinking. It mentioned 'First in Flight'. Now this had me thinking. Why was it that every state had a different legend on the license plate and what each of them meant? As usual did some online research and below are the results.

The famous Cattle Drive Sculptures at Pioneer Plaza, Dallas

Texas is famous for it's long horn cattles first introduced to the New World by early European settlers. Texas has a long tradition of these cattles being driven from the south to railroads and business centers in the north. Shawnee Trail was the Eastern most and earliest of these trails which passed through the current area of Dallas, Austin and Waco. Drovers used to drive hundreds of cattles collected from this area along the trail to northern rail heads. Shawnee Trail was in use before and after the American Civil War but gradually declined because of protests from farmers of the territory through which the trail passed. Later on Friday other trails to the west developed and Shawnee Trail was gradually closed down.

A trip to Frisco Heritage Museum - Glimpses into the History of Frisco

Frisco is one of the many cities in the Dallas Fort-Worth Area and is one the fastest growing ones. We recently visited the Frisco Heritage Museum and having gone through some of the artifacts over there followed by some reading over internet could well appreciate the fact that Frisco's history dates back more than 150 years. And railways has got a central to play in this history.

The early settlers came down following the Preston Trail, current Preston Road, and settled in the area around 1840s. The first community to be formed was called Lebanon as some of the settlers had their roads in Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1902 a line of the St. Louis - San Francisco railroad was built through the area and they had a watering stop for the steam engine around 4 miles west of where the community was setup initially. Many of the Lebanon community moved to around this new location. The dwellers of this new town called it Frisco City after the name of railway line; later shortened to Frisco. The city even derives it's current coat of arms from the logo of St. Louis - San Francisco railroad. The Frisco Heritage Museum preserves a part of that history. It is a nice small museum where you could spend couple of hours browsing through Frisco's history.

A visit to Fort Worth Zoo, Texas

Forth Worth Zoo is a 64 acre zoological garden situated in Fort Worth, Texas. Opened in 1909 the zoo is more than 100 years old now. It is the second largest zoo in the DFW area just behind Dallas Zoo. We recently visited the zoo and here are some pictures of the Zoo inmates. It is definitely worth a day's visit if you are in town. Children would specially find it enjoyable.

There are many more animals in the zoo apart from the ones captured below. But for rest of them the pictures available are not of good quality. All pictures are taken by the writer using Huawei Honor 4x.