I woke up to the alarm: time to get ready for our flight to London! Most of my stuff was packed, but I got myself cleaned up for the day and packed the last of my things. We met up with the group and set out for the airport. Getting there with our luggage on the metro was difficult, especially since there aren't elevators or even escalators in most of the stations. But we made it there unscathed. On the airplane, they had jaffa cakes available for purchase. I've heard about them before (possibly from the Great British Baking Show) and wanted to try them.They were 1.80£ each, which seemed silly to charge (no cash accepted), so I purchased four of them! One for each aisle of students. Everyone got to try them, and most of ... read more

At the end of the day, I set a new record on my FitBit: 32,000 steps (over 13 miles). It was worth every one of them, although my feet might not agree with that tomorrow. We actually started out with a tour at the Natural History Museum in Paris. A paleontologist gave us a tour, describing adaptations in the various animal specimens we saw (including a giant squid). I think it was our best tour yet. Afterward, I wandered the museum myself for an hour or so. We met back up at about lunch time and then set out for Champs-Élysées (a very popular street for shopping). Everyone branched out for lunch and shopping. Jerrid and Jesse said people were welcome to tag along with them or go off on their own, and I chose to ... read more

We started some exploration in the history of science today. After a hotel breakfast of flaky croissants, jellies, and soft cheeses, we set out to the Marie Curie Museum. It's typically only open in the afternoons, but they book group appointments for mornings. The museum is small, but it's on a larger campus that offers education courses. It also backs to a small garden that was established by Marie Curie herself. Inside the museum, we learned about her work. Marie Curie, along with her husband and colleague, won the Nobel Prize in physics. Later, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on her own, becoming the first person to ever win two Nobel prizes. She'd discovered the first radioactive element, which she named polonium after her homeland, Poland. She worked closely with radioactive elements like ... read more

Today, we chased totality. What started out as a carefully planned trip to see an eclipse turned into a race and an adventure. At 6am, a new cloud cover report from the National Weather Service predicted 65% cloud cover in St Joseph (where we were) at the time of the eclipse. Two hours away, a small town called Marshall was boasting 39% cloud cover. I packed up our stuff, woke the family up, and piled everything and everyone into the eclipse-chaser minivan. We set out for Marshall! We took smaller highways to stay within the path of totality and (hopefully) avoid any serious eclipse traffic from Kansas City. We arrived and settled into an aviation museum in Marshall. The kids ate hot dogs and watched an airshow. The sun teased us a few times from behind ... read more

Well, this is it: eclipse weekend! We've joined millions of people heading into the path of totality. From central Iowa, the easiest places to travel to totality are Nebraska and Missouri. I chose Missouri simply because we go through Nebraska all the time, and this was a chance to drive somewhere new (to us). Last fall, I booked rooms in Saint Joseph. I called a handful of times over the months to confirm my reservation, but I was still nervous about not having a room when we arrived. We packed our tent just in case! It ended up not being a problem at all. We arrived in Saint Joseph around 11am, but our room wasn't going to be ready until 3pm. We got lunch at the Cracker Barrel next door to the hotel, and then we ... read more