Helloooo, Venus!

Photo: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory

IN TRANSIT: Today was the day we've been waiting for for a looong time. It's the day Venus passed in front of the sun - a rare solar occurrence. In fact, it won't happen again for 105 years.

Photo: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory

This morning, we had NASA TV on and there were several segments about the Transit of Venus, including a live report from astronaut Don Pettit onboard the ISS. He'll be watching the transit and taking photos from the space station's cupola. Can't wait to see those photos!

We watched live coverage from NASA EDGE on a special-for-this-event Web site: ttp://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/

We also tracked real time images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory online here: http://venustransit.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Before the big event, we had a little fun with our food. Here is a blueberry Transit of Pancake ...

We got a patch of blue sky from 3 to 3:09 p.m. - JUST before the transit was set to begin. Then clouds clouds clouds. We went back inside and watched NASA coverage. About 3:54 I told the kids I wanted to drive to the top of the hill so we could see out over the bay and Sound and see what weather was headed our way. As we drove, I noted it was getting a tiny bit lighter and I could see the sun behind the clouds. I told the kids to get their viewers ready, that I might pull over at any second. About 3:55 I did just that and within 30 seconds or so, we could see the sun clearly enough through a thinnish cloud that we saw Venus! It was a tiny, all black, sharp edged dot in the 12 o'clock position. We caught a couple of glimpses of it, maybe for a total of 10 seconds, but that THRILLED us given the quilt of gray clouds overhead. We feel very, VERY lucky.

The Seattle Times posted a photo of the transit *exactly* as we saw it. They must have snapped their shutter at the same time we were all jumping up and down going, "I see it! I see it!"

On the way back home, a very satisfied sounding Annabelle said, "Some day we can tell our kids we saw the Transit of Venus with our own eyes!"

CJ quickly shot back, "I'm going to be a bachelor."

SWEET SCIENCE: Yesterday's blog post was so long from this weekend's Science Expo that I didn't even try to include info or photos from a field trip we took yesterday afternoon to Theo Chocolate.

Located in Fremont, just a couple miles from our house, we'd been meaning to take a Theo tour for years now. When I saw that a special science-focused tour was part of the Seattle Science Festival, it was enough to make us finally quit thinking and start doing!

Our tour started at 4 p.m. We were a few minutes early, so we killed time eating our way through their retail store. So. Many. Samples. It was delightful - and interesting. There were the standards like dark and milk chocolate, but there were also wild combos like "Fig and Fennel" and "Coconut Curry." 

They had a nice big Seattle Science Festival poster in their retail space. 

Before we went into the factory, we had to don hairnets.

The tour started off with a lecture about the history of Theo Chocolate. We learned that it was founded in by Joseph Whinney, and that it's a "bean to bar" operation. We also heard about how Theo is the first organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory in the United States. 

We saw photos of cacao pods growing on the trunks of trees, heard about how they're harvested, and how the pods are split open and the beans are taken out. They are fermented for a few days, and then dried. Here's Bee checking out a bowl of dried beans.

After the intro, we got to go into a little clear-walled room in the factory and meet the two Andys, a pair of chocolate scientists. We learned about chocolate on the molecular level, about how it ferments, how the cocoa is extracted from the beans and turned into liqueur and chocolate flake.  

The Andy in this picture is a Harvard trained molecular biologist. The Seattle PI had a nice story about him and chocolate awhile back. The time with the scientists was, by far, the highlight of the tour for us!

The Andys gave us some cocoa nibs to sample. Annabelle did NOT like the taste of those.  

The rest of us did, however. They tasted kind of nutty.

Just before exiting through the gift show, we caught a glimpse of Theo founder Joe as he darted through the factory carrying a Big Daddy.

Following are the kids' accounts of their experience yesterday.

The Theo Chocolate Factory Tour 2012 by CJ
The Theo Chocolate Factory Tour 2012 was a special event. In it, you could taste the different kinds of chocolate that Theo makes. Theo makes many different kinds of chocolate, You name it, they have it, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, mint. Yep, they pretty much have it.


One of the chocolate flavors I liked most was the flakes. Another flavor of chocolate I liked was dark chocolate with sea salt. When I got the chocolate liquor, I was expecting it to taste like Hershey's Syrup, But it tasted NOTHING like Hershey's Syrup.

To make chocolate, you gather some cocoa beans, Then, you roast the cocoa beans, Then, you crush the roasted cocoa beans. Then, continue the process of the next steps and you will have chocolate. According to Wikipedia, the earliest use of chocolate was in 1100 B.C.

But Theo says that the earliest use was in 600 B.C. It is unknown which source is right, but most say Wikipedia.


My Experience at Theo Chocolate by Annabelle
When I went to Theo Chocolate it was very fun. I got to taste samples, like some chocolate bars and cocoa liquor, cocoa flakes, and one piece of ginger chocolate. I loved all of the chocolate, except for the sea salt which mom and dad loved.


I also went through the factory. I saw all the machines used to make chocolate. They were very loud.

The people there were very nice and I liked the tour. We all said thank you afterwards and left. That was my experience at Theo Chocolate.
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And here's the way Theo describes their chocolate making process ...