Great Lakes Grooving: Day 20 Particle Physics and Tractors

[CrispyA]

Friday 26 July

Fortunately we all slept better and felt tip top in the morning. Hurrah! Clive made us sausage and eggs for breakfast and then we set off for Fermilab and a chance to get nerdy.

We felt very excited driving in and announcing to the security guards that we had permission to visit. Once we had parked up at the main building, we met Tom, the PhD student who had kindly offered to show us around. Fermilab is a high energy particle physics research facility which was named after Enrico Fermi, who created the world's first nuclear reactor. They did have the biggest particle accelerator, but that is now the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. They process data from CERN at Fermilab as they can monitor it at times when everyone in Geneva is asleep but they also focus on Neutrino experiments now as well.

Tom showed us around the main building which has amazing views over the site. Fermilab is also an ecosystem restoration project and they have their own herd of buffalo. They also have art installations as well as accommodation for researchers on site. It's so big you need a car to get around and Tom had to give us directions, otherwise we could have easily got lost.

Tom works on DUNE which is a project looking at neutrino detection. They don't have much mass and don't really interact, so are not easy to detect. We got to visit the clean room where the detector is being built and after donning hairnets and shoe covers and gloves, we could see inside the detector. It was all pretty cool and as a physics nerd, Hannah was totally in her element (element, geddit? ). The rest of us were suitably impressed as well.

We didn't get to see much of the buffalo as they were all asleep in the middle of the enclosure, but it was fascinating to be somewhere that cutting edge science is happening and to see all the physicists at work.

After thanking Tom, we wandered over to the museum. There was a children's particle physics play area outside and Hannah had great fun being a proton and doing a Naruto-run around the accelerator pathway.

It seemed like a great place to work and to do research and we felt very lucky to have been able to visit and get an insider tour. Seeing all the flags outside was a great reminder of how international science is and it really inspired Hannah, who was waiting for A level results and to find out where she would be going to study Physics at University (spoiler alert - she did really well and is now at Durham University).

After Fermilab we headed for Marshall's, which Clive and Doreen had recommended for bargain hunting. I got a couple of Lucky brand tops which I was pleased with, and then we went to Portillos, which was another Clive recommendation.

Portillos is a Chicago institution and sells Chicago style hot dogs (relish, toppings and mustard, never ketchup) amongst other things. He had told us to get the Italian Beef sandwich and to have it dipped - so soaked in gravy, and also the chop salad. We got both and also a hotdog to share between us all as nobody was massively hungry. The food was lovely and the staff were very friendly and it was a great place to have a quick lunch.

We stopped off at Geneva on our way back as I'd spotted a necklace on our first visit that I wanted to buy. We also went back to Grahams for ice cream as it was so good the night before. I definitely won with the butter pecan and peach combo - it was delicious.

Back at the house we did some packing as it was our last full day . Then we got changed and headed out to Paul's cousin Daniel's house, who lives a little way further out from Geneva.

Daniel has a great house with a huge garden and he made us very welcome. In fact, the garden is big enough to ride a tractor around and pretty soon we were all having a go on it.

Riding the tractor was very relaxing and we could all see the attraction to just chugging around the lawn after a busy day at work. Daniel's daughter has a dirt bike and he offered us a chance to ride that as well.

Evan went first and quite enjoyed it.

then Hannah decided to have a go.

She did well at first but then had a moment where she forgot how to brake and instead revved it hard and disappeared through a hedge. Daniel legged it after her and managed to rescue her after a slight crash.

Poor Hannah really hurt her leg and was a bit shaken but with plenty of first aiders in the house, she was soon getting patched up. She was a bit embarrassed but we all blamed Clive who was sitting quietly on a lounger at the time and so clearly it was his fault! There was a swimming pool in next door's garden and we did tease her that she missed an opportunity for comedy gold by not ending up in it .. .

Daniel put on a great spread with ribs done in the smoker and corn on the grill and we had really good fun altogether.

He has a huge basement which has been converted into a bar and game room and we ended up sitting down there, drinking Whiskey and playing Cards against Humanity. There were a LOT of inappropriate jokes and general hilarity and we had such a good night.

Then it was back to Geneva for our last night in the US.

[Melbatb]

Hannah should try to talk to Alex about what his dad does! 😉

Another great day - though I hope Hannah’s leg wasn’t too bad!

It must have been difficult to go hime after such a fabulous trip. Paul’s relatives sound like they are a lot of fun!

[katiebaz]

The lab sounded awesome and how fabulous for Hannah. Lunch sounded lush too.

You looked like you had so much fun with the relatives and glad Hannah is ok but the bike story was comedy gold.

[CrispyA]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Hannah should try to talk to Alex about what his dad does! 😉

Another great day - though I hope Hannah’s leg wasn’t too bad!

It must have been difficult to go hime after such a fabulous trip. Paul’s relatives sound like they are a lot of fun!

See more...

She hasn't met him yet but I keep reminding her to look out for him. Is he at Cern?

We had such good fun with the family. Clive is basically a big kid and was thrilled to have us to stay.

Originally Posted by katiebaz

The lab sounded awesome and how fabulous for Hannah. Lunch sounded lush too.

You looked like you had so much fun with the relatives and glad Hannah is ok but the bike story was comedy gold.

See more...

Fermilab was pretty cool and we can definitely recommend Portillos. It's a shame there wasn't a "You've Been Framed" moment but she's fine now!

[Melbatb]

His dad is at ITER! Nuclear particle fusion...

[WileyCoyote]

What a fab morning, how completely different and so interesting. I’ve learned loads. Well done to Hannah too.

Hope she was ok... it all looked fun. Such a great family evening too. Fun times.

Not sure about those hot dogs. I just don’t get them really. And absolutely must have ketchup !