Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Little Momma Tours Ponnequin and Fort St. Vrain

I am well aware of the fact that this next post is going to make me sound like a huge dork, but I still thought it was "blog worthy" and pretty cool! We took a field trip from work today and toured the Ponnequin Wind Farm and the Fort St. Vrain combined cycle generating station. It was SO FUN! It was so interesting to see the technologies we research everyday in action, and it nice to get out of the office for the day.

The wind farm was amazing, the turbines are huge (they are about 1o years old and much smaller than the ones they build today) and it was so neat to see how they work and what they look like close up. It was a beautiful and extremely windy day, so we really got to see them in action. They were doing maintenance on a few of them so we got to see the blades on the ground!
After the wind farm, we went to the Fort St. Vrain generating station. It is a combined cycle power plant that used to have a nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor has since been decommissioned (it was extremely safe, the guide said we are exposed to more radiation hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park than we would be in the nuclear facility) and it was amazing!We could see the steam turbine, the old nuclear reactor site, the control room and all kinds of nerdy energy stuff. It is just amazing to me the various ways we get the power and energy we use on a daily basis. Let's be honest though, I was just excited that the preggy lady got to wear a hard hat and goggles!Overall, it was a really interesting and informative day! I thought I would include a few of the details and I think it will be fun to tell the baby that momma still went on field trips 11 weeks before he or she was born. :)

2 comments:

Angela said...

Um.... that picture is classic! Love the hat, but REALLY love the goggles! I'm glad you're doing well!!

Little Momma & Co. said...

oh yes, i am quite a beauty! i thought it was pretty funny too. we need to catch up soon!!!