Fermilab & Naperville @ Illinois

Before going to Fermilab, we went to have dim sum at Chicago Chinatown in the morning... We wanted to give Won Kow restaurant a try as we were told they served good dim sum...

It was a traditional Chinese restaurant but there were not many people inside while we were there...

These are what we had, our standard dim sum items... Well, we do not think they are very good, just average only. In fact, we had bad experience with the yam cake as it was a little sour...

After dim sum, hubby wanted to have dou hua so we went to our usual place and shared one portion... =p

After doing some grocery shopping, we drove to Fermilab at Batavia.... The road leading into Fermilab...

Robert Rathbun Wilson Hall, where our Ask-a-Scientist Guided Tour of Fermilab started...

View out of the windows from inside the building...

The flags of the countries that are represented at Fermilab...

Our tour started with an hour presentation by a scientist...

After the presentation, we split into groups and our guide told us some stuff about Fermilab. Then, he brought us to the 15th floor where other scientists are available for us to ask questions. Also at the 15th floor were viewing windows and exhibits. Refreshments were also available for us... =)

North view, where we entered...

East view, which shows the cooling pond...

South view, which shows the accelerator...

West view...

View when you look into the building...

Radiofrequency quadrupole linac (RFQ) - a compact accelerator that uses 4 specially shaped rods to accelerate and focus beam at the same time. Its small size makes it useful for hospital-based cancer treatment accelerators.

Copper cavity - to accelerate particles to high energy, electromagnetic waves oscillating at radio frequency are used and this set of cavities is able to host a wave of 805 MHz (about the frequency a cellphone operates). A beam of particles enters the line of cavities through a hole on the side and "rides" on the wave, gaining speed and energy.

Tevatron Tunnel Model (life size) - the Tevatron is Fermilab's most powerful accelerator, it accelerates protons and anitprotons to 99.999954 percent the speed of light.

Silicon Vertex Detector - prototype of a particle detector that uses silicon technology, developed to replace an older detector. Protons and anitprotons enter the detector from opposite ends of the beam pipe that runs through the detector. The silicon reveals the trajectories of charged particles escaping from the proton-anitproton collisions. Determining all trajectories, scientists can find each "vertex" at which a heavy particle decays into 2 or more lighter particles.

After that our guide brought us over to the Linear Accelerator complex. We did not see much real stuff there, just mostly pictures and models. This is the preaccelerator, which starts the particles on their journey.

The corridors which we walked passed...

Our guide will pause at various points along the corridor, showing us pictures and explaining stuff to us...

Equipments were on the side of corridors we walked and it seemed that we could accidentally change some settings on it... =p

That concluded our tour of Fermilab and before leaving, we took some pictures of its grounds as it was really nice! =)

Us in front of the building...

Very nice reflection of the building in the pond! =)

Pictures of geese and goslings in the pond and crossing the road, very cute! =p

We stopped for some pictures of the prairie on our drive out...

After that, we drove to Naperville and went to H-mart for some grocery shopping...

Lots of product in H-mart and some of them quite cheap too! There's even fresh fish being sold...

Me with our cart...

Kimchi station...

They have longans but very ex! They also have lychees but ex too!

Our cart with more stuff... =p This is quite a nice place to buy Asian stuff and we will definitely try to come here again when we visit Chicago...

Then, we drove to downtown Naperville and walked around... Some sculpture along the pavement...

Dandelion Fountain...

The bridge across DuPage River...

View of DuPage River...

On the bridge...

On the other side were a row of geese and they were really large!

Picture with Dick Tracy!

Wall of Faces - created by Naperville school children and molded by local artists to represent the casualties of September 11, 2001...

Memorial sculpture dedicated to the more than 3000 people who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks. It contains a beam from the wreckage of World Trade Center, fragments from the facade of The Pentagon and granite from Pennsylvania...

Paddle Boat Quarry, where the water was so still that it had a very clear reflection of the surroundings...

Walking along the riverwalk...

Moser Tower...

Mr. and Mrs. Naperville are Harold and Margaret Moser, who played vital roles in the growth and development of Naperville during the 20th century...

We went to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria for dinner, which is housed in the city's old firehouse (till 1980s)...

Us at our booth...

We had an appetizer - Combination Platter that had mozzarella sticks, cheddar cubes, breaded zucchini and mushrooms, served with ranch dressing and marinara sauce.

Of course we ordered a deep dish pizza! We had their sausage pizza, a specialty of theirs. The sausage is a large patty instead of small crumbles. This pizza was really nice, even the crust, which was crispy!! We think it is the best deep dish pizza we had!! =) Yummy!!

Website: http://www.loumalnatis.com/

Along a street of shops in downtown...

We had dessert at Cookie Dough Creations. Had to give this a try as it was something special! Here, they serve raw cookie dough as dessert. It is safe to eat as they do not put raw eggs in the cookie dough. You can choose to have it on its own, topped it on ice-cream, or even sandwich it between cookies...

We chose to have it on its own and had the flavour - Turtle. It was quite nice, tasted like cookie dough obviously. =p But it was rather filling...

Website: http://www.cookiedoughcreations.com/

View of the sun setting as we walked back to our car for the drive home...