Friday, June 29, 2007

the report from isocamp...

science dorks hard at work...

nerd camp was great! my brain was full (okay, exploding) by the end, but i learned sooo much. for me the best part was learning how to run different types of samples on different instruments. we also got to do a few projects during the class. the variety included trees, cricket poo, and chicken eggs. my group was really proud of our egg project...we presented it as a spin-off of dr. seuss's 'green eggs and ham.' it is hard to rhyme with words like enriched, carbonate, and supplements... the outcome - go for the local chickens! while we worked long hours in the lab, we did get a free day to do some hiking, play horseshoes, and enjoy a 16 dutchoven dinner. a world champion dutchoven cook made us a delicious spread that included ribs (even i tried them!), soup, fried potatoes, parmesan rolls, and apple crisp. yum. many friends were made and fun was had by all.
matt made it out the last day of the class and we headed for southern utah the next day. we had three days to spend in bryce canyon and zion. they were both amazing! we went for a run one morning at bryce and nearly killed ourselves...turns out running up hills at 9,000 feet is a little tough when you are used to sea level atmosphere. we did lots of hiking at both places and saw some really beautiful spots. the photo below is from the top of angels landing. i'd show some photos of how we got up there, but they make me kind of nauseous so i'll spare everyone. the views were spectacular, though. our last night in utah was spent on antelope island in the great salt lake. in the morning we were treated to a whole host of wildlife spottings...chukars, antelope, coyotes (one w/ a pup), buffalo, mule deer (w/ two fawns)...it was wonderful. the last wildlife siting for the trip was bears in yosemite.
i am actually in santa cruz for most of the next month. there will be some field work mixed in along with a few day camps and possibly a short trip up to lopez island in the san juans.

angels landing, zion

2 comments:

C & T Johnson said...

Holy Crap! That is not the little "Fat Moley" (matt) I once knew....I feel old.

melissa said...

yeah, me too. would you belive he is 27?!?! i know we are only a couple years older, but i still think of him as 10.