out of the deep blue sea

moon jellies abound in big sur

my field assistant kate and i just got back from another field adventure in big sur. not exactly the smoothest trip we've ever had...but nothing a little duct tape couldn't fix. today we were boating back from one of my sites and the ocean was full of jellies. they were everywhere and as deep as we could see. fortunately these are not the stinging kind... what a beautiful and rare sight (climate change, i know, i know, but i did enjoy the moment).

last week we were out on the national marine sanctuary boat doing some other work in big sur. big lesson learned...i don't think i'm cut out for government work. efficiency is not the name of the game so you can imagine my frustration. grr. i think working at rei just moved up on the list of options if this science thing doesn't pan out...

pete and i finally made it back to the stanislaus river after a two year hiatus. his family has a little piece of property up in the mountains that is absolutely lovely to visit. we went up to celebrate pete's sister erin's 30th birthday. we swam lots, cooked a turkey in the dirt, hiked around, and generally enjoyed ourselves. cassie, or course, chose the day of departure to eat 10 oz. of dark chocolate mint creams...no chocolate toxicity but her insides were unhappy!

cooking in the dirt...that's the turkey at the bottom!