The Humboldt redwoods in our new-to-us Wish replacement

One of the most difficult things for us to part with when we left NZ was our car, the Wish called Wanda. The Wish was a Toyota that was smaller than a mini van but a bit bigger than a station wagon. There were three rows of seats and the back two rows folded flat. This made it a perfect vehicle for sleeping in when we didn't feel like setting up the tent or it was raining (our tent fly sprung a leak about four months into our time in NZ). She got about 32 miles to the gallon, which was great in NZ where fuel is about $8 per gallon.

Much to our dismay, when we returned to the U.S., we were having trouble finding anything that was very Wish-like. We could find vehicles with fold-flat seats, but they tended to be quite a bit larger with worse fuel economy. And then we stumbled upon the Mazda 5, which is nearly identical to the Wish. A friend of ours refers to their one as a "nano-van" which I think is a very apt description. We happened upon a used one in Santa Cruz and are now the owners of what we call the Wish 5. 

We took the Wish 5 for her inaugural trip in early November to the Humboldt redwoods. When we made our camping plans, we were mostly concerned about being rained out. That would have been a much better situation than the wildfires that were burning throughout the state. The Bay Area had been blanketed in wildfire smoke for about ten days prior to our trip and we were not sure what to expect for the weekend. The smoke forecasts were changing daily and were not always consistent with where the plume would be located. The air quality got worse as we drove north, but we managed to make it out of the smoke zone about 30 miles from our destination.   

all ready for sleeping

We live in a redwood forest, so it might seem crazy for us to drive five hours to spent the weekend in another redwood forest. However, the trees in Humboldt are HUGE compared to the babies we have down here so the forest felt quite different even though the trees are the same. The Avenue of the Giants is a spectacular drive with many hiking opportunities along the way.  

The Save the Redwood League is largely responsible for the existence of so many large, old growth redwoods in and around Humboldt State Park. In the early 1900s, the founders of the club noticed that the big trees were being logged for timber and development and knew that many more would be lost if they didn't do something. Since 1918 they have protected more than 200,000 acres of redwood forest, supported the establishment of numerous state and regional redwood parks, and funded research throughout the states redwood forests. 

giant trees!

The burls on redwoods (the bulbous bits) are important

for regeneration. Spouts can emerge from the burls when

new space opens up in the canopy or when the main tree

gets damaged or is stressed by environmental conditions.

big leaf maples provided some contrasting color to the forest

fern spores on a sword fern

it is amazing that these giants can still stand when

their bases are hollowed out from fire

The Dyerville giant - this 371 foot giant fell in 1991. It is

almost easier to get a sense for the size of these trees

when the whole thing is on the ground.

We were mostly out of the wildfire smoke, but a few

particulates in the air made for dramatic lighting in the forest.

Our first two nights in the Wish 5 were great and we have a list of things to add to the car to make it even better. We're looking forward to more trips in the near future!

Settling back into Santa Cruz

Time is a strange beast. At some moments, it feels like we just left New Zealand, and at others it feels like we've been gone for a long time. In reality, we're just ticking over the four month mark back on American soil. It has been a busy, hectic time and it feels like we are still settling into a routine and finding our new normal. We are back in our house so it seems like the transition should have been easier and faster, but alas. 

We had our first visitors from New Zealand about two months after we returned. Our friends Emma and Martin had been working and traveling in Canada for about seven months and stopped to see us on their way back to NZ. Autumn in NZ doesn't coincide with Halloween, so we took a trip to the pumpkin patch, roasted pumpkin seeds, and let Emma and Martin experience the joy of carving a pumpkin. They did a great job for their first time! I took them for a long walk in a native redwoods forest (there is a big stand of redwoods in NZ in a research forest) and we looked for the monarch butterflies that were just starting to arrive in Santa Cruz. 

venturing into the pumpkin patch

the requisite pumpkin photo

getting stuck in

Jacques-o-lantern

albino redwood sprouts

baby chicken of the woods mushrooms

and all grown up mushrooms

One of our goals when we left NZ was to try to maintain our exploring and adventuring that were such big parts of our lives in NZ. They really added to our quality of life there. I think it is easier to do those things when you are living in a new place because you haven't gotten stuck into a routine and you don't take the local sites for granted. For instance, we probably would not have gone looking for monarchs in October if our friends were not in town. In the spirit of exploring new things, we signed up to go to the open day at the sand quarry two miles from our house. 

Santa Cruz county has a unique sand hill habitat that was formerly under the ocean. There are two marine terraces and we live near the upper one. We've explored these sand hills on other occasions...searching for shark teeth fossils and learning about the endemic plants. On this outing, we learned about the sand mining operation at the Granite Rock quarry. 

The company has been mining sand from the area for nearly 100 years. As scientists have learned more about the plants and animals that inhabit these sensitive sand hill habitats, the mitigation measures for mining sand have become more extensive. As a result, this area will eventually be retired from operations and the whole area will be restored to native sand hill habitat. 

They predominantly use the sand from this quarry to make glass bottles. The company has another quarry on the lower marine terrace near Santa Cruz that is used for concrete. The sand at the quarry near us is higher quality and has the right mineral profile for glass. Seeing the operation was really neat. They essentially push sand off the top of the cliff (photo below), move it to a conveyor belt that leads to a series of filters that are used to separate the sand for different uses. The final step is drying the sand, which happens in a giant rotating furnace. It takes less than five minutes to dry the sand and it is 450 degrees Fahrenheit when it comes out of the furnace.  

dozers push sand off the top of the cliff

If you look closely at this photo, you can see bars at the 

far end of the pile of sand. This is the entrance to the conveyor belt.

conveyor belt

The open day was also a fundraiser for our favorite county park, Quail Hollow, which is just across the road from the quarry. All you can eat tacos for a $10 donation? Yes, please! 

Back to the Elwha and a "berry" good time in Olympia

Two days after landing in California from New Zealand, I got on another plane headed for Washington State. California was on fire, which made for an interesting plane flight over the vast portion of the state covered in smoke. Even Crater Lake in southern Oregon was filled in. 

northern California blanketed in thick smoke

Crater Lake filled with smoke

I was traveling to Port Angeles, Washington, for a short return to the Elwha River, my field site for four years while I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. The Elwha dive team had gotten some last minute funding for one week of dive surveys. We were surveying fish, algae, and invertebrate underwater communities near the river mouth to see how dam removal had affected them. I had done four years of surveys with the team before leaving for NZ and was really excited to have the opportunity to dive one more time. When I dove in the summer of 2016, we were seeing strong signs of recovery, particularly for the algal community, after nearly all was lost the first year after dam removal. In the years after dam removal, my job as the algae counter was pretty boring. Many days I would write "0" on all of my underwater data sheets. I earned my keep doing point counts and taking videos of our sites, but my algae identification skills were not being put to good use. In 2015, we happened to dive on the same site three weeks apart. The first time there was hardly any algae clinging to the cobbles; the second time it was like we descended on a completely different place. Red algae and small brown kelps were everywhere. Was this the start of recovery? In 2016, we saw more algae at most sites. I didn't have quite as many zeros on my data sheets. I missed 2017 but heard the algae were back. In 2018, there were so many algal species on our transects that I had to refresh my memory on some of the species that we had not seen for years. What an opportunity to see the "before," "during," and "after" at these sites. 

Diving around the Elwha River is not the most glamorous of diving. The Elwha River empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which runs west to east between Washington and Vancouver Island. The Strait has very strong tidal currents that push through four times a day, so our diving is limited to the slack periods when the tide is neither flooding nor ebbing. The bottom at most of our sites is covered in gravel that is about an inch to two inches in diameter so there isn't much relief at our sites. Occasionally we get some big boulders on our transects--which are the places where the cool critters hang out! The water is cold (46 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit) and the visibility usually leaves something to be desired. But I still love it and always enjoy dropping into a site, not knowing exactly what we will find. 

blood star with some interesting arms

sand rose anemone

fish-eating anemone

feather duster worm

My favorite from the whole trip! A grunt sculpin.

kelp crab

beautiful birthday sunset over the Olympic Mountains

After the Elwha, I had a few days in Seattle to work on a manuscript with my friend and colleague, Sarah. It was the hottest week in Seattle of the summer so we went swimming in Lake Washington after work, which was lovely. We also attended the neighborhood "National Night Out" block party. Apparently it is tradition on their block to end the night with the hokey pokey. As I sat on Sarah's porch watching her whole neighborhood dance in the street, I was hopeful that we are not a country divided...maybe we just need more hokey pokey in our lives. 

After the work was done, I headed south to Olympia to play with Tish, Morgan, and our god-kiddos. The berries were ripe and the school garden was in full bloom. What a great time to be in the Pacific Northwest! It was great to be with friends for a few days to try to ease back into our lives in the U.S.  

looking at bugs under the microscope

lots of slugs on our hike

the intrepid explorers

a new tree growing from where an old tree once stood

the garden bounty

delicious raspberries at the school garden

beautiful dahlias too

M's cucumbers she grew from seed

And her big-as-her-head seastar cookie

haircuts all around!

the sandwich board was as fun as the haircut

The smoke from the fires in British Columbia started to move in the day I left, so I got out just in time. Summer in the PNW is sort of magical and I'm grateful I got to spend a couple weeks soaking it up.  

The Great (extended) Minnesota Get-Together

I spent most of the month of September in Minnesota with my family. My first trip at the end of August was planned around the 50th anniversary of the Minnesota State 4-H Ambassador program. Minnesota Extension had organized a reunion for all past and present ambassadors (ambies) during the Minnesota State Fair. I was an ambie in 1996-1997 and my brother was one in 1997-1998 so the whole family decided to make a day of the fair and the reunion. The day of the reunion was the day that 270,425 other humans decided to venture out to the fair, marking a new record in fair attendance. The buildings and streets were full and it was HOT. But the fair is always an experience of food and people watching. Food is a little harder to come by as a gluten- and dairy-free person, though (thank goodness for the horticulture building!). No cookies for me. :( 

Fairchild the gopher, the mascot of the fair

fried pickles for breakfast

the mass of humanity

massive Paul Bunyan made from repurposed materials

Arts-In performance in the 4-H building

Dairy princess getting her likeness carved in butter

Our 4-H reunion was on the second floor of the (non-air conditioned) 4-H building, which brought back a lot of memories. It was great to see so many friends who made the journey. Our time together was short, but our connections are strong. I spent a lot of time with my fellow ambies during a key transitional point in my life. They all shaped me in some way and I'm so grateful that our paths crossed when they did and continue to cross every once in a while. 

Working at the MN State Fair in the summer of 1996.
Yes, the green suits were required for our formal attire.

Yes, I still have my green suit.

Ambies (including my brother) from 1996 to 1999

two of my favorites

siblings!

Five days after heading back to California, I was back in Minnesota to help my mom for a couple weeks while she recovered from hand surgery. Doing things with one hand is difficult! While I was there, I had much more time to hang out with the dogs, search for frogs (they were everywhere!), kayak on the lake, pick veggies from the garden, and listen to my mom tell stories about her family. There were a few medical appointments, but we also got to visit many dear friends. I also took my mom to Newsies at Chanhassen Dinner Theater for her birthday, which was a fun outing. 

Cole-dog trying (?) to catch a fish

grey treefrog

northern leopard frog (green morph)

northern leopard frog (brown morph)

a rare, windless day on the lake (eagle on top of the tallest tree)

my childhood friend Michele made an epic detour to come see us

Smithsonian Magazine sponsored a museum day in September, so my mom got us free tickets to the Runestone Museum in Alexandria. The museum covers a lot of ground, from Minnesota wildlife to Native Americans to town history. The star attraction of the museum is a Viking runestone from 1362. A Swedish farmer found the runestone in 1898 while clearing brush on his land about five miles from my mom's house. When the stone was found, many people thought it was a hoax and that the farmer had carved the Nordic runes himself. The controversy around the stone tore the farmer's family apart and alienated them from their community. The farmer had about six weeks of formal education so it seems highly unlikely that he carved the runes, but the stone has remained controversial for many, many decades. There is still debate today, but advanced techniques in dating suggest that the stone is authentic. Many other Viking artifacts have been found in the region since the runestone was discovered, including axes and fire steel that are commonly found in Scandinavian countries. The Vikings likely made their way to Minnesota by traveling south from Hudson Bay to Lake Winnipeg and down the Red River into Minnesota. The land where the runestone was found has since been turned into a park. We visited the park after the museum to see the where the runestone was unearthed. 

the controversial runestone

Ojibwa jingle dress typically worn at a pow wow

One of the original buildings from Fort Alexandria that was commissioned
in 1862 to provide protection for white settlers during the Dakota uprising.

The temperature was continually dropping during my visit, which made made the trees change color quickly the last few days, but I was happy to return to California before the windchill dropped below freezing.