the travel report

to give my body a break from sitting in front of my computer for long days, i headed up to british columbia to see roly and christine and to meet their new little ones gabriel (human) and bugaboo (dog). we had a great time catching up, cooking, hiking around, visiting with family, and watching some local hockey. i miss them all already...

pete and his sister made it back from italy safely (bags included) - they had a great time. pete really enjoys history and connecting place to knowledge, so rome was his favorite part of the trip. i think his favorite moment was when he stood on the spot where charlemagne was crowned the first holy roman emperor in 800ad. and then there was the bridge that had been in use since 62ad. stuff is OLD around there.

i'm leaving this afternoon for a return trip to belize. i have a few days to travel to the western side of the country to see some mayan sites before heading out to the atoll for the research part of the trip. pete leaves for orlando (dive conference) tomorrow. but once we both return we will be in santa cruz for a whole month together!

alaska

my parents and i had a fantastic ten days in alaska! to say the whole trip was amazing would be an understatement. we had great weather, beautiful scenery, amazing fall colors (the trees looked like they were on fire!), and good company. we started our adventure by picking up a motorhome. yes, that's right, i drove a motorhome (at least it was a small one). we headed north first to denali to try to beat the snow and the closure of the park road. the road was still open, but we did get snowed on pretty good. what would a trip to alaska be without a little snow, right? we also saw the most enormous moose i have ever seen... i could have easily fit within the span of his antlers...laying down. on our way back south we were treated to a most spectacular view of denali herself. that is one impressive mountain, by the way. our next stop was the kenai peninsula. we toured around homer and seward mainly. while in seward we went on a boat tour of the kenai fjord national park. it was amazing! we saw orcas (killer whales), stellar sea lions (endangered species), dall's porpoises, sea otters, dahl's sheep, lots of glaciers, and a nearly cloudless sky. we headed back to anchorage after the peninsula and were treated to beluga whales on our way back. it was so cool! i nearly made my dad crash the rv because i was so excited. oops. we had a couple days in anchorage before flying home. we were lucky enough to be hosted by my childhood piano teacher's daughter, which was great fun. having 10 days with my parents was one of the best parts of the trip. i have been away from minnesota for 10 years this month and not a day goes by when i don't miss having my family close.

i am going to try to hold onto this feeling of enjoyment as i go into proposal writing hell for the month of october. pete left for italy yesterday for a two week excursion with his sister. i am sad he is gone again, but i will get lots of work done without him as a distraction.

we have had a bought of high drama at the bellevue house. cassie got into a scuffle with some raccoons while i was gone and got a little scratched up; one housemate is now going through rabies vaccinations; another housemate was hit by a car on her bike yesterday. she is soooo lucky and walked away with a broken hand, sore neck, and bruises. i am hoping the drama ends there...

denali - what a sight!

holgate glacier - kenai fjords national park

orcas!

exit glacier

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!

belize adventures

sadie, collin, and me - hard at work!

our trip to belize was an adventure but great! the trip started off with collin and me stalking sadie in the airport until we were sure it was the woman we were looking for. we were then whisked away from the airport by a cabbie that drove like a crazy man to try to get us to the dock before the boat for turneffe left. we just made it...
all of the research went smoothly...although i am not a tropical convert yet, i must say that 85 degree water was a treat. diving on the reef itself was a little depressing - there was dead coral everywhere. a lot of that is due to the warm water temperature...the corals just can't hack it at sustained temps above 86 degrees. there has also been disease that has come through and over-fishing of the grazers that keep the reef clean and healthy. we saw some cool spots, but it was undeniable that the reefs are in big trouble. in the mangroves, the potential for salt water crocodiles was a little disconcerting, but fortunately we only had one close call with a log look-a-like. i am certain, however, that we provided lots of entertainment for our boat driver with all the hooting and hollaring we were doing to scare away any hungry crocs.
since we finished our work earlier than expected we had the opportunity to do a few things for fun. the boat was going into belize city to drop off some guests and pick up another group so we went along for the ride. we had a few hours before the boat left again so we went out to a place called the community baboon sanctuary. the belizeans call howler monkeys 'baboons.' it was cool to see them, but our guide had bananas to feed them, which turned me off a little. he also got the dominant male really worked up so he would howl out of aggression...again, cool to hear the incredible sound that comes out of one monkey but not what i had anticipated. another day we went out with the dolphin reaseacher, katheryn, and drove one of her routes. we didn't see any dolphins, but it was a beautiful day to be out on the water. our last day in belize we snorkled the blue hole and explored half moon caye. the blue hole was a trip...the fringing reef is 1-10 feet deep and then it drops off into oblivion. it was a little creepy to swim to the edge and look down into this massive deep, dark hole. half moon caye is a little island near the blue hole that has a population of nesting red-footed boobies and frigate birds. cool stuff!
hopefully i'll be going back in october for another round of monitoring, but it is funding dependent at this point. it would be great to get back and follow up on the study, but i feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on this trip.

red-footed booby on half moon caye

black howler monkey

reef

turneffe atoll (oceanic society field station)

lopez island

pete and i just returned from a wonderful weekend on lopez island, a small island in the san juan islands off the coast of seattle, washington. some of the people pete sails in the antarctic with gathered up there for a reunion of sorts. because plane tickets were astronomically expensive for last weekend and pete and i have been passing like ships in the night for the last couple of months, we decided to drive north and have some quality time together in the car....32 hours of it! we made it to seattle the first day and stayed with my friend molly who graciously agreed to let us stay with only three hours notice. it was wonderful to see her again. friday morning we made our way through pike's place market before heading out to the island. the place we stayed on the island was wonderful! robin and langdon have owned the 25-acre property since 1975 and have not developed it at all other than a 21' yurt they put up last year. we set-up the tipi when we got there and cooked a turkey buried in the ground on saturday. for those of you who enjoy an adventure...you should really try the turkey thing sometime. it was pretty cool...even to a vegetarian (yes, i even ate it!). we had to leave the island on sunday midday to start our journey south. we made it as far as corvallis and stayed with our friends chad and claire. it was nice to give pete the tour of corvallis so he knows what i am talking about when i tell stories from my years up there. the last 10 hours home was the most brutal part of the trip, but we made it. i am in town for a few days and then i leave for belize on friday night...i think cassie is going to disown me.

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

on the road again...

niece and nephew - madeline and kieran

my friend trevor was giving me a hard time for not updating this site very often. my excuse is that tomorrow will be the 10th (and final) day i am in santa cruz in the 6 week period between mid-may and the end of june. i have entered the feast cycle of my travel schedule...

i have been in the field quite a bit in the last few weeks. my friend and former co-worker matt came down from oregon to help me out with one of the trips...it was great to get to work with him for a few days again. kate and i were a little less lucky with the weather the last couple of days. the wind has been crazy strong. on the bright side, we now have a new metric for crappy days on the water (my mom worries already so i won't say anything more than that).

last week i was in minnesota visiting the family. i got to see everyone including my aunts and uncles on my dad's side, which is a rare occurrence. i was also able to spend some time with good friends, which was a bonus. my niece is nearly as tall as me (she's 8!) and kieran is running around and babbling up a storm. i also got my fix of lake fishing and thunderstorms but was a little too early for lightning bugs. my mom and i built a raised garden bed for their veggies...hopefully the little plants are growing like mad.

on saturday i am off to salt lake city, utah, for a couple weeks. i could tell you that i am taking a stable isotopes class...but you can just think of it as nerd camp. i'm okay with that, really. i know that i am a science geek. i am really excited about the class - i think it will be great! i am also looking forward to the days following the class because my brother is going to ride out to salt lake on his motorcycle and then we are going to southern utah for a few days to enjoy the beauty and magic of the redrock that is zion, bryce, and the canyonlands.