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.

revelling

salmon creek falls

the last couple of weeks have been filled with revelations that my dissertation research is actually coming together (i think there may be a light at the end of this tunnel!) and that i have been so fortunate to work in an amazing place. i had a committee meeting a couple weeks ago that helped to spur many of these revelations. i have been working like a fiend in the lab for the last 3 months to get data together for this meeting. it wasn't until i actually started looking at the data a few days before the meeting that i realized the degree to which things are falling into place. for the last three years i have been collecting samples and data with the hope that something cool would come of it all, but i wasn't sure that moment was going to come...until now. i have to say that it is a pretty cool feeling. i just got back from three hard days in the field and am excited about the rest of the field season rather than dreading it. my assistant kate is home from kenya and working for me again this summer...it is great to have my right hand lady back. our dives were beautiful but soooo cold. the temperature at depth was a mere 47 degrees (no amount of peeing in your wetsuit can keep you warm in that water)!

yesterday we celebrated mother's day with pete's family in oakland. almost the whole extended family lives in the bay area so they are able to get together for lots of occasions throughout the year...it is nice. last weekend we celebrated pete's 31st birthday with the traditional 'motor monkey birthday ride' and a nice dinner out.

earth day

happy earth day! this weekend rounded out a busy week of grant writing, data analyses, and sample processing (on a machine that i have a love-hate relationship with). yesterday was a day for monterey bay aquarium associated fun. i am a mentor for the student oceanography club, which is a club for 6-8th graders around the area who are interested in the ocean and conservation. we have a theme every month that our meeting and field experience revolve around and april was tide pooling month. we took our 50 kiddies into the field yesterday to play in the intertidal. one girl was really excited about all the different kinds of algae out there so i got to teach her about the different ones we saw. i know i am a science nerd, but it was fun. last night the aquarium hosted its annual dinner for all their volunteers. if you have never been to the monterey bay aquarium, you should make an effort to see that amazing place. but it is a whole new level of wonderful when you get to eat yummy food in front of any exhibit you want to (think of giant tunas swimming in front of you) and decadent dessert trays are set up in nearly every corner of the building. AND despite the fact that there are still a lot of people in the aquarium, very few of them are running, screaming children. it is kind of a fancy shindig so i asked pete to wear a tie and i put on a dress and lipstick. a good time was had by all.

because I am awful at email and am afraid of the phone...

Cassie-dog ready for wilderness adventures on her new leg!

So...this might seem kind of lame, but i am turning to the powers of mass communication to try to keep you all updated with happenings on the west coast...or wherever i might be.
I am currently in Corvallis, Oregon, at Sunnyside Up cafe trying to write a grant proposal that is due on Monday and failing miserably. I drove up to Corvallis on Monday so i could process a bunch of water samples in my old lab. We just don't have the lab space or the set-up in Santa Cruz to do the processing down there. The drive is long, but it is a good excuse to come back here to see friends and get my running fix in Mac forest. Spring has sprung here...the trees and tulips are in full bloom and it is beautiful. Today was the first day without liquid sunshine...a good reminder of why I am a happier person all year long in California. I am heading home tomorrow and not at all looking forward to the long drive home. Or the snow that may be falling in the Siskyous...