The overcast skies outside my office window, the chill in the air as I walked my dog this afternoon and the weather forecast for lots of rain have me so excited for the return of my favorite season- FALL! Before I get too cozy with my wool sweaters and cups of hot cocoa I want to share with you the adventures I experienced this summer.
The first trip of my summer was a road trip through Idaho and the Southwest corner of Montana. Joining me was Lindsay Knippenberg, the PolarTREC teacher on the Microorganisms in Antarctic Glacier Ice expedition. Along our trip, we stopped in Boise, ID to visit another PolarTREC teacher, Mike Rhinard. Mike, Lindsay, and I spent the Fourth of July in Cascade watching a parade, fireworks, and rafting down the Payette River.
Mike, Lindsay and I at the Cascade, ID Fourth of July Parade
After a few more stops in Idaho, including one to hang out with Lindsay’s friend in Island Park, one to view the eerie landscape of the Craters of the Moon National Park and another to visit my aunt and uncle in Hailey we made our way to Yellowstone. With less than a day to see the sites in Yellowstone National Park, I left the guiding up to Lindsay who had visited the Park a few years earlier. YeeHaw! She was a wonderful tour guide, providing me with views of mountains, walks to amazing geothermal features, sightings of Bison and even a Wolf!
Lindsay and I overlooking the South Rim at Artist Point
We drove on to Bozeman, Montana where Lindsay and I had arranged meeting with the P.I.s (Principal Investigators) of our respective expeditions to Antarctica. Mark Skidmore, the P.I. for Lindsay’s trip, and Christine Foreman, the P.I. for my Antarctic trip both conduct research and teach at Montana State University (MSU). Christine shared a ton of great Antarctic advice with Lindsay and I and showed me around her research labs. At MSU they even have lab stations inside walk-in freezers so they can mimic the temperatures of Antarctica!
My P.I., Dr. Christine Foreman
My road trips were not over upon my return home. I had just enough time to give my dog a few pats on the head before I was packing again and hopping on the ferry to get to Seattle. From Seattle I had a weekend of driving ahead of me as I joined a group of wonderful volunteers supporting bicyclists on the Seattle to Portland (STP) Bicycle Classic. For the past 4 years I have joined a group of volunteers helping to keep the Team Parkinson bicyclists well fed as they ride the 200-miles of the STP to raise money and awareness for the Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation. It is an inspiring and hilarious way to spend a weekend. Go Team Parkinson!
Whew, a little breather from all the traveling came after the STP. Lucy, my pooch, was tail wagging crazily while we hiked around the woods on Whidbey Island for a couple weeks.
My grandmother came for a visit from her home in Honolulu, HI in late July. Together we took a trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Unfortunately, we chose to wander around Vancouver during this summer’s record-breaking hot days- over 101F! It was amazing to see the construction going on all over Vancouver to prepare the city of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Vancouver, B.C., Canada- home of the 2010 Winter Olympics
My next big trip, in late July through early August, was to Homer, AK with a group of friends to spend a week sport fishing for salmon and halibut. I was a commercial fisher in Alaska for a few years using nets and pots, but had not fished with a pole off a beach since I was a kid. The week in Homer I certainly fished many, many hours, but caught very little. I only contributed one scrawny Pacific Cod to a dinner. I guess that is why the sport is called "fishing,” not "catching.”
Just not Catchin' a thing! Kachemak Bay, Homer, AK
While attempting to catch halibut we did manage to hook a Giant Pacific Octopus that had quite a meal in it’s beak- not only one of our herring, but a crab, too!
The Giant Pacific Octopus eventually dropped the herring and swam away.
Returning from a morning of halibut fishing I spotted a group of Sea Otters behaving very strangely. There were over fifty Otters all grouped together and quickly swimming away from the shore. On the boat, my friends and I jokingly talked about the odd behavior of the Otters being a response to some natural disaster. Later that night on the news we heard about an earthquake in Japan. Perhaps the natural disaster jokes were not entirely outrageous!
Could the behavior be in response to an earthquake?
The most highly anticipated event of my summer was the wedding of my great friends, Katie and Nate. Katie and Nate were married in late August in a beautiful ceremony near the base of Mt. Hood, OR. The wedding was also a reunion of sorts for Katie, our friend Carolyn, and I. The three of us met a few years ago in the dorms during our freshman year of college at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!). The wedding stretched through the weekend with many of the guests pitching tents in a nearby campground and making s’mores around the campfire until late at night, followed by delicious cups of coffee at Nate’s cafe, Dog River Coffee in Hood River, OR, the next morning.
Carolyn, Katie, and I
Yum, I love coffee! Now that I have shared the short tales of my summer vacation with you it is time for me to go brew myself another cup.