blogity blog

TOO MUCH INFORMATION:

So a lot has gone down in the near past. The sophomore boilogy trip was awesome! We set up camp in drippy weather and slept through one night of rain. Day one found us on a Whale Watching boat in the Monterey Harbor. We were all stoked to see Humpback Whales, Otters, harbor Seals, Risso Dolphins, and a lot of birds! We kept encouraging the sea-sick kids to take it for the team and throw out some chum so we could have more visitors, but that didn't happen!

Day two we traveled up to San Fransisco to visit the Exploratorium. I have never been around so many chaotic children! I think the place was packed with 5th graders! We did see some really cool exhibits and expiraments. Next, we drove about 4 minutes to the Golden Gate Bridge. Although i grew up in the area, i had never walked the bridge before, so i was happy we got to do it. Plus, it helped with the Bus-Legs i was suffering from. This was also the day that i wanted to jump out of the bus at hour 39 of constantly being with people, but i didnt and i survived. i began to actually enjoy people!

It was also interesting to explain these very pointed call boxes to the children. I think when i was in college there was an individual who jumped from the bridge and lived, they hit a barge or something.

Day 3 was my almost-favorite day. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Being with a school and all, we got to go into a special lab area and touch things! IT was set up as a class, but super interesting, kinda like PE. We got to feed Sea Cucumbers, squid, irchins, abalone, and anenomies. It was great! I also say this guy, kinda reminded me of the Otter walking around Laguna Seca...

I am not a huge walk-around and look at stuff person, but this place was great! I would totally go back and look at neat things. We watched Trout swim upstream for about 10 minutes, and watched Penguins dance about. The kids in my group had to keep coming back to find me because i was staring at stuff too long!

The afternoon on this day we went back to our camp sites in Felton (near Santa Cruz) to create our own expiraments out in the Redwoods. The group i was "chaperoning" chose to provide the entertainment. Their expirament consisted of 3/4 of them going arm-pit deep into the ice cold stream to calculate and measure the speed of the current and the depth of the water. To say the least, we got more than our moneys worth!

Day 4 My absolute favorite! We basically exercised all day long! We did a 2 hour sea kayak trip, with rutters and all. That is a lot of work! We went up an estuary to find Seals, lots of birds (i am not interested in them so i forget what they are called) and Otters. We learned a lot about the ecology of the area and how certain things like protecting the harbor seal or closing the power plant impact the local environment and economy. We then went back to the Redwoods for a hike through the big trees. awesome.

Day 5 we drove, a lot. The yellow school bus does pretty good, but not that good. It takes forever to get anywhere!

So did i train you ask? OF COURSE!! Quite modified however. I did get up two days to ride my trainer at 4:30am. This was bad, real bad. The only place to ride was right outside the girls bathrooms/showers. It was level and there was a light. This was actually pretty awesome. i watched the sun come up and the fog lift up through the drippy Redwoods, this help sqelch the pain of being up that early. One day i realized i had a flat tire and no tools with me and no means to get into town that day. So i opted to run. Stupid stupid girl. Being a leader and all i was supposed to keep my charges with me at all times. However, i had 5 asian 10th grade boys ready for a run in the woods. I let them go ahead. However, they missed my lecture about waiting at every T, Y, or other juncture to collect the rest of your group. They took 3 wrong turns. THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT!! however, with my past history, had it been known, i would never have been allowed to take them out on the trails! We ran about 5 miles and returned to camp AFTER the group that was taking a leisurly walk. Oops.

One day i did train in the afternoon and sustained about 14 mosquito bites before i had one of my girls douse me with repelent which promplty slid into my eye balls.

Then today my best pal from forever like high school college and living in her tv room when i first moved to the IE is graduating from Dental school!!
Thats her in the middle, the other one is Robyn. Haley also hooked up Jason's grill!