The road trip

You may know that during September I took myself on a roadtrip. It was tons of fun, and I got to see many of my friends, which was great. I had flown to Palm Springs to help my mom work on my grandma's apartment. When I was done there, I drove my grandma's car back to Oregon (this is the road trip), with stops on the way. First stop was to visit Melinda in Santa Cruz. With all of my travelling over the years on the west coast, I had managed never to visit SC before. What's up with that? So I had my big chance. I hung out there with Melinda and her friend Kim for a couple of days. Kim is from the east coast, and was also travelling, but she was on her way to Australia and New Zealand. Since both Melinda and I had been to those places, we had lots of good reminiscing to do and suggestions to give Kim. I actually met Melinda in New Zealand before we became friends at SSU two years later.... SC is cool, and the Long Marine Lab is cool. Melinda will be working there, and I hope that I too to have the opportunity some time to work at a cool marine station like that.

I went to Oakland next to visit Kevin, Andi and Abby. They are all great, of course! I had a very nice relaxing time there. On my drive up from Santa Cruz, I took Kim to the airport. Funny when people are going the same way at the same time. Anyhow, Abby is a brilliant adorable little 3-year-old, telling me all sorts of things about planets and sea creatures. She's awesome.

From there I went to Rohnert Park and hung out with the SSU crowd (Megan, Heather, Dawn, Cat, Emi, Brian, Sarah). I even got to attend a Neilsen lab meeting! I had very nice visits with everyone, and wish that I could have stayed longer. There's not enough time for everything! I did some good eating while I was there (Chicago pizza, Thai Issan!), stayed with Megan at her fancy house, and had a nice talk with Karina. Most importantly, I got my thesis printed, signed, and turned in! What an accomplishment. It felt really really good. I've never had something fancy-looking with my name on the front before. I can't believe that I did so much and grew so much in those 2.5 years.

I went to Fort Bragg after leaving Rohnert Park. I got to hang out with Megan some more since she was doing field work up there (I even helped a little, woooo!), and we stayed at the Jughandle hostel (http://jughandle.creek.org/) together, bringing back memories for me from my own field work last year. I had some more good dining there, at Eggheads (avocado and cheese omelette!) and the brewery. I also had the pleasure of being able to visit with Amy, who I hadn't seen in almost 3 years, since she worked with me at OSU. It was great to see her again. I also had business to take care of in Fort Bragg-- I gave a poster about Postelsia to the Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association for their visitor's center. I gave a second printing of the same poster to the lady who does public education at the Jughandle Preserve for her to use in her programs. Megan didn't stay with me my second night in FB. A few days prior, I had realized that I had had no time to myself in over a week, with constant companionship and talking to do with people. And though that was great, it's not something I'm used to. Then suddenly I was in the Jughandle house all by myself (there was no one else staying there that night), and I was super lonely and sad! I thought it was funny that my view on things changed so much. I stayed in bed all evening (ate my dinner there) and watched a movie on my laptop, then I woke up early and left around 6:30 am.


I drove to Oregon from there. I tried to take photos along the way. My favorite photos were at a stop I made north of FB just before Hwy 1 turned to go into the mountains (above). I was there before the sun rose. In Oregon there were fantastic thunderstorms, with sun and then black black clouds with torrential rain. That day there even ended up being a tornado near where I drove through, a couple hours after I passed by there.

I picked Spencer up at the Portland airport that evening and we went to Wayne and Tracey's wedding the next day, which meant I got to visit with them as well as Maria and Kale. Both the wedding and visiting were fun as well, though they got married outside by the beach, and it rained part way through. That was my first rainy wedding, but it was still wonderful. We got to stay at the b&b where the wedding was held, which was super cool too. Spencer and I went to a bbq in Lincoln City the next day, hosted by his mom's coworkers, then we went back to Portland. After that, we returned to Bamfield.

It was a great trip.