Back from WSN

Hello! We're back from WSN! I had a great time. I left Bamfield and went to Portland last Wednesday, and spent the night there. My mom bought me a cool new hat, and we had a nice dinner. Then I went back to the airport on Thursday, and met Spencer there. We had the same flight to Santa Barbara, but he was coming from Idaho. So his plane was 45 minutes late, and we rushed over to our flight, but then that one was 45 minutes late too, so it was all good. Megan and Heather picked us up in SB, and we had dinner and made our way to the Marriott Ventura Beach for the conference.

The conference was fun. I had a great time talking to everyone I knew there. It was crazy though-- more than twice the number of people than usual attended the conference. There weren't enough chairs for everyone the first day to see talks. This was a little annoying, but it was understandable. The auction was tons of fun too, of course. This is an event that happens to raise money to give to students as travel scholarships. The auctioneer, Rafe, is hilarious, tricking people into bidding and insulting people and just being entertaining. One guy was bidding, and raised his hand for the next bid (say $50), but Rafe called $75 instead, skipping $50. That guy raised his hand up to flip Rafe off, so Rafe gave him the $100 bid. At one other point I had tears of laughter pouring down my face. So funny. The big prize item is the two bottles of tequila and a gaudy trophy. It's always sold at the end and is usually an exciting competition between different groups who pool their money together to buy it. Last time I went to WSN (two years ago) it sold for $1400, this time it sold for $4000. Wow.

Spencer's talk was on Saturday, and he did great. I even thought I learned something about it, though later he told me I had it wrong. My talk was on Sunday, and it was good too. I was nervous about it, and didn't eat much before or afterward. I didn't feel great about the beginning, but according to everyone, it was fine and they didn't see the problems I did. A lot of people came to my talk, and some of the older and well-known scientists as well, which made me feel really good.

We had to leave shortly after my talk and go back to the airport. We flew from SB to LAX in this little old plane. Then we went from there to Vancouver BC. That flight was a little bumpy here and there (moderate turbulence), and they diverted us from the normal route so as to miss some of the worst of it. Our flight was late getting to Vancouver, but it was all right. We hurried through to catch our next flight, which was to Victoria, but made it with sufficient time. That flight is short (22 minutes, even shorter than going to Seattle from Victoria like I do all the time), but there was a storm, and it was SO bumpy. HEAVY turbulence. It was the longest 25 minutes of my life, and I was puking by the time we landed. I think I was the only one who actually barfed, but there were other neighbors of ours who had their bags up on their faces too. It was awful. Spencer was almost sick as well. Who would have guessed we would need air-sickness patches that day. I had one in my purse that we didn't think to put on.... But we made it, even though we felt really disgusting and sick, and went to our hotel in Victoria. Chris and Christine joined us later there to stay with us (they live in Bamfield too).

The next morning we all went out to breakfast in Victoria, which was awesome. Then we did errands (annoying but necessary) and made our way to the road back. We ran into Chris and Christine in Youbou, which is the last town on the pavement before the road turns into a logging road. They had stopped to call Bamfield, and found out that the road was washed out right outside of town, and that the power was out. We talked about what to do, and then decided to caravan it out there anyways and see if we could find a way across. So off we went down the road. It had obviously rained a lot the night before. We came to a flood. Spencer and I went through first because our truck was taller, but it ended up being all right for Chris' truck too (photo above). The rest of the road wasn't in terrible shape, except for the normal potholes (i.e. not washed out), and we made it to the part close to town where it was supposedly washed out all the way. There was no washout, actually, but then we came across the problem-- trees had fallen onto the road and powerlines, which broke, and there were tree bits, power pole bits, and powerlines all over the road. It was obvious why Bamfield was without power at that point. We had to drive over one line, but it was ok and we made it around and finally on home. Whoa.

Crazy fun trip. Now I'm back where it's quiet and damp and dark (though right now it's sunny).