Emi's Journal

The nice thing about sleeping in the van is that all I had to do in the morning was sit up, and I was ready to go!
We had to get going fairly early, since we were going tidepooling, and of course, that all depends on tides! We were a little late, but it wasn’t too bad…. We headed up to CEDO and met with Sophia, who told us some stuff before we went out… Like not to touch fire worms. Sounded good to me.
Anyway, she also went out with us and showed us lots of cool stuff. We saw LOTS of brittle stars… Quite a few chiton, which I thought were awesome. I was holding one, and it suctioned two of my fingers together…. By attaching to both. :p There were lots of fire worms too…. We avoided touching those, of course. Lots of flat worms which were weird…. Micah found a decorated crab, which I guess is really impressive. Pretty cool crab. And we also found some fish… The swimming clams were REALLY cool. I liked those a lot! What else was awesome? There was LOTS of cool stuff out there! We were flipping over rocks like crazy! And putting them back, of course. We found all sorts of really cool stuff.
I love tidepooling, and hadn’t done it in quite some time, so that was really cool.

Eventually the tide started coming in though, and we had to head back to CEDO. We also had a few biologists giving talks, so we were there for that of course.
A couple people talked to us, then we had free time! Four hours free, fun. Most of us started off with lunch. PB&J… I was all PB&Jed out by the end of the trip…. But hey, can’t beat the classics!
Then I headed down to the beach. Some people went in to town, some people went and slept in the vans…. I went to the beach!
Quite a few people were down there. We were just lounging around… It was nice! I read for a bit. A Mexican lady came offering to braid hair (for money, of course), and quite a few people did it. Not me, of course.
Some of us went swimming. Emily went out snorkeling, and I swam along with her. Then I decided to borrow a snorkel from someone… So I swam back to shore. Micah (who had already gone out snorkeling, and had come back) let me borrow his. A few of the others went out snorkeling too, but Emily and I stayed out longest. We saw a few fish… There was a coral kinda thing, so we saw some there. That was pretty cool. I want to get a snorkel!
Then we went back in… When we started feeling a bit cold. It was so cool to be able to swim in the ocean without freezing though! It was really pretty warm, though I hear it hadn’t warmed up yet. It did get cold after a while, and we got out when that happened. Unfortunately, out of the water it was really cold! But laying in the sun felt nice. Even though I was laying in the sand because I forgot to grab my towel.
Micah went out snorkeling again. The rest of us just lounged around. When it got near time to head back up to CEDO for a talk, we couldn’t see him anywhere…. Even after walking the beach. So we started getting a bit concerned, and started a search party…. But of course he showed up and all was well.

Oh, yeah, and one of my favorite quotes from the trip…. The first time Micah had gone out snorkeling, we were trying to see him, but every time we thought we saw him he “flew away”.
A few minutes later, Emily said “There’s something wrong with that bird… Oh wait, that’s Micah!”
You probably had to be there, but it was pretty funny at the time.

(Posted to LJ 04/19/2007)

We got back to CEDO and started loading up vans. They had another group coming in, so we had to move out.
It took a bit to get everyone and everything together, but we made it work. Then we headed in to Puerto Peñasco, where we were…. Unfortunately… Staying at an RV Park.
That’s the problem with planning long distance, especially when it involves international…. We ended up camping in what was basically a parking lot. No one was terribly happy, but we dealt with it. Basically we tried to keep as much stuff as we could in the locked vans. Tents did get set up though, and I decided it was time for a warm shower, which felt awesome. Then we headed out to dinner.
We ended up at a restaurant/bar. I got a Sprite and some tamales… Not amazing food, but it was edible, and it wasn’t too bad.
The main problem was that I was exhausted, and that was getting to me. I don’t know if I was really getting grumpy, but kind of in a way I guess. I wanted to go sleep, but didn’t want to be in the “parking lot” by myself.
To make things more interesting, it was looking pretty strange outside…. The sky appeared to have turned tan. After a quick wander outside, I found out we were in the midsts of a dust storm.
Luckily a group had stayed at the “parking lot” a bit longer, and when the wind picked up they started pulling bags from vans and throwing them in tents. Apparently there were tents flying away….. That would have been inconvenient.
After eating, I was still really tired. I didn’t really want to just keep sitting at the restaurant/bar, but I didn’t want to be by myself at the RV Park. Micah decided he wanted to go Snorkeling though, and after walking to the beach to check conditions, he came back and said he was going for it. A few other people decided to join. I didn’t want to snorkel in the dark, but decided to tag along for lack of anything better to do. We went back to the site, I got a sweatshirt and marshmallows, and they got their snorkeling stuff.
I was given a headlamp and instructed to stay on shore and act as the homing beacon. That worked for me…. They had a scuba light, so I could see them out in the water, and I was on shore with a light so they could find me. It worked out well. It was a bit chilly, and I ended up wading into the water a bit. The water felt pretty good, actually.
I wasn’t entirely comfortable on shore by myself, but it wasn’t too bad. Mostly the wind was bothering me…. We were right by a construction site, and there was a lot of clanking metal that I didn’t like much. I kept the snorkeling group in sight though, and things were OK. Although the music from a nearby bar was driving me crazy, and occasional firecrackers freaked me out pretty well.
The water accompanied with marshmallows worked pretty well for making me feel better, so when they got out we went ahead and headed back to the restaurant/bar.
We met a group that wanted to find somewhere else to go… That didn’t really play out as planned, but while it was happening I was happily eating delicious tacos, thanks to Emily telling me what I wanted and ordering it for me.
We did end up back at the first place, and that was pretty nice. I had another Sprite, some marshmallows…. Basically I was on a sugar high. It worked. I even danced around with the group a bit. I figured there were much worse things I could be doing. A little dancing around didn’t hurt.
I ended up heading back when Bill said he was walking someone back and asked if I wanted to go along. Some people had already gone back, so I went. We met Matt along the way, which was convenient, because we were then able to get van keys.
I slept in a van… It was a bit quieter, and I felt a bit better being in a locked vehicle… Plus it was comfy. I could still hear some stuff being blown around, some firecrackers, and the music from a nearby bar… But it was quieter.
Of course that also meant I was woken up several times by people banging on the door… Since I had the key with me. But that was OK. I ended up with another meat taco (courtesy of someone falling asleep before eating it, and Emily not willing to waste the meat), and another person in the van… And several people discovering I’m essentially dead when I sleep. I’m a very heavy sleeper…. That made some people (the people banging on the doors) unhappy.

Sleeping in the van was pretty nice though. I did come out once to get my bag so I could have my sleeping bag…. Besides that I just got to hang out in there for the night.

(Posted to LJ 04/08/2007)

Even sleeping on a deck… I wake up early! But that’s good. I was able to get some of my stuff together before heading out, and that was a good thing. And I ate some marshmallows…. Oh, the marshmallows…
I was super excited, so it wasn’t hard at all to get up and going. Changed into my swimsuit, threw stuff into my backpack, and was ready to roll!
Those of us going out to the island loaded into a van, and we headed out. We drove into Puerto Peñasco, and to a marina. There waiting for us were two boats. One was a good sized boat, able to take 11 or 12 of us… The other a little one that took up to about 8 of us. I hopped onto the little one, and sat in the back. Jesse, Reed, Bonnie, Elaina, Micah, and Bill also got on the little one. Bill and Micah went down in the cabin, while the rest of us sat in the back.
It was probably about an hour out to the island… Maybe more. We soon found that it was going to be a rough ride. I was having a blast, myself… The bounces were like a giant ongoing roller coaster, and I got a kick out of it. We were hitting bumps, and we were hitting them HARD. So hard that the seat I was on came loose!
We stopped to get that fixed (broken seats + big bumps + back of boat = not such a great sounding idea), and Bill and Micah came up from the cabin. Apparently it’s MUCH bumpier down below! They decided to stay up there with us.
We got going again, but soon after had to stop once again because the kayaks strapped to the front of the boat were coming loose. One more stop to take care of that, and we got rolling again.
Not long after that, the seat broke again…. This time in the middle, where Micah was sitting. Unsure of how that would be fixed, we went ahead and kept on going.

We finally got to the Island, and were told we could climb up to the front of the boat. We did, and the person from CEDO, who was on the other boat, gave us a little talk about the island, and the wildlife there.
We then broke up into groups of 3, and circled the island. The point of this, sea lion count. I was the tallyer in my group, since I decided it would probably be too hard for me to be able to see them well enough. Bill counted ones in the water, and Micah counted ones on land. If I remember correctly, we got a total of 2003 in our group…. Of course when counting wildlife that’s only an estimate…. But I think that’s what we got.

After that, finally, time to get in the water!!!! I hopped over to the other boat and got some snorkeling gear. I was so excited to get to swim with sea lions….. So cool! We were told they would give us plenty of warning before getting mad enough to bite, and that was my only concern, so I was ready to go! I suited up, and leapt into the water.
The first thing I did was gasp. There was a momentary panic, before I finally caught my breath. A whole lot warmer than the Pacific, yes, but even the Sea of Cortez is shockingly cold at first!
After gasping for a few seconds, then putting the snorkel in my mouth and kind of gasping a bit more, before I got into a rhythm of being able to breath with it, I swam out.
To be so close to sea lions…. At first I was really nervous, but the females completely ignored me…. And then they started swimming around me, playing! I laughed out loud, and declared “I’m playing with sea lions!”. I have never done anything cooler. That was simply the most amazing thing I’ve done. Ever. To be amongst a herd of sea lions…. Amazing. Words can not describe the feelings. It was just too amazing.
After swimming among a large group of them for a bit, I did get my reminder that the guys weren’t quite as playful though…. I was wary of the bull that I saw swimming around, but probably not as wary as I should have been.
A huge bull, one of the biggest I could see there, swam under me. I held still, waiting for him to pass. He turned, and looked up at me. Opened his mouth, and swam up.
Terror, I think, is what I was probably feeling…. I froze, afraid that if I swam, he would take it as a threat. But watching a huge bull swim at me, jaws open, unsettling. He turned before reaching me, much to my relief, and I darted off in the other direction.
It was terrifying, but it was also AWESOME! Not everyone can say they got that close to a male sea lion! He was just warning me, but I got the message.

I swam away from that group for a bit… Swam over to the boat, to tell the tale. I wasn’t ready to get out though, so I swam around a bit more. There were some fish around that I took a look at, and on the other side of the boats there was another group of sea lions.
While checking out the fish I saw a large bull watching me… I don’t know if it was the same one, but when I saw him starting towards me I got out of there. I went to the other side, where the other group of sea lions was. Swam around there for a few, then climbed out.
All that swimming made me hungry, and I hadn’t had lunch! I knew we would be heading out soon, and knowing the boat ride, I knew I didn’t want to be eating while we were going.

I chose to stay on the little boat. Several people chose to switch. I really did enjoy the bumps though, so I chose to stay. There was an ice chest under the broken seat, so that was temporarily taken care of. Towels were put under the front seat, because that had come loose too. We joked that by the time we got back to shore we will have reassembled the entire boat.
I sat up front, with our captain. The others were behind us, except for Bill, who chose to stand.
The ride back wasn’t quite as rough…. It didn’t go without mishap though. The canopy thing came loose, so we had to stop once to fix that. Then a kayak started coming loose, so another stop to fix that.
Then we hit a really hard bump. I had braced for it, and leaned forwards. When I looked up, I was greeted by a surprise…. A flying kayak!
The thing that was holding one of the kayaks on had broken. We lucked out, and is flew to the side. Realizing it could have easily come and pounded all of us up front, we were relieved.
The kayak went down into the cabin, and the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful…. We joked about how we’d have nightmares about flying kayaks. We decided to take it slow from then on though, so although it was still rough, there wasn’t any great excitement.

We got back to shore, where the rest of the group was waiting. While walking to the vans I joked that it was not bouncy enough anymore.
I then nearly tripped.
In my defense, my sandal caught in a crack in the cement. It made for a good laugh. ‘Not bumpy enough, huh?’

We climbed back into the van, and headed back to CEDO. And I think that’s where I’m going to cut this post off…. This day will have to come in two parts, because there is still so much to say.

(Posted to LJ 04/05/2007)

This is the day we crossed the border! But first we had one more appointment in Arizona. So after getting up early, munching breakfast, and packing up camp (which, of course, with a large group took a while), we piled into the vans and headed out.
We drove to Madero Canyon, in Coronado National Forest. There we met up with a “professional bird watcher”. He took us along a trail and pointed out a bunch of cool birds and stuff to us. Lots of gold finches, a couple hummingbirds… The highlight for him, if I remember correctly, was the American Redstart. I really liked the Acorn Woodpeckers.
Madero was fairly high in altitude, and that made things kind of interesting. As we got higher there were more trees… And even a creek! Some people elected to skip out on the hiking around on the trail, and chose to kick back by the creek. A desert creek isn’t something you see every day, after all!
After we walked the loop of the trail we were on, we piled back into the vans and drove to a lodge kind of place where there were bird feeders. He showed us more birds there. Finches, acorn woodpeckers, a pine siskin… Things like that.
Then we piled into the vans AGAIN and drove to another lodge place where we hoped to see hummingbirds. They were doing a hummingbird population count project there, and the head guy talked to us a bit about it. Unfortunately we didn’t see any hummers while we were there, but there were a bunch of pine siskins. A whole bunch of them were playing on a fountain, which was very cute.
Oh, and we saw snow! It was way up above us, but there was snow!
After that we had lunch. Lots and lots of PB&J, some fruit… Good stuff. Had to eat as much fruit as possible before crossing the border, so we ate lots of that.

After lunch we loaded into the vans and got set to cross the border!
Well, more like drive and drive and drive and drive. We had to go quite far East before we headed South. I can’t seem to recall anything terribly exciting about the drive. Lots of cacti, lots of desert, lots of pointy hills (the hills and mountains in AZ are very pointy). It was a long drive though, and I really don’t remember much about it. I read quite a bit, and maybe even slept… I can’t say for sure now.
Crossing the border itself was super easy. They didn’t need ID or anything… No passports, no nothing. They didn’t even stop us. Just waved us through and we were done.
The drive to Puerto Peñasco was another hour-ish… We had some fun in the vans, putting on temporary tattoos that someone bought at our last stop before crossing the border. We also had fun reading signs. Trying to pronounce stuff… But once we got out of town the Mexico desert looked a whole darn lot like the Arizona desert, and we had been driving through that for a few hours already…. So I went back to reading.

We finally got to Puerto Peñasco in the evening… Probably 6:00 or 7:00. We drove out to CEDO, which stands for Centro de Estudios de Desiertos y Océanos… Or something along those lines. Anyway, it’s kind of a research/field station place. Pretty cool, right on the beach. We got there, got told the kind of “rules” of staying there, then unloaded the vans. We were only there for a night, but it was nice to not have to completely set up camp. Quite a few of us chose to sleep out on the deck, which was really cool. There was also one of the greatest sunsets I’ve ever seen… My pictures are probably slightly deceiving, because I think my camera enhanced the colors a bit, so the pictures may be even more gorgeous than the sunset itself, but it was really really nice.
While we unloaded the vans, got settled for the night, and quite a few people took advantage of having warm showers, there was a lady downstairs cooking us an authentic Mexican meal. I was lucky to be one of the first people in line for dinner……
The food was AMAZING! Better than any Mexican food I have had before. It was absolutely delicious! When those of us that got served first were done, they were just finishing serving the last few people… A couple of us waited rather vulture-like, hoping for seconds. And our wish was granted. I now know I’m a huge fan of quesadillas, and those tostados things are pretty darn good too. I’m getting hungry just typing about it!

I also had a few marshmallows for dessert… Me+marshmallows will likely be a running joke among this group…. I ate lots of them throughout the trip.
Now I feel kind of bad writing about marshmallows, having just written about some of the greatest food I’ve ever eaten.

But anyway, after dinner they had a little slideshow powerpoint thing about CEDO, and the general area… In particular, the Isle of San Jorge, where about half of would be going the following day for a snorkeling trip.

After the presentation a lot of us headed up to the deck. About half of us would be heading out early in the morning, for the snorkeling trip. Me included.
I crawled into my sleeping bag and read for a bit, then fell asleep.

I remember waking up once or twice in the night…. One time in particular, I remember looking up and seeing stars. Absolutely beautiful stars. And among these stars…. A cross.
I now know that what I saw was most likely the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. All I knew at the time was that I was seeing a constellation I had never seen before, and didn’t recognize. There was no doubt in my mind that it was a constellation though.
It still amazes me how bright it was… How clear it shined. I didn’t really look for that long, but it stuck with me. I can still picture it in my head.

Something about camping… I always get up early. I don’t really know why, it just happens. Also since AZ doesn’t do DST (awesome) it got bright earlier.
But anyway, most of the morning was spent just hanging out. We didn’t have anything scheduled until late morning, so we got to relax at the campsite for a bit. Did some scorpion hunting (and found some! ), tried looking for some other stuff (no success in finding snakes or lizards, but we did identify a gila woodpecker). I read for a bit… It was a pretty nice morning.

Later on we headed off to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. There was a guy there that gave us a great talk on the Sea of Cortez. Then we had lunch and headed off to explore the museum.
It’s hard for me to write about the museum…. I’ll do a lot better job documenting it in my scrapbook once I get the pictures up, so watch out for that.
It was amazing though. I got to see a gila monster, which was one of the two animals I decided I needed to see on the trip. The other being a roadrunner, which I also saw at the museum. Also there were a few really cool mountain lions that came right up to the viewing window, some pretty awesome bears, and so much more! The hummingbird aviary was awesome. The desert loop was really cool. The rocks and minerals were cool. I really liked the cave thing too. And the cacti… There was so much, and words just don’t say enough!
It was also nice to see actual WILDlife. There were a few lizards around that were pretty cool, and of course birds.
After wandering around for a while I hit the gift shop, bought an expensive but awesome shirt, and then headed back to where we agreed to meet up and head out. After waiting for quite some time for the rest of the group to get there (such things happen when you travel in groups), we finally headed out.

While quite a few people elected to go into town to shop, I chose to hang out at camp. I spent most of the time reading… Some time hanging out and talking with people. They made fun of my scrawny little tent… Apparently it’s small. I knew that, but everyone says it’s really really small, which I wasn’t entirely aware of. I call it my 1.5 person tent…..
But anyway, we hung out at camp. When the group came back from shopping (once again, done in groups it takes a large amount of time) we made dinner. Burritos, yum! I helped by cutting up some onions… Which took a bit of guidance and quite a bit of caution. I did so with no blood shed, so that was good.
After cutting the onions there was still quite a bit of time before everything was done, so I joined a group of people who had climbed up onto the vans. We had some pretty cool star gazing conditions! We hung out up there until dinner was ready. Food was too good to refuse, so that got us down.
After dinner the camp coordinator guy came and invited us to a star party. He actually told us about it the night before, so a few of us were ready to go. He had a really cool telescope set up, and showed us lots of really cool stuff. The Orion Nebula, the moon, and my favorite… Saturn! I got a picture of the moon through the telescope (it’ll be in my scrapbook), but unfortunately not of Saturn. I tried, but couldn’t hold the camera still long enough for it to gather enough light.
After that I headed to bed. Read for a bit, then crashed.

(Posted to LJ 04/02/2007)

Saturday was a long day. Up way too early, 5:40-ish, since we had to be to Nash by 6:00. Lots of very tired people with huge backpacks… Fun!
So we rode a school bus to PDX… A couple hour drive, in a little school bus… It was OK though. We made it, and that’s what matters.
After checking in and getting through security (remarkably fast), we found that our plan actually left 50 minutes later than we thought…. So we had breakfast, and wandered around… Stuff like that.
Our plane left at 11:40. I was one of the lucky people that checked in first, so I got into the second boarding group, rather than third. Apparently Southwest has general seating, which is kind of weird. I got an awesome window seat though, so no complaints there!
The flight was pretty cool. I like flying over land… Much more interesting than over water. We got the most amazing view of the Grand Canyon…… Grand is an understatement! Breathtaking, maybe. Unbelievable… Something more along those lines.
We got in to Phoenix in the afternoon… I don’t remember what time. A few people went to get vans, while the rest of us gathered baggage… Then waited. And waited.
Apparently there was a miscommunication of some sort, and our three 15-passenger vans had become two. Not good, when you consider the fact that we had 29 people and gear to go along with each… We ended up with two 15-passengers and two mini vans, to be exchanged for a 15-passenger at the Tucson Airport.
After that insanity, we went to the Hilton to put our tickets in a safety deposit box. Good thinking, except that two vans got lost. So we ended up waiting….. Which wasn’t too bad. Some pretty cool birds and stuff around… And even grass!
Once the other vans caught up, we made a food stop. We still had a drive to Tucson ahead of us, so dinner was a ways away… So a food stop was in order.
Then there was a long drive, of which I recall nothing terribly eventful. Well, not until the end when we found out the directions we had were to the managing place of the campground, rather than the campground itself…. Lost twice in a day, already!
We ended going to the airport to exchange the vans, and also get directions.
Consequently, we got back to camp pretty late. Set up camp in the dark, then we needed to send a crew out shopping… A few people went to do that. I sent some money to get marshmallows. Can’t camp without marshmallows!
We ended up having dinner at about 11:00. One pot of water refused to boil, so making pasta took a little while… But it worked out. Tasted pretty good!
After dinner I was really tired, so I headed to bed. Woke up a few times in the night, heard some coyotes, but otherwise slept pretty darn well.

(Posted to LJ 04/01/2007)

So… I’m backdating these for the purpose of it being easier for me. And better looking.

A bit of a hectic day. I had to finish packing AND clean my room before Brianna picked me up. I stayed at her place for the night since I had to be out of my dorm…
But anyway, I managed to get all packed, and my room got semi-clean…. As in I ran out of time so I threw stuff in a bag and shoved it under my bed. Whatever works.
Brianna picked me up in the afternoon, and I went to her house… Played with her evil cat. Then we went to Chintimini Wildlife Rehab Center for a bit. That was really cool. I got to help feed the raccoons and the bobcat. :p Very very cool.
Then we did some other stuff that wasn’t terribly exciting… Dinner and shopping and stuff. I went to bed early, due to the fact that we had to get going pretty early the next day.

(Posted to LJ 04/01/2007)

Pikados
Registered: 4/28/04

Posts: 20,421 6/03/04 at 09:29 PM

ROFL!!!!!!! I had to make up for the lack of school today somehow…. If it’s not the summer or weekend, I just can’t be dumb for a full day…. I think it’s a disorder. :lol::lol:

Walking towards Finley, shouts could be heard.
“I see lights… The power is back!”
“Yeah it is!”
“YES!!!!!!!!!!!!”

It’s been a wild few days…. I was pretty unhappy yesterday, but after realizing so many people were even more unhappy than me, I kind of realized it was no big deal. A hassle, yes… But in reality, kind of fun. Going down to Arnold for hot meals and flood lights… On generators, of course. Studying out in the hall because every other light in the hall was being run by generator. Reading with a headlamp (which I may continue doing, because it’s easier than crawling out of bed to turn off the light…. )… Going to work to use the internet. Today I went to the back room and “leeched” from their power for a bit… I wasn’t gonna work, since I already did my 20 hours. :p

I survived the South Side Blackout. I have officially experienced being a Power Refugee. It’s amazing how that put us at a standstill. They fed us, set up “printing stations” and various computer labs around campus for us… Study rooms, even. Loaner flashlights… Had it continued through tonight there would have been loaner blankets. And we were the pity of campus… Two dorms, a rec center, a dining/service center, and a sporting venue…. Such a small piece of campus, yet they worked on it….
I’ll confess to liking the shirt design downstairs….. “I survived the Finley Blackout 2007… They didn’t know how to turn us on”

Power not expected to return until tomorrow…. They still don’t know what’s going on. Woohoo.
I got two Finals tomorrow.