Chiggers suck

Steve came back from camping with about 100 chigger bites on each leg, mostly on his feet.  The itching is making him crazy.  At first we thought they were mosquito bites, but when the itching didn't go away after a couple of hours, you know you're in for a rough week because chiggers bites itch for such a long time.  I think the itching associated with chiggers is one of the most uncomfortable, uncontrollable itching I've ever experienced.  I'm glad I didn't get any, but I do feel really bad for him!  And technically, chiggers don't bite, they make a hole in your skin and then chew it up.  See, learn something every day, right?

Most bizarre camping ever

For the first time in decades of camping, we hit a new milestone.  We were the only campers in the tent camping loop (out of 50 camping sites).  It was eerily quiet.  The park was largely deserted - there was only the campground host and two other sites occupied in the RV loop (also about 50 sites, and which was a ways down the road from our loop).  The parking lot for the pavillion and park office - empty - on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  It was like entering the Twilight Zone. 

The campsites were very pretty, right on the lake, with a nice sunset view (above).  In another wild 'first' there were some storms that passed through the area on Sunday.  As we were sitting and enjoying dessert and well after the storms were gone, we heard the distinctive *crack* of a tree falling.  To our amazement it fell just a couple of sites over and we watched it go down.  (Don't worry, we weren't in danger)  Seca was really excited by the noise and boom of it landing, so we all walked over to check it out.  Even odder was the fact that the tree, which was about a 50-60 ft tall and 1 foot diameter pine, broke off about 4 feet up from the ground, leaving a tall, jagged stump.

We spent a lot of the weekend hanging out and reading in hammocks.  It was perfect.  

We also cooked up a bunch of good food.  Breakfast burritos, BBQ chicken and sweet potatoes, steak and green beans...

Steve making the best dessert ever - chocolate, caramel, marshmallow pudgie (hobo) pie.

Birthday camping

Tomorrow morning we're heading west to go camping for the weekend at Baker Creek State Park.  Perfect timing too because our air conditioner at home has died.  The repairmen are here, so hopefully they'll have it fixed today, but if not, at least we don't have to stick around with a hot house all weekend.  And the best part is that we both have Monday off, so we're gone for a long weekend. 

This is a park we've never been to before, so we're excited to see what it's like.  It's on a lake, and supposedly our campsite is right on the water.  I can't wait to string up a hammock, grab a book and relax!

I need a tripod

I would like to get a tripod but have very little experience using them.  Does anyone have suggestions on what to look for in a good one?  What features are useful, or brands are reliable?  I did a quick search online and it looks like you can spend $10-1000+, and there's an overwhelming selection.  I don't know how much I should spend.  Any advice would be much appreciated!

Scottish Games Festival

There is a big Scottish population in Charleston and every year (for the last forty years!) they hold the Scottish Games Festival.  It's held outdoors at Boone Hall Plantation (because nothin' says 'Scottish' like a Plantation, right?) and there's food (including haggis, but not Scotch), games, bagpipe (or 'pipe' as it is properly called) competitions, dancing competitions, and a border collie/sheep herding demonstration.  I went with Beth because Steve had to work.  It. Was. Awesome.  However, after 2 hours of bagpipe competition, I had had enough of them.  All the music starts to sound the same after a while and I had heard "Scotland the Brave" more times that I could count.

Here's a video clip from the opening ceremony, where I think every pipe and drum group competing was playing together.

The games were also fun - caber throwing (think telephone pole), hammer throwing, sheep tossing, wrestling, and some ball on a chain throw.  This is picture of a (giant) guy getting ready to throw a caber.

Woodland Park Zoo

 a meerkat

On our last day in Washington (and before overnight flights home) we drove around some of the neighborhoods in Seattle then went to the zoo.  The zoo was really nice - med/small in size but really nicely laid out with wooded paths and animal enclosures that were large and natural feeling.  In some cases you couldn't even see if there was a fence (there was usually a hidden moat).  We spent several hours there, sometimes the people watching was more interesting that the animal watching. 

I really liked the wolf exhibit, which was strategically placed next to the elk. They were surprisingly active - the whole group circled the perimeter, sniffing the fence line and marking their territory.  We only saw all this because we'd parked ourselves on a bench in the shade by the grizzly bear exhibit and after a while we saw that the wolf 'territory' was immediately behind our seat!  We got a nice close up view of them moving around.

The tiger and snow leopard were taking a nap.  Do cats ever really do anything else? Look at the size of the tail on the snow leopard!  It's huge!

Giraffe, eating a snack.  

 A kimodo dragon.  I hear they're mean, but I guess when you have claws like that, it's hard to be nice.

 

This is a Steller's sea eagle, and is slightly smaller than a bald eagle.  They live in Russia (and probably other places).  The sign said they're endangered and there's a breeding program.  I thought they were beautiful.

It was sad to leave the Pacific northwest and go back to hot and humid Charleston, although I did miss Steve and Seca.  The work conference was excellent, so I'm really glad I got to go.  There were hundreds of excellent talks, and it was fun seeing old friends again (and meeting some new ones).  After a week with 4000 other fisheries scientists, it's really clear to me how small a field it really is, and that I do like it.  :)

*I posted more trip pictures on Flickr, link here.

Whale watching (!!)

Today mom and I went on a whale watching trip!  The tour was about 5 hours long and wandered through the San Juan Islands.  We were really impressed with the tour, and saw several orcas, dozens of porpoises and harbor seals, a minke whale, salmon (I saw them in the water near the boat), and birds.

The boat crew was able to identify the whales as part of the 'resident' L pod.  There are also resident J and K pods that live in the area.  We saw a mother and calf (the calf is in the photo above) several times, often pretty close to the boat.  The other orca we saw a lot was a big male - his dorsal fin was almost 6 feet high (below)! 

Some seals were basking in the sun (the one on the far right makes me laugh):

Lastly, is this seagull lazy or genius?

Sunset at Washington Park, Anacortes

North Cascades National Park

We took the (very) scenic route to Anacortes, WA today, by detouring through North Cascades National Park.  It's unusually hot and sunny here this week (go figure) which made for a nice drive.  Today there was a big earthquake in Vancouver Island (about 6.4).  We didn't feel it.  I have bad luck.

This is from one of the scenic overlooks at the Visitor Center.  Look at the crazy knob-like thing on the left!

This is part of the waterfall at Gorge Creek Falls.  I had my zoom lens on so I'm missing most of it.  Maybe I'll get a copy of mom's picture that will be better.

This is the view from the Washington Pass Overlook.  The mountains here are much more rugged (though not as high) compared to Colorado.  

Oooh look! It's a Fiat!

The rental car agency gave us a tiny, cute Fiat for our weekend.  It's a good thing we didn't bring more luggage, or it wouldn't fit in the back.  We've gotten comments all day (like the title) - and people asking if its fun to drive, if it gets good gas mileage, etc.  It is fun to drive, although it feels tiny compared to the big logging trucks on the highway, and it does get good gas mileage (about 30 mpg or so with the AC on in the mountains).  Actually, it's pretty funny - we filled it up but the gas nozzle stopped after only 7.5 gallons.  I thought "That can't be right, that's not much gas!" so I checked the manual and sure enough, the tank is only ten gallons! It's a 2012 and it only had 1000 miles on it when we picked it up. 

Today we left Seattle about 8 am and headed to North Cascades National Park.  I'll post pictures of  that later, but here's another car we saw that was turning heads! 

Sunset at the aqurarium

Last night there was a social at the Seattle Aquarium then the Maryland 'CBL' past and current students and professors were getting together at a local pub.  It was really busy at the aquarium, but it's a really nice place so it was still fun to explore a bit.  It overlooks the Puget Sound, so the sunset (and the temperature outside) were fabulous! It was REALLY fun to visit with everyone from CBL (the place I did my Masters).  Both of my advisers were there, along with several people who were students at the same time I was but have since scattered across the country. 

This is a river otter at the aquarium.  He's holding his tail in his paws - cute.

The Emerald City

 

I’m in Seattle this week for work – a fisheries conference.  It’s a huge meeting, by fisheries standards, with more than 4000 people registered.  Last night at the opening social it was an overwhelming number of bodies. I ran into lots of people I knew though, which was fun.

There is a fabulous view of the Space Needle from my room (above).  It’s odd being in a large city again – people everywhere, good public transportation options.  There were swarms of people out on the sidewalks yesterday afternoon.  We wandered down to Pike Place Market and it was packed, I think the holiday weekend contributes to that.

This is the view from the plane just before landing in Seattle.  I miss mountains.

Seca goes swimming

It's gorgeous tonight - mid 70s, low humidity, soft breeze - so we went to the beach with Seca.  She still drinks the salt water, although I can't image how she can stand it.  When we get her home it takes a long rinse in the yard to get all the sand out of her fur.

Baseball

Thursday night about 20 people from work went to see the Charleston Riverdogs play baseball.  I don't really like baseball, but if I'm going to see a game, it has to be live, not on TV.  It was our first time going to a game here, and it was a gorgeous night to be outside and enjoying $1 beer night.  The stadium is right on the banks of the Ashley River, and I suspect 2000 years from now some archaeologist is going to be scratching his head about the baseballs preserved in the mud of the marsh.  We also joked that they would find some hotdogs buried there too, looking as fresh as the day they were tossed over the railing.  We did far more socializing than game watching and we lost 5-4 (to the Asheville 'Tourists' - what kind of name is that for a team?). 

We had really great seats!  In a stadium this small, there's probably not a bad seat in the house.  This is definitely the closest I've ever been at a game though.

Charlie the Riverdog.

Tony the peanut vendor sells boiled peanuts (they're a southern thing, and an acquired taste if you ask me), cajun boiled peanuts, and 'Yankee' peanuts (the normal peanuts in a shell that you get at a baseball game).  He was hilarious.