1st year - done!

It is with great pleasure that I announce my first year of PhD academic work is officially DONE!  I turned in my last final exam yesterday and today two fellow students and I went for a hike to Point Bridget to celebrate.

And what a day!  As we sat on the rocks overlooking Berners Bay, the sun at our backs, a light breeze on our faces, surrounded by about 20 bald eagles and countless tide pools the most awesome thing happened.  We had just finished lunch, and I sighed and said "Well.  This is nice." and as I was finishing that sentiment, just in front of us a humpback whale went shooting almost fully out of the water in a spectacular breach.  Perfect timing.  Yes, that was nice.

There were so many bald eagles around today...I'd guess there were 30-40 that were circling overhead or hanging out in the trees around us.  The herring and eulachon spawning is pretty much over, and I'm guess all of the birds (and the whales and seals and sea lions) will start to disperse again.  It was neat to see so many cool critters in one place though.

Since we left pretty early in the morning, we were actually back by 1 pm, so what's a hard working grad student going to do??  Go into the lab, of course. 

sea anemone - in a tide pool

Perfect lunch spot.