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?