Another year of adventures (Part II)

To continue my re-cap of the fun, local, and exciting events of 2012...

6. Weddings. It was the beginning of the rush of marriages I am bracing myself for in the coming years. Although I've never been a wedding obsessed kind of girl, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see friends I love find partners they love, and the weddings I went to this year were incredibly sweet and wonderful.

My roommates Ari and Keith get married with a bunch of UCLA-ers to celebrate

Laura and Ken's beautiful Los Angeles wedding 

5. SeaQuest. This was the slightly insane brainchild of Laura and Ken (see wedding above!). The thought was- we all spend a lot of time on the roads in LA, but who ever gets out and walks? So walk we did, from the farmers market near the center of the city, all the way to the ocean in Santa Monica. The 12 miles(!!!) brought us through West Hollywood with bottomless mimosas and great people watching, through Beverly Hills and happy hour on Rodeo Drive, past the one bathroom in the parking area in a swanky mall, through my neighborhood that I walk or bus through almost every day, down the final stretch of Santa Monica, and straight into the Pacific! It was totally nuts, but I think with almost a year to recover we are all ready to do it again.

My favorite photo of the day. We just passed under the 405 and were so excited, but some reason were convinced the picture would take a mirror image, so we are holding up our hands as "504". 

 4. New Mexico. Ok, so not really local at all. I presented a research poster at the Animal Behavior Society meeting in Albuquerque, NM this summer. I got to meet back up with Tina (who you probably know from Chile and months of picture of us eating ice cream) and my former advisor from Clark. The meeting was great, and then we had a couple of days to visit Santa Fe and Tent Rocks, which were amazing. It wasn't even close to enough time to explore this amazing state!

3. California Central Coast. I had never even heard of Cambria, but once I discovered it I want to go back as often as possible. A small town West of Paso Robles, I think it might be the most magical place on earth (sorry Disneyland). I went camping there with my department, and in the span of 72 hours saw sea otters, elephant seals, sea lions, seals, grey whales, and zebras (at Hearst Castle). It is also prime olallieberry land, and Lynn's in town makes an amazing olallieberry pie. Dave and I went back this fall and it was just as amazing as I remembered. Plus we discovered the otter hang out at Morro Bay, the beautiful camping at Montaña de Oro, kayaked in Lake Cachuma, saw monarch butterflies in Pismo, and spent a night in Solvang, a dutch town complete with windmills and lots of bakeries. Even though I've spent most of my life in this state, there is so much to see in California!

Watching a grey whale mother and calf migrate

tide pooling!

sea otters getting ready for the night

2. The Ellen Show. I know. This one is weird. Especially for me. The only two times I've seen the Ellen Show are when I was there for the filming of it. By chance, my roommate had tickets to go be in the audience one Tuesday. I was curious enough, and agreed to go. We saw Maroon 5 and got invited back for her "12 Days". At first we had no idea what it was "I can't come back for the next 12 days! I have work to do!" but slowly caught on that we got to come back for 1 day of her 12 Days of Giveaways right before Christmas. If you haven't seen the Ellen Show, this in insane. Everyone in the audience of those shows wins some sweet prizes- like over $2,000 in sweet prizes. I was incredibly fortunate, but this was totally a once in a lifetime, only in LA kind of experience.
This was me! -> http://www.ellentv.com/2012/12/14/its-day-10-of-12-days-a-trip-to-the-montage/

1. Pocket Mice! I made it through my first field season. I hit some roadblocks, got caught in a crazy downpour/flash flood, spent many many nights sleeping in a truck for a couple hours at a time, learned a whole lot, and got to finally meet the teeny tiny charismatic species I spend so much time thinking and learning about, the Pacific pocket mouse!

2012 was an amazing year, and these pictures and stories only scratch the surface of it. I did a lot, but I still don't know how the time passed so quickly! I hope that 2013 will be just as eventful and awesome, and I intend to document a lot more of it on here. Next up- a trip to the jungles of Nicaragua with a class I am a teaching assistant for! I think we are off to a good start ;)

Another year of adventures

In the 4 years I've had this blog(!), 2012 was clearly my most dismal for keeping up with things. TWO posts?! One about the narwhal?? Pathetic. It isn't for lack of things to write about. But it's been a whirlwind, and I have no idea where all the time is gone. It's been a different sort of year. I've had the same address ALL YEAR. It is also the first time in a long time I've gone a whole year without using my passport. I did get it renewed though- 10 years, 17 countries, and 50 stamps later :) But local adventures abound, and I wanted to share the highlights and hit the ground running for 2013!

12. Zip lining in the Redwoods of Northern California. You don't have to go to an exotic location to have an adventure! I spent the New Years with some of my favorite people in the quirky town of Guerneville on the Russian River and we zipped around the canopy of some of the tallest trees in the world! (At least, Redwoods are. These were still plenty substantial). Though it was cold and foggy most of the day, the sun came out, the setting was spectacular, and our guides from Sonoma Canopy Tours were top notch!

11. Harry Potter Marathon. We thought watching the first 3 movies was impressive in 1 night... but then we watched the final 5 in a non-stop, projected on the wall, home made pasties, butter beer, thai food filled day in my friend's living room. It was epic, and we will pretend that the dvd didn't skip during the final scene of the final movie where Harry finally defeats Voldemort... 

10. Snow tubing. A bunch of friends from UCLA bought a groupon type deal for snow tubing at Mt. Baldy, pretty much the closest snow to LA. It was an awesome day to feel like a kid again, snowball fights and all.

9. Pig-nic. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to pick up some equipment from my friend and colleague who was going to be at a picnic for her guinea pig fostering group. A pig-nic is more strange and wonderful than anything I had ever imagined.

8. Camera Obscura. My parents came to visit and we took a wander down at Santa Monica beach. I thought I remembered seeing a sign on a building about a camera obscura. This is an old school pinhole type camera on a large scale. The building has a tower with mirrors and a board that the image is projected onto. There is a wheel to turn the "camera" around a 360 degree view. It is an oddity, with the entrance through a senior center, and really felt like a hidden gem in the city.

7. Peddle Boating in San Francisco. It was one of those perfect, spontaneous days of being a tourist in your own city. Lunch at Outerlands (an excellent Outer Sunset "hipster casual" restaurant) was followed by a day in Golden Gate Park (partially inspired by my inept navigation and getting totally turned around in it). We rented a peddle boat on Stowe Lake, stopped to visit the herd of bison, saw the cherry trees in bloom, and fell in love with the city again.