Too Excited to Sleep

Route planned - check
Return plane tickets purchased - check
Family stops confirmed - check
Staying up till 2am looking at roadsideamerica.com for cool stuff to see - check

The countdown has begun! In one week Ann and I will be packing up her roommate's sister's car (got that?) and heading for Annapolis Maryland to deliver it and visit Ann's mom & stepdad! Stops along the way include Salt Lake (Ann's dad's), Lincoln Nebraska (approximately), South Bend Indiana, a day trip to Cleveland for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Columbus Ohio (Aunt Pookie's). But of course, there HAS to be things to see in between. We will need to stretch our legs at some point, right? roadsideamerica.com is an entirely too entertaining and completely random website. It should be used as a major resource for any roadtrip adventure. How else would you find the world's largest wooden nickel, the gravesite of Devine, the Star Wars toy museum, every smiley face water tower, and giant chickens, cows, cups of coffee, cans of soup, and balls of paint? I wouldn't say our route has the most interesting stuff, but we'll keep ourselves entertained. Expect lots of goofy pictures and subsequent posts on my "List"!

Work

It's been a long time since I've written...nothing particularly interesting has happened since then. Turned 27 though...man I'm getting old... Spent the weekend before my b-day in Ventura with Amber, Ann, and Monica. Good times, would have been better if I hadn't been in so much pain (don't ask), but it was still good to see everyone. And of course plenty of laughs to make my cheeks and belly hurt! The weekend after I threw myself a little birthday soiree with my local friends. Lolla grill for dinner (with the bonus of a super cute waiter!) then games and trouble at Matt and Mollys. Thanks to everyone for a great birthday!

Sing to me!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes! Yum!SevenStanley, Amber's step-puppy

And now on to the subject at hand....work...sounds daunting, yet...I'm EXCITED! I've been in the office for MONTHS now with only a handful of field days. I'm starting to go crazy. And since our front desk person is out for 6 weeks (get better soon CM!) we've all been doing a lot more administrative stuff...not my favorite, not always my strongest point...But starting this week, I'm going back into the field!! 3+ weeks of plant surveys! WOO HOO! So stoked! The only problem I see with this is thatmost of the surveys are in Marina....which means a higher likelyhood of fog and wind, usually at the same time...But I'll take it. It's time to get out!

Here's some pics of past work adventures (I got a little carried away...)

Some of the main plants I'm looking for:

Monterey Spineflower

Sand gilia

Coast Wallflower

Other fun pics:

Doing plant transects on the dunesStar lily (one of my FAVORITES!)

Tidy tips

Cobweb Thistle

Globe Lily

Goldfields

My new friend

Red-legged frog and CA tiger salamander pond surveys

Lupine field and oaks

Buckwheat

I'm not sure why these people want to build a house here...you?

Carmel Valley Hills

CA poppies

Mariposa Lily (another FAVORITE!)

Buttercup fields near Tres Pinos

Coast horned lizard (I want one!)

Coast newt (I want one of these too)

Restoring a wetland, rockin' the golashes

Is it really January?

It is freakish weather in California right now! As most of the county is bundled up for below freezing weather, it's been t-shirt and shorts weather here for over a week . Even in Monterey! During the summer we never had more than two days of nice weather, but we've had 7 days in a row of over 75° and even longer over 65° this month! It's supposed to start raining Wednesday off and on for the next week and we so badly need the rain, but I'm going to miss this because it's been amazing!

Yesterday Mae and I went on and adventure up to Santa Cruz with our cameras. No plans except to hit the beach at some point. I'm pretty sure everyone else in the area had the same idea, because it was BUSY! You could tell it wasn't the normal obnoxious tourist crowd though; just all the locals getting out and making the most of the day. We headed up past the Boardwalk towards the cliffs and found cute dogs being walked everywhere, a surf competition, amazing views of the coastline, and of course Santa Cruz's plethora of colorful people. Here's some of the pics!

Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse (with the Santa Cruz Surf Museum inside)

Watching the competition

Surfing and sailing

Surf Competition

Hula-hooping Hippies

What is that rabbit doing on his head? I'm not sure, his song didn't tell us...

Pink beetle

One of the houses I want to live in

Waiting for the sunset

Perfect day

Just past sunset

Mae contemplating her next shot