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For Grams and Gramps 40th wedding anniversary, we rounded up the whole gang and went to Hawaii. It was a great 10 days, and we only got about 700 pictures.. In addition, it was Tom’s Birthday, Christmas, lots of beach and sun, and storing up on Vitamin D. We got a group shot, and a few others down below. We’re overnighting in Seattle before heading home to Juneau (and hopefully lots of snow up on Eaglecrest!)
We had a great week in Portland.
Matt had two conferences (Sun-Tues Nat’l Science Foundation Regional Workshop and Fri-Sat Northwest Glaciology–but the nice Wed/Thur gap!) and Carrie and Torsten went along for fun. Grams met us there on Tuesday night and Gramps came in Thursday night. So we had a great catchup and visit with them!
We also got to catch up with two Juneau families who escaped the rain. Mira and the Kron family took us to the zoo (for the elephant pumpkin smash!!)
And Aubrey brought his mom Di to meet us at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (a huge hit!). (Mike Hekkers was also at Northwest Glaciology, so he and Matt got to catch up, but no photos..)
Everyone was so busy exploring the Polar exhibit, the water exhibit, and the Antarctica IMAX that we didn’t get a picture of everyone! Here are two more of our favorite photos from the trip:
Check out the whole gallery.
The canoe trip through the Boundary Waters in Minnesota was great. The recipe for success was six adults, three 3-year-olds, two 1-year-olds, two big (18′, I think) canoes, lots of life jackets, not too many paddles, some fishing poles, lotsa bug spray and sun screen, and a little patience. Add a portage and lunch break to taste. The results should look something like this:
The canoes were from Sawbill Canoeing outfitters. Most of our photos are from the portages and lunch breaks, but you can find all of them in the gallery by clicking on any of the pictures.
The portages went well, and we managed to make it all in a single hike (compared to one other group that did three hikes across!!)–thanks all to the experts Ellen and Greg. Portaging the younger kids was more awkward than the canoes–not balanced, squiggly, prone to snoring.. They did schedule in a few rest breaks.
The canoeing was great, but exploring the shore and beach during a lunch break was fun as well (and photogenic).
What a great day with great friends!
We all went to Minnesota July 4-14 for a great vacation. First, we met up with Nana and visited family and friends in northern Minnesota (Aurora, Vermillion Lake, Ely..) This was lots of fun, and the start of some good lake time.
Next, we stayed at Nana’s friends Harry’s place on the shore of Lake Superior just outside of Grand Marais–a very nice place. Next we went to a cabin on Devil’s Track Lake and met up with Ellen, Greg, Taj, Mia, Kate, Tom, Janna, and Carmen.
Torsten and Taj were excited to see each other!
Torsten and Matt got some kayaking and fishing in, as a warm up for lots of time on the water during the whole vacation.
There was lots of good fishing going on from the docks:
The whole gang ate together (Carmen is hiding behind Carrie, Greg is taking the picture)
We got (Lake Superior) beach time with friends
And some good sleeping had to happen sometime:
Of course there was lots of canoeing
The day long canoe in the Boundary Waters was great, but that will get its own blog entry. After the canoeing, it was time for an ice cream break:
Carrie, Torsten, and Matt are all up in Minnesota for a good vacation–away from cell phones and internet (mostly). We met up w/ Torsten’s Nana (Jaye) and saw lots of family on various Minnesota Lakes for three days. Then we caught up with Kate, Tom, Ellen, Greg, and all the tykes. We have six adults, three 3-year-olds, and two 1-year-olds. Yesterday we had an awesome canoe through the boundary waters (all of the above in two canoes!?!), then last night the moms all went out for dinner and catching up while the dads fairly successfully got everyone fed and to sleep. Here’s a photo preview, with much more to come:
I was down in the Bay Area a few weeks back, to attend the International Symposium on Digital Earth (and present Sensor Webs in IPY, here’s the power point, if you are interested). The conference was really great, and afterwards I got to catch up with Tom, Laura, and Waylon! Waylon and I made funny faces at each other in a yummy restaurant. We mostly tried to make sure we weren’t looking at the camera at the same time–but we missed it once…
At the ISDE (conference), I got to play with the “One Laptop Per Child” prototype–pretty cool:
I am on a blitz-trip to catch a bit of CEDAR/DASI (Distributed Array of Small Instruments) in Santa Fe and collaborate with folks at NOAA/ESRL (Earth Sciences Research Lab) in Boulder. Thursday night to Monday night, but I still feel like I’m gone too long! On the drive up from Santa Fe to Boulder, I stopped for some hiking at Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is pretty amazing–I recommend it. I only had the cell phone for some goofy self-portraits–sorry. There was a decent thunderstorm kicking up in the mountains behind the dunes and at the visitor’s center they had some fulgurites they’d found in the dunes.
Matt was in Fairadise, and it happened to be opening weekend (on Friday morning) for Buns on the Run! This is a trailer that is setup in the summer in the Beaver Sports parking lot on College Road that sells Cinnamon Rolls and other yummy breakfasts (and good sandwiches for lunch). Matt noticed that they opened at 7 am on Friday (he was in Fairbanks Wed-Sat), so he got there at about 6:50 am. He was third in line to get the first buns of the season. Wahoo!
Apologies to Johnny, Ryan, and all frisbee players for the title of this post.
We caught the ferry up to Skagway and then drove up to Whitehorse for the start of the Yukon Quest. I think it is amazing the great opportunities in Southeast, and we try to take advantage of as many as we can–I’m glad we were able to talk a few UAS students into ditching classes (mostly my classes that I canceled anyway!) to head up for the start of the Quest. Torsten liked the dogs, but really loved the Whitehorse Aquatic Center. Here’s a few photos from the start of the race.
Torsten did great all bundled up and enjoyed the start:
The whole Yukon Quest start photo gallery is available.
We are all down in San Francisco for Fall AGU. What a great week of science and catching up with friends. We were very bad at both keeping up with photos and with blogging. So very quickly, here are our two good photos, and we are waiting to get friends photos (send ’em, or even put your favorite on as a comment here!). Also, I’d love to get my notes from the meeting online, but so far I’ve only managed to bookmark a few other folks blogs. Check out the day one of Fall AGU Virtual Globe blog over at the Google Earth Blog.
