West Coast Tour

After weeks of homelessness and crashing at friends' houses, I've finally completed my travels and am now in Vancouver. I left Bamfield in mid-August, traveling to Seattle, Olympia WA, Portland OR, back to Olympia and Seattle, then Dallas, then back to Seattle and finally up to Vancouver. Pfew! Along the way I saw friends and family, and Justin came into town for a visit during my first official week living in Vancouver. I'm here until Christmas, working on some experiments at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Click here to check out some pictures of my travels, including my new (although temporary) home base in Vancouver. Here's a picture from a recent field trip, out to Vancouver Island to collect copepods for my experiments.

Bamfield, BC

Hello from the West Coast! I arrived in British Columbia in late July and won't be leaving until after Christmas. My first three weeks here have been at Bamfield Marine Science Centre, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I'm taking a course that my postdoc supervisor is teaching called Models in Ecology. It's all about combining math and biology to answer interesting questions. The class has been lots of work, but I've managed to see some sights too. Vancouver Island is really beautiful- I wish I had more time to explore, but I'm leaving Saturday for Seattle. No rest for the weary! Check out some pics from my Bamfield adventure here. Here's a teaser: Hannah and me at the beach, being crushed by my buddy Rob.

Trip back to the Cape

I just returned from a trip back to Cape Cod, and I miss it already. The weather was beautiful, I got to see lots of friends, and trips to the beach were plentiful. I hit all of my favorite restaurants, attended softball games, and spent too much on coffee at Coffee-O. Yes, I even managed to get quite a bit of work done! Check out a few pictures from the trip here. Your preview is (what else?) a shot of my favorite Woods Hole beach, the Knob.

North Country Fair

In an effort to embrace my Canadian surroundings, I attended the North Country Fair. This is a three-day music festival in northern Alberta, where camping is included in the price of the ticket. Most of the attendees are from Edmonton, and almost all of the musicians are Canadians. It had a little bit of music for everyone, but my favorite bands tended to be of the bluegrass and country persuasion. I went up with a few friends from the U of A math department and had a great time camping, grooving along to the music, and enjoying the longest days of the year. Click here to see some pics of the Fair. Here's a teaser picture- it's proof I'm in beef country. Alberta is the Texas of Canada!

Halifax & Edmonton in Spring

Oh my- has it really been two months since my last post? I need to find some exciting things to do with myself to ensure more timely blogs. Anyhoo I just got back from Halifax and finally have something worth posting (for you Americans, that's in Nova Scotia). The trip was to attend the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network Annual Meeting, which is the publicly funded research group that pays me. I presented some stuff I've been working on and got some good feedback from other scientists, plus I got to visit Halifax. I will be moving there in September for 4 months, so this was a good introduction to the city.

Justin came up to Halifax for a couple of days before the conference started, so I got to do a little sight-seeing. We ate some tasty food and saw some nifty things around town. Click here to see the album, plus a few bonus pics of some random Edmonton stuff. Here's the teaser- a spooky old cemetery in Halifax.

Maine visit & my new place

It's been a while since my last post, but I didn't think too many people would be interested in pictures of me, sitting at my desk, working.  That's pretty much all I've been doing for the last month.  But over reading week (the Canadian version of winter break) I took a trip to Boston/Maine to visit Justin and get away from all the snow and cold in Edmonton.  I know, it would have been more sensible to go somewhere warm.  But I think that would have just given my fingers and toes false hope that the end of winter was near, when in fact we have quite a way to go up here.

The trip was short but great.  We headed up to Gouldsboro, Maine (across the water from Bar Harbor) and stayed in Justin's parents' house.  They were out of town and graciously let us crash in their pad.  It was a winter wonderland up there and we spent our days lounging around in front of the fire, walking in the snow, and ice fishing.  

In other news, I moved from my apartment into a new place.  I was subletting the old place while its owner was out of town for the winter, but now I'm settled into a new spot that should last a while.  It's only about 10 blocks from my old place, and my walk to work is still only about 25 minutes so it's a great location.  Click here to see more pics of Maine and my new digs.

About town with Justin

Justin arrived late on Thursday night and we spent the weekend enjoying Edmonton in all its glory.  We shopped at the boutiques on Whyte Avenue (the "main drag"), ate at two vegetarian restaurants (one good and one not-so-good), attended the pet expo (who knew camels were pets?), and checked out my first festival in Edmonton, which, incidentally, is known as "The City of Festivals".   The festival was- what else?- an ice carving contest.  

We had quite warm temperatures here last week, with highs in the mid-40s Farenheit.  But, alas, more seasonable temperatures arrived when Justin's plane landed and it averaged -4F during his visit.  Of course he's a trooper and took it like a true native New Englander.  Here's some photos from our trip about town.  Your teaser is a picture of one of the lovely ice sculptures- and my second cactus sighting in Edmonton.  Click here to see more pics.