Travelogues

Coming Soon.. Taking on Hurrican Wilma in the Gulf

2005-10-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

The cruise is cancelled due to lack of funding... no wait, we're still going on BP's dime... Hurricane in the gulf, no go... hurricane turns towards florida, we're on...

In other words, I hope to see you all again someday. For now I am headed right into hurricane alley... oh meclazine, save me...

Vegas and Red Rocks

2005-09-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend became a small Alice Lloyd Hall reunion when I met up with my fellow Michigan alum in Vegas. We spent two days on the strip and yet I managed to pry a couple of the partiers away from the bright lights to climb in Red Rocks. The soft sandstone is red from banded iron formations. The red seems to accentuate the heat of the dry desert air.

We climbed at Panty Wall, a vertical wall with a variety of ratings. Ezra managed to find a belay station in the shade. I lead a 5.8 and then a 5.7. The routes are heavily bolted and I felt confident on the hand and foot holds. It amazed me that such gorgeous, alien landscape exists naturally, so close to the artificial playland of the strip.

Tahquitz and Suicide Rocks in Idyllwild, CA

2005-09-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! No better way to spend Labor Day weekend than hiking up the hills to the most amazing rocks I've climbed yet. Our large party could have made for a logistics nightmare, but Jeremy took the lead and everything went smoothly. The first day, we set up a top rope garden on the right face of the Buttress of Cracks on Suicide. We did a good range of climbs from a 5.7 to 5.10a, and even attempted a 5.11 on a toprope.

The next day we broke up into teams and managed to get all seven of us up three pitches of 5.3 Fingertip Traverse. It was an easy climb but the exposure made my heart leap! For the third pitch, we moved onto a 5.6 slab to finish. The fourth and final pitch was easy and so Jeremy actually let me lead it.

We were having too much fun at the summit and suddenly noticed the sun was setting. The walk through the woods seemed to be leading us nowhere. I got ahead and luckily found a stack of rocks that seemed to indicated a trial... an hour and a half of stumbling later we found the main trial back to our cars. Back at the camp, marshmallows never tasted so good...

Rainy Season in Costa Rica -- under construction

2005-08-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

COSTA RICA

Somehow I managed to sleep through most of the red-eye flight to Washington DC. From Dulles to San Jose, Costa Rica, Lora and I were wide eyed with our noses in the guidebooks. We were ready to explore the country as soon as we landed...

HOTELS
Rancho Armadillo (!!!!)
Definitely a great find.. and what I would call a stroke of good luck.

Lora and I were parked at the beach trying to find a hotel in our guidebooks that we could afford. It was probably going to be a hostel night, costing $10/per person. Maybe no hot shower, but a bed to lay our heads down. We must have looked like the most helpless girls, because an SUV pulls up beside us and an older man asks if we're lost.

We tell him we're looking for a cheap hotel and he makes a few suggestions. After he's finished, we thank him and turn back to our guidebooks. Wait, he says, how much are you trying to spend? I tell him $15, maybe $20. He tells us he owns a hotel up the road and he'll rent us a room for $20. Sure, we hop in our car and follow him up and up and up the road...

My jaw drops as we pull up to a mansion nestled in the hillside overlooking Playa Del Coco. The man is Rick, a former Chef from Detroit, who now owns the Rancho Armadillo. The bed and breakfast has a gorgeous pool and breakfast bar with an ocean view. We are given a clean room with a rainforest shower, told that breakfast is free, and even hooked up with a local dive charter.

One nights stay in Play Del Cocos turns into the rest of the week. The location of Rancho Armadillo is great for exploring all the beaches of Guanacaste. Dive chartes leave from nearby for local dives as well the Catalina Islands.

Rick even cooks us dinner two of the night. His barbecue ribs are to die for! We are given access to the kitchen and liquor cabinet and inside tips on places to explore that some guidebooks don't even know about.

SIGHTS
Lora and I went to the Volcan Poas but unfortunately we weren't able to see much because of the cloud cover. The rainy season was difficult in that way. We still hiked around and saw a snake on the road and stopped for fresh strawberries and local coffee.

Our next stop was the Volcan Arenal. The clouds obstructed our view of the active lava flows. We were still able to enjoy the hot springs and the next day managed to glimpse the top of the volcano. At Arenal, we joined a canopy tour and horseback riding in the jungle.

Once we reached Playa Del Coco, our trip was all about the beaches and diving. We joined a dive at a turtle shaped island and saw sharks and rays and many eels.

Mexico-- Never Boring...

2005-08-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes disaster just strikes. I think I like to save it all up to happen all at once. It's more interesting that way. I just wait until I'm bored.

When I came back from the cruise, I was greeted by a messy house, drunk roommates, bills, cat care, no sleep, regular hours at work... I needed to get away from it all. I decided to take a couple of days off work and planned a long weekend in Mexico with Courtney. Not just any place in baja though. I wanted to go to the middle of nowhere. And so we did.

Luckily and unluckily the truck can take us there. We spent a night of bliss on a beach with not a soul around us. The only sounds were the waves crashing. The next morning we woke up to find a fog had settled over us. I wanted to get out of there quick as it was getting chilly. We loaded up the truck and started the long haul back into town. I was coming up a slight slope covered in sand and revved the engine a little bit too hard. All of a sudden the clutch went out! I couldn't get into any gear.

Long story short, I managed to flag down some campers. We had luckily entered a more populated area. They were able to get some friend to tow us for a bit. The friend managed to get the truck into first gear and we drove it to a local mechanic named Don Lalo's. He wouldn't be able to get a part from Ensenada for another few days, so we called Jamie to pick us up from San Quintin. It's a good friend who drives four hours there and four hours back to rescue you from Mexico.

Vancouver - Rock climbing and First Birthdays

2005-07-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

View the accompanying photo album

When Lora, Garth and Jinshan all flew to their respective homes, I was left alone with the rental car. I explored Seattle a bit, finding a very interesting used bookstore where I bought a book about New Zealand. The owner showed me some other books on New Zealand and let me use his internet to check my e-mail. I sat in a coffee shop for a while, writing and then started to long drive to Richmond, BC.

I arrived in the afternoon, and was happy and nervous to see my new baby cousins. I don't really have a lot of experience with babies. But they warmed up to me immediately. Alexandre, the boy, ran and gave me a big hug when my aunt introduced him to his "cousin Pat." Isabelle was a little more shy, but allowed me to hold her hand while she learned to walk.

Aunt Arlene and Uncle Matthieu took me to a bar/restaurant on the bay, where we drank Sangria and I had a delicious dinner of dungeness crab. After dinner, my aunt and uncle let me give Alexandre his milk before bed, he would suck on his bottle and play with my hair. His chubby little form fit almost perfectly in my arms. I went to bed early since I was climbing the next day. The babies woke up one in the nigh to cry, but were otherwise well quiet. I slept just fine.

I woke up at 6am the next morning to drive to Squamish to meet Andre Ike of West Coast Mountain Guides. The traffic was somewhat backup up due to a ferry accident the night before. It was also Canada Day. When I arrived in the tiny town on Squamish, I couldn't help but ignore the giant rock formation that loomed next to the town. This was the Stawamish Chief. I was going to climb it today. I gulped.

The weather was bad, so Andre said we would do a six pitch climb up the apron and then see how we felt. The apron had an interesting 5.7 climb with a mix of slab and a dihedral with a crack, called Diedre. Andre always checked my knots and kept an eye on me, but otherwise did not treat me as a beginner. We both flew up the first six pitches. When we reached the top, I was eager to continue.

I struggled with the next pitch, a 5.9, called Calculus Crack. Although my czech made shoes were great on the slab, they were horrible in foot jams. I could feel the rock through the thin rubber. It was agonizing, but I made it to the top. Between cracks there was a lot of scrambling, but the cruz pitch was a 5.10 thin crack. I had already climbed 12 pitches and although I started it well, I began to flail helplessly in the middle. Andre said I had the technique right, but my legs were just too worn out.

The final pitch was easy, and we came over the top together. I was amazed at the crowd at the summit! Several tourists had hiked up the less steep backside and were sitting enjoying the sunshine that had burned through the clouds. They were amazed that we had climbed up the face. Fourteen pitches. I felt very proud of myself.

We hiked quickly down the backside, my legs ached when we reached the bottom. We did stop once to drink real mountain water.

The next day was the twins' first birthday party. I woke early-ish to help my aunt prepare party favors. The weather was beautiful and my aunt set up a fun little party in the backyard. There were many babies and young children. I stuck with my cousins, playing games and helping them explore the yard. Isabelle was particularly interested in practicing walking up and down the stairs. Up and down. Up and down. But it was adorable that she enjoyed the challenge. Alexandre and the other kids had discovered a water table and they were all soaking wet and laughing within minutes.

After the party, I was as exhausted as the babies. I was still super sore from the climb and I collapsed in a chair with a glass of wine. Isabelle was put to bed, but Alexandre was too comfortable in my lap. I was happy to have him there and let him take a little nap with me. That night when we put them to bed, I gave Alexandre his milk again. He was a little restless, so we read "Fox in Socks" together (with my little embellishments) and let him play with my hair a little more. If he wasn't such a good climber, I'd want to turn him into a hairdresser. My aunt wants him to be a rocket scientist, though. (Not so farfetched, my aunt is a Satellite Engineer).

When I left the next day, it actually broke my heart when I kissed my little babies goodbye. I am trying to convince my mom and dad to let me come back over Christmas. The whole family should come!

Seattle and the San Juan Islands

2005-07-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

View Accompanying Photo Album

But the best part of our trip was when we got back to Seattle. We tried to do the tourist thing and see the Space Needle, but Seattle bored us. The only place we really enjoyed was the Funhouse. There is a basketball court in the back and basketball+beer is always a good time for all. At night, the little dive bar transforms into a music venue.

I had also planned a little jaunt up north to the San Juan Islands. This group of islands is in Puget sound between the Anacortes peninsula and Vancouver Island. There are three main islands and we spend most of our time on the largest, San Juan Island in the main city of Friday Harbor.

Ferries run all day from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. There are both direct ferries and those that run to all of the Islands. The direct ferry costs $11 per person and takes about 45 minutes. Parking overnight in the ferry lot is $20. It would have been cheaper to take the rental car over to the island, but then we would have had to wait another 3 hours to book a spot on the next ferry. We decided to walk on.

The "Juniper Lane Guest House" (www.juniperlaneguesthouse.com) was supposed to be in talking distance from the Friday Harbor ferry port. About 1/2 a mile into our walk, I decided I was going to try hitchhiking. I had no idea what I'm doing, so I just stick out a thumb. The next thing I know a truck pulls up with a woman and a dog. We load up our luggage and bodies in the back and ride the mile to the Guest House.

Juniper greets us. She's a young woman with lots of style. The guest houses are decorated to reflect her eccentric tastes. It was more suited to young travelers like us than the other gaudy, frilly bed and breakfasts I had browsed online. In the kitchen, there is a map with pins marking the locations all the guests have travelled from. Our group adds San Diego, Ca and Qingtao, China. Our bunks are decorated with purple quilts and I pick a bed up at the top. Our host hooks us up with Crystal Seas Kayaking to book a kayak trip for the next day and we call Island Dive and Watersports to book a boat dive.

Crystal seas has no more tours for the day so Garth decides we should rent some bikes and cycle around the western side of the island. This part of the island is well known for viewing Orcas in the channel between San Juan and Vancouver Islands. We cycle the hilly roads until we're red in the face, finally arriving at the scenic west coast. There were no orcas to see, but the views from Lime Kiln State Park were beautiful. There were several tidepools with interesting creatures, and lots of old lava rocks to climb.

At the end of our exhausting ride back, we stumbled into the Front Street Ale House serving local beers from the San Juan Brewery (1 Front St, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (360)378-2337). The jalepeno fish and chips hit the spot and we tried a range of the local brews. Dessert was a mountainous carrot cake! Our waiter, Van Dyke, was a Michigan Dutch just like Lora! He took our numbers and promised to give us a local tour.

We biked home in the pitch blackness, howling at the slivered moon. The bed at Juniper was a great end to an adventurous day. The next morning we were up at 8am to join up with out boat dive.

Lora and I had to battle somewhat with the employees at Island Dive and Watersports to get the price advertised on the internet. Finally the owner agreed that it would be false advertising to charge us a different price. We boarded the boat to one of the nearby islands and began our descent into the cold water. I expected the shock to be much worse, but I actually felt very comfortable in the 52 degree water. Sticking my face in at the surface I could see interesting anemones and sea cucumbers and sea stars all over the wall. The visibility was nice.

We began our descent but when I signalled OK to Lora, she shook her head and began to ascend. Something was wrong. When she got to the surface she said her throat hurt and felt dry. She also began coughing. We waited for a bit, but she wasn't getting any better. In the end, she returned to the boat and I continued my dive with an assistant.

There were countless sea cucumbers on this dive! There weren't many fish, but plenty of invertibrates. The starfish were huge with multiple arms. One had a span of about 3.5 feet. I was majorly overweighted for the cold water and the other diver kept swimming ahead. I was fighting to keep up and got exhausted halfway through the dive and had to bail to the surface.

When I returned to the ship, Lora was coughing up a clear fluid. Her lips were also starting to look a little blue at the bottom middle. I didn't want her to panic, so I didn't tell her, just telling her to breathe slowly. I stayed as long as I could at the surface, but she told me to go ahead and do my second dive.

The second dive was absolutely incredible. Forests of white anemones covered the rocks. I swam through them letting them brush over my body. A large fish swam out and startled me. It was almost as long as I was! The wall was rich with life. At one point I spotted a white shape moving into a hole. Hoping it was a giant octopus, I followed it, and discovered a huge wolf eel!

We hung out with David Van Dyke again and he showed us some cool mud flats. We tried to dig up clams but didn't succeed. I also spotted a bald eagle.

To make up for the diving disaster, I promised Lora a sunset Kayak tour. We were supposed to see Orcas but they had decided not to indulge us again. The water was glassy and gorgeous and the views of Vancouver Island were stunning.

Spice 04 Cruise Seattle-Hawaii-Seattle

2005-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

A month at sea followed by another month at sea is never easy. But it's a lot easier when your have a good friend nearby. I was lucky enough to have Lora on this cruise with me. We managed to make even the most tedious 10 hour mooring recovery fun and exciting.

Lora has the cook make a huge sheet carrot cake slathered in cream cheese frosting. He decorated with pink roses. We ate it all day long! Melania had sent a card, and Lora had gone around to all of our friends collecting stickers for my truck. I have to say it was one of the best birthday presents ever.

Cruise Report... The Bermuda triangle???!!!

2005-06-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

See Photos of this Cruise

Shortly after the SAIC deployment, we obtained another job with a military contractor. This time it was NavAir. They were even more secretive than SAIC, and had a lot of difficulty communicating their needs to us. We had no idea where the deployment would be, only that it was "offshore Virginia." We would put down instruments, then wait two weeks while other scientists from all over conducted tests, then retrieve our instruments.

This cruise was cursed.. but we didn't know it yet. First Ana Garcia Garcia, our AOA representative wasn't allowed on the ship because she is not an american citizen. They send another geologist rep, but he was too sick to go also. In the end, it was just Garth, Chris and I... not AOA rep to act as a conduit between the Navy folks and us.

When we first arrived, the captain told us that it was possible that we might not be able to hook into their ships transducer. We use the ships transducer to "talk" to the acoustic transponders in our instruments. Although we carry a backup, it's barely powerful enough to reach the 5000m depths we were to deploy in. After many house of playing around with wiring and thinking about the basic electronics and acoustics I knew.. I finally wired it correctly the day of deployment.

Then we found out where we going... the Bermuda Triange.

We spent 20 hours in moderate seas putting the instruments out, and using the transponders to map the locations. The seas were beginning to build, but it still wasn't anything compared to the previous cruise offshore San Diego. Unfortunately I got hit with a flu and was bed ridden for two straight days with a fever. By the third day I was worried that I might need antibiotics, but I started to get better the next morning.

Two weeks of sitting around doing nothing on a tiny little ship is hard enough. But this ship had nothing to it but a galley, lounge and bunks. Nothing. No gym. No library... and there weren't any DVDs to watch. Only VHS tapes of random movies from the 80s. I read through 8 books in no time and watched hours of Sex and the city in my bunk on my laptop. I had to share the room with 3 other women and it was hard getting sleep with everyone tiptoeing around, turning the lights on and off.

During the full moon we began the recoveries. Unfortunately, we could barely communicate with the instruments in the rough seas and deep ocean. We managed to get signals to almost all the instruments to release them to the surface. Unfortunately the NavAir people refused to listen to our instructions and we missed the surfacing of one instrument. In the high winds, it was gone in minutes.

The recovery lasted 50+ hours. I collapsed in the end, having only had 3 one hour naps in that time. I spend 24 hours in bed sleeping and reading. The storm finally overtook us and then next two days, I was imprisoned and miserable.

I couldn't have been happier to get on land. Norfolk, Virginia was a welcome site.

Stormy Seas Offshore San Diego

2005-04-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

CRUISE REPORT: SAIC

The Navy defense contractor SAIC hired out some of our instruments for a "top secret" cruise off the coast of San Diego. It was so top secret that the SAIC client didn't even know the drop sites. But we figured it out in the end..

We took out the Sproul, the smallest ship in the SIO fleet at 125 ft. The deck is what is known as a "wet" deck and we were about to find out how wet. Sailing at 8am, and beginning deployments at 11am, we worked until 3am assembling and deploying instruments. Of course a storm started to blow in and we began to put on our wet gear. Starting with a pair of boots.. oops those flooded, so I added a pair of foul weather pants, and a wave managed to flood those too. Finally, I ended up fully covered in rubber in high vis yellow.

Late into the night, the waves started washing over the startboard side where I was assembling the yellow arms that attach to our instruments. They were not strapped down and the waves were starting the float them away. Not thinking, I ran over to grab them and stop them from going overboard just as a huge wave came over the side. It lifted me up off my feet and close to the side. Chris rushed in a grabbed me. I was soaked and miserable for the rest of the night.

The next morning we concluded the cruise with a few CTD casts with similar perilous results and sailed home in time for dinner.

Mexico the Molly Way

2005-02-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

I was so ecstatic that Molly was coming to visit me! Our plan was to take an trip to Mexico... other than that, nothing was set in stone. Molly and I had never travelled together, but I was about to discover the randomness and adventure that it entails.

Our first discovery was a small town just south of Rosarito called Puerto Nuevo. Every restaurant in this town is dedicated to Lobster served a specific way--- fried in butter then wrapped in a warm tortilla with rice and beans. Each meal offered comes with a complimentary shot of tequila and margaritas. All this for $10 in the offseason. There were no tourists besides ourselves in this town at the time.

Guadelupe Valley, wine country. After many hours of driving on dirt roads ruined by the rain, we found a bed and breakfast we had read about in a brochure. Unsure of what to expect, I turned the corner into the driveway and pulled up to what appeared to be a luxurious spanish style mansion in the middle of a vinyard. Tired and hungry, we stunbled up to the doors and knocked. Fortunately, the host took pity on these travelers and fed us dinner with their own wine. We couldn't afford their prices, but they allowed us to stay in a cabin in the back for a reduced amount.

The next day we drove to the well known L.A. Cetto winery for a tasting. We asked our host where to find the hot springs we had heard about. He said he wasn't sure, but we should ask at the next winery down the street.

Dona Lupe is an organic winery that also sells honeys and spices. As we were walking out, we saw our host come running down the driveway with a friend. He said they knew how to get to the hot springs and would show us if we gave them a ride. I was wary at first but Molly jumped at the chance. The two boys climbed in and we started heading off down a remote dirt road.

A river had flooded over the road to the hot springs. Go for it, the boys said! And of course, I had to try...

In the end we had to wade across the river and walked for two hours before we found out that the hot springs had also been flooded over by the river.

That night, warm and dry, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at a winery restaurant in Ensenada. There, we sampled their wines, ate steamed clams from San Felipe and a hearty dinner and desert. The food was excellent, the prices amazing and the service was very personal.

On the way back, Molly and I had to stop for Lobster and margaritas one more time!

A summary of Spring

2005-01-31T16:25:00.000-08:00

Back in the US just in time for Lora's birthday. As a gift to her, we all pitched in to rent a sailboat. I had a chance to try my hand at the wheel.

We move into our new house in Bay Park...

and I spent a weekend with Sach in San Jose.

I did a lot of volunteer work with the Wetlands Conservancy in Pacific Beach. We did some trash pickup one day and built nesting sites for rare birds the next. I also joined the surfrider foundations and began spending some Saturday mornings picking up trash on the beach.

The weekend of Emily's birthday ended up being one of the best ever. We had Friday off for the holidays and I ended up going to Joshua Tree for some crazy crack climbing with Jamie. Saturday, we joined up with Emily and friends for a limo wine tour in Temeculah. Some drunken debauchery was had. The next day I surfed and then went back to Puerto Nuevo for lobster dinner. Climb. Wine. Surf. Mexico. All in one weekend. I love Southern California.

The Japan Experience

2004-12-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

View the accompanying photo album

I am sitting in a boarding house-style hotel here in Rokkasho, Japan. I am surrounded by woods, mountains and howling wind. There is little else in this small fishing town. My job here is to provide expertise to the Japanese at GERD (Geothermal Energy Research and Development) on the data loggers used in their research, as well as assist in the setup of an experiment here. The area around Rokkasho lake is to be used as a waste facility for low level nuclear waste. The scientist at GERD hope to map fault lines in the ground here to provide a safe place for waste disposal.

Monday:

I arrived in Tokyo on Monday afternoon, after leaving San Diego on Sunday morning. It was strange to lose an entire day sitting in the airplane. I felt like I had a very lucky day, however. First of all, I didn't need to bother anybody for a ride to the airport since I found out the Mike Wolfson, an APL(UW) scientist I met on my last cruise was in town for the Acoustical Society of America Conference, and was flying to San Francisco on the same flight. I happened to arrive at the airport late, forgetting that you have to arrive two hours early for international flights. I was admonished by the attendant and then rushed to my gate just in time.

In San Francisco I had a three hour layover. I was lucky enough to have Sachin drive from San Jose to have brunch with me in the international terminal. It was comforting to have a close friend see me off. It was really, really nice to see him. I have been going through some tough times, and he's been a good friend to have on the phone. And seeing him and getting a hug was what I needed.

The flight to Tokyo was about ten hours long. Everyone who has flown internationally before had promised me my own personal TV with movies and games. Unfortunately, this 747 was no different than a domestic flight. We had four in flight movies and I watched all but one. I also finished my book and took a few naps. The long flight wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I came off the plane feeling awake in the bright sunlight of the afternoon, even though it was 11pm my time. I soon found I wasn't as alert as I thought. As soon as I left the plane up an escalator, I realized I had forgotton my jacket. I didn't know what to do, and was unable to go back to the plane. After clearing immigration, I found the baggage terminal and an attendant for United Airlines radioed the plane to get my jacket. I waited for my luggage in the meantime. My toolbox arrived safely and I waited for my suitcase... and waited and waited.

I must have been staring at the conveyor belt for a while when an attendant came over and said that was all the luggage. He used my claim ticket to trace my bag back to the US. It would arrive tomorrow he said, and asked for my hotel information. I knew little about where I would be staying after tonight and promised someone would contact him. Then I headed off without my bag into the foreign city.

My first task was to take a bus from Narita airport to Tokyo. I managed to find the bus ticket window and bought a ticket. On the bus, I ran into Tom Roper, one of the AOA guys sent to assist in the experiment. In Tokyo we found Jim Harrison, the other person from AOA. We took a cab to our hotel and finally felt somewhat at ease. Out Japanese hosts from GERD met us at the hotel and took us out for some Italian food.

That night, Tom, Jim and I hit the town. We had already had a few vending machine beers and sake. Yes, you can buy Sake (in a jam jar) out of a vending machine. By the time I got to a bar, I was swaying. I can barely remember coming back to the hotel. I woke up face down on the floor of my room at 3am and crawled into bed.

Tuesday:
Luckily all we had to do today was take the bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka. I slept most of the way and figured I would catch the views on our return trip. Morioka is a small sleepy town in the northern part of Honshu. GERD has its field office here. We arrived there and loaded the gear into two trucks. That night, we had Korean barbecue for dinner and crashed in bed early.

Hotels in Japan have very small rooms designed for the business traveller. They serve their purpose, but have little other space. There is a twin bed, small desk with TV and chair efficiently organized leaving a just a strip of floor to walk into the room. The bathroom is also very compact with a small bathtub you would have to sit up in, with showerhead attached to the sink.

The toilets, as rumored, are pretty interesting. Some have sinks on top that fill the tank as you wash your hands (a brilliant idea). Almost all the toilets have little sprays built in that wash you after you go. There is also the option of heated seats, and the flush handle has two choices, big and small. Fortunately I can read a few asian characters and I figured things out right away.

Wednesday:
The morning was spent driving from Morioka north to Rokkasho. The view on the way were nice, with lots of trees with leaves changing color. The houses here are all very new and modern looking, but with a Japanese touch. The front doors are always sliding and lead into a foyer where you leave your shoes. Windows are glass, but have paper windows behind them, some with fancy patterns on them. I later read that many of the buildings in northern Japan are new because the area was heavily bombed during WWII.

We stopped at a sushi restaurant for lunch. We sat at a traditional style table with pillows on the floor. I actually prefer to eat this way.

The afternoon was spent laying cable for the transmitter. Let me explain how I understand this experiment works. We are first burying copper plates in the earth in two locations, creating an antenna. A cable then attaches each plate to a transmitter that sends a high voltage, high current signal to the plates. The electromagnetic energy is transmitted through the earth and is received by a cable we will deploy in the lake. The cable has electrodes strung along it, creating dipoles that will detect the electric fields. At the end of each cable is a data logger which records the signals from the electrodes. The processed signals create an image of the ground beneath the lake.

To lay the cable from the transmitter to one of the copper plates, we had to hike far into the woods and up a hill. The Japanese hosts aren't very good at communicating with us, so most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing. They are running the cable and I'm cable-tying it to things as we go along. I figured it would all come together eventually.

After we lost light, we went to our hotel. This place is a sort of boarding house for workers building the new nuclear recycling facility here. There are western style rooms with beds and a TV and bathroom, and Japanese style rooms with tatami mats and a foyer for removing shoes. Breakfast and dinner are served in a cafeteria downstairs. As expected, I am the only woman staying at the hotel. There are older women who cook and clean the rooms, however.

My luggage also finally arrived. It felt so good to put on clean clothes after three days!

Thursday:
Today we were supposed to deploy the cable in the lake, but high winds prevented us from boarding the boat. We were expecting a small boat to deploy the 500 pound cable, but we were met at the dock by a fishing boat with an outboard motor. Like I said, the Japanese hosts weren't very good at communicating with us. I was worried our gear would sink the boat.

Instead of being on the lake, we spent the day in the woods finishing the transmitter deployment. We then returned to our hotel. There is literally nothing around us. Nothing to do. Jim and Tom and I sat in the cafeteria over some beers awaiting dinner. That night, Thanksgiving night, we had five plates of Sashimi each.

Friday:
Finally the winds died down and we were able to deploy the cable in the lake. A fisherman took us out on the boat and Tom came along unexpectedly since he was finished with the transmitter. Since they had an extra guy, they didn't need me and I waited on the beach for hours while they deployed the cable across the lake. I was disappointed, but spent my time hiking around the nearby woods.

Another funny thing about working here is that they require that we wear "work clothes" and these funny white hard hats with a chin strap. When we told them we didn't have work clothes, they went out and bought us jump suits (like mechanics wear) to cover out clothes up. The Japanese wear "seafoam" green colored jumpsuits, and ours are bright blue. I look like a cartoon character.

Also, in the morning, when we arrive at the office to start out day, the employees all gather in the parking lot and do a little aerobic workout to music and stretch. Then they gather together and have a sort of pep talk. We try to follow along, but I'm sure it's obvious to them we have no idea what's going on. The funniest part is during these morning exercises our Japanese host, Yamane, always sneaks away to have a smoke.

Saturday:
Today is a "standby" day. Yamane is running the transmitter but doesn't need help from any of us. Nakashima originally promised he would take us for a drive up north to a park where there is an interesting temple that people go to to honor the dead. Unfortunately high winds and rain cancelled the trip. What would we do out here in the middle of nowhere.

Tom managed to get us on e-mail and I checked my mail quickly, but telnet was so slow, I could barely type. The sentences would show up a few seconds after I had typed them. It was frustrating and so I sent a few messages and gave up. Afterwards, I asked the guys if we should try to find the beach.

The beach was only a short walk away. The ocean was spraying from the winds, but there were no waves. I am assuming something about where this coastline lines with respect to the other islands that it must of sheltered somehow. The beach was very polluted and we walked along it for a while until we came into a small town. We walked around the town, but none of us had money to stop and eat. In the end, we turned around and walked back to our hotel so Nakashima could take us to lunch.

Because this is a remote area, no one speaks english, and they do not accept our VISA cards here. We also tried to go to a bank, but were unable to use the ATM. To be honest, it had been somewhat frustrating. I am as bored as I would be on a ship when there is no work, however, I am surrounded by people who don't speak the same language as me. I can't watch TV without feeling annoyed that I can't understand what's going on. I also finished all my books, but Tom lent me another one, fortunately.

Sunday:
We finally did our drive around this area. It took about six hours to make it around the peninsula. The drive was nice, but I wish we could have made more stops. I think it wasn't possible because the tourist season is over and any trails are closed. We did stop outside an interesting temple at the beginning of our tour. People come here to make peace with the dead. There is a bridge there that crosses over a sulfuric river that is said to lead into the land of the dead. A nearby lake fills a crater and smells strongly of sulfur.

We also stopped at the tip of the island of Honshu. From this northernmost point, we can see the next island, where the city of Sapporo is located. This area is known for tuna fishing. There were no boats on the water today as the wind was strong and the chop was fierce.

Last night there was an earthquake on Hokkaido, which registered at about a 5.0. I felt it in my bed at 3:30 am.

Monday:
Yamane tried transmitting again, but couldn't get the transmitter working. We waited in the office for hours, bored. In the afternoon we began to pick up the cable for the transmitter. It was crazy walking through the woods to deploy it and kind of fun to go back and pick it up. We came down the big hill we originally climbed up and Tom and I slid down on the railing!

Tuesday:
We picked up the cable from the lake. I sat on the beach and waited again. That afternoon, we drove back to Morioka. At the Gerd office we were able to set up two of the loggers to download data.

We had a sushi feast that night! Yellowtail and tune and toro and squid and octopus and clams. Yamane kept ordering and I drank way too much sake, as usual. After dinner, we explored Morioka and found a bar on the fifth floor of a high rise. The atmosphere was nice and I liked a drink called the Grape Gelee Cooler. It had little grape jellies on the bottom.

Wednesday:
Today we started the calibrations. I had trouble in the beginning because there were so many strange modifications to the loggers. A "limiter" was put in between the amplifier and the ADC. On one of the loggers, the limiter wasn't working and when I put a signal on a channel, I couldn't see it on the computer hooked up to the logger. When the limiter was removed, the signal appeared.

I was still able to show Nakashima how to perform a calibration and made sure he had the tools and software to do it. I also began calibration on some of the loggers. We worked very late that night and we were so tired and hungry at the end of the day. Nakashima took us out to a chinese restaurant and I was happy to have some wonton soup.

Thursday:
I finished the calibrations and then we got on the bullet train back to Tokyo. I was excited to see civilization again. Morioka is nice, but it's a sleepy little town. We passed by Mt Fuji, but I missed it. Luckily Tom was able to catch it on camera.

In Tokyo, we had dinner with Arnie, the founder of AOA (the organization that funded this trip). We walked back to our hotel and explored a few bars on the way. Some of the bars are so small only about seven people can be seated. We ended up at a little sushi place where for $20 we got a mixed sashimi plate, some cooked fish, and beer. The owner sat with us and talked with the help of one of the chefs, who had studied english in the US. He kept our beers topped off all night!

Friday:
In an attempt to find a gift for Jim's wife, we wandered into the Ginza shopping district. We quickly realized that there was nothing we could afford here. Jim had to fly out that afternoon, so we tried to make it back to the hotel. We were hopelessly lost and ended up at a garden. Might as well make a tour out of it! The garden was beautiful but the season wasn't right for viewing.

When we exited the garden, we ended up lost again and wandered into the Tsukiji fish market. This was a place I had definitely wanted to explore. In the morning, they auction the tuna that is caught the night before and some go for the price of a small car! Tom and I stopped at a sashimi stall and ate some salmon and roe. Jim was getting antsy at that point and we hailed and cab and went back to our hotel.

I wanted to try out the subway, so after a quick break, Tom and I cruised out to the Roppongi bar district. Dinner there was so expensive, a plate of four pieces of yellowtail sashimi cost 1500 Yen ($15). I ended up filling up at a ramen noodle place (the equivalent of japanese fast food).

We bar hopped for a while, and ended up at a place called Propaganda. It was an upstairs bar with cheap drinks for happy hour. I went a little overboard, but ended up meeting some people. Three engineers-- one from Australia, one from India and one from Japan. I guess I am just drawn to fellow nerds.

Saturday:
A whole day in Japan to kill! What else to do but get lost again!! I wanted to find a "Parasite Museum" that I read about in the guidebook. The directions were very vague, but I figured out we could take the subway instead of the train the book talked about. Then we hopped a bus and ended up in the middle of nowhere. We walked all around the neighbourhood looking for the museum. No one could understand us enough to give us directions.

Finally we stopped in a vet clinic and the english speaking doctor told us the museum was right in front of the bus stop! This was almost an hour and a half after we arrived. We walked back to the stop and there it was! The museum took about five minutes to walk through. There were lots of gross bugs, but I couldn't read any of the signs. In the gift shop they sold keychains with actual tapeworms embedded in them. Yuck.

Safe back at the hotel, I had to practically drag Tom out again. I think he was sick of my antics. I wanted to explore Shunjuku, the business district of Tokyo, which also has an active nightlife. It was raining, but I refused to waste my last night in Japan. Shinjuku was one of the highlights to me because it was the Tokyo Hollywood always portrayed, but it was actually such a small part of the huge city.

The subway station is one of the busiest in the world. Three million people are said to pass through it each day. There were underground tunnels from the station leading to a nearby tourist spot at the Government Buildings. There we rode a high speed elevator up to the 45th floor observatory. The view was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed into the Shinjuku nightlife. The bright lights were dazzling. It was somewhat like Vegas with giant screens and big lighted signs. The streets were packed with people. Amid the big city chaos, there was a temple. It was buried down an alleyway. I am amazed at how a tiny peaceful haven can be built into a city this way.

Next to the temple is a maze of alleyways lines with little bars that are barely bigger than a toolshed. They are called "stand up bars." There seemed to be hundreds of these little hangouts in this area called the "Golden Gai." We exited into the red light district. I wanted to find what was described in the guidebook as the "no-pants coffee shop," but had no luck.

Sunday:
My last day in Japan. Tom was gone in the morning to fly back to Portland. I wandered around the streets by myself, and found my way to the Imperial Palace East Gardens. I walked all over trying to find my way to the Imperial Palace before realizing it wasn't open to the public. I found a little park and ate an ice cream cone and enjoyed the warm day.

That night I flew back to the United States. I ended my Sunday on the plane and landed on Sunday morning ready to start all over again. I unpacked, did laundry, attended a party, and finally after almost 30 hours awake, I went to sleep. My Japan adventure was over.