As the sun heats the air, and the sweat rolls down your back, you can smell the stale stench of cheap beer in the air, and the occasional whiff of weed casually wafts past your nose. The ground is sticky with the syrupy mess of spilled soda and beer, and for the next five minutes all you can hear (and feel) is a sticky crinkle every time you take a step. All around you are people, but not every day dressed people. Some are wearing rainbow tie-dye shirts and others are in modern-day (what amounts to little more than) polyester loincloths, leaving little to the imagination. Yet some people are cross-dressed, wearing elaborate and glittery dresses with thick make-up over their faces, and others emphasize the ambiguity of their gender with great pride.

This… is the San Francisco PRIDE celebration. The theme this year was “Color Our World with Pride”, meaning of course that the setting was very colorful (though with the international symbol being a rainbow, I’m guessing this was not particularly unique this year).

I don’t have too much more to say about the celebration, my description above says just about everything that I saw. The parade was cool, but it was too long for me to be able to stand and watch the entire thing (I think it was more than 3 hours long). Personally my favorite crowd of people were the rainbow balloons. The first wave was people who wore long stringy balloons on their backs (all of the same color), which made them look like a colorful group of medusas. The next wave in this group was people carrying balloon people with torsos, hands and faces (smiley faces, granted) but the arms had mechanisms for the people to make them move. There were other exciting groups too, such as the motorcyclists who opened the parade, and certain political figures, such as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

While it may not be glamorous, (nor at times seem classy), this celebration is the root of all LGBTQ community pride internationally. It is the birth place of the international movement, and it’s history runs deep. It was interesting to see how people went all-out for the celebration, and to observe the pride and the willingness for public display, but I will be sure to bring a friend, next time I go.

Until Next Time,

Joe

In my pursuit to catch up on my novel (as I have terribly fallen behind on, 5,000 words and counting) I have neglected to keep up with my blog, and posting what I have been doing. Well, since Sunday morning, I have been enjoying the company of one of my college friends Rebekka and her family, and it’s been a blast. During the day however, I have been going out typically towards the city to see new sights.

The first couple days weren’t very interesting, all I ended up doing was walking around the piers of the San Francisco bay, and Market St. (which is really just one of the main streets of down town and the main host of the PRIDE celebrations).

By Wednesday, I had figured out the transportation well enough to go over towards Mt. Tamalpais. The scenery, mmm, it was sooo beautiful. I didn’t actually go up Mt. Tam itself, but I was in the state park. It was a little tense however, because the bus route to get there is new, and so they’re still testing it out, and as such, only goes the route 4 times a day (once about every 4.5 hours). I needed to make sure that I got the very next bus after the one I took to arrive, so I could get back to the house before 9pm at night. The hike I did was relatively short, about 2 miles that I did in about 40 minutes (because it was all downhill, and so I was pretty much half-running most of it). However, after taking about a 20 minute break to sit down by a small waterfall just off the trail, I began the hike back up and fully appreciated the name of the trail: Steep Ravine Trail. To my dismay, I saw that when I got back to the trailhead there was still another hour (it was only 2:15 then) before the next bus came. I was starving, out of breath and thirsty, and I realized that for being an outdoorsy person, I was ill-prepared for an outdoor hike. Oh well. It happens (and besides, it’s not like I was doing a backpacking trek). In the last few minutes, I decided I had enough strength to go up the “Alpine” trail for 7 minutes before I had to head back. I headed back early, because I heard weird screeching noises from what seemed to be coming from a tree, making me wonder if that’s what trees sound like just before they’re ready to fall, and I did not want to have to deal with any of that. Anyway, I made it back, caught the bus, and made my way back to the house for the evening with my first exciting adventure of SF!

Thursday was one of my biggest days of this entire trip! I was going to write a post separately about this, but then writers block and my novel changed this. I got to meet former First Lady and Secretary of the State, and potential future President of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton. The actual moment was probably one of the most anti-climactic events of my life. She thanked me for coming. That’s about it. But still, to be directly across from her and be able to look her in the eye and smile was incredible. Maybe someday I’ll actually be able to talk to her… (keep dreaming Joe).

After the book signing (I now have a copy of her almost 700 page memoir), I went over to the Exploratorium and spent several hours there. I was surprised at how entertaining it is even for adults, and completely appreciated the reason why they would have adults-only hours Thursday evenings. The trippiest part for me was the mirrors, especially this one that shows you, life-sized, walking around on the ceiling. It’s sooo wacky. After that I left to go back to the house.

Friday was more what I have been expecting I would do while here. Originally I was supposed to meet a friend from Redlands for lunch, but we decided Saturday would be a better day, because it would give us more time, which I greatly appreciated. So instead, I decided to walk along Market Street until I found a restaurant to order food. I ended up in this tiny little diner, great food, and I pulled out my notebook to reconfigure my novel, which at the time felt like it was falling apart. Having some quality quiet time to think with some great food, I’m surprised it took me until my third stop of the trip to do this kind of thing. Afterwards, I slowly made my way back to the house, admiring some of the vendors who were setting up for the PRIDE celebrations the next two days.

And finally there’s today… Saturday. I got to meet my friend one more time before I study abroad for 3.5 months, which I am very grateful for. After that, I previewed PRIDE and got to see some amazing performers and some pretty strange outfits. I’m super excited to go back tomorrow not lugging around my big blue bag and perhaps getting more involved and talk with other people. Not to mention the parade. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening struggling to fight traffic to get back to the house. While sitting on the bus back, I became quite contemplative, of which the result will soon be posted. So keep your eyes open.

Until Next Time,

Joe 

I am currently on the train to San Francisco as I am writing this, having already blown through Portland. The thing about Portland, it was nice, but it was no Seattle. No family gatherings, no friends, no friendly faces to go back home to at night. But let me focus on the things that I actually did.

It was Monday early evening by the time I actually arrived, so there wasn’t much I could do on Monday. But I ended up arriving at the same time two guests also staying in the house I was at. They were perhaps juniors or seniors in college. I forgot to ask. They invited me to join them finding dinner in the area, and walking down NE Alberta Street, we found a pub-like place that served burgers, which we settled on. The service was nice but slow, and that was the crunchiest medium-rare burger I think I have ever had. Probably would’ve been crunchy for well-done.

Tuesday was rainy and grey and not very pleasant, so I decided to stay indoors mostly, and I went to Powell’s Bookstore. It was HUGE!! It was undergoing a remodeling for half the building and it was STILL HUGE!! I spent probably an hour or so just walking around and browsing books randomly before settling into the fiction area and consequently finding four books that I would buy. So much money on books this trip. For lunch I ended up going to a restaurant an aunt and uncle recommended called “Mother’s” a restaurant that serves really good diner food.

Wednesday was my first outdoor adventure. I decided to go to the zoo! I spent about an hour there, just wandering through, trying not to get frustrated with the little kids who clearly don’t have much awareness of the world outside of their vision (though I admit I already knew this before Wednesday morning) and got to see many of the animals there. Lions and Tigers and Black Bears (oh my!) and monkeys (these guys were swinging around wildly when I arrived, it was amazing actually) and bats and polar bears and hippos and crocodiles and eagles and many other animals too. After my trip to the zoo, I made a quick lunch stop at Panda Express and then went to the fantasy world of dragons! I finally went to go see How to Train Your Dragon 2. I thought it was a fantastic movie, and highly recommend it to people who saw the first one and enjoyed it. Then I went back to the house for the evening.

Thursday was a *meh* day. Probably when I started thinking I just wanted to go to San Francisco. I spent the morning having to do a laundry run and that took a lot longer than I wanted it to. After that, I had to pack up my stuff by noon to move out of the house and into another one (owned by the same person) down the street about 10 blocks and then several houses down south of NE Alberta. This took until about 1, at which point I decided to go to lunch. I went for the Original Pancake House again, to grab another favorite dish, and this trip was so frustrating it was the last thing I did that day. First off, I had HIGH expectations for the headquarters of a national chain restaurant. Disappointment 1: NOT pedestrian friendly. There is no sidewalk leading to or from the restaurant, and in fact the parking lot exit leads right to a freeway entrance. Disappointment 2: No cards! I couldn’t believe it. This is the 21^st Century, I was in the headquarters to a national chain restaurant, and they only took cash! Fortunately the gas station a 10 second walk away had an ATM that even took American Express, not the most common accepted card company out here in the Northwest. Disappointment 3: The prices. Ok, maybe I just hadn’t looked at the last menu, but a stack of 3 small pancakes: $9.50. 9 dollars, and 50 fricken cents for three pancakes about the size of my hand. One scrambled egg: $4.50. ONE SCRAMBLED EGG! I could by eggs individually at the store just down the block from the original house I stayed at for 70¢. Disappointment 4: The grand finale. NO RESTROOM. I looked, and if there is one, it’s a totally separate building, or it’s very very cleverly hidden. Needless to say, by the time I left at about 3, I was in a very bad mood.

Friday was also a mixed day, but in general a better one. It started out not so great with a trip to the post office. I finally shipped back the last of my dorm room luggage home so that it would stop weighing down my suitcase more than 50 pounds. This took a couple hours, WAAY longer than I ever wanted it to last. After I was done sending the boxes out however, then I decided to head out. I first went for lunch to another Chicago favorite: Noodles & Co. It was delicious! After a quick (and very cheap) lunch there, I made my way over to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). I had forgotten how kid-oriented those museums are, but it was still interesting to go through the exhibits and read about all the science. I even found some signs about watersheds. Heck, we could’ve just gone to the OSMI instead of the High Sierras for our May Term! To conclude the visit to the museum, I caught the last show playing in the Planetarium, which was called something like To Space and Back. It gave some information about the history of space adventuring, but then also talked about how our lives on Earth are effected by the technology we’ve thrown up in space. It was actually pretty interesting.

And today, my train left at 2:25, but that doesn’t mean my adventuring was done. I went back to Washington City Park (where the Zoo is) to go do some more outdoor stuff. I wanted to go see the Arboretum, but over shot it on the bus, and so instead went to the rose garden. And boy what a garden it is. I have never… EVER in my life seen so many colors in one place in nature (that wasn’t a really ornately decorated animation scene) it blew my mind. And then I ended up walking a little through the arboretum, but I only got to one trail of what I’m sure are dozens if not hundreds. I definitely need to get back there again someday. And who knows, maybe next time I’ll have a friend with me.

Until Next Time,

Joe

It’s hard to believe that my time in Seattle is coming to a close. It has been so much fun, and so wonderful to see so much of my family again. I don’t really know how to describe all the feelings, so I’ll start with what I did for the second week. This week I was much more intentional about visiting specific Seattle attractions, to make sure I didn’t feel like I wasted my time.

As I described in my last post, on Monday, I went to the SeaTac Botanical Gardens and SeaTac North Park, and hiked some wonderful shady trails through the woods.

On Tuesday, I ended up going to the Space Needle. That was cool, and I got to have a lot of fun playing around with my new Samsung camera. I grabbed lunch in the science center, and walked around the surrounding museums, but not wanting to pay, decided not to go in.

Wednesday was the day that I took a ferry. The two options I had were either Bremerton or Bainbridge Island, and I decided to go with Bremerton. The ferry ride was about an hour long, and pretty smooth. The sun was out (yet once again) making it rather beautiful outside. I had lunch at a “Boston” pizzeria, it seemed it had found its way to the wrong coast, and the food wasn’t very good either.

Thursday… Thursday was probably my favorite day of the week so far. I spent the afternoon going to a movie, specifically the new Disney release, Maleficent. I had never (or at least it has been so long I’ve forgotten if I have) seen Sleeping Beauty, but I knew she was the villain from that fairy tale. I absolutely loved the movie, but I’ll say more about that in my up-coming post “From Frozen to Maleficent”. Coming back in the mid-afternoon, I made sure to leave plenty of time to be prepared for my cousin’s high school graduation. It was a small celebration, but it was awesome to see her walk across the stage. It also meant I got to see another cousin, her brother, and my uncle, her dad, which of course is always a plus.

Friday was going to be my quiet day, but a last minute inspiration had me looking up the locations of nearby locations of the chain restaurant The Original Pancake House. I grew up with one just down the street from my house, and was super eager to have an apple pancake again. I’ve posted a picture down below so you can drool at it!

Saturday was my quiet day.

Finally Sunday… my last day here will probably be the most memorable. We’re having a family get-together, where all my relatives living in the area who aren’t on their honeymoon in Florida will come over here to celebrate several things: my cousin’s graduation, her birthday, her brother’s showing up in Seattle, my showing up in Seattle, and Father’s Day. Our first family members have just shown up, so I should probably post this and go join the starts of a party. Signing off!

Until Next Time,

Joe

With half my trip already over, I’m finally getting around to writing about my stay in Seattle. I’ve been here a week and a day now, and already have explored quite a bit, and seen most of my relatives, and other people I did not expect to.

So, cramming a week and a half worth’s of stuff into a single page. Here goes. I arrived last Saturday night, and met my aunt (Ginny) and a Japanese exchange student staying at the house at the airport. My flight landed so early (almost 30 minutes) that the gate we were supposed to connect to wasn’t even clear yet. The flight before us still was awaiting word from the control tower that they could leave. When we made it back to the airport, I saw my uncle Michael again, which I enjoyed.

The next day, I stayed in the neighborhood Beacon Hill (where I’m staying) and got a tour of the main street (I suppose what could be called downtown, though Beacon Hill is a neighborhood of Seattle), and how the train works, and just a general orientation to the neighborhood.  That night I we had dinner with two of my other relatives, my aunt Serine and uncle John, and that was a lot of fun. It was a night filled with conversation, laughter, and some really delicious ginger snaps (kudos to Serine!).

Monday, my adventures began. I took the train right to the North end of downtown Seattle, and found myself in the Pike Place Market. I ended up just walking around, and admiring the city and enjoying just being able to walk around downtown Seattle, and navigate its streets.  I had been hoping to meet up with a friend from Redlands, but it didn’t work out.

Tuesday, I did the same thing, but explored a different part of downtown, and really just acquainted myself. Nothing too exciting.

Wednesday was my first really big day. In the morning, I met my Aunt’s friend to go sailing. She took me out on her wooden sailboat, and I got to help man the rudder, and to steer us throughout our journey on Lake Washington. We had a picnic on the boat while we were out there, and I do believe I got just a tad burned that really ended up tanning more than redding (and in Seattle too!). We were out late morning to late afternoon, and that was a lot of fun. That night however, I got to meet with two high school friends who I haven’t seen in two years now. It really made me realize just how much I’ve changed over the past two years, and how much more of an outgoing person I’ve become since hanging out with my college friends. It was so much fun to hear about my friends’ college adventures too, and hear about the similarities and differences.

Thursday was another big day. I was going to go out for a walk in the morning, but then got talked into going out for an early lunch with Ginny, to go meet with my cousin (her daughter) Alana. I could not have imagined a more enjoyable time, and it made me realize how much Alana and I have to talk about. I’m sure we could talk endlessly if we wanted to. After lunch, I was dropped off at the Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. I wandered around, made my way over to Best Buy and bought myself a new digital camera, because my old one broke about a year ago. Then I made my way back to the house.

A third big day, Friday, this time I was dropped off at the University of Washington, and got to wander around the campus. It was beautiful, and I was surprised to see such a campus-like feel so close to the downtown of a large city. THAT’S what I wish Redlands was. Oh well. I eventually found myself in the book store, and browsing for a long time. I came out with a few books, and made my way back to the house. Later that afternoon, I went back out with Ginny to go shopping for Michael’s birthday before I called it a day.

Saturday we celebrated Michael’s birthday. I lay low around the house, wanting to be nearby and available just in case I was needed to help out with something. The event was a casual, all-day event with the barbecue running almost the entire time. It first started with brats (sausages), then steaks, and then halibut (fish). Dessert was sprinkled in there too (ice cream and cupcakes that Alana had made). I got to see Alana again, which I enjoyed, and this time Mark was there (her husband) and I finally got to talk to him a little bit. I certainly hope I get to talk to him more as time goes on. I also met some of Michael’s other friends that live in the area too. Highlight moment was when Mark and Alana came out with squirt guns and they start spraying each other. Then of course Michael comes out with a water balloon. I’ve decided I have a crazy family. 🙂

Sunday, I went back into downtown somewhat briefly. I ended up at the Pike Place Market again, and got a rock with the message carved in it: “Nothing is etched in stone.” I liked the irony: the humor and the seriousness in it.

And then today I ended up visiting the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, which was really cool. Before that, Alana and Mark came by to get a ride to the airport, and so I was quite surprised when I woke up and came downstairs to see them. I probably looked a bit ridiculous having just woken up and being kinda confused at first. Then I made my way to the garden, and the photos that I’ve attached are from that visit today. There were moments I was surrounded by color and fragrance, and it was incredibly beautiful. There are also vast areas of forest and cool shade, which with the sun streaming through was stunning.

Until Next Time,

Joe

Check out the new look!!!

Well, it’s about time to finally wrap up the Mile High Chemistry both in the lived experience and the tag-along blog commentary. So, the big question becomes, how can I possibly describe the experience to people who haven’t lived it? I can’t really. It becomes one of those moments where I am forced to acknowledge language’s own short comings. There just is no way that language can re-create a physical experience for anything.

This May Term was so special to me, and I certainly hope that it is to the others in the class too. Sure, we had our moments that we were frustrated, or that we snapped at each other, but especially considering the close quarters, that’s to be expected. I can honestly say that I have never laughed that much, that hard, that frequently. It’s really a special group of people: it’s because of our driven natures that we all ended up in the honors program, but we’re not so secluded in academia that we don’t know how to be silly and goof off as well.

When I think of this class, I not only think about sitting in the lab, bending over our lab manuals checking to see if we mix 6N NaOh or just plain old NaOH solution into our water samples next, but I will think about the trips to the hot spring, the night we sat out together waiting for an epic meteor shower that never showed, the day we went rock climbing, or the night that three of us decided to go camping. This class was so much more than just a class, it was a lived experience. And it was an extremely positive one at that. I have never experienced anything like it, and I doubt I’ll ever get to again.

The pictures that I have included are some of the blooming plants that we saw around SNARL both during and towards the end of our trip. I figured the final post was as fitting a place to put them as any other. Perhaps my favorite flowers are the little white ones peeking through the cracks in the asphalt. You can continuously see them wilting during the day, but both during the sunrise and sunset, at the beginning and end of each day, you can see the flowers at their brightest and most beautiful bloom.

If I had to absolutely use language to describe this experience to anyone, I would say it’s the best thing that’s happened to me at the University of Redlands.

Until Next Time,

Joe

Our final weekend of the month was probably the most exciting for some of us, because it was the most involved, the biggest hurrah to try to take advantage of the time we were spending up there.

It kicked off Friday night with the Camelopardalids meteor shower. The anticipation for this even had been built up for several days, and we eagerly awaited the arrival for a predicted phenomenal astral event: one of the best supposed meteor showers in human history. I for one, however, was more than slightly disappointed, when the most any of us saw was 2 or 3 meteors. We stayed outside from about 11 pm to 12:30am, hoping to catch a glimpse of this epic event.

But at least now I can say I’ve seen a few meteors, and more shooting stars than I can count with two hands, so that’s also kinda cool, I suppose. Then we went to bed, because the next morning, some of us had more adventures to go on.

I joined the group going out to Mack Lake. Now this was really cool, because Mack Lake is where I camped overnight, when I was here in this area for my First Year Journey. It was nice to see that the lake was still beautiful and just like it had been about 2 years before. I’ll admit, I was a little emotional ,with my eyes watering at times on the hike up to the lake (in anticipation) having started my college career with an amazing opportunity at this lake, and now getting to close out the first half my college career with an even more amazing opportunity at the very same lake, walking on the same ground that I had 2 years before.

We stayed there for at least an hour, and waited while the group got their final GLX unit readings and the deep water sample from the raft. We were slowed down slightly because some graduate guys were trying to do a time lapse of the lake, which meant no one was allowed to walk around the lake for about a 4 day period: kind of bad timing, with the holiday Memorial Day weekend, especially picking a lake that’s not really in the back country. But we got most of what we needed, and so hiked back down.

At this point, we made our way to the McGee trail head. Abby, Rebekka and I were hiking in to camp for the night, while the others were simply hiking in for the day. When we made it to the first lake, we set our packs down, set up the tents, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the area. We camped near the edge of the lake, but found a ways down from the stream that was a little quieter, which was really very nice. Dinner that night was a can of refried beans, rice and carrots. The night before, the size can that had fed 12 people, just about fed 3 people who were backpacking, with about half a spoonful left that no one really wanted to eat.

Just behind where we were eating, I discovered a fire ring, clearly indicating that we weren’t the first ones to think that that spot was a good one. It also left us a good place to snugly hide the bear canister for the night.

The following morning, we got up around 7, packed up camp, and hit the trail. We made it back to the trailhead, got picked up by Yoko, and went back to the cabin, where there was no more use putting it off…. it was time to start working on our third status reports, and the final Watershed Profile Assessment (WPA).

Until Next Time,

Joe

Our last Friday in the Mammoth Lakes area was spent outside of the classroom (yay!). We spent the day up at Mono Lake, which is a really cool aquatic environment, drastically different from any of the ones we were studying for our Watershed Profile Assessments.

The thing about Mono Lake is that it is very base, which means it has a very high pH (acidic would mean it has a very low pH).  What is characteristic about bases is the bitter taste (acid is more sour) and that it generates suds when it is agitated. So on windy days you can see foam/suds generating on the shoreline of Mono Lake. We happened to be there on a dead-flat day however.

Our tour guide told us all about the history of the lake, its troubles with the LADWP, and the efforts that went into rescuing Mono Lake when people realized what was happening and what was at stake. What was at stake was the loss of a crucial habitat for migrating birds, and overall destruction of life in a lake that was actually more filled with life than most lakes are. Despite the successful rescue efforts, the current drought is doing a pretty good job of draining the lake year after year. The difference from the watermarks of a year ago and the shoreline now is sizable.

What’s also interesting about Mono Lake is the Tufa Towers. Tufa is a form of limestone that is formed when a carbonate mineral rich body of water reacts with fresh water, forming tufa. The particles build upon each other and over the course of years or centuries, a tufa tower forms wherever there is a freshwater source leaking into the lake.  They were beautiful to look at (and it was cool to realize that the towers stretching over our heads meant the lake was at least that tall once upon a time) but they were a pain to walk on.

After our tour, we were able to go swimming. Before we did however, we decided to go to the obsidian dome. Basically it’s the remnants of an old volcano, and it’s an obsidian plug that’s just sitting there now. It’s extinct, so it’s perfectly safe, and you get this neat 15 minute walk up to this rock pile that is essentially a pile of black glass. Of course, it doesn’t look quite as pretty as that, because the rocks have oxidized and so look more like normal, dark rock. But if you break open any rocks there, you get this glamorous shiny pure black obsidian that is just absolutely beautiful. Of course, because it’s glass, it means that it is razor sharp, and about half our group cut their hands a little bit while up there (somehow I got lucky and didn’t).

When we finished playing around and scrambling on the obsidian, we went back to Mono Lake, and did our swimming. This was a big mistake. Because on top of being very basic, the lake is also quite saltier (and it keeps getting saltier as it continues to dry up). I very quickly discovered I had a scrape on my left knee that I hadn’t known about before! Several people went in, but it was so painful walking on the tufa towers (they’re pointy towers of solid rock, remember) that I got my feet and calves wet, and then tenderly walked back out. But it was a solid day, and we were all glad to be out of the classroom and lab for the day.

Until Next Time,

Joe

The last time we went up to Yost Lake was the third Thursday of the month, our last real day in the classroom for the whole month. This trip went much better than the last two: nothing broke down, we had everything, and it wasn’t below freezing at 6 am.

We went up to do our last measurements: a third set of GLX water quality readings, collect our total atmosphere deposition bulk sampler, and to collect our atmospheric particulate matter. Will and Reid wandered around the lake, taking the GLX readings, while I babysat the particulate air matter collector. Now, I was expecting the thing to last for about 20 minutes like we had been warned (theoretically, you can leave it on its own for an hour, just come back and turn it off and leave) but it didn’t even last 30 seconds, and so I sat there turning thing off and then back on, about 120 times before we felt like we had about an hour’s worth.

Once we finished with all that, we booked it back down the mountain, because we had a book signing we were trying to make. We got down early enough that we decided to stop for dinner first however, at a tiny little thai place called Thai’d Up. It was quite good. Then we rushed back to SNARL, I unloaded all the lab equipment, cleaned up and hurried back over to the lab to listen to David and Janet Carle talk about their book Traveling the 38^th Parallel. The book is about their decision to travel full circle around the world, constantly staying as close to the 38^th parallel (referring to latitude) as possible.

Coincidentally, they kept finding very unusual bodies of water that kept popping up, right on the 38^th parallel. Their travels took them through Asia (Japan and South Korea and China (I believe), Europe (so many countries I won’t try to name) and across the United States, ending back up in California, where they started.

After hearing their stories (with lots of photos), we all stood around enjoying dessert (cookies, ice cream and fruit: grapes and strawberries) and we told them a little bit about our class, what we were doing, and what it all really meant. They were such wonderful people, and it was a really fun night.

Until Next Time,

Joe