Victoria Spring

Daffodils, tulips, freesia - it must be spring! The sun has graced beautiful Vancouver Island for weeks, and the days are growing so long. This photo is of Mt. Baker from near where I live at Land's End.

I spent a few days in California to visit Stanford and to spend the weekend seeing a few good friends. I wish I could have stayed longer, but our field programs begin in May and there are too many logistics still to line up. I faced my fear and went to the USGS for an informal meeting and to say hello to the great people there. It was wonderful to see everyone, and Santa Cruz was sunny and beautiful.



At this time of year, so is Seattle, Bellingham, Vancouver, Victoria, and Sidney... all of which I have been to in the last few weeks.

In California I went with friends Carissa and Ty to "Yuri's Night" at NASA Ames. An enormous hangar was dedicated to this celebration of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut and the first person to orbit Earth (on April 12, 1961 at the tender age of 27).



The photo below is of a giant red helium balloon, floating above the hangar, with white Christmas lights hanging from it.



The party went on all night! There was a DJ and a couple of speakers and odd performances. It was a strange mix of hippies, regular people, and dressed-up space geeks... Burning Man meets NASA and Star Trek.



There were 4 geodesic domes with different presentations (like Google Earth), robotics displays, and miniature replicas of the Mars Rover that actually roamed around collecting images of the lot around the hangar. There were also art installations, including Michael Christian’s 3-story metal scultpure "Hypha" and a Buddha that lit up.



NASA scientist Chris McKay took the stage about 11 pm and talked about Mars exploration. That guy was a real crackpot.

Back here in Victoria, I finally completed the boat piloting course after 4 months! It was only one night a week but even that level of commitment was taxing for me at times. I missed about 1/3 of the classes because of my trips to Juneau, Anchorage, Seattle, Vancouver, and California in the last few months. I'm sure everyone thought I would flunk, but I didn't! I got a 93 on the exam. I guess spending 27 years in school taught me how to take tests. My favorite parts were charting, navigation, and using the VHF radio properly. I know so many more buoys than the standard red-green, and stand-on/give-way rules are no longer a mystery. (That was one of the main reasons I signed up for the course. I was driving the Lizzie M last fall from the top deck and had a question about right-of-way that I couldn't answer on my own.)

Now if I ever need to relay a PAN PAN I'll know what to do.

I've been running two or three 10 km runs a week, plus running with the Hash House Harriers every other Saturday. The photos aren't complimentary, but they're funny. I did the write-up for the recent Easter run.