Pinnacles National Park- REALLY REALLY REALLY HOT! During the day at least. There are two sets of caves, but only one was open when we went – Balconies. We hiked there and it was really cool. There are also lots of places to climb for those who are into climbing. The campsite was also decent. There are bathrooms, 6-minute hot showers, although mine still seemed quite cold at 6am. There is also a pool that looked pretty nice but we didn’t swim.

Big Sur- So there are 3 different parks in the Big Sur area: Andrew Molero SP, Pfieffer Big Sur SP and Julia Pfieffer SP. I will review them separately.

Andew Molero State Park- We only hiked here but it was beautiful. There is a cove area with a beach which is popular with the surfers. You have to cross over the river (wade) to get to it though. You can also hike out to the point which gives you a nice view of the cove and the ocean. This is actually the largest of the three parks, but also the least developed

Julia Pfieffer- the main attraction here is the beautiful cove with waterfall and crystal blue water. The area was donated by a lady who used to live up the hill with the condition that there be no access to the beach. So you can’t touch it but the view is fantastic. Its only about a 5 min walk from the parking lot. There are other hikes back into the mountains but we didn’t go.

Pfieffer Big Sur- This is the main park of the three and the one people commonly refer to as Big Sur. This is where we camped. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the hikes. We went up to Pfieffer Falls (decent waterfall) and Valley view (totally not worth the uphill haul). I was also quite tired and cranky this day so that might have biased my experience.

Hearst Castle National Monument (or something)- this isn’t technically a park but it is owned by the park system so I’ll count it. This is incredible. Our tour guide was superb and the ‘castle’ is beautiful. A little pricey on the tickets but worth it in my opinion.

Montana de Oro State Park- This park was really pretty, lots of beach area, eucalyptus groves, etc. But we had the hardest time trying to figure out where we were supposed to go for camping. We went to the visitors center but it was closed (at 3:30pm). It had sign telling us to go somewhere else, that place said to go somewhere else, etc. We eventually figured it out with enough time to take a picnic out to the beach before we had to hike our gear in. This was our only night without showers but also the most peaceful. We were the only ones in the 1 of 2 campgrounds in the area. We had E-camp #2 which was in the eucalyptus grove but we could here the waves down the hill as well.

Point Mugu State Park- We didn’t do much here besides camp and putter around on the beach for about 20 minutes. There were showers but you had to feed it quarters to get any hot water. Well worth it in my opinion You could also hear the beach from our tent.

Malibu Creek State Park- My least favorite park. Hot hot hot, bugs bugs bugs. Loud french people. Thats all I have to say about that.

Secret Garden B&B, LA, CA- After an entire week of camping we thought we had died and gone to heaven. There was a bed with lots of pillows and someone to fix us yummy breakfast that wasn’t from a box. The owners were friendly but not too in your face, which we appreciated. We also got upgraded to the cottage (separate building in the back) for free! There is a nice garden with a waterfall and birds (like lots of them, in cages) that almost drown out the traffic (its LA, what do you expect). Overall, very pleasant, would stay again.

Day 1- Drive to Pinnacles NP, hike to Balconies Cave, camp.  The caves were pretty awesome, some parts were pitch dark and it was hard to tell which way to go even with a head lamp.

Day 2- Drive to Andrew Molero SP, hike to the beach;  Drive to Juila Pfeiffer SP, see awesome waterfall/cove thing; Drive to Pfieffer Big Sur SP, hike a bit, camp

Day 3- Drive to Hearst Castle, tour; Drive to Montana de Oro SP, pinic at the beach, hike in to campsite

Day 4- Drive to Santa Barbara, go to the beach, Mission, and a big fig tree; Drive to Point Mugu, hike a wee bit, camp

Day 5- Drive to Malibu, go to the beach and out to lunch for my b-day; drive to Santa Monica Pier and then to the Getty museum; Drive back to Malibu Creek SP to camp

Day 6- Drive to LA farmer’s market, eat brunch; Drive to Griffith Observatory; Drive to Bed and Breakfast in West Hollywood

Day 7- Wander around Hollywood in the blazing heat, Chinese theatre, El Capitan to see Prince Caspian

Day 8- Drive home!

Pictures can be found here.

2. Leaving a graduation ceremony early ensures that you will get first dibs on the free food

3. I am not motivated enough to get my lazy ass out of bed to work out in the morning.  Help! Anyone!?

4. If you leave crumbs on the floor for several days ants will find them. lots of ants.

5. Attending other people’s graduation ceremonies is fun because it reminds me that I will graduate. One day. eventually..

Overall a very productive week indeed   Now its time to go play in the woods for a week!

“If we knew what we were doing it wouldn’t be called research, would it?”

Saturday (like a month ago) was picnic day and it was so fun! We spent the morning wandering around looking at stuff- I got my free plants (tomatoes). The viticulture people were giving out grapevine plants. I really really wanted one but couldn’t think of where I would plant it so I passed. I spent the afternoon at our lab’s poster in BAE and the Biotech exhibit. I was pooped by the end of the day. I also carried around my camera for the entire day and didn’t take a single picture..

Also, my computer is having issues- it has downloaded Windows (XP) updates but won’t install them. I click on the yellow shield to install, it thinks about it for a minute and then tells me that the updates were not installed. No error message or anything. Does anyone know whats wrong? Do I have a virus or something?

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OH CRAP! I must have gotten into the swim class!

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OH CRAP! I was supposed to be going to class since the end of March.

OH CRAP!

Ahh the joys of being an absent minded crazy person!

I emailed the instructor and I’m sure he got a good chuckle. Or he was just annoyed. Anyway, he pretended to be nice and said he would give me credit for the time I missed and to start coming next class. Everyone else in the class is going to be like “who is this random girl adding in the middle of the quarter?” Oh man, good times..

Back: Iain, Xiguang, Dong

Front: Yi, Baoning, Me, Rowena, Harrison, Josh

Missing: Chris and Dr. Zhang

Anyway, today I finished my last. class. ever. It feels good. I cannot say that I took my last exam, however, because I still have the daunting task of passing my qualifying exam ahead of me. This week I must finish my proposal. I must. If I don’t, there is a good chance that I will have to go on vacation before I take my quals and that will just suck. I would much rather be able to truly relax for a week!

Yesterday Derrick and I went out and flew our new kite! We got it at COSTCO. Its a seahorse- our compromise between the blue angel and the pretty bird. Anyway, we found this open field on campus and started romping about. Our seahorse wasn’t very good at flying, maybe because he’s actually supposed to swim. He kept crashing down on his head. oops. We did get in a couple good flights, though. We will try again when the wind isn’t so gusty.

This glaze was supposed to be the brown and green thats at the top. I think it got contaminated with the blue, but I like the way it turned out.

This is my accidental pitcher. I bumped the rim when I was taking it off the wheel so I made it into a pitcher.

This is a cute little bowl. The glaze is kinda weird- bubbly in some spots. Oh well, still functional

Last week we learned closed forms and I’m so addicted.