blogwaffe

I would have guessed the bottle would have shattered, but the cap seems to act as a safety valve.

Beer slushy anyone?

Having the excuse of a Wedding to attend in Mobile, Michelle and I decided to make a trip out of it and see some things this Idaho Yank had never seen (“Idaho Yank” seems to me to be something of an anachronism since Idaho was admitted to the Union many years after the end of the War of Northern Aggression. Besides, the Mason-Dixon line doesn’t extend nearly that far West geographically or, arguably, culturally. But whatever.).

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Michelle and I drove down a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway after our WordCamp inspired trip to the bay area. (I should note that the section of Highway 1 we were on is not officially called the Pacific Coast Highway according to the hard to parse California State Route 1 wikipedia entry.)
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My mom and dad, Allen, Michelle and I went up to Orcas Island this past weekend to celebrate Lincoln and Chana’s marriage.

It’s a really nice place.

Besides the wedding activities, the whale watching trip we all took was the highlight of the weekend.

Saturday morning, we headed to Rosario Resort‘s docks and climbed aboard Deer Harbor Charters‘ whale watching vessel Pelagic. Once aboard, our guide, James, talked about the orca whales’ history and behavior and pointed out other local wildlife (bald eagles, porpoises, seals, etc.) as we cruised out to sea. About an hour and a half after leaving the docks, we spotted our first orcas a hundred meters or so off the boat. Soon we were surrounded by whales, though none was particularly close. When feeding, an orca pod apparently tends to spread out unless one of the whales finds a large group of fish.

We motored around a bit to try and get a better view when a group of about six whales to starbord and aft started swimming (quickly) right toward us. Every ten seconds or so, a few whales would surface: each time a little closer. Finally, one whale surfaced about eight meters from the boat. Everyone scrambled to take pictures, but a feeding orca is not above water for very long. Just after it resubmerged, two more whales surfaced literally within one meter of the boat and dove underneath us. We saw them up close and, man, are orcas big.

After that, those several whales hung around us for five or ten minutes; we were apparently right above their chosen fish. I got a couple pictures but nothing as spectacular as being there in person. Hopefully someone else was a better shot.

The tour lasted about three and a half hours (Allen said he had the Gilligan’s Island theme stuck in his head the whole time) and was a lot of fun.

That afternoon, we drove up to the top of Mount Constitution in Moran State Park. My great grandfather was in charge of the CCC‘s construction of the stone tower at the peak of the mountain, so it was something of a familial pilgrimage. The view from the top is spectacular, and we could see tiny little whale watching boats down on the water. Indeed, with binoculars, we could see the whales the boats were watching!

Seeng whales from two feet was more exciting than seeing whales from two thousand feet, but both were a lot of fun.

Photos (on Flickr):

• Caltech Activities Fair
• My birthday party
• My trip to Santa Cruz to visit Haskell and Joanna
• Kristin’s birthday party

Feel free to comment here or there.

Making good on her promise to someday visit, Sarah and Anant were in town this weekend. Apparently, Anant was interviewing with some company out here, and Sarah came for the ride. Their home base was Lennon’s (I had completely forgotten he was out here), and, ostensibly because I’m supposed to be studying for quals, I only got Sarah for the day on Friday.

We hit up all the standards: campus, Ernie’s, the Huntington, the OTP, the caltech Canada Day shindig, the houses of the other half. I’d like to think she had fun; I certainly thought it was awesome to see her. And, despite the roaring headache I acquired for no particular reason that evening, it was great to see Anant and Lennon too that evening at dinner with Gina, her sisters and some friends. Five UR folk all in Pasadena for the night. Who’d have thought?

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That’s a composition of two photos. One of which my dad took himself. Without a timer.

Plus it’s a good photo of the fam. Rawk on, Dad.

Two photo posts in a row? Paul.za cooked dinner for a bunch of people on Tuesday Wednesday.

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Bert passed his candidacy exams on the twenty-first, but we didn’t get around to celebrating until the twenty-fifth. Here’s some random pics from the event (which included a power hour) graciously shot by Michelle.

PS: If you can’t see the pictures, you’re probably using Internet Explorer. Don’t. Get Firefox.

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Who ever thought you could fry an entire turkey, all at once? Who ever thought you could do it in a scant thirty-eight minutes.

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