Astronomers Do It At Night

Over winter break I went to Seattle for the AAS conference. It lasted from the Sunday immediately before classes to that Thursday. Because of this, I skipped the first week of school. At first it sounded alright- in fact I was a bit excited (come on, don't tell me you're not excited when a class got canceled?) Once I emailed all my professors and got homework for the week though, I wasn't really too keen on the idea of missing the first five days of class...

I presented a poster over my research from last summer at NAU. It was great- lots of interesting and stimulating people came around and asked me about my research. I met a lot of really cool people- astronomers and students alike.

Alec, Jenny and I in front of my poster!

Last year Chris went to AAS in DC and whenever I called he always told me how tired he was and how busy he was the whole time. At the time, I had a hard time believing that you could be busy all day at an astronomy conference... Yeahhhh, how wrong I was. Talks started at 9 in the morning and lasted until about 5. There were a few invited talks each day that almost everyone attended (big conference rooms, well-known astronomers speaking), and in between those were special session talks over specific areas of astronomy that were smaller. And going on all day in the exhibit hall was the poster session where people like me stood next to their poster all day waiting for people to come by and look. The conference in general was socially tiring, but worth it.

After the "conference day" was over, I would be invited to dinner with someone from somewhere, or I went to scheduled dinners. After dinner was drinks, after drinks was talking, after talking was finally getting back to the hotel to pass out in bed. Lather, rinse, repeat!

I did get to go out while there as well. We went to Pike Place Market...

One evening we went to the Space Needle. It was really neat to see the city at night!

Nicole (from my REU!), me, Teresa and Jenny at the top of the space needle.

We went to Chinatown for lunch one day and got dim sum (only two vegetarian options... sad...) We also went to the original Starbucks! Not that exciting really, but I had to go out of principle. One evening I visited University of Washington and got to talk to their grad students and faculty about grad school (eek!) and see the department. I also went for a run down on the waterfront...

And got lost on the way back. After the conference ended, Jenny and I stayed until the following Sunday, bring our trip length to a whole week. We had planned this out months ago, and in hindsight I probably should have come back to school as soon as possible to get back in the groove of classes and catch up on what I missed, buuuuut... how many chances do you have to go to Seattle (paid for, no less)?

Things we did:
-Visit the EMP (Experience Music Project) and Science Fiction Museum (a music and science nerd's dream come true)
-Eat at Top Pot Donuts
-Went to the market again
-Visited the Fremont Troll (a huge stone troll under the Fremont bridge!)
-Went to the Erotic Bakery... haha. It was very interesting.

That was about it. Two nights Jenny and I stayed with a friend of Alec's, and the last night we stayed with Keaton (he did an REU at Indiana and stayed through early September). Then on Sunday we left early to catch a bus to SeaTac airport and from there it was back home. After a layover in Minneapolis, I made it back to Indy about midnight and then drove back to Bloomington.

All in all, Seattle was great! I could do without the weather and the extremely poorly-designed road systems... but the stores, restaurants and nightlife were diverse and unique. Skipping the first week of school? Not one of my best ideas, but I had a great time anyway. Hopefully next year I'll get to go to AAS again!

Back in the Saddle Again- AZ to IN!

My last few days spent in Arizona were busy busy busy. I was leaving Wednesday morning, and our presentations and papers were due on Monday. We had to give the presentations Tuesday morning. Not to mention the fact that I had to move all of my stuff out of the apartment, clean it, and check out sometime in there.

Luckily I had my paper and presentation pretty much finished the previous week so that I could leave the last weekend for the Arches trip. I put some finishing touches on it Monday and gave a practice talk to Teresa and my adviser. I rushed around Flag buying people souvenirs (of course I wait until the END of my 10 week stay to do this...) then began packing my stuff that night.

Okay, so throughout the summer, the REU students have sort of had a penchant for pulling pranks on each other. To be honest, we pretty much just stole a lot of stuff from Eric (including his phone multiple times, his french press and probably more things). As a final goodbye, Teresa, Nick and myself went over to the boys' apartment at about 9 or 10pm Monday night and stole Eric's mattress!!! We carried it down one flight of stairs, across the property to our apartment, up to the third floor then threw it in mine and Teresa's apartment. Man, I'll tell you: I never knew how heavy a full-size mattress could be... It was totally worth it, though. Once it was in our apartment, we proceeded to jump on it like the mature college students we are.

Nick and I going to town on the mattress.

We put the mattress on top of my mattress on my bed. Eventually around 11 or so, I got really tired. I didn't know what else to do so I just went to sleep on top of two mattresses. At about midnight, I was rudely awakened to a phone call from Eric asking if I knew where the mattress was. The gig was up, so Nick, Eric and I moved it back.

The next morning was THE day. The day where we had to give our research presentations to a room full of experienced astronomers who will probably rip us apart with questions (people from Lowell, NAU, and the USGS were invited). Eek! I was going 4th out of 7, so I got to sit around nervous for a bit. Everybody gave really good talks! I was pretty impressed. I thought for sure somebody would get too nervous and goof up (most likely me) but everybody did really well.

Notice my star trek cup that I brought specifically for the talk! :)

I thought I did pretty well, although I forgot to say some things, and was a little intimidated by the professional astronomers there. I was satisfied though, and that's all that matters! I answered all my questions but one that I didn't know (my adviser answered it for me though).

After our talks- we can finally relax! From left, back: Eric, Nick, Nicole and Teresa. Front: Me, Kathy (program director and our psuedo-mom), Sarah, and Cailah.

Afterward we went to NiMarco's, the same pizza place we visited on our first day in Flag. A few of the astronomers who attended the talks came as well. It was really fun and yummy. After that, Teresa and I ran all over the place (Target, NAU to give Kathy our leftover food, and Lowell to clean out the office). We frantically packed up our stuff all afternoon and cleaned the apartment like madwomen. Eric and I made a recycling run from all the stuff we've been accumulating all summer and got some espresso at Macy's. I don't think I've ever mentioned Macy's but it's a European style coffee shop. They have the best coffee I've ever tasted! But yeah, went back home, cleaned and packed more. Went back to the physics building at NAU to print off my plane tickets (woops! almost forgot to).

Flagstaff sent me off in style!

FINALLY I got back and tried desperately to use all my tortillas by making a lot of quesadillas (I succeeded). We had a last blow-out party with everyone and a USGS friend Eric (too many Erics). It was lots of fun, but I ended up staying up until 3:30... and then woke up at 5:30.

Wednesday, I did indeed wake up at 5:30, and proceeded to run around the place doing all the last-minute things I forgot to do before. At 6:40, the RA in our building came to check both Teresa and I out. We passed 'inspection' and I headed across the street to the parking lot where the shuttle would pick me up. I got Teresa and the boys to come help me bring my stuff (we woke them up at about 6:30 to MAKE them say goodbye to us). My shuttle arrived at 7:10 and I was off to Phoenix. Exchanged my final goodbyes with Teresa, Eric, and Nick and I was on my way.

It was three hours to Phoenix, and once there, I got through security like a breeze and had a couple hours to kill there.

In Sky Harbor Int'l Airport in Phoenix.

I sat around tired and bored until boarding at 11:40. It was a hard goodbye, but farewell Arizona!

Last glimpse of mountains at the airport.

I went from Phoenix to a layover in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. I slept for pretty much the whole flight. I had about 3 hours waiting in Dallas, and my flight was a little late. I ended up leaving about 9pm Central time for Indy. I had a pretty amazing flight- I saw an incredible sunset (and Venus!). I happened to look down at the right moment to see a fireworks show going on the edge of some body of water. There was also a big storm in the distance. It was really cool to see lightning from the top down! I timed a minute and saw somewhere around 60 lightning strikes! After picking up my luggage in Indy, it was about midnight. From 7am MST to 12am EDT is 14 hours of traveling. I feel like most of it was just spent sitting around in airports though. I got a lot of reading and gameboy tetris done though!

All of my flights were fine, and I spent the night at my sister's house near the airport after arriving in Indiana. I slept like a brick, or a log, or whatever they say. This summer has been phenomenal and I'll dearly miss Flagstaff and all of the close friends I made there. I was lucky to have all really cool and awesome people in the REU group. I still get to see Teresa since she goes to IU, but hopefully I will see the rest of them at this winter's AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting in Seattle. Until then!

The perfect sunset on my return flight from Dallas to Indy (notice Venus in the upper left!). Au Revoir Arizona! :)

Arches Arches Arches

In an attempt to catch up on blogs, here I am (I feel like this is all I ever do- get behind then have a burst of blog posts in a short period).

The week following the weekend of Sedona, Bear Mountain was spent wrapping up research and preparing my talk and presentation. I was enrolled in two classes while at NAU, one was based off research where we were required to write a 5-10 page report over what we had done over the summer. The other was based off the seminars we had twice a week. For that class we had to present our research at the end of the summer to those in charge of the program as well as anyone else who wished to attend. More about how those two things went later!

That week for our Dancing on the Square, we learned the hustle! It was a lot of fun! We got a bit rained out during the night, so Teresa and Eric (whom we managed to convince to come) and I went for some fried okra, chicken wings and apple pie at a nearby restaurant. Good stuff.

Ok, so on the weekend of July 30-August 1st, we ventured back to Utah! This time our destinations were Arches National Park, Mt. Peale, and Monument Valley. To start off our journey, we planned on leaving Flag at about 3-4pm Friday afternoon. Of course, road trips never really start on time. Friday it rained REALLY hard in Flagstaff. Like, two inches in 20 minutes hard. Up at Lowell, one of the building's basements was flooding, and on the first floor water was squirting up through the cracks of tiles. It was pretty intense. There's been a lot of uncharacteristic rain lately in Flagstaff (I blame global warming). This is bad news for people living north of town, because of flooding. After the Schultz fire, there's been a lot of flash flooding and it's been a real mess. Anyways, the main road through town, Milton, was completely flooded and impassable- right near the bottom of Mars Hill (where Lowell is located). We were pretty much stuck at Lowell until 5:30 or 6. Traffic was incredibly awful, and no one could get anywhere. Our ride coming to get us took 45 minutes, when it normally takes 5.

Yikes! Okay, so after packing hurriedly and shoving all of our stuff into Eric's car, Eric, Nicole and myself took off for Utah. We were the only ones on the trip because 2 people were going out of town, and the other two had a lot to do with their projects (presentations and papers were due the following Monday). We ended up leaving town at about 6:45... It takes about 6 hours to get to Moab, UT where Arches is!

A pretty rainy sunset leaving town.

The trip wasn't bad at all! We listened to a lot of good music, and saw some amazingly superb lightning for the majority of the ride actually. I wish we could have seen the ride in the light to see the landscape, but occasionally the lightning would light up structures in the distance. It was fun to imagine what they were, but would have been more fun to actually see them.

Nicole fell asleep with my cat, Gwynavere. :)

We ended up getting to our BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campsite at about 12am I think. There were lots of public, first come-first serve campsites around the park. We set up camp right next to the Colorado River and fell asleep to the sounds of water and bugs and to the sight of a nice clear sky.

The next morning we ate a breakfast of bagels (a baker's dozen for the trip!) and coffee. Then we drove over to the actual entrance to the park.

My first photo of the area! On our way to the park entrance.

There were an endless number of cool things to see in the park, so get ready for an explosion of photos. I'll try and restrain myself as much as possible!

We took just about every scenic view stop we saw. The first was just inside the park and had a nice view of the La Sal mountain range. It is named La Sal ('salt' in spanish) because when first discovered in the middle of a desert region, people couldn't believe it was snow on the peaks. Of course it makes sense that instead it is actually salt...?

The La Sal mountain range

The Three Gossips

The Organ. I have a hard time seeing it...

Balanced Rock! Name is self-explanatory I hope.

The Fiery Furnace.

That last photo is of the Fiery Furnace- a really cool place to hike, but you have to buy permits and it's incredibly easy to lost without a guide. Maybe next time! Our hike was the Devil's Garden primitive trail loop. About ~7 miles round trip. It was hike with the most amount of arches to see, so why not? First on the trail was Landscape Arch.

Landscape Arch

It was really cool! Back in the 90's some huge chunks fell off and since then they have deemed it too dangerous to walk under, so you can only get as close as this photo was taken. Next was Partition Arch.

Me standing under Partition Arch!

We had a lunch of, you guessed it, bagels under Partition Arch. Not a bad view at all! We stopped briefly at Navajo Arch next.

Nicole and Eric under Navajo Arch.

We went on to Double-O Arch. It was pretty neat!

Double-O Arch.

Next to the Dark Angel. It only looks like an angel from about this distance.

The bizarre landscape at the park.

We were starting to run out of water on the way back so we were quiet and didn't really take any more photos. We were pretty happy to finally get back. After getting hydrated and taking off our pretty smelly shoes we headed to Moab for some info and ice cream. While hiking in the park, we had seen rain in the distance and wondered if it was still possible for us to hike Mt. Peale, let alone get up to the trailhead. After stopping by the information center, the outcome seemed pretty bleak. The road to the trail was unpaved and after flooding in the area would be impossible to traverse in Eric's Malibu... We decided to wait until the next morning to make the final decision about climbing a mountain. Mt. Peale is the highest peak in the La Sal range at 12,726 feet.

In the meantime, we got some ice cream and espresso at a local shop, then drove to our new campsite at the foot of the mountains, near some lake. It was pretty nice because there wasn't hardly anyone there (bad weather has its advantages!). We washed off in a creek (so classy) and made a dinner of quinoa (leftover from the Zion/Bryce trip...) and veggies. We slept outside on our sleeping bags for a bit, but it started raining in the night, so into the tent we went. It continued raining through the night and stopped sometime in the morning Sunday. Definitely not climbing any mountains. Not only would it be pretty stupid and dangerous, but there's no way we could've driven to any trails.

After coffee, breakfast, and packing up camp, we went back to the park and took a short hike around the North and South Windows (also known as the 'Spectacles'), Turret Arch, and finally went to Double Arch. These were all short, 1 mile or less hikes so it was more crowded than I liked, but oh well.

North and South Windows aka The Spectacles.

Under an arch- maybe Turret?

Double Arch- it was really big and awesome to climb under/around.

Finally, it was time to head back to Arizona. The drive back was fine and dandy. We drove through Monument Valley, which was on the border of Arizona. It was incredibly weird but also cool.

Looks like somebody tilted the land...

Some of Monument Valley.

I drove us back home (so nice to drive for the first time that summer!), and we arrived home about 8pm I think. (We also tried stopping at a dinosaur museum and a coffee shop but both were closed for Sunday).

Woo! An action-packed weekend. I'm a little bummed we didn't get to climb a mountain (sometimes you just want to climb a mountain, you know?), but I had a ton of fun at Arches. It was a unique experience I'll never get again, and the landscape in Utah is incredible!

Ciao Utah!

Okay, almost caught up on blog posting... remind me to never get behind again... A long post for a long story is in the future I feel.

Various news: Teresa and I learned east and west-coast swing last week at our weekly dancing. Lots of fun!!!

So, you might be asking yourself: what did Jo get herself into last weekend?

Utah!!! Seriously, I got myself into Utah. Another epic camping trip took place last weekend. This time we ventured a bit further than the Canyon, into Utah! Our first stop: Zion National Park. The plan was to drive Thursday to Zion (about 5 hours away), camp there for two nights, then camp one night in Bryce Canyon (~1.5 hours from Zion). We all left work early Thursday and left Flagstaff at about 3:30 after shoving an inordinate amount of junk into two cars. Off to Utah we go! We took the 89, which took us through Page, AZ which is right on the border with UT. Well, no road trip is complete with car troubles, eh? Eric and Teresa drove the cars. I was in Eric's. As we stopped at a scenic view near Page at the top of hill, we notice a trail of liquid originating from under his car... hmm.. Turns out the coolant was leaking and making everything smell nasty. I think we're still unsure as to why it started leaking, perhaps the drive was really taking it out on the car, but it seems to be fine now. Anyway, we hurry up to Page and stop at an auto store to pick up more coolant. We had dinner at a Sonics (I'd never been until now). Then we took a side trip to Glenn Canyon where the Glenn Canyon holds back Lake Powell.

Glenn Dam.

Eric had driven through Page on his way to AZ (from his home in Idaho), so he recommended we go look over this very sheer cliff there. It was... sheer. AND REALLY HIGH. I'm pretty scared of heights, but I'll admit that all the climbing/hiking we've done out here have really desensitized me. I'm getting a lot better! We all laid down and stuck our heads out over a nice 500-foot drop.

Heights, anyone?

After stopping to straddle a state line and taking a break to stargaze, we made our way to Hurricane, UT where the road trip gets quite funny. We see a flashing sign up ahead near the turnoff to the road that travels through Zion park. Whatever could it say?!

Nightly closures in Zion National Park. Hm. A bit of a problem. The east entrance to the park was closed. After debating a bit, we decide to drive out of the way and circle around to the west entrance. After a 3 hour detour, losing the other car, not having reception to contact them, having a cop car escort the other car to us because they were lost, and a gas and chip stop, we find Zion National Park! Hooray! It ends there, right? Well, we start driving through the park. There's lots of construction and cones everywhere, and before we know it we encounter a sign that informs us we are exiting Zion park. Somehow we missed our campground! The real kicker of the story is that since we exited out of the east entrance, it must not have really been closed all along… there was a section with only one lane open, but we were the only car in the park at that hour. Sooo, we essentially drove all the way around to the west entrance for no reason! I think it’s really hilarious, but then again it wasn’t me driving. Ok, so we turn around and keep a sharp eye out for our campground and eventually find it. By the time we find our particular campsite, set up and brush teeth, it’s 3AM. Only 7 hours later than we intended… :) The sky was fantastically clear, and we slept outside on a tarp with sleeping pads because it was pretty hot.

This is how we camp in AZ. Nicole and Teresa.

The view from our campsite.

Cliff walls in Zion.

The next morning we wake up bright and early at 7AM to start the day. We had borrowed a white gas stove from our program director Kathy. It was broken though, so we had no means of cooking our food we brought. Instead we ate bagels for breakfast and then headed to the Angels Landing trail.

Taking the shuttle to Angels Landing.

This trail had been recommended to us by someone who had visited Zion before. It was one of the most incredible hikes I’ve ever done. For the first half it was just uphill hiking through a canyon, but then we get to the Angels Landing. I didn’t seem to take a photo of the entire structure, but you can find a photo here (photo by Joe Braun) and here. It was straight uphill hiking pretty much up the side of a rock. They had chains to hold onto while climbing because the trail was so narrow and rocky. The cliff walls were sheer and the heights were dizzying.

Sheer crazy!

Shenanigans.

It was really fun, though, and the view at the top was fabulous. We ate a lunch of PBJ’s, then headed back down. It got pretty hot, so we booked it out.

The view at the top of Angels Landing.

We made a trip to town to buy a new stove then went back to the campsite. We made a delicious dinner of quinoa and veggies (classy campers, no?). Afterwards we made a fire and made… you guessed it, s’mores! I brought my harmonica on the trip, and we sat around the fire while I played some pretty low-quality renditions of various songs I learned. Everybody was bone-tired so we crashed at about 9PM. I slept like a rock until about 6:30 when the sun woke me up. On the subject of sleeping, I was thoroughly surprised that I slept so good on the trip. Every night I slept really well, and didn’t toss and turn at all. It could have been that I tired myself out every day, but I feel like I slept better there than in my bed… hm.

The next morning we woke up and made some oatmeal (and Christine made caramelized apples! See, we are truly classy campers). We set out for a short hike to the Emerald Pools. The Pools were pretty puny and pathetic, but there were a few cool waterfalls. It was a nice short and easy hike before we left Zion. We stopped for lunch at a small park and took a ‘bath’ in the creek there. Then it was off to Bryce Canyon.

Waterfall at the Emerald Pools.

We made it to Bryce in the late afternoon… sadly my camera ran out memory for this leg of the trip, but I’ll try and show some photos anyway. Bryce was, without a doubt, one of the strangest places I’ve ever seen. There were these formations called hoodoos that looked like misshapen pillars.

Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon.

The rocks were orange and pink and the landscape was just in general pretty bizarre. When we got there, we went to the Mossy Caves, which was only about a 1 mile hike. The cave was pretty unimpressive (more like Mossy Hole In A Wall), but we found a creek and waterfall to splash around in. After cooling off for a bit, we went on a scenic drive through the park. It was a beautiful drive. Eventually we made our way back to the campsite and set up for the night. We made quesadillas for dinner (gosh! Make yourself a dang quesadilla!) and lit a fire. Bryce was at a higher elevation than Zion (higher even than Flagstaff elevation), so it got cool at night. We slept on the tarp again, under the pristinely clear sky. Side note: every night we camped we set up the tents, but never ended up using them…

The next morning we ate breakfast, drank some coffee, and headed to our main destination: the Fairyland Trail. This was an 8-mile loop through the heart of the Canyon. It was an awesome hike, full of strange hoodoos, arches in the rocks, and the strange Bryce landscape. It took us about 6 hours to hike and then we were finally headed back to Flagstaff!

On the Fairyland Loop.

We decided to take a scenic route home, through the Grand Staircase Escalantes. The Grand Staircase is the order of the formation of rocks in the west. It starts with Grand Canyon, the top layer of the Canyon is the bottom layer of Zion, and the top layer of Zion is the bottom layer of Bryce. We just happened to visit all three locations in sequential order. Well, about 10 miles into the scenic drive, we encounter the unpaved road… Alright, can’t be too bad, right…? Turns out this road is about 45 miles long. At 20-30 MPH. The views were fantastic, but I felt sorry for the two drivers. The road was rocky, uneven, and in general not meant for either a Malibu or an Altima. It was pretty rough, but was a shortcut… mileage-wise! :) Pretty fun with a car whose gas gauge is at empty too. Finally we make it back to Page and eat a Subway dinner then head home! Our car stopped at a scenic view to watch the sunset. Much driving later, we arrive back in Flagstaff at about 10:30PM. Tired. DIRTY. SO DIRTY. Not showering for a few days isn’t the worst thing, but imagine hiking in dusty and hot canyons for 3 days and not showering… I imagine we were not the most pleasant-smelling crew. Not surprisingly, I can say that the shower on Sunday night was by far the most satisfying shower to date. Then… SLEEP! Work the next day was a bit rough.

An awesome and fun trip! :)