This past week has been very interesting for me because it was mainly vacation time.  Yet, before my vacation time occurred I did do a lot of work at the VC.  First of all, at the beginning of the week I had some of the same duties as I usually do.  I did Ocean Quest for Sunday and Monday and I’m starting to feel more and more comfortable with it.  I’m starting to get a groove with a 25-30 min presentation and have a pretty good feel for each crowd.  That way I can tailor the presentation to them, such as whether there are many adults, children, or young adults/ college students.  The VC was normal as usual and Aurora seems to be doing much better in the tank.  Then, on Tuesday we had a real project day which was amazing to have.  I got to change the water out of my shore erosion tank as well as make completely new signs for the tank.  This is the third sign change, and each sign has evolved.  Now the shore erosion tank has 2 signs.  One says “The Erosion Problem” and this is where we talk about making a beach, move the paddle steady and see the erosion occurring.  Then, the second sign says “The Erosion Solution” and this is where I give three examples of shore erosion solutions and say to try ONE of them.  We were already seeing great progress with the Beach Erosion Challenge, hopefully more progress will occur with these new signs.  In addition, these new signs are made of much thicker laminent, thus they stand up much better than the flimsy beach erosion challenge signs.

The main things I did this week was……..VACATION! I was on vacation from Wednesday to Sunday and it was amazing.  I went to Vancouver, BC, Seattle, Portland, and Tillamook.  In Vancouver, BC I stayed at a hostel in a tiny room with 4 other girls (2 from England, 2 from Germany), but it was cheap.  My hostel was also really close to public transport to get to Stanley park where the Vancouver Aquarium is located and Science World was right down the street. I spent a LONG time at the Vancouver Aquarium and once I mentioned I volunteered at the Baltimore Aquarium and working at Hatfield for the summer the special treatment started to roll in instantly.  I got to see the dolphins up close and even get a kiss from willow the sea lion.  I also got to see some behind the scenes aquarist workshops and lastly I got some business cards to be an intern there or for a job interview.  Thus, an amazing experience and one that doesn’t come very often.  At Science World I got to see an IMAX movie about the Rocky Mountains and building the transcontinental Canadian Pacific train through those mountains.  Yet, the main reason I went to this place was to see the DaVinci exhibit where I got to see his journal entries, his machines from the journal entries built, hands on exhibits about his inventions, his original art pieces and a whole exhibit on the Mona Lisa.  This exhibit to an art historian (or art history minor like myself) was spectacular.  The rest of Science world was cool as well with many hands on exhibits about physical science as well as biology and chemistry.  Needless to say it was a long day, but totally worth it.  I left the next day for Seattle and that was a crazy trip as well.

Seattle brought me the Seattle Aquarium, Pike’s Place, Ferry rides, many hills, and Seattle Center with the Pacific Science center, concerts at the mural and MOD pizza!  My day of exploring alone brought me to the Pacific Science Center where I did see another IMAX on mummies in Egypt and all the other exhibits, but the real deal was King Tut!  That was worth the whole trip, because not only did I get to see so much ancient Egyptian history that I studied at my college, but it was all in 1 place.  I ended up leading my own tour because I was explaining to a middle ages couple about the sculptures that were around them.  Before I knew it, 4 families and a security guard were listening to me as I answered many questions and explained the history and art behind each piece.  It was spectacular to see all of this history in real perspective compared to on a screen in a classroom.   Then, when I was done there, I came out and there was concert at the murals randomly and I got to see 3 Seattle bands as well as get lots of free stuff.  Then, Hillary;s family was lovely and let us all (Maryna, Kate and I) stay at their house.  They also fed us delicious food all the time and we caught up on all our Olympic games we have been missing.  Then, after a day with my housemates at Pike’s place, Ferries, Seattle Aquarium and a fantastic dinner, we slept and left for Newport.  On the way home, we went to Portland to Powell’s books (got 3 books for under $10), a Sunday market, Tillamook cheese factory to drop off Maryna for field work and even saw some whales on our way to Newport.

Now that my vacation is over, work is about to begin.  I need to not only work on my VC project and my regular duties as an education intern, I also need to work on my final presentation.  This will mostly likely be the largest challenge since it has to be done in 11 days, but I’m always up for a challenge.  Working days here I come :)