Exploring the Oregon Coast

This week has been a whirlwind of information at my new job with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife looking at the human dimensions aspect of the marine reserves. I am currently writing this post from my hotel in Garibaldi, a town located a couple hours north of Newport. The graduate student I am working with named Theo and I will be heading up to Garibaldi frequently to do observational and survey research of people using the beach and boats in the reserves at Cape Falcon. My mentor says we’re basically getting paid to hang out on the beach and talk to surfers all day, so not too shabby of a gig I’ve got here right? On the drive up today we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and sampled some of the delicious cheese they produce.

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We also scoped out the sites that we will be doing these studies at and they were some of the most beautiful places I’ve seen on the Oregon coast. If you ever want to try your hand at surfing then head to Oswald West State Park! There were dozens of surfers in the cove there when we arrived. Overall I am excited to head back to Garibaldi next Monday and begin doing the studies!

Welcome, 2015 Summer Scholars!

Our 2015 Summer Scholars are here! They are attending orientation today at the Sea Grant office in Corvallis, then at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. These seven undergraduates from around the country have been placed with federal and state agencies for the next ten weeks. In addition to supporting agency programs and initiatives, the goal is to offer students professional skills, agency workplace experience and real-life practice in marine resource science, policy, management and outreach. Check the blog next week for their introductions, and weekly from then on for updates on their progress. You can also follow them at #OSGscholars on Twitter.

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The new Summer Scholars during the social media training, smartphones in hand. Yes they were asked to pull out their phones! Apologies for the dark picture

As this is my first blog post from my current position, I’ll introduce myself. I am the Summer Scholars Program Coordinator this year, drawing from my experience as a Summer Scholar in 2013. Since January, I have been helping to set up the program, including advertising, reviewing applications, interviewing, and event planning, among other things. In the fall, I am off to pursue a Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Science at the University of the Virgin Islands. Until then, I will be supporting the students and their mentors throughout the summer, helping them to achieve their goals.

Watch for updates on the scholars and their use of social media, on Twitter at @SarahLHeidmann and/or here on the blog!

L.A.G (Life After Graduation)

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The author communing with ocean critters.

For those of you who followed my ten-week journey in the quaint town of Bandon, Oregon as a Coastal Tourism Intern with the non-profit Wild Rivers Coast Alliance, you have some idea of my background.  However, for those of you who are just tuning in, let me tell you some basic facts about myself that will help put things in perspective: I have known that I wanted to be a marine biologist since the age of four when I fell into a manta ray touch tank at Sea World, I graduated this past June from the University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelors of Science in Marine Biology, I adore slimy odd creatures that provoke a queasy look from most, and if I could eat a doughnut a day and not gain a pound I would.

Post Bandon: Flash forward eight months after graduation, and now instead of spending hours in the library frantically trying to decode physics problems and figure out what exactly the right format for a scientific paper is, my days are filled with making Cappuccinos (and usually scalding myself with 150° milk) and asking the general populous how their day is going.  I have gone from spending 50 plus hours a week in lecture halls and libraries, to 40 hours a week at two part-time jobs: a retail associate and a barista.  Now to some this might seem like an odd progression of events.  I spent (and by I, I mean my lovely parents) thousands of dollars on a University education to ask people if they want room for cream in their coffee?!  This is the reaction I received from many family friends, colleagues, and random strangers when I was asked what my plans after graduation were.  For those of you who immediately understand the reasoning behind my choice, you rock.  However, for those of you who are still a wee bit baffled, let me explain…

Roughly speaking, I have been in some kind of formal education for the past eighteen years of my life.  That’s somewhere in the ball park of 22,610 hours IN school; not counting hours spent in addition to the traditional school day, or extra hours on the weekend.  And for the most part I’ve loved every second!  But as my senior year rolled around, I saw a shift.  While I decided to load on the units so I could fit in all the awesome classes and internships that I wanted to take advantage of before I graduated, many of my friends took numerous GE’s which enabled them to have something called “A social life.”  At first this didn’t bother me because I was a senior, and as such and had put my partying years behind me (visible on my transcript by my two attempts each at Chemistry 1A and Calculus 1).  But it wasn’t their ability to party that had me jealous; it was their ability to go hiking for an entire afternoon, or to take spontaneous weekend trips that didn’t need to be planned around papers or midterms.  I was able to get through my 23-unit final quarter by telling myself “Just wait till after graduation.  Then you can have the whole summer to do nothing and spend time with friends!”  However this wasn’t the case as I was fortunate enough to be one of six students accepted into Oregon Sea Grant’s amazing Summer Scholars program; one of the more awesome things that has happened to me.  So naturally it started two days after, and 631 miles away from graduation.

Now I’m not going to go into detail about my summer experience in Bandon Oregon, for that you can feel free to check out my previous blog posts (which I highly recommend as they contain pictures of cute animals and delicious pastries).  But I will try to put into words what I took away from my experience.  I will start off by saying that my internship was the polar opposite of what I thought I was getting myself into, and I will even go as far as saying that I was a little let down at first.  But what I initially thought was a feeling of being let down, I later realized was a feeling of being slightly confused, and generally lost.  Being a recently graduated marine biology major, I went into this experience with a somewhat jaded attitude and blindly assumed that what I was going to be doing would involve constant action in the field, and my work would have instant applications.  WRONG.  Essentially I was charged with figuring out a way to boost the economy of Southern Coastal Oregon via revamping their ideas of tourism.  This was the exact definition of putting a small fish into a huge pond, or the Pacific Ocean if you will.

I’ve never worked on such a large-scale project before and this was a huge undertaking unlike anything I had done before.  My assignment was not a lab study or research project; there was no hypothesis or conclusion.  In other words, there was no clear path to follow or set steps to go through.  When I first started this internship, I was slightly annoyed that I didn’t have more tasks to do.  As time passed, I realized that part of that was due to the fact that I was working with such an enormous “big picture” idea, and I had no idea of what direction to go in.  Eventually I came to realize that any kind of change (especially on this level) deserves a great amount of time and consideration (AKA., a little more time than my ten-week stay).  Not much in this world is 100% certain.  Sometimes you need to move forward and grab the amazing and unknown opportunities in front of you.

This experience taught me that no one field can stand on its own; for example, for tourism to be successful, the ecological, business, political, and marketing concerns must be addressed as well.  While my experience didn’t necessarily change my career goals, it did drive home the points that: 1). There needs to be better communication between the scientific and non-scientific communities (such that issues and topics are presented in a way that makes them seem approachable) and 2).  There is a growing need to educate future generations on the environmental issues and assets that are right in their backyard, and that if the environment isn’t properly taken care of, lots of money and time will eventually need to go into fixing it (if it can be fixed at all).  It also taught me that any experience is a good experience.  I hope this point resonates with everyone who reads this, whether you are an adult who has been in their chosen field for 20 plus years, or are an undergraduate who is unsure what they want to do with their life. However cliché this sounds, remember that everyone is different.  We can’t all be that person who got all A’s in their undergraduate career, and then went directly into their masters and PhD (but for those of you who did do that, you are more amazing and awe-inspiring than being able to successfully fry Oreos); some of us have to do a little more wandering until we find our path.

A large portion of the reason I didn’t immediately go to gradschool after my internship with Oregon Sea Grant (besides the likelihood that I wouldn’t have gotten into my top choices…) was that I had no idea what I wanted to study.  That unknown was something that I struggled with for nearly my entire college career, and something that at times made me feel quite inadequate.  I feel like it took me stepping away to help me realize what I’m truly passionate about, and what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.  In the next year or two, I will be going to graduate school to get my degree in some mixture of conservation, management, outreach, and elasmobranchs.  And I couldn’t be happier.

I’m not sure how many of you made it through this whole post, and how many of you stopped reading when you realized there were no pastry or cute animal pictures.  If you did reach the end then I hope you took something from this; whether it was as simple as a laugh at my joke (or more likely my attempt at a joke) or an understanding that you don’t always have to have the answer to the rest of you life planned out and ready for the next person who asks.

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A marine biologist perfects her foam (too bad it’s not sea foam).

So on that note, I’m off to make some lattes!!

Back to Wisconsin

Greetings from the heart of America’s dairy land, Madison, Wisconsin!  The past few days have been a whirlwind. I landed late in Milwaukee on Saturday night, and after a few days at work and a doctor and dentist appointment, I find myself back at the University of Wisconsin!

I am so glad to be back here in Madison, but I find myself already missing my friends and all the beautiful places from the west coast. It really was an experience that provided me with so much knowledge and lifelong friendships; two things that will serve me well in the future.

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This semester promises to be a challenging one but I am looking forward to it. I will be taking physics, two microbiology classes, a biochemistry class, and will be continuing with my mentored research of Lake Michigan. Aside from what I’m sure will be a rigorous class load, I have 7 Wisconsin Badger football games at Camp Randall Stadium to break up my studies. I’ve been itching to get back to jumping around, and singing “Sweet Caroline” along with 85,000 other crazy badger fans.

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There is still much to process from this summer. There are lots of notes to go through and I have many things to think about for grad school and my future. While there is much to do, I am so excited to see what my future holds and I know that this past summer was an amazing addition to that journey.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for all their support and guidance this summer. This is my last blog post as an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar, but hopefully I will be able to post some more reflections in the future! See you soon, and On Wisconsin!

Week Ten: It’s See You Later, Not Goodbye

And that is all she wrote, folks. My time here in Oregon is up and I have headed back to the Midwest and have started my classes at Purdue. This summer has been a whirlwind of amazing experiences and opportunities that I will never forget. I have had the privelage to learn so much from some stellar biologists.

In my last week I had a perfect blend of desk work and field work. I spent a good chunk of my week consuming massive amounts of coffee and clacking away at my computer trying to put together my end of summer portfolio for Oregon Sea Grant. But I also had the opportunity to go out into the field with Scott one last time to dig up razor clams that would be sent off to be checked for acids that are not safe for human consumption. We check for this regularly in order to keep a close eye on the fishery.

On our way back from the field we passed Adam’s Point where we stopped to look at a dead sea lion that had washed up on shore. I had never been so close to a sea lion before—dead or alive—and I was thrilled to check it out.

Checking out the dead sea lion that washed up at Adam’s Point.

I also had the chance to go seining with Gary one last time; this time in Bandon on the Coquille River. I now understood my fellow Sea Grant Scholar, Catherine’s, complaints regarding the mosquitos. They were so thick you could see them hang in sheets in the air! The diversity and abundance was lower than in Coos Bay but we did catch a huge male Chinook salmon in our seine which more than made up for it!

A large male Chinook salmon we seined up in the Coquille River!

On Thursday I had to say farewell to Scott and all the other employees of the ODFW Charleston. Thank you everyone at the ODFW for making this summer so great! I was sad to leave, everyone in the office was so great to work with that I hated having to end my stay there.

One last day at my desk at the ODFW Charleston. Ahh, the clutter of a biologist!

That evening, a close friend of mine from OIMB, Theresa, and I drove up to Eugene for a short visit and then headed to Portland. I had never been to either city so it was awesome to get a look around. Theresa is a U of O student so I was lucky enough to get a full tour of the campus!

Visiting Hayward Field where they hold the Olympic trials for running events at the University of Oregon in Eugene!

We spent the evening and part of the next day, before my flight, in Portland and of course it was mandatory that we went to Voodoo Doughnuts!  The culture in Portland is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The people there are so quirky and friendly and the architecture could hold my attention for hours.

Pit stop at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland: donuts to die for!!!!

All too soon, Theresa dropped me to PDX and I had to say my final goodbyes to Oregon, a place I’ve come to think of as home. This summer I fell head over heels in love with this state and I know that I have not seen the last of it. Hopefully, I can attend grad school or even work there someday; it’d be a dream come true!

A few days after I had landed in Indiana, I received an email from Steven Rumrill who is the head shellfish biologist for Oregon. In this email he stated that the work Scott, Jim, and I had done would be used to settle some debate ongoing with the management of the Pacific heart cockle fishery in Netarts Bay, OR. I was ecstatic to see that work I had done myself being put to use out in the real world. What an opportunity!!

I would just like to say thank you to Sara Kolesar and Eric Dickey and all others involved with this program at Sea Grant! I would not have had this opportunity without you all. Also, thank you to my mentor, Scott Groth, who took time out of his—to say the least—busy summer schedule and for being an excellent and fun advisor. I learned so much from both Sea Grant and Scott this summer which I will carry with me as I finish up my last year, graduate from Purdue, and enter the workforce as a biologist.

The Sea Gant Summer Scholars program is truly one of a kind and if you are looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will leave you with lasting knowledge about the field of biology, look no further than this program, you will not regret a single moment.

And with that, I sign off. Here’s to the most amazing ten weeks ever. Cheers!

See you soon, Oregon!

My Last Week in Oregon

Hello everyone! This is the final blog post I will be writing from Oregon! The past ten weeks have flown by in a way I could never have imagined. I’ve had the time of my life living on the Oregon Coast, and have learned an incredible amount of knowledge about estuaries and marine science during this brief time. I am incredibly grateful of everyone at the US EPA, Oregon Sea Grant, and the Hatfield Marine Science Center for all of the opportunities I have been presented with this summer.

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Last week, all of the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars presented our research at a symposium at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.  I found it to be very fun to present my work not only to those who helped me with it, but also to my friends and the whole of the Hatfield community.  It was a great feeling to summarize the huge amount of work I have done this summer and teach people about my research in the process. I also greatly enjoyed hearing about the research and work done by my fellow scholars, who are now my great friends.

The Oregon Sea Grant symposium was not the only presentation I gave. Earlier this week myself along with the other interns working at the EPA presented our work to all the EPA employees. After our presentation my mentor, Ted DeWitt, took us out to lunch and gave us a few awesome gifts to congratulate us on our hard work. It was a great way to wrap up my time at the EPA and say goodbye to the new friends I have made from working there.

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Aside from presentations, I have been working on my final portfolio for Oregon Sea Grant. Writing our reflection essay and putting together all the work I have done over the past 10 weeks really made me realize just how much I did this summer! It is both sad to see my work finish, but also impressive to look at it as a whole and to reflect on my whole summer experience.

Last weekend was a quiet one spent here in Newport. I went surfing on both Saturday and Sunday and had an amazing time both days. On Saturday we went out surfing in the late afternoon and as we finished up, we were able to watch the most beautiful sunset of the summer while sitting in the waves on our surfboards. That was definitely a moment I will cherish forever!

Tonight is my final night here in Newport and all of the interns will be going out to dinner and celebrating our accomplishments.  The the interns, faculty, and staff here at Hatfield have become a family to me and it certainly will be incredibly sad to leave them. I know that we will all keep in touch and I cannot wait to see where life takes all of the incredible friends I have made during my time here.

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I’ve had the time of my life here in Oregon! To any potential Summer Scholars reading this post and wondering if they should apply to the program, DO IT! You will not be sorry! I would like to thank everyone involved in my summer here and I am so grateful for everything!

The Final Stretch

I am in utter disbelief that this is my last week here in Bandon, Oregon…  Week eight involved a lot of small projects, tying up some loose ends, and adding to the research I’ve done on sustainable ecotourism to my portfolio.  A large portion of my time was spent working on my Summer Scholars presentation which I presented last Friday at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.  While I have no problem speaking to a room full of people, like most I still get butterflies in my stomach and have occasionally been known to talk through several slides on one inadequate breath of air.  Thankfully I was the second scholar to present so I had little time to worry about messing up, and the presentation went better than I could have expected!  While my mentors were unable to be there physically, they were patched in via. teleconference so they were able to hear my presentation and be there in spirit.  After my presentation I was free to sit back and enjoy hearing about what the other five scholars have spent their summers doing; I particularly enjoyed this part of the experience because I was able to get a more in-depth idea of their projects outside of what I’ve read about in their blogs.

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On Saturday I decided to make the trek to Portland since I thought it would be ridiculous if I spent 10 weeks in Oregon and never made it up there.  I must admit that my desire was more motivated by my interest in the infamous “Voodoo Doughnut” shop than anything…  Upon my arrival I immediately realized that I was back in a land of traffic and bad drivers, similar to that of my beloved Southern California!  Nevertheless I navigated my way around oblivious tourists and questionable street performers until I reached the sanctuary of what seemed to be an air-conditioned parking structure.  So I parked my car, walked the couple blocks that separated me from my personal doughnut heaven, and what should greet me but a line that wrapped around the corner of the building!  But neither rain, nor heat, nor annoying street performer could deter me from a place that sells such sinful treats as Captain Crunch encrusted doughnuts and Bacon Maple doughnuts.  45 minutes later I was in possession of a “Ain’t that a Peach Fritter” doughnut which was easily larger than my face.  From the first bite to the last, it was everything I could want in a doughnut and more, and I’m pretty sure I’m still reeling from the sugar buzz.

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With all my main projects completed, I have very little to do in my last week with Wild Rivers Coast Alliance.  However if all goes as planned I hope to get some more work done on a preliminary draft of the Bandon Quest Project and do some more investigation into coastal ecotourism.  Outside of work I have the always enjoyable task of packing my life back into my somewhat small Mazda (affectionately referred to as “The Mazzy”); I’m sure this event will provide entertainment for anyone watching since my possessions seem to have an uncanny ability to expand to fill the non-existent space.  Friday is my last official day of work, so my journey back to Altadena, California begins Saturday morning!  Since the drive is a bit long (around 18 hours) I will be making stops in Humboldt, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara to visit friends.

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Stay tuned for one last blog post!

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Week Nine: Symposiums, Aquariums, and Other “iums”

With week nine come and gone, my time here in Oregon is winding down. This week was devoted almost entirely to finishing up my final presentation for the Summer Scholars program and beginning to tie up any lose ends at the ODFW. After finally finishing up my presentation early in the week I practiced my speech several times on willing ears. Luckily, all the COSEE interns also had to present their final work as well and it provided the perfect opportunity to practice our presentations to an audience and receive feedback.

On Friday, Scott and I drove up to Newport (via the 101, my favorite highway!) so I could present my final work at Hatfield for Sea Grant’s end of summer symposium. It was awesome to finally see what all the other summer scholars had been accomplishing this summer and to also share my accomplishments from this summer with them and with the scientific community. Everyone had done a great job with their projects and also gave fantastic presentations; my attention was captured the entire symposium! Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the symposium so just try and imagine a very happy and enthusiastic Sam Thiede speaking about Pacific heart cockles to a room full of people!

And, seeing as I had never been to the Newport Aquarium before, Scott and I went to check it out after the presentations were over. It was cool to see all the coastal fishes up close, especially the Orford Reef exhibit where you could walk through glass tunnels through the aquariums. Unfortunately, I am not SCUBA certified and could not check diving off my summer bucket list. However, walking through the tunnels in the aquarium provided me with the perfect opportunity to see many of the species I’d have encountered during a dive. While I’m sure nothing compares to the actuality of swimming through open water, I was pretty happy that I at least caught a glimpse at what I was missing. Motivation for SCUBA certification: activated!

Sea Nettles at the Newport Aquarium!

Orford Reef exhibit at the Newport Aquarium, filled with Leopard Sharks!

This weekend, I was again reminded just how close I was to my summer’s end. This week was the final week of the term for OIMB students and also the last week for all of the COSEE interns. At the end of the weekend almost everyone on campus headed back to their homes and colleges. It was quite a shock going from seeing 30 people every day to only a handful. I have met some amazing people in Charleston this summer and saying goodbye is always hard. In less than a week, even I will follow suit and have to pack up and move on out.

This week I will be finishing up on my memo that I am writing for the ODFW and also help Scott with any end of summer field work. It makes my heart heavy when I think of leaving Charleston, I feel like I’ve really made myself at home here. Until next time, cheers!

One last beach outing at Bastendorf with some of my friends from OIMB and COSEE!

Week 9: Symposium

This week was marked by the arrival of our symposium, the soft ending to this whole summer adventure. There is still one week left in which to wrap things up, but we have all summarized our experiences and communicated them to a small audience of our mentors and others who supported us. I really enjoyed seeing what everyone ended up doing, comparing it to my impressions of their projects from the beginning. It seems like everyone learned a lot! I found myself being jealous of what other people had done, before remembering that I did just as many cool things as they did. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the event.

After it was over, my mentor and everyone in my lab went out to dinner, along with spouses and a couple other Hatfield people. It was great to experience my coworkers in a casual environment, with no projects to work on or requests to make.

Before the symposium, my week was a rush to put together my presentation, and try to get some data analysis done so I could present results from the videos we took. Unfortunately, just watching them takes too long, so it didn’t work out. However, this is my goal for this last week: to get at least a couple days worth of video watched in every habitat, so Daniel and I can start to analyze it together. He’s been showing me some useful commands in R, and I intend to take full advantage of his knowledge for the rest of the time I have here.

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A cabezon I saw while diving

This weekend, after the symposium, a couple friends and I went diving again, to relax! They had just taken finals in their classes this past Thursday, so we were all hankering to get out and have fun. We saw a ton of cool stuff, and it was the first time I really got to play around with my underwater camera. The visibility was only a couple of feet, but considering that, I think the pictures turned out pretty well.

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A nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis

So, on to the last week!

Winding Down

Wow, I cannot believe 8 weeks have come and gone already! Our final presentations are just two days away and as I work on putting everything together I am amazed by how much I have done this summer working with the EPA. This past week was a scramble to obtain as much data and results as possible and involved many days in the field.

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After going through all of our pictures, we found some interesting results! With our manipulative plots, the boxes we had put into the sediment were not showing many signs of sediment oxidation, so to see if anything was going on in the sediment we placed IRIS tubes into the center of each plot. We found that in the plots with the most algae, there was a large amount of sulfides in the sediment signaling anoxic conditions. Additionally, the plots that were placed in shrimp beds showed a lot of variance in how much sulfides the sediment there had. We found that the shrimp burrows act like highways for oxygenated water to travel down into the sediment, but we also found some differences between the two species of shrimp (ghost and mud).

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In the ghost shrimp area the IRIS tube showed sulfides in sediment that were deeper than in the mud shrimp areas. One hypothesis for this is the fact that ghost shrimp burrows are not as stable as mud shrimp burrows. Mud shrimp create a glue like substance that holds their burrows together, thus they are not constantly having to re-make them and water is able to travel through their burrows longer. Mud shrimp on the other hand are constantly burrowing as they do not produce any substance that helps stabilize their burrows. This might cause them to collapse more easily and thus limit the amount of oxygenated water that can travel through them.

In the lab we have also been finding some telling results. After completely covering the glass cylinders last week, I noticed that some of the algae is beginning to rot. No large changes have been observed from the sides of the chambers, so we have placed IRIS tubes into each cylinder and we hope they will show us sulfide concentrations under the varying conditions of the cylinders.

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After a busy week at work, a group of interns from Hatfield trekked down to California for a weekend of camping and hiking in Redwood National Park. It was absolutely incredible to see such massive living things. The whole park seemed like it was in a different world and a far cry from reality. Standing next to a Redwood really puts your life into perspective!

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The goal for the weekend was to find the Grove of the Titans, a secret grove of redwoods that contains some of the world’s tallest. The location is kept secret and they are not located near any trails, so the group of us blazed our own trail through the magnificent giants with a list of clues we found online. I’m sorry to report that their location still remains a secret, as we were unable to find them. However no disappointment was felt among the group as we saw some others that I’m sure must rival the Titans in size!

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It wouldn’t be a trip to California without a little surfing! On Saturday and Sunday I was able to further practice my “skills” with some friends on the waves in Crescent City. I finally learned how to stand up and ride a wave all the way to shore! Plus the water was about 60 degrees which was much more pleasant than the 45 degree water off the coast of Oregon!

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My time on the west coast is winding down and I wish there was a big “pause” button I could push and just stay here in Oregon forever.  I’ve been having the best summer of my life and cannot wait to share with others on Friday about my research and exciting adventures I’ve been having in the Beaver State!