Humboldt Weekend

This weekend was full of meeting new people and fun new adventures. On Saturday the sun was shining and it felt like summer outside, so we decided to make a trip to the mountains, where on a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean. We drove east from Arcata on the 299, turned onto a logging road, and drove until the road was blocked by snow. Everyone was excited to see the snow and we had a great time playing in it. Funny thing was, none of us were really expecting it to be there. I'm not sure how no one reached the conclusion that mountains=snow at this time of year, but let's just say we weren't all dressed accordingly. We made another trip up yesterday, much more prepared this time, and enjoyed what was left of the snow. It's so much easier to enjoy the snow when it's nearly fifty degrees outside instead of thirty!

The Trinity Alps

While I was looking online for jobs on Sunday I stumbled across a listing for a volunteer project working with native plants that afternoon. I decided it was probably good to get out and start doing things, so I donned my work jeans, boots, and fleeced, and headed out to the dunes. The project was with an organization called Friends of the Dunes, at the site they're building an interpretive center on. Our task for the afternoon was to dig up native plants from an area that is going to be greatly impacted during the final stages of construction this month, and relocate them to the newly-constructed parking lot. Most of what we took out was beach buckwheat and goldenrod. By the end of the afternoon the islands in the parking lot and the banks around it were looking very good, and hopefully our transplants will grow up and cover the area.

Lichen from our mountain trek

Yesterday evening Michael and his roommates hosted a potluck as kind of the final hurrah before classes started this morning. Just before the guests were supposed to arrive, the power went out. We were suddenly reminded of just how much we rely on electricity when food needed to be cooked but couldn't, and there wasn't a way to play any music. We ended up eating by candlelight the warm dishes that people brought over, and rounded out the evening listening to someone play guitar.  Luckiliy, the power didn't stay out all night and those who needed to were able to get online to check class schedules so they could get to where they needed to be this morning!

Guitar by candlelight