The last trip to Catalina Island...

...for field work!  I spent last weekend (Saturday through Monday) at Catalina for my last weekend of field work. 

Hooray!!

Here are a few photos from my trip.

Tying the sync cord to the leg of the stand, so it doesn't get bashed around when the water comes in.  At high tide, it will be about 5 ft deep where my feet are.

My advisor, Dr. Carlos Robles.

A couple of sea lions (young ones) that we scared while we were working.  Cute little things, but don't mess with them!

These sea lions are sheltering away from some pretty big waves (that we had to brave!) and jumped in the water when the boat went by.

Some of the other wildlife we often see include crows (the smaller birds, wingspan ~3 ft.)  It's the bird of prey that is unusual.  So far, the guesses include an eagle or a young osprey.

These little birds are California quail.  There were several running around near the room where we stayed.

There are lots of beautiful plants, here, too.  This is a closeup of flowers on a lovely tree near the dorms.

Just one of the many kinds of amazing flowers.

And, finally, my buddy Gerry.  He put up with me and my crazy schedule ("Can you get us to Bird Rock and back?  We need to go at 2am and come back at 5am.  Thanks!") for three years.  I sometimes bribed him in brownies or cookies.  He would have taken us anyway.  It's his job, but he always does it with a smile.  

Thanks, Gerry.

(And, yes, he looks a lot like Uncle Mike.  They even have the same voice.  Creepy!)

New journals and Bistagne's first win!

A.J. mentioned a journal the other day, so when I was at Target last time, I picked up a simple composition notebook for him.  I also happened upon a cool one for little guys that has space for drawings at the top and the lines are extra wide for new writers.  So, both boys got a journal.  They were awfully excited to get it, and immediately sat down and started writing.

 Levi wears that silly sweatband all the time.  He loves it. 

And in other news, A.J.'s team won their first game!  I wasn't sure if that would happen this year.  His team is quite small, and most are rather inexperienced.  However, they have made huge strides just in the last couple of weeks, once the games started.  A.J. ended up only playing first base in this game because he smashed his hand into the corner of our chimney while playing basketball on Monday and bruised his fingers pretty badly.  He could catch fine, but throwing was another matter.  It's been a crazy season so far, having two kids playing, and A.J. has moved up a level and now plays two games a week.

Always ready.  We've had other coaches comment on #42 and how hard he plays.  It kind of makes me proud. :)  Notice the tape on his right hand...that's to try to hold the bandages on.

As Promised

You wanted a little bit about Levi's birthday and other goings on besides sicknesses and evacuations?
Ok, ok. Here goes.

Levi had a Spongebob themed birthday with a homemade Patrick Starfish cake and games headlined by Extreme Jellyfishing (popping balloons tied to kids' ankles), but also including pin the nose on Spongebob, and a Krabby Patty relay.

 Mommy's birthday theme was you're getting older aren't you. She didn't seem too pleased that the candles said 40 instead of 30.

Things got pretty busy around the time of Bethany's birthday as I had to spend 2 weeks in Phoenix and she had to make a trip to Catalina for a rain shortened research trip. We decided to go back to Catalina over President's day to have a little fun kayaking and looking around. We got this great shot of Levi falling asleep looking out the window on the boat ride back.

The other major happening of course is the start of baseball season. Levi likes baseball, but for him its more just an excuse to look good for the camera in his new uniform.

AJ likes helping out at Levi's practices and games. The kids on Levi's team call him Coach AJ.

That's all for now.

-Aaron