Crafty Snargle

Since my last post there has been knitting and gardening and traveling… but I know that most of you are here for Raley. So here’s her take on most of those things.

Gardening:

Gad-zukes! (sorry, couldn’t resist)

From our 4 zucchini plants, these were the first 5 harvested. I didn’t really realize that you can actually pick them at any time - I was kind of waiting for them to fall off. So yeah, they’re big. For perspective, at her last dr appointment, Raley was 31.5″ tall (75th percentile), and a wee 19 lbs, 14.5 oz (5th percentile). Yep, still riding in her backwards facing carseat - poor thing. Anyway, she’s a little on the small side, but those are still some big zucchini! We’re still working out quite how to use them all - so far we’ve had lots of pasta dishes and veggie casseroles. If you have any recipes, send them my way!
In addition to the zukes, we’ve harvested 2 cucumbers and at least 40 cherry tomatoes. We also have 5 eggplant plants (with a few tiny little purple eggplants just starting), 2 heirloom tomato plants that have some greens and 2 bell pepper plants that were late additions to the garden (filling in spaces where others died).
I’m very excited by my garden bounty - in our Maryland house we just didn’t have enough sun for anything to grow (8 full oak trees will do that to you - great for shading the house, bad for garden!).

Whale watching:
This past weekend we went whale watching in Santa Barbara. We put Raley in the Ergo carrier so that whoever was carrying her (wound up being Dan) could have both hands free for the boat - definitely worth it. Luckily for us, Raley took very well to the boat and didn’t have any problems with seasickness (our friends’ 2-year-old wasn’t so lucky - poor thing; there’s really nothing you can give them at this age and she just had to sleep it off). Raley did fall asleep for part of the trip, which is to be expected given the Ergo and the soothing motion of the boat and drone of the engines (half of the passengers on the boat were sacked out about halfway through), but she did see the whales (she pointed and said “DA!):

Thar she blows!

We saw both humpbacks (above), including 2 breaches, and several blue whales (always impressive!). And we had some fun times with common dolphins:

Such a fun trip.

Happy boat family

On our way up to Santa Barbara we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center (in Ventura) where we had fun looking at their displays. Raley and I rode a dolphin (the closest we’ll ever come to riding a real dolphin!):

Dolphin!

And Raley was really impressed by the elephant seal - a model of a full-grown bull (male).

Wowee! Look at that!

I’ll save our trip to Indiana for the next post. I’m away from home at a conference, which might bode well for my blogging efforts - we’ll see.

P.S. Yep, I got a haircut - what do you think?

You guys have some great travel ideas! Keep ‘em coming!

I have a few epic trips in my mind.

The Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian Railway has been a dream for a while. I’ve been to Ulaan Baator, Mongolia, but Dan hasn’t. Dan’s been to Beijing, China, and the Great Wall, but I haven’t. So we figure that together we’ll take the Railroad from Beijing to St. Petersburg, with stops in UB and Moscow for a few days, and possibly also at Lake Baikal (I’d love to see a freshwater seal!).

Last summer, I knew I was going to be in Copenhagen for a week and then Dan was going to join me for 10 days. My original plan was to go to the Baltics - Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia - via Germany, Poland and Kaliningrad (a part of Russia that’s not connected to the main part… kinda like Alaska). Once we realized I was going to be in my first trimester, that plan kinda flew out the window (luckily I hadn’t made any arrangements yet), and we opted for western Europe (likely for no good reason at all… although this trip would have been a lot more travel and tiring). I’d still like to do that trip. Especially Kaliningrad - I became quite intrigued.

Of course there’s the Galapagos. I mean, what biologist doesn’t want to visit the islands that inspired Darwin? Marine swimming iguanas, sea lions and fur seals, penguins… doesn’t get much cooler!

One of these days we’ll take a cruise. It seems pretty baby-friendly, actually, so maybe sooner rather than later. But my dream cruise is around Cape Horn, at the tip of South America. Which brings me to my utter dream trip…

Antarctica. I could do the tourist thing, but I think I’m going to wait a couple of years and then try to get on a scientific trip there and live with penguins or seals for a couple of months. Not sure if that will work (what with my day-job and kid and all), but I can dream, right?

And of course, we need to go to the South Pacific. And New Zealand and Australia, Indonesia and southeast Asia; back to Africa - I’ve had this tour through west Africa bookmarked on my laptop - or this itinerary from Namibia to the Okavango Delta and Victoria Falls. And… the list goes on.

2008 is winding down (Thanksgiving this week and then it’s December!). This will be the first year in a while that I haven’t been outside of the US. One of my life goals is to be able to join the Travleler’s Century Club - membership is conferred when you’ve visited 100 different countries (though they define “country” a bit broadly). So far, I think I’m up to 36 or so - mostly thanks to 2 years living in Europe and lots of small countries to visit! Travel is definitely one of Dan and I’s big spending priorities. Our furniture comes from IKEA or craigslist, our clothes come from thrift stores, and it’s not like we are spending big bucks on eating out at fancy restaurants (especially since we have yet to find a babysitter here in California!). So we spend our money traveling - and we try and find budget trips at that.

In 2004, Dan and I went to Iceland for a long weekend - in February. It was cold (though not as bad as you would have thought), got dark early, and was amazingly beautiful - frozen waterfalls and ice that made shapes like sculptures. We got a flat tire and did a 180 degree spin on an icy road at about midnight… changed the tire with flashlights, and had about 4 offers of assistance (from every car that stopped). We had the most delicious mushroom soup, soaked in the Blue Lagoon, and bought lots of yarn!

In 2005, we took another long weekend trip - this time to Panama. We bought a last-minute bargain fare from a website (I think it was hotwire but I don’t remember), so we only had about a week or so to “plan” - basically, I bought a Lonely Planet guidebook and we figured it out once we got there. We did have a good time, though, checking out Panama City, watching big boats go through the locks at the Canal, visiting an island nature reserve owned by the Smithsonian - the island was pretty cool, but it included a boat trip through part of the Panama Canal to get to it, which was cooler, taking a zip line through rainforest treetops, and even visiting the Pearl Islands, home of Survivor:Pearl Islands and Survivor:All Stars, where we did some snorkeling.

2006 was our big trip - the “trip of a lifetime” except that we figure we’ll be making this trip again in the future - when we visited Tanzania, Africa, and went on safari. The pictures speak for themselves, but for a biologist like me there are very few other trips that can come close!

In 2007 we went to Scotland for a family vacation (fun times!) and stopped off in Iceland to revist the country during the summer - still amazing! Then Dan and I went to Copenhagen, Paris and Venice (where George Clooney wished me a happy birthday - for reals!) for a second honeymoon. Being 10 weeks pregnant made my stamina a lot less than I would have hoped, but it did give me some memorable moments of throwing up on airplanes, trains, and by the side of the road in several of Europe’s capitals.

2008… well, I was super pregnant from the beginning of the year, then we had a tiny baby, then we moved across the country, and now she’s a bit bigger baby but we’re buying a house and probably shouldn’t spend the money. I am half tempted to drive down to Tijuana just to visit Mexico, but Raley doesn’t have a passport and Dan’s not sure where his is, so we probably won’t make it by the end of December.

So we’re planning ahead for 2009. Trying to figure out what we can do with a wee one and still have fun :). I will probably have at least one trip abroad for work, but I’m not sure it’s a destination where I want to take Raley. We’ll see. We’re considering doing a home exchange - we’ve actually been registered on homeexchange.com for a while (with our DC house) but it’s just never worked out. But with Raley, the thought of having a house with a kitchen and being able to make our own schedule - as ambitious or not - is appealing. We’re also thinking about destinations that are a closer flight, so Central America is looking good at the moment. Of course, Hawaii might win, too, since we have some friends there, and it could be a pretty hassle-free trip.

Of course, these aren’t really any of my “dream trips” - since those are a little impractical with a toddler. I think I’ll talk about my dream trips tomorrow. But I’d like to know - what are your dream trips? (Cost, logistics no barrier - take as much time and spend as much money as you’d like, forget you have children if you want to, etc.!) I’m looking forward to your answers!

Let’s go back to 2005. November 21, 2005 to be exact. This is where I was:

It’s like a Christmas tree!

This is a tree. To be precise, it’s a mangrove tree. A mangrove tree in the Caroni Swamp, Trinidad. All of the red ornaments are scarlet ibis, which fly to Venezuela to feed during the day and return to this particular tree in Trinidad to roost at night. The white ornaments are cattle egret.

I was in Trinidad for a work trip, and on our last day there we got to do some tourist sight-seeing and went on a boat trip to the Caroni Bird Sanctuary. Along with the scarlet ibis (which is the main draw) we saw the crabs they feed on, and several tree-dwelling snakes. It was fun!

The last post in our vacation weekend recap is from Monday’s trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Well, Dan and Raley’s trip. I listened to talks about gray whales. And had some good discussions and networking, so it was a productive day for me. But not nearly as much fun as the aquarium! Just check out the pictures:

Big fish tank!

Turns out it was pretty hard to get a good picture with a 10-second self-timer, squirmy baby and all. This was the best one of Raley… too bad only Dan’s chin made it. But you can see which picture I chose!

With mola!

Speaking of the mola, here he is:

We made it home around 1 AM and went to work all day, so bed is calling and this is going to be a short post!
Here are the photos from Sunday. I sat in a meeting all day. Dan and Raley drove south from Monterey down the Big Sur Coast. They ate lunch (OK, Dan ate, Raley took a bottle) at Nepenthe. Then they hiked around Point Lobos State Reserve. And along the way they saw some pretty awesome scenery. Why no, I’m not jealous at all - why do you ask?

Anyway, you can check it out for yourselves:

On the beach at Point Lobos - Raley loves the Ergo!

Raley checks out the view

Gibson Beach, Point Lobos

Big Sur coast

Last night we drove from Long Beach up to Monterey, CA. We left at 7:15, missed most of the traffic (just a bit around LAX), and made it to Salinas where we decided to spend the night around 1:30 AM. Dan and I would both rather drive at night (and Raley likes to sleep) than get up early to finish the drive. Raley fell asleep about 3 blocks away from our house, woke up at a rest stop for a bottle, and then slept the rest of the way.

Today, I went to a meeting all day (where I’ll be tomorrow and Monday). Dan and Raley have been having fun. Today they went to Santa Cruz, where they visited the Beach Boardwalk, the Pier, and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Just see how much fun they had:

More tomorrow from Dan and Raley!

Let’s start with the highlight…

Belly bump!

There were many people I was looking forward to seeing this year, but tops of my list was Cara. We’re due two days apart in March, and we’ve been having eerily similar pregnancies - yes, I’m still puking, too. I spent a good part of the festival hanging out with her, Ann, Vicki, and Cece, which was really great. We took lots of breaks, ate lots of food, sat on benches, compared pregnancy symptoms (Does your belly button itch? Do you burp a lot? etc.) and went to the bathroom a lot. And laughed and had fun, of course (Tent City? Sucked.)

This festival was a different experience for me. I had a good time, but not a superfuncrazytime like in some years past. I didn’t have my main shopping buddy who had a wedding committment (or my otherbuddy who now lives far away) this year. In some ways that was a bad thing - I spent some shopping time alone without anyone to bounce ideas off of, I worried that I was a tagalong in several preformed groups. But in some ways it was a good thing - I saw a lot of barns I have missed in the past two visits, I could spend money completely unselfconsciously (not that I’ve felt selfconscious before, but you know what I mean), and I could move from group to group and get quality time with lots of different people. For instance, on Saturday I ate breakfast with jstrizzy (who I’d driven up with from DC), Rachael, Maia and Brooke - meeting Maia and Brooke for the first time (Rachael and I remembered that we’d first met at the March for Women’s Lives, way back in April 2004). I went out to dinner that night with the same group, plus Alison (who I didn’t recognize right away, and then when I finally realized that I’ve been reading her blog for ages it seemed too late to fess up) - we had a wonderful waitress, Jill, who recognized our yellow wristbands (the two-day pass to the event) and called us out as wool pigs (rightly so). Check out her etsy shop!
When I got to the festival, I immediately ran into Jess and Casey, and spent some time walking with them and seeing them treated like the rockstars they are (founders of ravelry and all). I also got to catch up with Maya, which was cool. Then I ran into Cara and Ann and spent some time with them. At the Blogger Meetup I ran into the Boston posse - Johanna, Alison, and Wendy with adorable babies in tow, Stitchy, Mel, and I’m sure others that I’m forgetting. I met up with them again later in the afternoon when I needed to sit down for a break. At the Meetup I also met many bingo players and ravelers, whose names now escape me - but say Hi! I ran into Amy, and saw several DC gals (Ann, Elspeth, Carolina, Aimee, plus a few that I hadn’t met before), and shopped with them on Sunday morning. As you can see, I bounced around like a little pinball. I was definitely a “bonus” in everyone’s groups, rather than a “must-have”, but that’s how it goes.
Near misses: at the Ravelry party I saw Stephanie but couldn’t bring myself to say Hi (she was hanging out with friends) - I am on her blog, though, in the background of her photo of Jess. I never saw Kate Gilbert, which was too bad because I wanted to show off my modified Arwen. Now I’ll just have to send pictures (speaking of, FO photo shoot hopefully this weekend).

Only took a few photos this weekend…

Ravelry Party

Knitter Boy