New pictures from Annie

We wrapped up our workshop today and I head up to Florence tomorrow, then back to Boston on Saturday morning, then on to Alaska on Sunday, finally arriving in Barrow on Monday evening (!) Annie sent some much appreciated Gage pictures yesterday--- these are a few of them.

Science in Italy

Here are some scenes from Italy...I would like to say they are from Siena, but they are not. I have not yet been to Siena....and it is driving me nuts! I can see it--- it is about 7 miles away, but we are in this cloister out in the country...very beautiful and all , but very very isolated. Here are some pictures from the grounds. There is a lot of history here. Certosa di Pontignano was built in 1349 and has housed monks, sheltered jews during WWII and been owned by several influential families prior to its purchase by the U. of Siena. Food is good. Communications have been a nightmare (just got internet today for the first time in 3 days!). There is a bus but it only comes here and there...and we are in session from 7:45 until 6 or 7 pm (in case you thought I was here just having fun...). I have actually included a picture of our afternoon session in the pictures...look how excited everyone looks (though I do think it is pretty funny that the screen says something like "whales and dolphins forever!"--- this is not very typical (we are not THAT dorky)!!! We WILL get to go into town on Tues afternoon (if we get our work done)...so, I will post more then. PS- It is NOT warm here!

Weekend in Fairbanks

Sorry everyone! I have been lagging on posting in a big way. In all honesty, I have actually had some internet issues...as in, no internet at all since last Wednesday when I was last in Boston...so, here are some backlogged pictures. Ken and Gage flew down to Fairbanks and I flew up from Seattle and we all met on Thursday night. On the way there, I sat next to...you will never guess (and sorry Ken, I know you are SO sick of hearing this story)... Richard Simmons on the airplane. It was pretty out of control. Gage had his 12 month checkup and a polio vaccine on Friday and we pretty much just ran around and visited all weekend. It was nice to be at the house and the weather was awesome (25 above! Though we ended up returning to a BLIZZARD (really) in Barrow!). Anyhow, here are some pictures from the weekend and the construction of Gage's "Fairbanks" car... How spoiled is he???!!! Ken and I actually got to go ON A DATE on Friady night! Thanks to Ma and Pa Hirt for watching Gage...and we apologize for all the crying he did. We really did enjoy ourselves!

Octopus Encounter

Last week, at the end of the Alaskan Stranding Response Meeting I attended in Seward, I was able to visit with three Giant Pacific Octopuses "behind the scenes" at the Sea Life Center. One was a female tending to hundreds of thousands of eggs. It was really cool- all day long she sits in one spot, running the end of her tentacles through the eggs to aerate them. Folks from the center said that they removed some and tried to care for them but they got all dirty-- there was no way they could match the mama octopus care! ANyhow, she was on display and wont eat while she tends the eggs and, as a result, usually dies when they finally hatch (though often the captive ones live because they get handed food...she didn't want the crab we gave her). There were two males off-exhibit. Their names were "Saam" and "Killer". I wasn't exactly psyched to handle "Killer" but they were both so cool--- Killer is named it because he was brought in off a fishing boat and had been gaffed and was all beat up-- out of water on the deck of the boat for hours...they totally thought he was going to die, but the next day he was alive and attacking all the food in sight!

Anyhow, here are some pictures. Enjoy :)

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

I have been in Whitehorse for 3 days now and only really got out of the hotel today! The rest of the time has been spent in meetings...I am here for the PBTC meeting (Polar Bear Technical Committee). I head out tomorrow, and it is cold...but I did get to walk around and take some pictures today. Last night we went to Tahkini Hot Springs and that was really nice (though the food left something to be desired...I had SUCH high hopes...warm German Potato salad...NOT!)

This morning was exciting-- first an hour long power outage (and that is long at below zero!) and now no heat in my room (which is hopefully being fixed!).

Head out tomorrow morning, but not back to Barrow until Sat am. Then I actually have 4 days at home before heading to Seattle for two days then meeting up with Ken and Gage in Fairbanks on Thursday night.

Siena, Italy

So I found this picture on the web...pretty excited for the trip, even if the details have yet to be ironed out!