That Georgia Biologist

What's happening: One year ago I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins out in northern California playing tourist. I started writing this blog soon after the trip ended, and as I enjoyed myself so much, I have decided to write about my trip experiences in blog form.  In this article, I'd like to share about when my uncle and I visited San Francisco proper - the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, and SF Maritime NHP. It was really fun to visit these national parks and learn of the history and culture that San Francisco is. It was honestly hard to believe that I was seeing the Golden Gate Bridge in person - what a behemoth! I particularly enjoyed the exhibits at Fort Point on soldier life and bridge construction. The architecture of the fort was particularly appealing to me photographically speaking. I hadn't realized that the Golden Gate Bridge is LITERALLY built over the fort!!

What's happening: One year ago I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins out in northern California playing tourist. I started writing this blog soon after the trip ended, and as I enjoyed myself so much, I have decided to write about my trip experiences in blog form.  One year ago today: hands down, unequivocally, one of the best days of my life!!! Due to a variety of logistical factors, Uncle Doug and I decided to spend December 31 exploring downtown San Francisco. My primary goal was to visit Muir Woods National Monument, a beautiful coast redwood forest that is around half hour north of the Golden Gate bridge. Secondary goals, if at all possible, included visiting Fort Point National Historic Site right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park nearby. By day's end, Doug and I not only visited all three parks, but also nabbed San Francisco's oldest geocache, caught a sunset in the Ma

What's happening: One year ago I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins out in northern California playing tourist. I started writing this blog soon after the trip ended, and as I enjoyed myself so much, I have decided to write about my trip experiences in blog form.  One year ago today, my second full day in the Sunshine State, was a good day of rest and relaxation, compared to our other days! In the morning I went to church, then in the afternoon visited with some good friends whom I had not seen for many years. Afterward, my uncle offered to take me to visit Sutter's Fort State Historical Park - a fun destination that was not a far drive away at all! For those of you who don't know, Sutter's Fort was a major destination on the California Trail, and owned by the guy who owned the mill where gold was discovered. Gold was discovered up in Coloma, but it was verified to be gold in Sutter's Fort. At any rate, it's a sup

What's happening: One year ago I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins out in northern California playing tourist. I started writing this blog soon after the trip ended, and as I enjoyed myself so much, I have decided to write about my trip experiences in blog form. Today I would like to share about the fun times my uncle, cousin, and I had visiting gold country. We visited two state parks: Marshall Gold Discovery, and Empire Mine. As you might imagine, the first is the actual site where gold was first discovered and the gold rush began. Empire Mine is the site of what was once one of the largest gold mining operations in California.

It's really hard for me to believe that it's been one year now since my big exciting trip out to California, to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. As I started this blog shortly after the trip, I'd like to take the opportunity to, over the next week, write blog posts of my CA trip adventures, one year to the day later! *** My alarm woke me up at 4am. I had spent a wonderful ten days with my family on my first visit home since starting grad school, and honestly, the time flew by a lot faster than I had anticipated. Prior to my time in Tennessee, I thought that the only big exciting happy thing for me would be going to California, but I guess absence makes the heart fonder...it was so fun to spend time with my family in my old stomping grounds, for Christmas no less! Alas, a great time but it was time to go. I was SO EXCITED to see my relatives in California but also sad to leave my family in Tennessee! I remembered the day prior, my uncle and I had texted back

Well, with the upcoming winter weather system and all, I knew that the last several days' worth of good weather would be the last time I could head out to Warren Dunes before the end of 2018. The thing was, I was in the midst of finals study, so as today I finished finals (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I headed on out. Even though the forecast said it was going to be mostly cloudy. It felt really, really great to get on out there again after almost two months of not going out - last month I chose to go to Dowagiac Woods and the Potawatomi Zoo instead. Only one other car was there, two people walking down on the beach. I first climbed the little hill right between the parking lot and the beach, and to my great delight found that while it was cloudy most everywhere else, right around the setting sun there was a small patch of nice blue sky. Well, the sun was shining through the clouds to be specific. Anyways, the sun shone like a dream on a little river/creek that fed into the lake, a