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 last post, I'd like to share about my last full day in California. After the three intense day trips to San Francisco, it was nice to stay a bit more local. My uncle and I walked around the grounds of the California State Capital, then finished up at the incomparable California State Railroad Museum. On my last visit to California several years ago, my uncle took me to tour the inside of the Capital, but we did not have much time at all to explore the grounds. This time we skipped the inside but spent a fun hour exploring the grounds. (Oh yes, and right before this, my uncle treated me out to a DELICIOUS breakfast place!!!!). It was very nice; beautifully kep...

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...'twas the third day in a row that my uncle and I made that two-hour commute from Sacramento to the Bay Area. By this point, it was old hat! But I must admit, that both my uncle and I looked at each other when we left at 7:30am and were like, "We're so glad that this is the last day we're doing this!" Three consecutive all-day trips from Sac to SF definitely took their toll! But the tiredness definitely did not diminish our enthusiasm for another exciting day playing tourist together :D The main destination of the day was the USS Hornet Sea, Air, and Space Museum. I was excited to visit not only because it was an aircraft carrier,...

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. It was January 1, 2018. I had been having an utterly fantastic time on vacation! Just yesterday my uncle took me all over San Francisco, and today we were going just north of the Bay Area to Point Reyes National Seashore. Once again, it was going to be around a two-hour commute; and all said and done we actually drove three hours because we had to drive for an hour in the park to get to the lighthouse, where we were going.  It was roughly a 14-hour day trip to San Francisco, and I was up total for around 16-17 hours. Today, we slept in till 6am...only had to leave at 7am!!!!!! ;D It was so fun to watch the sun rise as we drove along; by this point, the commute wa...

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...