Friday, March 12, 2010

2006 Australia trip

At the beginning of my PhD process, I got to go to Australia for a conference. It was pre blog of course, but I decided to post some of my favorite pics here.
We started in Sydney
I loved the flying foxes!
an 'of course' picture
Dasa was with me and took this fun picture
We took a day trip to the blue mountains.
These are the Three sisters
Dasa claims to have seen the extremely elusive Lyrebird on this trip. All I know is something big and grey flew in front of us and scared the bejesus out of us, but lyrebird? hmmmmm
We then went north to the Norther Territory
crazy termite mound
Really cool view. I think this is in Kakadu national park, but I may be wrong. It's been a few years.
This is Kakadu, an amazing wetland system. With gigantic saltwater crocodiles though. Taking this picture may not have been the smartest thing I've ever done. Don't get close to the water!
Seriously pretty though. I don't know what this is (bad botanist, bad!), but I loved it.
This is a little one. To give you a reference, those plants are probably around knee high.
Sunsets and sunrises were absolutely amazing on this trip. And we saw most of them since Dasa lost her sleeping bag and we were sharing my tiny one, in a tent, with no sleeping pads. Yeah, we slept light. The flocks of parrots were more than you can imagine, beautiful, loud (very), and they filled the sky every time the sun neared the horizon.
This little wallaby got curious one morning and I managed to get this pic
Possibly my favorite part of this trip, Katherine Gorge.
Out in the middle of this dry flat land, everything drops away to this crystal pure river, boy was it lovely.
Dasa and I hiked in to this spot. We were told that the river was totally swimable since the salties (the big crocs) cant get past the rapids. So, we swam. The next morning, we hear a big noise down where we had been playing, and looked to see a very large crocodile! yikes! Later we were told that that is a harmless freshwater croc, but it sure freaked me out at the time.
The light there was spectacular. I'm not sure if this was sunrise or sunset, but...
and golden light...
This was my favorite tree, all creamy orange bark
Besides hiking, we also took one day to kayak the river, it was really pretty
After this lovely experience, we went on to Queensland and our conference. The conference was fun, but nothing too interesting to tell here. But the travels afterward?
We went with Eliska onto the bluff above Cairns.
This lake was starkly beautiful
Feeling lucky?
Isn't that a bizarre plant?
Kookaburra!
And a really big frog

Meet my students

Well, my first quarter as an official teacher is just about over, and I seem to have survived. Here are my lovely students

Bio 102, my joy for Monday and Wednesday nights
Bio 101, making me laugh Tuesday and Thursday evenings
and my Bio 101 lab section for Monday and Wednesday mornings
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Anastasiadis visit

Mom and Larry came into town last weekend and I joined them at the Anastasiadis's for dinner. One of the joys of the modern world is the amazing new families you get when your parents remarry.
Laura, with the crew in the background trying to beat each other sensless in Apples to Apples
Me and Gabe
Nick, trying to get out of playing the card game

Katherine's Baby Shower

I've been lax over the last few weeks (or months) about posting pictures, but here are some of the cute ones Ive stored up from visits to Katherine's.
And who said kids don't like vegetables?

Last weekend was the baby shower for the new little peanut
Katherine looked a little nervous when the topic of shower games came up
But we all had a grand time, being of like minds that silly games are, well, silly
John's brother James had fun showing his strength off to impress the girls
John and his boys
Thank Isabella for this picture, though I rather like it. Katherine is due VERY soon, if you cant tell