A Weekend at the Office

As I've mentioned a couple times, I spend June through Spetember working in the San Juan Islands. I'm a graduate student and that's where I conduct my field work (if you really want to know more about that, send me an email! :)
For those of you who don't know where the San Juans are, hopefully the map below will help. The upper left hand corner is a regional map of the Pacific Northwest - Vancouver Island in the top left, and the Olympic Peninsula below that. The San Juan Islands are enclosed in the very small box on the left, with an enlarged view on the right:



Anyway, I usually head back to Seattle every weekend because it's nice to get off the island, and because that's where Tom and Duncan are. But sometimes Tom comes up to visit me - the San Juans are gorgeous and not a bad place to spend the weekend.


The summer office

A couple weeks ago Tom came up and we decided to go scuba diving. I dive 4-5 days/week for my research, so I'm not always keen to spend my weekends underwater too. However, Tom got certified over a year ago and we STILL hadn't been diving together, so we decided it was about time! And yknow, I forget that there really is a big difference between research diving and recreational diving. When you're diving for fun you can just cruise around and go where you want to (not only where the transect dictates), and you don't have to carry a clipboard or transect pole or any other research equipment. How liberating!

My research dive buddy Pema joined us, along with her friend Jess. (Yes, another one!)


Pema is ready to go!


Jess gearing up. I wouldn't be smiling either, if I had to dive a wetsuit!


Tom, heading into the water


It was Tom's first dive since he'd been certified, and he did great. I can't wait to go diving with him again!


Tom underwater



Tom and I tried to give each other a smooch underwater, but it didn't work out so well.

After diving, we warmed up and then went to enjoy the scenery at the Pingrees. Just as we arrived, a bald eagle swooshed down and landed on a tree directly above us! Very cool!


The eagle has landed (sorry, couldn't help myself)


Screaming at us... somehow much less annoying than our marina "bird"

The eagle flew away, but before we could be disappointed, we were already distracted by the sunset.






Such a nice relaxing weekend in the San Juans!

-Jessi