Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig: Part 1

We do realize that this post is long overdue, but our adventures are keeping us so busy that we scarcely have time to tell everyone about them. As our five year wedding anniversary approached we developed a plan to make a stop over in Delaware to visit with friends and family before heading up to our second home of Nova Scotia. We planned it so that we would arrive just in time for the last day of school. Pie Girl was able to surprise her lovely class that she missed so much. And boy were they were surprised! They all stampeded to get over to the door and proceeded to hug. It was a big group hug and they nearly squeezed the life out of Pie Girl. We finally were able to get them to scatter a bit so we could all breathe better. Being able to attend school on that last day also allowed Pie Girl to see all of her school friends. Some of them knew she was coming, but others were just as surprised as the kids. It was so nice to be back at Heritage. Everything was just the same as it was in December and it was quite comforting to be there even though it was just as hot as we remembered. People in San Diego just don't know what hot is- they complain that it is hot when it is 78 degrees with no humidity. I don't think so.

A smaller version of the beginning group hug.

Three members of the Mrs. W. fan club.

After such an exciting day of seeing so many old friends, we headed home to Mom's house and things just got even more exciting. Dirt Doc and Pie Girl both had several food requests upon returning home. Tonight was Bobbies from Capriotti's Sub Shop. It is true what they say- you can't get a good sub unless you are on the East Coast. The rolls are never the same! We even have a Capriotti's in San Diego, but they just don't taste as good. For those of you who don't know about the Bobby let me tell you it is pure heaven. Thanksgiving on a roll: Roasted Turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It might sound disgusting to some, but for both of us it is a favorite meal. Anyway, Mom was nice enough to pick those up for us on her way home from work. We invited Dirt Doc's parents to come over for Bobbies, too. We were so happy to have all of them there at once. It was time to spill the beans. (Since V's fortune cookie method backfired a bit, we tried a slightly less edible approach.) We gave them each a fortune "box" instead. Inside the box we placed some chocolates and a fortune that read "A new grandchild is in your near future". We were so relieved to finally share the news! One by one different family members trickled in and we were able to share the news with them as well.

Friday basically involved a lot of sweating and moving of boxes. Pie Girl had to clean out her classroom (sniff) and figure out what to do with all the junk.

We were able to spend some QT with our former roommates and friends, Kristen and Michael on Saturday. We were totally bummed that we wouldn't be able to stick around for their wedding which was a couple of weeks away. We really enjoyed seeing all of the changes they had made to Ferret Commune since we saw it last. Michael has been particularly busy preparing the backyard for the big day. The day ended with us crashing in our old bedroom. Ah, memories.

Sunday was Mother's Day! Well, at least it was the day we declared as Mother's Day. We were able to get most of the old crowd over with the addition of Aunt Binnie. She put in a specific request for a girl, but we'll just have to wait and see... if only it were that easy! Like Dirt Doc, Aunt Binnie does not like having her picture taken. Although she did allow us to take a few, we're going to respect her wishes by not posting her face all over the Internet, maintaining her status as an enigma. Anyway, we surprised the motherly figures in our life in the same way we surprised Mom, Momma, and The Commander, but instead of a fortune we added a funny poem about Harry becoming a 'big brother'.

My indispensable assistants. Hey, can you guys take this thing over next year?


After the tea party we were entertained by a piano concert starring most of the extended Gispert Clan. Can it get any better? Surprisingly, it does! Part II coming soon!

The adventures of Little Guy

Little Guy Goes Camping!

Apparently, we do know the way to San Jose

Sorry for the delay, but as you will see in the next few blog entries, we have been quite busy. As Memorial Day weekend approached we decided to make the most of a three day weekend and make the drive up the coast to visit our Northern Californian friends, Chris and Shellie. You might remember them from such blog posts as "Setting up Shop"- they drove all the way down here to help us unload the moving truck. Such troopers. Anyway, we hadn't been up their way for a while and decided to make a weekend out of it. It also meant driving through one of Pie Girls favorite spots on the PCH.

The rolling hills of the country side were a welcome site to these two city slickers

Luckily, for Pie Girl, she did not need to be slapped this time around.

Several hours of winding roads later, we finally arrived in San Jose. It was wicked late (for us, not for Chris and Shellie, of course) and some of us turned in early. We had a action packed day ahead of us beginning with a 10 o'clock appointment at "The Mystery Spot" and we wanted to be ready. Thanks to some terrible Memorial Day traffic, we took a detour through the Santa Cruz mountains (more winding roads) for quite a while as we tried to make our way to Santa Cruz- home of the Banana Slugs!!! Just as Pie Girl started to think to herself, "Gosh this looks familiar. I wonder if we are anywhere near...." and almost as if to finish her sentence she saw a sign..."Now Entering- Brookdale". And as quickly as it had popped into her head, The Brookdale Lodge popped into sight. Pie Girl and Dirt Doc tried to put words together. Somehow Chris translated their gibberish and pulled over. Since the Brookdale Lodge is frozen in some sort of bizarro time warp, it looked exactly the same as it did when we saw it years ago with Alys. (And now after reading about it -click on the link above- I am even more freaked out.)

We tried to convince Chris and Shellie to have their wedding here, but the creepiness of the Brookdale Lodge was too much for Shellie to even think of eating lunch here!


Exhibit A

Well, we finally pulled ourselves away from the ol' Brookdale, and eventually made it to Santa Cruz. Since Shellie and Chris used to live here they were able to give us a personalized tour of all the local hangouts. Since our detour had made us unfashionably late for our appointment at the Mystery Spot (even by California standards) we decided to go all-in: we stopped by a creperie to have a bite to eat. Then it was off to the Mystery Spot. The Mystery Spot still remains a mystery to us. The parking situation and pseudo-park rangers maintaining an iron-fisted control on that situation were very mysterious. We weren't sure why, but their system consisted of us waiting in our car for about an hour wondering what the heck was going on. We finally decided to let the Mystery Spot remain a mystery and high tailed it out of there.

Once we left there we basically had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We decided to head down to the beach. Santa Cruz is really beautiful and full of lots of people. We walked out on the pier and spotted lots of Sea Lions! They were adorable. They reminded me of puppies! They make a very loud "bark" that echoes under the pier.

adorable!

Not so adorable, but cool anyway!

Trying to look adorable.

We are Chris and Shellie and we approve this picture.

The next day we decided to pack up a picnic lunch and head back up to the mountains for a hike. We set off on a trail called Castle Rock (Tee hee... Picnic at Castle Rock). After working up an appetite we found a place near the waterfall to sit and enjoy our munchies. We didn't actually see it, but some other hikers warned us of a rattlesnake up ahead.

Later that night we thought it would be nice to see the downtown area of San Jose. Also, we discovered there was a giant Monopoly Board in a park downtown that we just had to see. Apparently they have giant dice to roll and giant pieces so you can actually play- this needs to be reserved in advance, however, so we were only able to see the board itself. Having all forgotten to bring our cameras we tried to take a few shots with a camera phone, but they didn't come out too well. Pie Girl had to pose on her favourite properties of Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues! We grabbed a bite to eat and headed home after a long day.

The next day basically consisted of saying goodbye and driving home. We did have one stop to make in Pasadena for dinner with V and Nic. More on that in the next post!!!

A Special Thanks to Shellie for sharing pictures of the trip!

Puppy Therapy!!!

The Atlantis

If you'll recall from an earlier post, I had just driven back from Flagstaff, AZ and arrived in San Diego to help Shannon offload some science gear from the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis. She had been at sea several months earlier, doing research at the hydrothermal vents of the East Pacific Rise at 9 degrees North of the equator. Often in oceanographic work, you can't take all the gear you need with you, so you end up shipping it to the R/V ahead of your arrival. Then you unpack and assemble it once you're aboard. But then what to do when you disembark? Usually, you pack it back up and leave it on the ship. Then, when the ship puts into a suitable harbor, you either arrange for them to send you the crates, or you meet the ship and offload the gear yourself. Since both Shannon and the Atlantis were in San Diego, she opted for the latter.

Shannon's husband, Gavin, works on the Atlantis as part of the Deep Sea Operations Group - he's a pilot for the manned deep submergence vehicle, Alvin. They're quite a husband-wife team! Anyway, we met them at the ship to offload the stuff and have a look around. Pie Girl has only seen photos of this stuff, but I spent 28 days at sea in 2002 on a research cruise similar to the one Shannon completed a few months ago. It was fun to see it all again. Ah, memories.

Hey baby. Did you miss me?

View of San Diego Harbor from the 3rd level deck.

Here is a stock photo of Alvin and the Atlantis, its mother ship.

The orange bit is called the sail, and it leads to a 6' diameter sphere that houses the three crew: one pilot and two science complement.


This diagram is inaccurate in that a normal human can't really stand up inside the sphere. The positions adopted by the other two guys are pretty close to reality. Anyway, most of the rest of the space inside Alvin is consumed by batteries, ballast, electronics and hydraulics. Here are some additional specs on Alvin for those of you interested in building a duplicate in your basement.

Here we are inside the sphere, looking up through the sail hatch.

Here I am, assuming the role of pilot. Fire torpedoes!

Alvin has been involved in many exciting missions, from the discovery of life at hydrothermal vents to the exploration of the Titanic wreck. Alvin, the Atlantis, and their crews, have also been featured in a 1999 PBS Nova special and an IMAX movie. I'm just a soil scientist from the 2nd smallest state in the Union. So I feel very privileged, indeed, to have had the opportunity to work aboard the Atlantis with the dedicated people who make this type of research possible.

We accomplished our mission and transported Shannon's gear safely to the lab. After that it was Miller Time! It had been a long day for yours truly, and I was looking forward to a hot shower, a cold brew, and my own bed. All in a day's work for your friendly neighborhood Dirt Doc.