Our Week Apart

This past week we had almost no time together - Marinda came back from her road trip with her brother Wednesday afternoon, then Amit left on a school trip Thursday afternoon and just got back a few hours ago (on Sunday).  So this is going to be a lot of pictures without much cleverness.

The highlight for Amit's week was taking an Astrobiology trip to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.  He spent Friday collecting and dissecting samples of invertebrates (sea urchins, starfish, sponges, clams etc).  It was a ... different experience for someone who spends all day in front of a computer.

Saturday Amit and the rest of the crew went to Sucia Island to collect fossils of said invertebrates, only in dead form.  Unfortunately there are no pictures available from these two days, but Amit did take plenty of pictures of the beautiful views from Friday Harbor!

One more thing - near Friday Harbor deer are allowed to run around without natural predators.  So you can get really close to them without scaring them too bad.  Amit actually had an experience where he felt like a deer was following him back to the dorm.  The deer started off about 20 feet away from him, and then took a few steps towards him.  Then Amit backed off, not wanting to get too close to the deer.  The deer continued forward.  Amit backed off again.  The deer moved towards Amit once more!  The chase was on.  Amit booked it back to the dorms, eager to get away from the killer deer.

Different deer, don't worry

Marinda concluded her epic road trip across the country.  Amazingly enough, the most memorable comment recorded by her was "New Mexico...is...so...empty!"  Apparently the prettiest part of the trip was in California.  Other than that, she is talking to her baby brother right now and refuses to comment about her trip further, but here are some pictures.

While trying to find a Walmart (that didn't exist)
Marinda and Steven found the national Route 66
Museum, complete with gigantic sign!

In-N-Out Burger = = Bliss!

Though Marinda was left behind while her husband enjoyed the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, she decided not to just sit around and watch TV while eating take-out (though she did do plenty of that.)  Instead she called up a friend who's husband was going to be trapped in the lab all Saturday, and the two of them headed off for their church's Trunk or Treat - which is basically trick or treat but with cars in the church parking lot.  It was a great success and the little kids all looked SO CUTE!!  "Favorites?  There were so many!  But if I have to name a few I would say the little girl who was Saturn, the Robot, the Peacock girl, and Curious George with The Man with the Yellow Hat... Oh I could just go on!"  Even if no one comes to their door again this year (excluding creepy teenagers barely dressed up/barely dressed) Marinda has gotten her fill of adorable little kids in costumes.

The Mild Mannered Musician, The Princess and The Gypsy!
(note the super cute Halloween Candy Bowl) 

Our Trunk - Featuring Patches the Pumpkin!