June 6, 2006 

Hi again and happy summer!  I’m all over the place for the next couple of months so I thought now would be a good time to touch base.  I have just returned from a two-week intensive course on stable isotopes (fondly known as “isotope camp”) in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It was an extremely taxing but rewarding experience.  I met some really interesting people, learned a fair amount of useful information, and got to explore a bit of the Wasatch Mountain Range (which is quite stunning).   Then it was back to California this past weekend for a wedding - a lovely ceremony up in Petaluma.  Matt and I spent the weekend in the area and explored the coastline and city.  We visited a sticker factory and acquired a 3-foot metal rooster.  It was decided that this place is definitely worthy of a return trip.

Tomorrow is my 26th birthday and then I will be off like a shot to be a teaching assistant for the Earth Science’s field course out in Eastern California.  I cannot wait to be back in the desert but I have to say, I could use at least another day in Santa Cruz.  I won’t even be able to visit the beach boardwalk!  That will have to wait until the end of July when I come back from field camp.

It’s hard to believe that spring quarter only ended a week ago. This has been a full spring!  May was also a great month for adventure.  I participated with some friends in San Francisco’s infamous 8-mile Bay to Breakers race.  I didn’t run but I did enjoy the walk through the city.  Plus, everyone dresses up in some seriously interesting costumes and many cart along a keg of beer for the journey. Memorial day was a restful relaxing day.  I can’t actually recall what I did…

Matt and I joined my new anthropology lab for a fun retreat up to the northeastern tip of California (Surprise Valley) the first weekend in June.  The valley is extremely interesting geologically and it boasts an alkaline lake, geysers, boiling mud pools and thick flows of 15-5 million year old flood basalts.  Additionally, the area is archaeologically rich!  We found numerous obsidian flakes and some partial arrowheads. There were also plenty of petroglyphs and animal bones to examine.  We spent an extra day out in the wilderness on the way home and camped near Mount Lassen, a volcano at the South end of the cascades.  It last erupted in 1915 or 16 and, consequently, the surrounding terrain is mainly cinder fields peppered with giant ponderosas.  We discovered a beautiful osprey (maybe???) nest near the river where we camped and we also explored a neat lava tube.  It seems so strange to be out in the middle of the western US and surrounded by what I formally had only associated with Hawaii.

Well, I think that might be a pretty good synopsis of life for now.  It certainly hasn’t been boring around here!  I’m back home for a day and then it’s off again.  I hope that all of you are great and that summer isn’t cooking anyone too much.  I think of all of you and miss you.  Take care!

Brooke