The One at Desolation Lake

For such a harsh, unpromising name Desolation Lake is actually really pretty.  This was the destination of my first backpacking trip with Justin the summer after our first year in grad school.  Ah the memories :)  You may recognize the trail from our Wasatch Crest biking pictures because (surprise) it's the same one!  This trip was our last of the season (sniff) and another one of our rather last minute decisions.

It was a fun trip, although not too eventful except for the Mountain Man race.  I'm pretty sure that's not the name but there is a race through the Wasatch Front that is 100 miles long and you have to finish in less than 36 hours (or something crazy like that).  We passed all the runners in this race going the wrong way but it was interesting to see how many (crazy fool) people were doing it, carrying water bottles in each hand and wearing reflective sweatshirts.  There were check in stations along the way and one of the volunteers said that someone ran the hundred miles in just over 17 hours a few years ago.  Crazy!!  I will never understand marathon runners.

On to the pictures!

This part of the trail is right below the spine.  Much easier to walk than bike.

We got a beautiful spot because... no one else was there :)

Mmmmm, oatmeal!

There is no explanation for this.  I'm just silly :)



 

 

Aren't we cute?!  I love my husband!!!

 

The One at FACSS

**I started this post two weeks ago at the conference but waited to finish it.  You'll see why ;)

This week Justin and I are at our first chemistry conference in Reno, NV.  For those of you who might care/be curious, FACSS is the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies.  We are both giving oral presentations about our research, which is an honor.  Last week we were super excited about this.  Now that the presentations are tomorrow (for me) and Thursday (for Justin), we're just nervous!

Pretty much everyone in both of our research groups came to this conference so we carpooled in a couple of minivans on Sunday.  Driving through Nevada is b-o-r-i-n-g.  Justin hopped in with my group and was kind enough to chauffer us the whole way.  Super funny to see him driving a minivan with "kids" in the back.  Hahahaha!!  I taught Cara and Anny who are in my group how to crochet and that made the time pass really quickly.  They both almost finished their potholders before we arrived :)  I am working on a new baby blanket (surprise).  Justin keeps teasing me that I'm a "crocheting machine" to which I say "if people would stop getting knocked up, I'd have no reason to buy yarn."  Really though, everyone else should keep having babies.  I love having crafty projects and better you than us right now :)

The conference is at a pretty nice hotel.  And they are smart enough that there are designated banks of elevators for specific floors.  Most of us are on the 18th floor or above so we take the same elevator and our rooms all look the same.  They have been recently redone (black and brown, very modern) and I really like them.  One group however is on the 15th floor, which you'd think would be better since it's not as long an elevator ride.  Wrong!  We had to go to their room for something and it apparently has not been redone quite yet.  It's dusty orange and blue, Southwestern style!!  I laughed so hard!!  Why did hotels ever think that because they're located in the Southwest they should have weird, geometric carpeting?!  And can anyone honestly tell me they actually like Southwestern decor?  Blech.

A little messy but here's our room.

Loved the bathroom!  A little bit Vegas :)

Last night was the vendor expo.  Justin and I went pretty early to see what kind of cool swag they might be handing out but we were bitterly disappointed!  No one was handing out anything!  There were a lot of laser companies though that had amazing displays- very colorful.  You haven't been to a cool expo until you've been to a science expo  :)  Or Comic Con I'm sure.  Anyway, they did have some great food tables set up and free drinks.  If you ordered wine, they gave you a glass with "FACSS 2011" etched on it that you could keep for a souvenir and for some reason Justin really wanted one.  We thought about actually ordering wine and just dumping it out, but that seemed wasteful and not very "avoiding the appearance of evil."  While we were trying to figure out how to get one of these glasses someone walked by our table and set their empty wine glass down.  But she didn't walk very far away.  We weren't certain if she actually wanted to keep her glass or not.  After a few minutes we were ready to leave and somebody else came and walked between us and the glass lady, momentarily blocking her view.  I seized the opportunity, grabbed the glass and walked away.  Again, avoiding even the appearance of evil, or maybe not.  Justin followed me, laughing.  Apparently I have some thievery skills.  Not sure if this is a good thing.  Then I started thinking "what if she really wanted it and I totally just stole it from her?!"  And how dumb for us to have one wine glass we'll never use.  Not to worry, my little act will not condemn me to an afterlife of fire and brimstone.  Multiple people were either unaware of the souvenir or didn't care so we were able to grab another empty glass off one of the server's cleanup trays.  Now we both have one :)  I did not enjoy carrying them around however.  Alcohol stinks!  **Additional notes- a few days later we did score some pretty sweet telescoping poster tubes.  These come in really handy when you're presenting your research from a 3'x4' poster and don't want it to get smashed, creased, wrinkled, stepped on, etc.

One last funny story.  After the expo someone had organized a social event for students attending the conference.  There is a small sports bar/club here in the hotel that was open for us to go play pool, golf, video games, etc.  They even had a version of that old Nintendo duck hunt game on a huge screen.  So funny!  I went back to the room to work on my presentation for a little bit and then joined Justin and some of the other Utah students downstairs.  Justin had just started a 3-way pool game with some of his group members and one of them let me take his spot.  I haven't played pool since undergrad but it must have been longer for Justin and Grant because I won!  We decided to play one more game before we left and it actually looked like Grant might win when I sank my last two balls on one shot!  The best part was- it was completely accidental!  I was aiming for one ball and a corner pocket and somehow hit my last two balls which rolled into opposite corners simultaneously at the other end of the table!  It was an amazing result but definitely not what I was actually going for!  After that everyone was ready to leave :(

Hopefully the rest of the week goes as well as my pool game :)

Here's a picture of Justin presenting his poster the first night.  It's his first scientific results poster ever!!  So proud :)

*********************************************************************
I gave an oral presentation on Wednesday and it went very well.  There were fewer student presenters than I thought there would be so it was really cool to be selected to present.  And the session I was in was loaded with some pretty big names in the plasmonics field which made it even better!  There was a good sized audience.  (FYI- my research is in plasmonics.)

These schedules were set up outside each room.  There's my name!!

And now for the best part- I posted a few months ago when Justin and I were notified we'd both be speaking at the conference that Justin was actually up for an award as well.  This meant that he presented in a special session with 4 other contenders- all of whom work at national labs and universities, Justin was the only grad student.  There were 2 sessions of 5 nominees each and there would be one winner from each session.  Justin gets really nervous before presentations like this (who doesn't?!) but he did so well!!  I was so proud of him.  He was the only one to stay within the allotted time as well.  Thank goodness because the guy before him spoke for half an hour!!  There was a Q&A afterward and most of the questions were directed at Justin which is really good.  It shows that people paid attention and are interested in what you're doing.  At this point I just knew Justin would win :)

He's smiling because he just finished :)

The winners were announced first thing Friday morning so we all headed downstairs to see the big reveal.  For some reason they decided to split the prize and name 2 winners from each session- boo :(  But one of them was Justin!!!!  Yay!!  I saw the slide before they could actually project it on the screen and thought I saw the title of his talk so I was practically bouncing out of my seat before they even officially announced the winners.  Justin was in shock and I was super excited!  Now we just have to decide what to spend our half of the prize money on :)

Yay for Science!!

The One with the Flight

Today was an interesting day.  I'm attending a conference in California this week which meant that I flew over here today.  On September 11th.  I definitely did not think I would be flying on the 10th anniversary of such an event.  It made me think a lot about where I was 10 years ago and where I am today.  I think there is(are) a defining event(s) that occurs in everyone's lifetime and they remember where they were when they heard the news.  Like Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of JFK.  For my generation it's 9/11.

Fall of 2001 was the beginning of my senior year of high school.  I was dual enrolled at EAC as well and was getting ready for my first class of the day (English 101, blech) when I heard Mom gasp in the living room.  She was watching the morning news as she also got ready for work.  I walked down the hallway to see what caused her reaction and the TV came into view.  I can distinctly remember those first shaky clips of the plane hitting the first tower of the World Trade Center.  As we watched they had live coverage of the second attack.  It was unreal, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  I sincerely thought America was untouchable.  I didn't think any wars would be fought during my lifetime.  The only ones I would know about were those already in the history books.  Apparently not.

The rest of that day was a blur and yet passed in slow motion.  The redeeming factor of taking English at the time was the professor skipped the lesson and gave us the hour to free write.  I'm not a very good journal writer so having my thoughts and feelings from that day written down is very special to me.  Thankfully, the attacks on the World Trade Center and attempted attacks on other American landmarks didn't thrust our country into World War III.  The War on Terrorism has changed our day to day lives very little.  I still went to college, got a degree and then a job.  And now I'm in graduate school.  I don't even know anybody who was on any of the fallen flights.  Or anybody who knew anybody who knew anybody on those flights.  Really the only effect I saw was a sense of unity and increased national pride.  Sadly, those effects seem to be fading, in general.  They haven't faded for me, or for Justin.

This morning we went to the Music & the Spoken Word 9/11 Special.  It was amazing.  I hope those of us who remember that day really do "Never Forget."  I hope we never forget how important our families are, how great are communities can be when they work together and how blessed this nation really is.  This picture sums up how we felt when we left.  In the words of my husband "Go America!"

The One on the Crest

The Wasatch Crest trail is a must do for bikers in SLC.  It's pretty technical so it's definitely not a beginner trail.  We backpacked this trail once our first summer here and there were sections I thought "People bike this!!"  Yes they do, including my husband.  The crazy few do an in-and-out, biking up the trail and returning the same way.  Most people do it as a "shuttle."  When Justin does this trail we drive partway up Big Cottonwood Canyon where he drops off his car at the bottom of the trail and then I drive him the rest of the way up the canyon to the trailhead.  I always tell him to be careful and I do get a little nervous when I know he's on this trail until he gets in his car and calls to tell me he's safe.  We've done this for a couple summers now and this year Justin decided I am good enough to join him on the trail :)

I was a little nervous starting out but Justin always warns me when tricky sections are coming up and if there's one biking skill I've perfected, it's bailing out of my clipless pedals.  The beginning of the Crest trail is a grueling uphill with a specific section at the top affectionately known as "Puke Hill."  With a name like that who doesn't want to go on this ride!  I surprised Justin (and myself) by actually making it all the way up the hill!  I was fully planning on stopping at some point and just pushing my bike the rest of the way up but I didn't need to!  I must be getting in some good biking shape.  I will admit I hit some gravel and had to get off and push my bike ~50 feet before the ground was flat enough to get back on.  But we did this trail again later and I did the whole thing with no pushing!!  I had so much fun on this trail it may be my new favorite.  If you thought the views from Dog Lake were gorgeous, check these out.

Justin is finally wearing the biking jersey I got him 2 Christmases ago!!  He is so funny when it comes to keeping things "nice."  As in, he doesn't like when things are no longer nice so he uses whatever he has until it is beyond recognition and then finally pulls out the replacement he's been keeping safe for years.

 

This is Desolation Lake where we backpacked to our first summer here.

And this is "The Spine."  This section is a little scary even just walking.  I definitely did not even attempt this but Justin rolls right on down like it ain't no big deal!!  Crazy!!  But impressive.

  

 I think it's even scarier looking back up!!

  

Hey look!  I have a tan!  No wait, that's just dirt :)

The sign of a good ride.

The One on the Pfeifferhorn

The biggest backpacking trip we've done recently is up the Pfeifferhorn.  We have now officially "bagged a peak" here in UT.  Technically, I think Justin has a couple under his belt already, but they don't count unless I'm there!  We were trying to decide what to do one weekend (again) when Justin's friend Cory called and said he wanted to go on one last backpacking trip before he got married.  So we (meaning they) chose the Pfeifferhorn.  I'm not gonna lie, this was a pretty tough peak.  And part of the trail got a little sketchy.  These are the moments I tell Justin "We better not blog this or my mom will kill you."  The pictures are so cool though I decided to blog them anyway :)

We stayed overnight at Red Pine Lake which is at the bottom of the Horn and hiked the rest of the way up the next morning.  It was still covered in snow!  In August!  Like I said, tough but gorgeous.  I also tried out a new pack that Justin got for $40 online (originally ~$200: Amy, I think Justin could give you a run for your money on some couponing!).  Loved it!  Having the right gear definitely makes the trip more enjoyable.

 

Heading up the trail.  I feel like I type that a lot!

There's still so much snowmelt all the mountain streams are rushing.

Our campsite.  It felt like noone else was there at all.

The one time we don't bring the fly it gets windy!!
This is our white trash-duct tapeless fix :)

 

Justin is such a helper when it comes to doing dishes :)

"Hmmm, is that the summit?"
Unfortunately no.

How cute is this?!

I hear Brownies arguing over which way to go when I see this picture.

Everyone was so impressed Cory

hiked this in Chacos.

I was making fun of Justin's thumbs up pose and
it turned out even funnier than I'd planned!!

Another loooong trek.  I love my husband!!



I knew I shouldn't have given them pistachios.  They followed us!

  

This spine was the scariest stretch of the whole
hike!!  And this is where Justin asked if it was
OK with Mom to keep going :)

"Ummm, I say don't look down."

The final stretch!!

"We made it!  We're alive!!"

  

 

A-maz-ing!!

  

And they're off!  Cindy's got a commanding lead...

But wait, what's this?!  Cheaters!!

At least they had fun.

Thanks Cory, for letting me crash your "bachelor party." :)