Outside-of-the-lab Activities (2008)
Cooking
Alaska (June)I visited Alaska with Elke. We took a flight seeing
tour over Mt. McKinley, drove to Denali, and took a bus tour to
see wildlives. Afterwards, we drove to Palmer, visited the musk ox farm and the reindeer farm, took a glacier trek at the
Matanuska Glacier.
We then went to Valdez, took a Columbia
Glacier sea kayaking trip.
On the way to Seward, we visited Potter Marsh (the board walk was
closed due to construction), Wildlife
Conservation Center, and Byron Glacier. We didn't find ice
worms at Byron Glacier, but when driving there from Seward we saw a
moose near the road.
Our final stop was Seward. We visited Sealife Center, took a 6-hr
cruise of the Kenai Fjords National
Park Tour, went on a one-day fishing trip (I caught a 79.6 Lb
halibut), and hiked to the Exit Glacier. Grunion Run (May)Aleman and I went to a grunion program at the Cabrillo Marine
Aquarium. We shook a beaker of grunion eggs to let them hatch. The
eggs were fully developed after 10 days, but would only hatch after
mechanical shaking, an indication of high tide. Then we went to the beach
to see the grunion run. A toy alien (May)Aleman gave me a toy alien which, according to the manual, can grow up
to 600% if soaked in water. So we put it in water for three days and it
indeed grew. We then let it stand in front of the TV to dry out. It
shrunk, but never completely returned to its original shape. A trip to Page, AZ (April)I went to Page with Ying. We took a Rainbow Bridge boat tour on Lake Powell.
We also visited Horseshoe Bend (that's where Colorado River makes an Ω turn) and Antelope Slot Canyon. We took the 10:30 am tour of Antelope
Canyon and saw the light beams. On the last day, we hiked to the Wave at Coyote Buttes. That place looks like another planet. Only 20 people are allowed to hike there
everyday. 10 permits are given in advance through a lottery system. I got my permit by applying four months ahead of time here (click on "lottery application").
Curiosity killed the hamster (March)My hamster Tom (January, 2007 - March, 2008) died because he got stuck in a hole in his toy. Car donation (March)I donated my old car to KPCC, our local NPR member station (see their car donation page). The whole process cannot be more convenient. A 5-minute phone call, and my car was picked up the next day. The driver gave me a filled form to mail to DMV and that was it. I believe that this is the best way to get rid of a car. 2008 Plans (January)
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Weiwei Zhong
Last modified: July 02, 2008