Yes, I'm here. In Maine beginning my week-long adventure in what one of my cohorts here called "science geek camp" while at dinner last night. She is right, but that's okay, I'm going to enjoy it anyway. I started off very early at the airport yesterday in PHL, and luckily so. The security lines were a bit longer than I thought they would be. Checking in was a breeze, took me 5 min, but then I waited another 45 to get my carry-on's and me checked over for actual passage into the terminal. But all was good, got my shoes back on and headed off to my gate. BTW, the terminal with the US Air section in PHL doesn't have much to offer in healthy food, lots of typical fast foods but nothing really on this side of yummy. Ah well.
Got on that flight to Boston and found some yummy food, and some dark chocolate covered raisins (okay not exactly healthy but they are tasty!). Our plane has some maintenance issues, and we ended up having to wait 45 min for a new plane to arrive for us. Which made us 1 hour late to Bar Harbor. I spent the time reading my book and trying to relax in a very uncomfortable airport chair. Then I headed out to the tarmac when it was time to load to our prop plane and head to the island. I haven't been on a prop plane in years! Probably since the last time I was heading up to Halifax, Nova Scotia! Wow. Still loud and rumble-y, but a thrill to ride in!
We got to Bar Harbor 50 min later, covered in fog. Lots and lots of fog! I found our taxi, bags, and the other group of people I was meeting to head to the workshop at the lab. A short ride later and a bit of confusion w/the driver (still not sure on that one) we were greeted with "you're walking the wrong way." Okay. This place is beautiful, but confusing, green trees everywhere, little paths, and lots of building with little signs. We got to our location, picked up our room assignments and headed off in our different directions. I found mine, a small room that is rather large for a cabin of sorts, with a shared bathroom next door to me, but the beds reminded me immediately of research ships (hello Atlantis, RV Cape Henlopen??) After making it up, raising the thermostat from 58 to 70 and hoping I wouldn't freeze, I went to dinner.
Dinner was good, salad, pasta salad and corn. (Okay they forgot the vegetarians...) If you were not a vegetarian you also got roast beef, a hunk of some other meat and I think a pork loin. I don't know exactly, I know there were 3 other meats at the end of the table, but I typically do not take notice. After dinner we guessed where we were going and guessed right! Yay! and got to the wine and cheese party. Here we got our huge 3-ring binder, name badges and found out our schedule for the week. Lots to do, lots to learn. My little desk will come in handy.
Finally after the little get-together party, I headed back to my room, did my nightly things, wrapped up my unpacking that I hadn't finished earlier and said good night to my sweetie. It was early but so time for sleep. I think about 10 of us did the same thing, as I saw us headed off into our rooms with the mission of a pillow and blanket! So how was the temperature by the time I reached my room? Still creeping up, it still hadn't reached a warm temp, I was hoping for, but enough that I could crawl under my covers and not succumb to hypothermia! :)
Yay! Oh, and of course I realized this morning, I forgot my transfer cable for my images, so all my pics will be relying on my cell phone for this one guys. Oh well. Hopefully they will be pretty good. I'll do my best and we'll see how it goes today. From the schedule, we have stuff planned until 11:00 pm, yes, 11:00 pm. I will be a very tired camper but I'm sure I will have fun playing with all the microscopes today! See I told you it was geek camp!
Happy Day to you!
We got to Bar Harbor 50 min later, covered in fog. Lots and lots of fog! I found our taxi, bags, and the other group of people I was meeting to head to the workshop at the lab. A short ride later and a bit of confusion w/the driver (still not sure on that one) we were greeted with "you're walking the wrong way." Okay. This place is beautiful, but confusing, green trees everywhere, little paths, and lots of building with little signs. We got to our location, picked up our room assignments and headed off in our different directions. I found mine, a small room that is rather large for a cabin of sorts, with a shared bathroom next door to me, but the beds reminded me immediately of research ships (hello Atlantis, RV Cape Henlopen??) After making it up, raising the thermostat from 58 to 70 and hoping I wouldn't freeze, I went to dinner.
Dinner was good, salad, pasta salad and corn. (Okay they forgot the vegetarians...) If you were not a vegetarian you also got roast beef, a hunk of some other meat and I think a pork loin. I don't know exactly, I know there were 3 other meats at the end of the table, but I typically do not take notice. After dinner we guessed where we were going and guessed right! Yay! and got to the wine and cheese party. Here we got our huge 3-ring binder, name badges and found out our schedule for the week. Lots to do, lots to learn. My little desk will come in handy. 
