Wrapping up Maine

And wrapping up our trip to Maine, we walked around Bar Harbor to see what else we could find. We found that you could get pizza while watching the latest movie at Reel Pizza, and as we cut across a parking lot we discovered a haven for olive oil and vinegar! The little store tucked away, Fiore, had a room full of delight! Tasting stations everywhere, and I couldn't resist trying them. I ended up buying a 12 year balsamic, dark chocolate balsamic and a garlic olive oil. For dinner we ate at the Chart Room, which was the first time I had my baked, stuffed lobster the entire time I was there. My sweetie, he had lots of roasted lobsters while there. Lobsters must beware when he arrives.... He will find them.

Small spider crab

Happy travelers, full of lobster....

Bar Harbor, Maine

Our mini-trip in Bar Harbor, Maine, began with our stay at one of the most awesome bed and breakfast locations I've ever stayed in. The Cleftstone Manor was our home for the weekend, and that is exactly what it felt like. We had the Cleftstone room, and to be honest, the images on the website are great but when you walk into the room the first words out of my mouth were, "omg, wow!" It was amazing. The bed was grand, the seating area perfect, the fireplace exactly what was needed for the chilly nights, the room was just simply perfect. I love the bed so much I have hunted it down for myself. The innkeeper was so nice, afternoon tea and breakfast was awesome and to say that I would book this again should I go back to Bar Harbor, of course, that is a given. Absolutely!!! It was a short walk into town if you didn't have a car (we didn't) but there is a sidewalk the entire way and it was helpful after lobster dinners to work it off by walking back. We also went out on a Trolly Tour around the island, it took us through town, up Cadillac Mountain, and down by the bay/ocean. We spent the day just touring around, testing the lobster foods that we could find like brunch at the West Street Cafe, the local brewery, Bar Harbor Brewing Company, dinner at Stewman's and even braved the tasting of lobster ice cream at Bill & Ben's... which I think is more of an acquired taste. Here are some photo highlights to enjoy:

Giant whale statue and me

Holding a live, fresh caught lobster

Lobster ice cream anyone?

The sandbar that was visible and walkable for a bit, an hour later it was completely submerged.

The rest of Geek Camp

The rest of Geek Camp was great, a ton of work, long hours, but great. I got to play with learn how to use high quality microscopes, all kinds of brands, learn new techniques, and spend time with some amazing people. The equipment was so cool, Nikon, Ziess, and Olympus microscopes, all kinds of software to do reconstruction, lectures on microscopy techniques, sample preparations, and explanations of why things work (or don't work) for this Of course the beautiful setting of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory campus is amazing. Taking a minute each day in hopes of seeing a sunset was always a bonus.

Most days were completely cloudy, but we did manage a few sunny, cold nights. Walking back we would always see our breath (this was in May folks....) but it was worth it to see the beautiful views off the bay, walking down by the water was always awesome, along the dock and along the beach was always a well deserved break, even on the cloudy days! By the end of the course, we had learned a ton, probably more than I'll remember, had a few great days of sun (very few), and ended it on a high note at an evening out at a local state park with a lobster bake. Pretty cool! Poor lobsters... I felt sorry for them for about a minute... And then it was time to eat them with veggies while resisting the cold.

The class was over, but I didn't leave Bar Harbor. It was Memorial Day weekend, why leave when your significant other is a lobster junkie and you are in the heart of Lobsterville, USA? Yes, He comes to you... So after learning lots of science, playing with learning how to use advanced microscopes, I packed up my little dorm room, put away my huge 3-ring binder of materials, packed away my laptop, and waited for my taxi to take me to the bed and breakfast down the road where I'd spend the next few days relaxing, eating more lobster and visiting more of Bar Harbor, Maine. Yay!

Labs til Late

So I have no idea what day it is, and no one else does either. I'm breaking this into 2 posts, one for the previous days labs and what the days have consisted of, and then what we did tonight.  To mainly get my footing on where I am in time and space. If you don't believe me, one of the women here called her mom to wish her happy birthday, only she called 2 days too early and didn't realize it because, like me, she has lost track of time and has no idea what day it is and thinks we have been here 2x as long. Which is fine.  We have learned a considerable amount of information, which is good and a bit overwhelming at the same time.  I want to hold onto all of this information as best I can, but when you are learning from 9:00 am to midnight, with 2 hours off for food (lunch and dinner) there is a bit of brain leakage.  I wanted to also show you some of the beauty of the campus, near the labs we are studying around, which is good and bad.  Good because Maine is amazing, bad because the sunsets are stunning and we'd rather go look at that for a few minutes than anything else in those few moments.  But it is back to our amazing machines and work...

Busy day, just pics

Yesterday was a very busy day, started at 8:30 w/breakfast and ended at 11:30 pm heading to my room after lab to drop onto my bed to fall asleep.  I'll tell you more later, but here are photos from the campus, I've got another packed day ahead of me.

MDI Bio Lab campus

Why am I here??

Inside lecture hall

Lectures, lectures, lectures

Dining Hall

Trail to class

Path back to my room

Home for the week!

That is all for now.  I have to go scarf a bagel or something and some coffee before the first lecture begins, then off to the lectures, then labs, then lectures, then lunch, lectures, dinner, and we have 2 labs again today.  I think I may have to stock up on the caffeine today to get to 11:00 pm on this one!

Science Geek Camp!

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!