Happy Thanksgiving!

Woods Hole trip

Last week, I drove to Woods Hole, MA, to work on my dissertation samples. I got a lot done, and it was a beautiful area to visit, so overall I'd rank the trip a success. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Visiting some college friends in Boston:

Woods Hole (on Cape Cod) is a truly beautiful area. Unfortunately, since it is about as far east as you can go, the sun set super early. This is at 4pm. The sun is just setting behind me.

Here is the door of the lab I worked in. I thought this was a kind of pretty, artistic shot. I was the first person who arrived on Friday morning, so I spent a short time wandering outside and enjoying the scenery.

This is the view from the lab. You see that water out there? Yeah, that's the ocean. I felt like this view was totally wasted on several of the people working in this lab, who didn't care where they were. Of course, there were some who enjoyed it too.

I spent many many hours setting up and running samples through silica gel to seperate out impurities. Here I am about to add the first silica gel with my left hand and manning the solvent with my right hand.

The rest of these are from the little bit of sightseeing I did in Woods Hole and the surrounding areas. The first three are from a small natural harbor close to where I was staying. These pictures were taken around 7:30 am (the sun had been up for several hours). I found several of the boats interesting & the whole area beautiful in the bright morning light.

This is the Gaines house, where I was staying. Jennifer was an incredibly gracious hostess, especially considering that we did not know each other at all before I arrived. (This is the house one of David's labmates grew up in.) The "road" this house was located on was really just a very narrow dirt path. Luckily, my GPS was up to the task!

Here is the lighthouse at Woods Hole. I came across it while exploring my first day. It was about 5 pm by this time, so my camera was having a hard time in the dim light. It did make the light more visible though. While standing next to the lighthouse, I watched a large cruiseliner and a coastguard helicopter go by.

Battle of the Marching Bands

Recently, we went to watch Brian's cousin marching in a band competition. It was a chilly fall evening, but it was pretty interesting to see the bands playing and marching around the field in various formations.


I think Evan is the second from the right in this picture.

Back row: Tammy, Gma, Jim

Front row: Brian, Vicki, Rick