Welcome back to the S(l)a(y)lish Sea Sciences blog written by the amazing group of two: Una and Millie! This morning, a few of us stopped in town for coffee. We went to The Crow’s Nest! I ordered a pistachio rose latte, which I thought would be more floral-y and nutty but it wasn’t, and ended up just tasting like a latte. Props to the barista: she worked like a pro, making 4 different drinks all at once.
Crow’s Nest barista barista-ing. Photo creds to Millie!
After working on our projects for 30 minutes, we went to a local high school to finish up what we did yesterday: PCR for the Invasive Mussel Project! After working carefully to measure out PCR cocktails with micropipettes, letting our PCR tubes run through the thermocycler, and setting up our gel electrophoresis, we waited excitedly to see the results. We expected some cute glowing lines demonstrating gene sequence length that would allow us to determine the mussels’ species when compared to the DNA marker. Instead, we got nothing at all! Other than the important life lesson that science can be frustrating and disappointing, I guess. Sam Garson, who was directing us, guessed that the issue was something that unfortunately we do not remember.
Salish Sea Scientists are pros with micropipettes! Photo creds to Maya.Millie practicing scalpel precision in only the most scientific way.Cleo and Una in the lab, carefully investigating…something. Not sure what. Photo creds to Maya.
Our guest speakers, Sofia Denkovski and Erin Casellas from Soundwatch, came in at 3 o’clock and talked about Orcas! Specifically near the Salish Seas. They first talked about the different marine mammals in the Salish Seas, then went on to the scientific names of different whales, then talked about Orca identification. We did a fun game of Orca ID, identifying different orcas based on their saddle patches and dorsal fins. We learned that each saddle patch on an orca is like a fingerprint to a human–none of them share the same one.
After the informative presentation, Adam drove all of us down to South Beach. We watched the sunset, ate pie (the rhubarb pie was so good omg??), and climbed the cliffs and logs all while the wind blew in our faces, making us chilly. We took a lot of photos and watched the sky turn indigo. It was the perfect time to reminisce about our trip and all the memories we made, since this was our second to last day.
Rhubarb pie is the best pie.Riya doing ” 😛 “.
See you all tomorrow! I can’t believe this is almost over, time flies!
Our benevolent dictator, Adam, let us start the day with a late 8:00 AM wake-up. While the extra sleep was greatly appreciated, we all would have liked to sleep for another twelve hours.
After a quick breakfast, we gathered at the table with our notebooks and pens to reflect upon the kayak trip we had just returned from the day before. Caroline asked us three questions: 1) What did you learn from this experience? 2) What is an anecdote you want to hold onto? 3) How did you grow from this experience? As we all ponder these questions, Caroline explained that we are doing the reflection because moments are fleeting, and if you do not write them down, they fly away, never to be seen again.
Cleo, Riya, Caleb, Maya, Lizzy, Keelin, and William looking super tatted and buff
We all piled into the van for our first stop of the day, American Camp National Park. Once we arrived, we were quickly greeted by Emilio Santiago, a park ranger and archaeologist who has worked in several parks over the United States.
Emilio opened the visitor center and gave us a general explanation tour and history of the building. He explained that every plack had gone through all eight tribes that had historically inhabited the Salish Sea. He pointed out the Canoe paddles that had been hung on the wall and that each one had been carved by one of the eight tribes. He gestured towards a mural painted on the wall and told us about how the purple flowing was called Camis and has a humongous significance to the indigenous people of the area because its root was one of the staple foods. After a brief tour of the building, Emilio set the group free to roam around the visitor center.
After we stopped at the status of the pig who started the Pig War, a war between the English and the Americas started after an English pig was shot by American farmers because he had been eating all his crops. We held a quick photo shoot with the pig and then were off again.
all of us sitting on the pig
Emilio led us to a spot with a great view of the park and everything around it. There he motioned toward the burial ground where thirteen soldiers had been buried, casualties of the pig war. He told us how smallpox had devastated the indigenous people and how wooly dogs were used for their fur. Emilio was an endless fountain of knowledge and was happy to answer any questions we had. We were truly lucky to get to speak with such a knowledgeable guide.
Ooo la la Adam and Emilio
After the American Camp, some of us decided to climb some trees cause we just goofy like that!
monkeys part 1 ft. Cleorrr, Millarrrr, me (Riyarrrr), and Vilhelmmonkeys part 2 ft. Keelin and Maya
We then hopped into the van and headed to False Bay. On the way down to the beach, we saw many adorable puppies and stopped for a good ten minutes to pet all of them. We also saw a garter snake in the grass! It was super cute!!!!!!!!
heheheheheh
Although Millie was a little weirded out, haha! We all enjoyed lunch on the beach, and Stella, Sonja, and me (Riya) were crying and hoping someone would see how lonely we were……… :,((((
SORRY ADAM, WE STILL LOVE YOU
After that, you know what time it was: project grind time! Some of us goofballs also decided to dogpile on the couch.
teehee
I slammed my computer closed, the undeniable pressure of perfecting my proposal too much to bare. Luckily, there was light on the horizon: swimming in Egg Lake. Ever since I read the schedule the night before, I knew that this upcoming swim would be entirely and utterly life-altering. I suited up in my swimming suit and a new coat of greasy sunscreen, and we were off!
After a group car singalong performance of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” worthy of a Grammy, we stepped out of the van into the unpleasantly brisk air. I had never experienced such a chill (a low 70° 😨). Although I had my qualms about swimming and making myself even colder, Maya, Keelin, Una, and Cleorr jumped right in.
Look at that form!!
Eventually, I jumped in, with the support of my bff4lyfe Sonya, and found that 1) It wasn’t that cold, and 2) The seaweed at the bottom of the lake was, in fact, hairy.
After a solid hour of swimming and a toe in William’s mouth (thanks to Caleb), we returned to the dorms and took a much-needed break (trying to drown your friends is downright exhausting).
Super high-quality photo of us in the lake 😍
After an early dinner, we were off to our final event of the day: a talk given by Dr. Rachel Collin. The presentation detailed her research on tropical marine invertebrates, specifically sea urchins. Although the graphs may have hurt my head to look at, we were all completely invested.
Woah, how did this get here???
When the talk was over, a woman enthusiastically reminded us for the 4th time that there was an ice cream social after in the commons (I think she might have liked ice cream). The sundaes were the cherry on top of an already great day (haha, I’m so funny).
