By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today we barely opened our eyes around 6 o’clock. Lazily, we congregated for breakfast and then headed out to Andrew’s Bay North beach at Sharon’s house.

Sharon joined us for our survey. Here is a picture of Sharon with Tim.

We spent the morning investigating the differences between Andrew’s Bay North and the last intertidal zone, Andrew’s Bay South; we surveyed and compared what we saw.

The one major difference between Andrew’s Bay North and South is that the north end gets more sun. Together, we were looking to see what difference that would make in the intertidal zone.

We were very excited when we got a cool picture of an anemone and the rest of our data.

After all the festivities, we headed to an actual festival; the Pelindaba Lavender Farm Festival.

Photo by Lana Sachs

Our goal was to avoid killing or getting stung by any bees. It was a great sight for some group photos.

Later that day we went to the docks and enjoyed the sights and breeze. It was such a sunny day that we felt it would be a crime to stay indoors. However, our day was mostly spent so we decided to bicycle tomorrow.

Finally, we settled down to a lovely dinner of pasta and homemade red sauce with our two guests Katie Dobkowski and Darby Flanagan.

Photos by Seth Grant

Katie talked to us about the things she does as a field ecologist and her experiments with bull kelp. Darby then talked about how she has been extending upon Katie’s work by applying it to predation by kelp crabs as well.

Katie showed us what exactly we would be doing tomorrow and the methods she has used to mark kelp in the past.

Overall, we had a blast and felt prepared to help Katie get accurate data the next day.

By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today we woke up at the amazing time of 8 o’clock. We ate breakfast and grouped together in our silly boots and wind repellant clothes to head back out to False Bay. Last time we were at False Bay it was a long stretch of muddy ground. Today it looked like the dictionary definition of a bay. The name ‘False Bay’ finally made sense to us after seeing the two drastically different scenes in the same place.

Photos by Caroline Grauman-Boss

Next we began to scoop up earwigs in vials to be used in trials later.

Male earwigs were scarce but we encountered many gigantic females.

Next we headed back to the science lab to begin our trials with our new lab ‘rats’.

Many trials were performed including testing of mate selection dependent on size or location.

In between the trials we snuck away to grab a late light lunch. Afterwards, we all headed out to exploration time. Indeya and Peder stayed for the Slip-and-Slide, while Lynn, Jack, and Jaimie went to get ice cream. The rest of us stayed and played cards and chatted.

Later, we had dinner with Susan Middleton the author and photographer for the book Spineless.

Photos by Seth Grant

Amazing techniques and stories of her photography and journey were shared over and amazing bowl of chili.

Finally, we settled down to watch Mulan, which was heavily anticipated. After singing along to all the wonderful songs, we headed off to bed.

By Jack, Lynn, and Peder —

Today started wonderfully at 7 o‘ clock. It was a much more blissful morning compared to the teary-eyed days of the past. No more waking up before the rest of the island. We headed to Deadman’s Bay to engage in barnacle research pertaining to dissertation chapter 3 of University of Washington graduate student Will King. Ironically, we talked of horror stories on the way.

Photos by Caroline Grauman-Boss

We exited the van with terror in our minds, but exited to measure, identify, and record data about barnacles. Slipping and sliding, we perilously observed our calipers carefully.

We returned to the dorms, and proceeded to review our data. Jamie, Jack, and Tim headed back to False Bay to release our earwigs because we did not have time to perform our trials and did not wish to kill them. They were eager to return.

Soon we began to plan our costume for the famous Invertebrate Ball. At the thrift shop we encountered deer, orange, and purple.

Photos by Seth Grant

Inspired to be a sea star, we grabbed what we could and headed back to the dorms again.

All afternoon was spent making Sea Stars, Jellyfish, and a Nudibranch.

Creativity was flowing through the room like crazy as we cut, glued, and sewed.

Together we looked like a group of idiots, that was except Indeya who was rocking an 80’s purple get-up.

Photo by Tom Grauman

Our costumes were a hit. We brought home 3 prizes in the name of Salish Sea Sciences.

Now we prepare for our long boat trip around the islands. We will face the cold, feisty water and the smell of 12 individuals who haven’t showered for five days.