scenes from the weekend

baking with vanilla beans from PNG.  cilantro matching my calendar.  pancakes, need i say more.  thursday breakfasts.  tiger kitty aka fat cat aka Gordinfon.  delicious lunch salads.  beets and the biggest beet i've ever seen.  just chillaxin.

Crater Wasteland

We ended the Crater Adventure by hiking/ climbing down into the basin.  Our first attempt almost ended with the Latinos falling off a cliff, so we had to back track and start over again.  On descent #2, we found a proper path and easily walked down the kilometer into the Crater.  Unfortunately, we got to the bottom of the hole around mid day, just when the sun was at its hottest.  The fair skinned were morphing from pink to red, and we are all starting to count how many bottles of water we had for the vertical ascent.  I felt like we were on Mars in the bottom of the Crater.  The bone dry ground cracked under our feet to show a layer of white salt? under the dried mud.  It was a desert wasteland.  Feeling a little weirded out and nauseous from the heat exhaustion, I rallied the troops and we headed back up up up.  We had to stop several times for water breaks and to keep the hot blackness from clouding out our vision.  One of the Saudi kids that was hiking with us started puking from overheating.  As the sun continued to climb, we pushed out way up and finally out of the desert.

day is done

Full moon on one side with little planets shining on the other.  Nothing like a campfire, two grahams, a piece of chocolate, and a toasted gooey mallow.  Mmm, mmm I wanna linger...

guest post

I was asked to do a guest post on the very cute travel blog, Battered Suitcases.  I really like this blog, it is fresh and fun and the "novelty snack" reviews are great!  Whenever you are traveling you end up eating random little convenience foods.  Thanks Battered Suitcases for inviting me over! 

check out my guest post here

camping in the desert

Some people think, what is the point of camping?  My own bed is much more comfortable than the ground, my own kitchen is much more sanitary, at home I have air conditioning and TV and I don't have to haul my drinking water down a freakin' mountain.  

But I think, when you get outside and you hear the dragonflies buzzing above your head, and you see the sun setting over some mountains, and you get so dirty that you can't even smell yourself anymore, you remember how basic life is.  You remember to take in the simple pleasures.  You feel accomplishment in achieving the smallest tasks, like building a fire or organizing your things in that little 5 by 6 nylon construct you call home.  You remember that you will live without a shower for a few days, but you will not live without drinking water.  You don't need a computer or ipad or television to keep you entertained, you can enjoy good conversation with friends.

It had been over a year since I had gone camping.  I have to say, it is not easiest thing to do in this country where females can't drive and aren't really supposed to leave home without a male family guardian and a long black gown.  But it is possible, and it felt so good to get outside.

Science on Saturday

I have been cc'ed on about 20 emails about this silly video above.  The guys from the lab spent the majority of the weekend trying to get the 53 second soundtrack jusssst right....

cool stuff

network biology

stop doing science and start playing games

Have a super weekend!!

new human species or nothing extraordinary?

Wahba Crater first glimpse

After driving for 5 hours, we were all ready to get out of the car when we finally made it to the CRATER!  We were soon joined by several Saudi adolescents that apparently wanted to get us all fired up for having made it to the crater.  They blasted Arabic music from their Toyotas, hooted' and holler'd, and asked for lots of pictures.  We quickly got back in the car and drove around the giant hole to find a quieter place to camp....

if you get lost...

If you get lost in the desert, just ask the locals.  A 10 year old driving his brothers and sisters around can surely show you the short cut through the lava rock terrain, past the wandering camels, towards the neighbor's tent that sits right in front of the highway (think two tracks in the sand) that leads right to the Crater.

Without hardly any roadsigns, I was pretty surprised that we only managed to get lost once.  We almost got stuck in a pile of sand, but other than that, it was pretty smooth sailing.  I have to say, though, the Saudi Arabian desert is not a place I would like to get lost.  It is hot.  There is no vegetation.  And there are hardly any people around.

scenes from the road

...trucks aren't allowed in Mecca, so they go around the city, just like the infidels... 

...our chariot...

I think the desert has its own unique beauty.