Appalachian Trail - Gathland St. Park to Garvey Shelter

Last weekend we decided to hike another section of the AT. Thankfully we looked ahead, saw that it was going to be hot, and we went early. We have been steadily chipping away at the AT, this time we went 7 miles (3.5 miles one way) from Gathland State Park to the Ed Garvey Shelter.

The hike was really nice and I was glad that we went early. The trail started to get very busy when we were nearing the end of our hike. At the end we were all really tired and needed a rest in the shade.

Field Trip to Frostburg, Technically Finzel

On April 18th, I went on a field trip to western Maryland to measure some sedimentary rocks in a road cut. There is about 1 million years of sedimentation shown in this particular outcrop.

This is a picture of the rocks we were measuring. The purpose of the trip was to get us to recognize how different depositional environments can be interpreted from the rocks that are left behind. The large tan section in the middle was a meandering stream bed.

In this picture you can see some crossbedding in the sandstone.

This was my favorite stucture at the outcrop: fossil traces from roots!

Now I have to make a stratigraphic column from the data I collected. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cherry Blossom Time!

The first weekend in April was a very bloomy time. The trees in the park near our apartment were blooming:

The Cherry Blossom Festival was in high gear down in DC. There were so many people there, it was pretty crazy. Usually if you go to the Tidal Basin on a non-cherry blossom day, there isn't hardly anyone around. The steps of the Jefferson Memorial were crawling with people when we were there.We walked by the Obama White House for the first time since he's been in office. They were still in Europe, so the rooftop snipers weren't around.

It was a great day to stroll around DC and look at the trees.

Spring Break!

For a little spring break, John and I went to Atlantic City, NJ for a night. We stayed at the Trump Taj Mahal. They recently opened a new tower of hotel rooms that are pretty swanky. Since we were staying on a Sunday night we got a good deal on the price. The room was pretty big, even bigger than our apartment! There was a jacuzzi tub, two bathrooms, and a wet bar.

The Taj Mahal is close to a few other casinos and we walked along the boardwalk and visited quite of few of them. The weather was rainy and cold, but we didn't mind too much.

This is a picture of me at a fountain in the Taj Mahal. I got the idea for the awesome pose from another person doing the same pose. A lot of the decor is golden. Either golden or marble.

To see more pictures of our room: http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/klub0002/Spring%20Break/

Newest Project Complete!

FrontBack

This is the newest sweater that I have finished. The new Holley baby will look great in it!

SNOW DAY!!!

Here are some pictures of our park and Chopper's and my snow day. This is the most snow that we have had here since John and I moved to Baltimore. My university is closed today for 3.5 inches of snow! Yeah!

Chopper had a lot of fun bounding through the snow. We ran around the park like crazy people. It was a lot of fun.

Whistle Stop, Baltimore!

This weekend was Barak Obama's Whistle Stop train tour. He started in Philadelphia, went through Wilmington, Delaware to pick up Joe and his wife and then came to Baltimore to make a speech. After the Baltimore stop they went on to D.C.

Everyone got into the spririt of things:

We live about 1 mile from the train station and the street in front of our apartment building and several other streets around our neighborhood were completely shut down. You couldn't park your car on the street and when it got close to the time they were going to be here, you were not even allowed to be on the street.

Barak was going to give his speech at 4:15, so we left at 3:00 to go down to the War Memorial Plaza. We had to go through a metal detector, which went surprisingly quickly. There were quite a few people there, but I think that the cold weather kept a lot of people away.

Morgan State choir performed before the president elect showed up. They were very entertaining.

When Obama arrived (on time, which was surprising) there were about 4 people that were introduced before him. Every time a new person was introduced and it wasn't Obama the whole crowd groaned. It was pretty funny. Some people had been there since 1:00 pm, so I think they were getting cold and crabby.

Obama's speech was very good, short and sweet. I was very glad that we went.