California

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog lately, but I've been busy!  Last week I was in California all wee for a work retreat.  I was a little apprehensive about going, but it turned out to be a great trip and I learned a lot about my coworkers and did some great networking, so all in all it was a success!

Alcatraz

We flew out on Monday into San Fransisco.  We arrived a little before lunch and didn't have to check in to our retreat site until late afternoon, so we decided to do a little sight seeing.  Highlights included Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz (we didn't actually tour the island, just gawked at it from afar), and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a short sightseeing side trip, but it was a nice day and it was fun to look around!

Golden Gate Bridge

 We then headed south a few hours to Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula.  The retreat grounds had housing and conference rooms as well as a dining hall and "social hall" which was a nice place to hang out in the evenings.  The grounds are open to vacationers and retreat folks like ourselves, so we ran into an assortment of individuals.  Most of our mornings were spent team building and the afternoons had some sort of activity.  Evenings usually started out structured and then networking and social time followed.  My team was fairly competitive but didn't win Jeopardy (!) and our sand castle left something to be desired, but we had fun none the less.

Monterey Bay

Jellyfish!

One afternoon we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was pretty great.  Most of their exhibits focused on fish native to the kelp forests that are found in the Monterey Bay area, but there were some tropical species and also special exhibits on jellyfish and sea horses.  It was a very nice aquarium and is actually in some old cannery buildings which still has some of the equipment in it.  Very neat.  We also wandered a bit around Cannery Row in Monterey, which has a nice little fisherman's village (drenched with tourism) feel to it.

There's a seal on the top of the round white rock at the top of the picture!

Cannery Row, Monterey

My team and our sandcastle.  We didn't come close to winning.

 The retreat had about 70 individuals in attendance, and I may have met half before the retreat.  Many others I email frequently but had never met, and many have never previously interacted with.  I would guess a third were from Iowa, another third from California, and the remainder from locations in South America and stretched across the Midwest.  A diverse group with a range of experience and knowledge which made for a great learning experience.

The coastline

 Another afternoon activity was the 17 mile drive by bike.  I didn't go all 17 miles--it was threatening rain and  it was a shared, winding road-- but I did see some nice coastline and also watched seals playing at Bird Island.  We could actually hear them before we even pulled up to the overlook.  In the picture below you can see all the birds on top of the island, but lower on the island is another group of small black dots--those are seals.  There were many in the water playing as well, but I didn't take the nice camera so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Bird Island

 After the retreat concluded on Thursday, a handful of colleagues I work closely with hopped back in the car and drove a few hours north to Davis where we spent the night.  Being a college town, we went out to take in the scene and had too much fun and too little sleep, but great bonding with the coworkers.  Friday we visited the station near Davis, walked some corn, and then hopped on a plane that didn't leave for 2 hours.  Missed our connection in Denver because of the delay and spent some quality time in the airport waiting for a hotel.  When we finally go to the hotel a little after midnight (without our luggage, mind you), there was a blackout.  Longest day ever.  Got back on Saturday only a little worse for the wear, but was happy to be home.

Playing catch up at work this week, and this weekend started out with Idina Menzel (who was amazing, by the way), and today my mom is coming to town and we're having people over for supper.  Tomorrow I move back into the dorms for the week for the State 4-H Conference.  Preparing to be exhausted and procrastinating on the packing.  You likely won't hear from me for another week or so--those kids will be keeping me busy and also sleep-deprived!