Live from San Francisco....It's Helicobacternc!

And so, I have returned to the livejournal world after an extended absence. Things have been crazy lately with all the trips I have taken. Currently, I'm sitting in our hotel room at the San Francisco Marriot. Tamara and I are at the International Union of Microbiological Societies meeting. I am attending as her guest, and actually almost have the full benefits of being an actual registered participant. My ticket was about $80 cheaper than Tamara's, but she got a bag and a couple of books. Fortunately, I "found" a bag and, quite honestly, do not need the books. Today, our plan is to take the day off and do the Fisherman's Wharf thing, possibly Alcatraz, and Ghiradhelli (sp?) square. We have sheduled a bus tour of the city for tomorrow afternoon, which will be nice. The weather here is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! The rest of the country seems to be in a heat wave, but here, with the onshore breeze from the Pacific, the temperature is expected to reach 73F with clear skies. Could it be any better? So far, the conference has been okay - we are 1 and 0 with the two symposiums we attended - the first one was pretty good - or at least one of the speakers was very interesting. But, the second one (on RNA Polymerase structure and function) left a LOT to be desired.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, Jason and I were in Oregon visiting my family - had a wonderful time, but quickly realized that we need AT LEAST 1 and 1/2 weeks to do a sufficient visit. But, the time we got to spend with everyone was very nice. We are already planning another trip back to the PNW around Christmas with our Australian friend Michelle. In Oregon, we spent most of our time driving - 2200 miles to be specific. We flew into Seattle, got a rental car, and drove to Portland where we stayed the night at David and Stacey's house. Carrie drove up that evening from Lebanon and spent the entire week with us, which was really nice. The next day, we had a barbeque at my grandpa's house with the whole family (or most of them at least) to celebrate my grandpa's 85th birthday. Had a great time - my grandpa looks like he is doing well. After that, began our trek to Klamath Falls, via the Oregon Coast. Drove to Lebanon to see the progress Carrie has made on her house, then over to Corvallis, where we stopped to pick up some souvenirs from Oregon State University, then made our way over to Newport. Drove to down to Coos Bay and stayed the night. Next morning, we got up and drove down into California to see the Redwoods at Jedediah State Park near the Smith River. Waded in the river a bit (splashed Carrie and got her soaking wet - although, she did a comparable amount of splashing and soaked me as well), then we began travelling back north, stopping at Cave Junction, Oregon for lunch (at Dairy Queen). After that, we drove from Cave Junction to Klamath Falls where we stopped for a couple of days for some much needed rest. On the day before we flew back to NC, we drove from Klamath Falls to Seattle - about a 10-11 hour drive. We dropped Carrie off in Lebanon on our way back up to Seattle...was definitely the longest day by far. Stayed the night just inside Tacoma, and then drove to the airport the next morning. It was a great trip - but definitely not long enough.

In between trips, I've been trying to redeem myself in the lab - getting the RT-PCR optimized, since it has been irritating me lately. I finally got some results just before I left for this trip. Also took a trip to the coast with 3 of my lab mates - we took a boat onto the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and got oysters for our Vibrio studies. Took our oysters to UNC-Wilmington (their Marine Research Science Center on the coast) and used Dr. Sizemore's lab to process our samples. We anticipated it would take a lot longer than it actually did. But, we finished up around 5pm, went to have dinner near Wrightsville Beach, and then drove back to Charlotte. Arrived back at Liza's house around 9pm, then I had another hour drive to get back to Gastonia. It was a great experience - I really, really enjoy doing environmental work like that, where we actually go out into the field and take samples and readings. It was great, even though it didn't apply to my research at all.

Well, Tamara and I are off to breakfast and then to Fisherman's Wharf!