Hot springs

Today for our free day we slept in, ate breakfast, went back to sleep, then took a trip to the nearby Elkhorn Hot Springs.  It was about a 45 minute drive from our dorms at UM Western and was worth the $6 admission.  It was snowy outside the ~95º pool, up in the mountains in a national forest - a great contrast.  Afterward we went in the 105º sauna.  It was soooo relaxing - such a good way to spend a free day.

After dinner today we went out in the field and played frisbee for awhile. Lots of running around, felt good though, it was fun.

We're leaving at 10:00 am tomorrow for Yellowstone national park, where we'll camp for two nights, and where our second professor will join us for the second half of field camp :), and we'll lose our current professor :*(. Be back sunday night.  Remember, sunday is me and my twin sister's 22nd birthday and father's day! I hope I have cell reception on sunday to make phone calls.

Project #2 done

Our second project was just turned in at 6:00 pm! 

We worked on our day off on it all day, on the 8th, and we worked all day on it yesterday and today... 48 hours like, STRAIGHT.  It was tough.  

We're all going out for beeeers.

And, our field test was cancelled/is optional for tomorrow. So we get a real off day tomorrow. The last off day on the 8th was actually used as a work day, so we got the test day in the field cancelled as a reward for working so hard. 

Friday morning we leave for Yellowstone for a field trip within this giant field trip.

snow day

I totally forgot to mention this yesterday!

During our field day on the 7th, it snowed!  It was awesome!  The entire day was filled with removing beanies and jackets and replacing them with caps/visors and just wearing light sweatshirts, because it kept getting hot and sunny and then very cold and threatening, and then it finally snowed for about a half-hour, almost tiny little hail-balls.

We could see the curtain of snow moving over a valley towards us right before it hit us, and then we radio-ed to others on a ridge next to us that it was snowing, and they were like "not here - oh, yes it is!" when the wave hit them.

It instantly improved my mood. I love snow.

It was the first snow ever for a member of our field camp group who is from Thailand.

It snowed again for a few minutes around 1 or 2pm, and other than that it was on and off chilly and warm.  Montana is a land of strange unpredictable weather.

Rat's Nest

Yesterday me and my field partner visited "the rat's nest", a small but very complicated area of our field location near Block Mountain, MT, which all of us have been avoiding.  It sucked and was really perplexing, and we have to revisit it tomorrow.  

But for now, today is our day off. After we left the field at 5:30 yesterday we stopped at the "taco bus" a local authentic mexican place, where I actually found a vegan dinner for $3 (everybody else's were $7 or $8, and they got second plates because that was just for three meat tacos).  It was just simple nachos with meatless beans and all the avocado they had left, and a delicious spicy salsa.  

Then last night we went out for beers at Rookies, that was a lot of fun.  I slept in til 10:00am, but my roommate got up at 7:00~ish for breakfast in the dorm caf, and she got me a banana like I asked, which made my breakfast.

Then we went out to errands. Then came back and napped.

Currently watching V for Vendetta ($10 DVDs were on sale buy one get one free at the local Alco) while working on a stereonet for the anticline in the field area, and a topographic profile for a cross section through a hypothetical potential well location in the area to look for hydrocarbons.

I really love this movie.  Stephen Fry!  Natalie Portman!  V!

I also got to download and watch friday's Battlestar Galactica episode, which was totally great and made me cry.  Best show ever!

and jenny just sat on a stereonet tack hahaha

I am enjoying this day off.