More wildlife at work

It appears the cold weather is driving the critters indoors at work.  Yesterday I was sitting at my computer when I noticed a spider crawling on my lap.  The leg span of the thing was about 2".  I looked down, saw it, then jumped up to brush it off me!

Today I was closing up the lab for the weekend when I saw something on the floor move.  It was a baby snake, which I scared into this resting spot:

I didn't see any rattles, but I still didn't want to get bitten, so I got the broom and swept it outside.  Here it is on the way down the hallway:

And here it is coiled up on the mat by the door before I swept it outside:

From what I can find online, this looks like a gopher snake or a bullsnake.

Tampa

On Sunday, May 5th, I flew to Tampa to install my instrument on the P-3.

Here's a picture of MacDill AFB flying in.  The NOAA hangar is on the far right -- you can see one of the P-3's parked on the tarmac:

The first thing we did when we got there was go to Clearwater Beach.

The work week went smoothly.  Here is a picture of my instrument after I had installed it.  The complicated-looking inlet belongs to the other instrument in my rack.

This is the P-3 we are going to use:

I'll head back to Tampa the week of Memorial Day for test flights.  We are scheduled to transit to Tennessee on June 3rd.

Vienna

I went to Vienna for the European Geosciences Union meeting.  I got there a couple of days early to do some sightseeing.  Unfortunately, it was cool and overcast for the first few days.  The first thing I took a picture of after getting of the train was the hotel I stayed in the last time I was in Vienna!

For the first two nights, I stayed at a hotel situated in an alley, which had a nice European feel.

As nice as the cobblestones look, they are kind of a pain to walk on.

I went to the Albertina museum, which had some drawings by Rubens and Rembrandt.  They also had Albrecht Duerer's Young Hare, as well as some paintings by Picasso.  Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

I went for a nice long walk on Saturday, much of it along the Donaukanal (the canal that connects old town Vienna to the Danube).

Many of the trees along the canal, like the one on the right bank, had ball-shaped plants living in them.  I'm not sure what they are.

On Sunday, I walked around Prater park, a huge park across the canal from my hotel.

The park is home to the Riesenrad, or giant wheel, a Ferris wheel built in the late 1800s.

According to Wikipedia, it appeared in such movies as The Third Man and The Living Daylights, which I guess is the large Ferris wheel in this movie poster.

At this pond, there was a strong smell of ozone, so I took this picture then promptly left the area.

Note more of those plants in the trees.

Also on Sunday, I moved to a hotel near to the conference site.  I had a nice view of the Kaiserwasser out my window.

Of the nine days I was there, only three or four were sunny. 

At the end of the week, thanks to a birthday present from Sara, I went to the Volksoper to take in the opera, Die Fledermaus.

 

It was the first opera I've seen.  There were subtitles on the screen at the top of the curtain (supratitles?), but they were more of a general paraphrasing of the action, so I missed most of the jokes and subtleties of the dialogue.  

Overall, it was a fun trip.  I never quite got over my jet lag, so hopefully I won't have to readjust too much now that I'm home!

Test Flight

Today we had our first test flight. Here's the Twin Otter out on the tarmac:


Since we had a short flight, we were able to fly three scientists. Pawel and I sat in the back, while Thomas sat up by his instrument.


It was a tight fit!

Our flight plan had us flying south along the coast. I finally got a good view of Pebble Beach:


We flew past Point Lobos:


This is one of the bridges along the Pacific Coast Highway:


I took plenty of pictures of the coast.


Here's Pfeiffer Beach, the place I saw the skunk:


Then we turned around and went home, at which point I was on the ocean side of the plane. So I'll skip ahead to the landing. Here's our approach through the Salinas Valley, home of artichoke, strawberry, raspberry, cauliflower, and cabbage fields.


Pawel snapped this picture of me before we landed:


It was a successful test flight -- my instrument performed well enough that I can head home tomorrow!

More Marina

Last night, I went to the Marina State Beach again (the same place I went Sunday night) for sunset. It is now less than a 10 minute walk from my hotel.




This morning, I decided to walk to work. It took about an hour (including a slight detour to Starbucks!).

I first passed by a small pond near my hotel


where I met a goose and two ducks along the path.


I was a little concerned because the goose kept honking at me, until I realized they just wanted food. Later on, a duck flew up to me hoping for food as well.


Today at work, we installed the racks in the plane. That's mine in the foreground:


Tonight, we went to Monterey again for dinner. From our table, we could see the restaurant we ate at three nights ago:


Other than that fence, the view was nice!



UPDATE: This is a picture Thomas took of (L to R) me, Abhinav, and Pawel after we got the rack into the plane.

Moss Landing

It was a productive day -- I'm pretty much done installing my instrument in its rack.


Tonight for dinner we went to Moss Landing. There were several sea lions sleeping on the docks.



I walked out to the closest unoccupied dock to take this picture.


Then we had dinner at Phil's Fish Market.

Monterey

With the arrival of the rest of the scientists from Boulder, I've moved out of the house in Salinas and into a hotel in Marina.

This evening, we went to Monterey for dinner. We parked at Fisherman's Wharf:


The wharf was full of sea lions, harbor seals, pelicans, sea gulls, and cormorants. I took several pictures of this sea lion basking on a rock (to the left in the first picture).



We walked down Cannery Row, which wasn't all that exciting.



After a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant, we walked back along the wharf -- and the sea lion was still there!


Swimming nearby was another sea lion. It happened to look at me as I was taking its picture.


I'm mostly done with the installation of my instrument into its rack. Maybe tomorrow I'll have it running on the ground.

Installation on the CIRPAS Twin Otter

I am now in Salinas, California to install my instrument on the CIRPAS Twin Otter. CIRPAS stands for the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies, and is part of the Naval Postgraduate School. The school is in Monterey, but the hangar is up the road in Marina. I'll be here for about a week installing, then I'll hand over control of my instrument to a graduate student from Cal.

Last night, we swung by Marina State Beach.


It was extremely windy


so most people stayed in their cars, then jumped out to take pictures of the sunset.


Today was a productive day. I got most of the big things into my rack.


Eventually, it will go into the Twin Otter.