Hello Everyone,

Some of you may have wondered what happened to me this summer (specifically my mom).  It was a really busy summer with all kinds of cool activities and I did most of my blogging as Utterli posts. Utterli is cool because it allows me to use my phone and do what I call micro-blogging right on the spot. My utterz post to my web page under (This and That) and they also post to my twitter account (Psyan). Here is a recap of my summer. I drove across the USA via the south, spent 5 weeks at Goddard Space Flight Center, explored the New England area, spent a week in Corpus Christi, Texas, flew to England for a conference at Oxford, and drove back across the USA via the norther route. All-in-all it was a great summer. My utterz below capture what I did. It is similar to a run-on sentence that never ends but if you at least scroll down to around the time I head off to Boston you will find that my description become a lot richer in detail.

Heading across the USA with my best friend Diana Connor.

First big stop is Texas. Big Bend has been on the must see list for a long time so Di and I set out to make it happen on our cross-country adventure.

We dusted off the dirt from Texas and headed to the big easy for some gumbo!

A quick drive through Mississippi and Alabama.

Finally in Viginia at my Aunt Gin’s house. I have a summer research position at Goddard Space Flight Center and Diana also has internships in the DC area (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and NIH) so we are both hanging out at my Aunts house and taking road trips on the weekends.

I headed to Corpus Christi, Texas for a week of remote sensing training with iGETT crew. I learned a tremendous amount by being a part of this NSF funded grant. I hope more opportunities like this will come my way.

Back in DC area, Diana I continue to explore the region while I await my phone call from NASA.

A “No” call from NASA and my awesome iGETT friends send me flowers to help cheer me up.

What exactly did I do at Goddard? I spent five weeks working with Dr. Wayne Esaias on his research with honey bees. I didn’t know anything about honey bees but I learned all kinds of fascinating information such as how extremely important bees are for pollinating our food supply. Goddard was a terrific experience and I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity.

Getting a chance to see some the cool place around the DC area was great. I really enjoyed getting to know my Aunt Gin better and trying to beat her at scrabble every weekend.

My time at Goddard is over and hit the road for the rest of the summer. My first destination was to see my brother Langley in Boston. But first I needed to do some gambling with my Aunt Gin and Diana in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

I hopped on the train and headed from Atlantic City to Boston via NYC. My brother picked me up in Boston and we immediately headed to the cape. I spent the next week exploring the New England area and getting to all kinds of places. My brother let me borrow his wife’s car and I ended up putting 1,000 miles on it!

Acadia National Park, Maine

Providence Rhode Island

I flew back to DC so that I could catch a Virgin Atlantic flight to Oxford, England. I attended the Gordon Conference on Visualization in Science Research & Education. It’s one of the best conferences I attend and if you love science visualization I highly recommend this conference. I was presenting a poster on my work with iGETT.

Back in USA and headed across the country from DC to Phoenix via the northern route. Diana still had her internship at NIH so I hit the road on my own. Flying solo is always a great way to get in touch with yourself and the two weeks driving across the US gave me plenty of time to think about this last year with NASA and put my life in perspective. I headed first to Ohio to see my Grandmother, visit my fathers grave, and to see my sister and her family. My sisters kids are Denali, Shena, and Jackson.

I next drove to Wisconsin and spent two great days with Diana’s family. They treat me like I’m part of the family and I enjoyed biking, eating, playing games, and talking with them.

I headed across South Dakota and couldn’t wait to get to the west side with all the great national parks, monuments, and historical sites.

I finally finished my vacation in Wyoming. As a geologist I needed to see three great places (Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons).

I got a great shot of this moose cooling off in the river as I hiked Cascade Canyon Trail.

I high-tailed it home and have started back at school. The fall is going to be really busy. I will be teaching a full load, and I am also taking classes in space studies, writing my novel, and possibly doing some research at honeywell on the Ares capsule. Most of my blogging will be on uterli under This and That on my web page. Just push the forward button (Not the play button) to see my previous posts. Take care everyone and I hope you are all enjoying life to the max! Sian