Dan's volleyball skills have improved a ton since we moved to the bay area (playing two days a week at work with a former pro-beach volleyball player helps) and we both have been getting better at playing outdoor volleyball so we decided that it was time to enter our first outdoor tournament. We entered a "Reverse Hybrid Random Draw Co-ed Doubles & Quads Tournament" ... a mouthful which means that you play on a women's net so the women can hit from the front row and the men hit from behind the ten-foot line. In the morning they randomly match up the doubles teams to form teams of four and you play four different games with four different partners which seeds the teams for the afternoon single-elimination tournament.
We did OK in the morning and finished at #8 out of the 18 teams in the tournament. However, in the afternoon, we ended up surprising everyone (and ourselves) by making it all the way to the semi-finals. We probably could have made it to the finals, but I think we psyched ourselves out a bit against the last team we played who were both really big hitters so we lost 21-25. All in all, we thought that this was a very successful first outdoor tournament. Plus, I thought it was a blast that I got to finally hit on a women's net for the first time since moving to California.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
ASME conference in Tahoe
Last week I headed up to Lake Tahoe for my first time since moving to California to attend the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Summer Bioengineering Conference. The conference was hosted at a beautiful resorts with a huge pool (complete with water slides and hot tubs) and tons of hiking trails which made it difficult to stay inside for the conference. However, while most conferences I've been to run from 7am-9pm everyday this one was only in the morning so we had the whole afternoon to go out and explore.
On our first afternoon off An and I joined with Tom Andriacchi's lab to go on a white-water rafting trip down the Trukee river. We were a big group and had 5 full rafts heading down the river. Since this was the first time I'd been rafting I was a bit nervous but for the first two-hours of the trip the water was so calm we spent more time in water fights than going down rapids. However, as our guide warned us, the last 20 minutes of the trip was by far the most intense - a series of class 3 rapids in rapid succession. Looking down the rapids I was sure that our boat was going to flip and I was going to be swimming in the freezing cold water. However, in the end, we all made it down safely with a few close calls but no one ended up in the water.
After a bit more stimulating conference talk, on our second afternoon we went for a beautiful hike up the end of the valley alongside a creek with a ton of waterfalls. Afterwords, we joined the conference to watch a group of 5 professors sing in their own band and enjoy some tasty food. That is one thing there is never a shortage of at conferences ... lots of tasty food. This conference also had an amazing hot chocolate setup with whip-cream and chocolate chunks that was to die for.
An and I were both excited for the end of the conference as Dan and Chuck were able to drive up and spend the weekend with us at the resort. We had Saturday morning off so we decided to ride our bikes from the resort down to Tahoe City for some breakfast. This was a great, easy ride with the reward of delicious huevos rancheros at the end. We also played a bit of tennis and swam in the pools before heading inside for the conference. That night we also had the banquet where I received an honorable mention in the abstract competition for my abstract "Crouch gait represents a simplified support strategy." I was pretty excited as this was my first conference award and I got a free copy of abacus, a finite element software.
Sunday the conference was over and Dan and I decided to drive around the west side of the lake and explore some of the parks along the shore. Needless to say, the lake was beautiful and we had a great time hiking and exploring the area ... I wish every conference could be this wonderful.
On our first afternoon off An and I joined with Tom Andriacchi's lab to go on a white-water rafting trip down the Trukee river. We were a big group and had 5 full rafts heading down the river. Since this was the first time I'd been rafting I was a bit nervous but for the first two-hours of the trip the water was so calm we spent more time in water fights than going down rapids. However, as our guide warned us, the last 20 minutes of the trip was by far the most intense - a series of class 3 rapids in rapid succession. Looking down the rapids I was sure that our boat was going to flip and I was going to be swimming in the freezing cold water. However, in the end, we all made it down safely with a few close calls but no one ended up in the water.
After a bit more stimulating conference talk, on our second afternoon we went for a beautiful hike up the end of the valley alongside a creek with a ton of waterfalls. Afterwords, we joined the conference to watch a group of 5 professors sing in their own band and enjoy some tasty food. That is one thing there is never a shortage of at conferences ... lots of tasty food. This conference also had an amazing hot chocolate setup with whip-cream and chocolate chunks that was to die for.
An and I were both excited for the end of the conference as Dan and Chuck were able to drive up and spend the weekend with us at the resort. We had Saturday morning off so we decided to ride our bikes from the resort down to Tahoe City for some breakfast. This was a great, easy ride with the reward of delicious huevos rancheros at the end. We also played a bit of tennis and swam in the pools before heading inside for the conference. That night we also had the banquet where I received an honorable mention in the abstract competition for my abstract "Crouch gait represents a simplified support strategy." I was pretty excited as this was my first conference award and I got a free copy of abacus, a finite element software.
Sunday the conference was over and Dan and I decided to drive around the west side of the lake and explore some of the parks along the shore. Needless to say, the lake was beautiful and we had a great time hiking and exploring the area ... I wish every conference could be this wonderful.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Graduation
Even though I finished my master's degree in December Stanford only holds one graduation ceremony a year so as of last Sunday I have now officially "walked" for graduation. My parents and Dan's mom came out for the weekend and we did a bit of exploring around the bay area. During one of our excursions we took a hike through the redwoods and I finally saw my first banana slug! Dan was right .... they do exist. We also headed down to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the huge elephant seals lying on the beach. There were a lot more males on the beach at this time of the year and the entire island off the coast was covered by elephant seals who were incredibly noisy. The actual graduation ceremony was a bit of a let down. They have one big graduation ceremony in the football stadium which was long, hot, and non-inspiring. Supreme court justice Anthony Kennedy did give a good speech, although it wasn't quite the thrill of Oprah who spoke last year. The department ceremony was even duller - enough said. I guess it just didn't compare to the school-wide ceremony from Mines. Oh well ... I'll give it another try in 3-4 years :)
Banana Slug!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Mines Memorial Day BBQ
An amazing number of our friends from the Colorado School of Mines have ended up living in the Bay Area. However, the Bay Area is a big place and between all our busy schedules we rarely get to see one another. Therefore, Dan and I decided to host a BBQ over Memorial Day weekend. We ended up with a pretty good tournout - Lindsey, Jim, and Phil who are all current Stanford students, Audrey & hubby Griffin from San Francisco, Sarah whose a pharmacy student at UCSF, Sarah's older brother Brian who actually lives in our building (and also went to Mines), Amanda from San Jose, and as an added bonus Jessica and Chris who just happened to be visiting from Colorado that weekend. We had tons of delicious food, a bit of bocce ball, and a lot of catching up - we will have to get together more often!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Yosemite Spoiled
This past weekend Dan and I were spoiled in Yosemite. Thanks to a kind wedding present we got to spend a "romantic weekend" away at the Awahnee Lodge in Yosemite valley. It was supposed to be for our first anniversary but since I went to a conference (sorry Dan!) the trip was postponed til the spring. The Awahnee lodge was absolutely beautiful and we got a room on the top floor with an amazing view of the valley and waterfalls. The chocolate covered strawberries and champagne were the perfect way to start off our weekend.
Our room was the window at the topThe best part of going the first weekend in May was that the waterfalls and rivers were all flowing at high water - so powerful and amazing! My favorite trail was the mist trail (very appropriately named) which goes 3.5 miles up right beside two massive waterfalls and the raging river. Near the first falls you go up a set of stairs right beside the waterfall but since there was so much water the stairs and the cliff above had turned into a waterfall ... we ran through but needless to say we were drenched.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Pinnacles National Monument
This past weekend we went on a last minute camping trip with a few people from my lab two hours south to Pinnacles National Monument. I had never even heard of Pinnacles before but it was absolutely amazing! Basically combine caves with beautiful views and great hiking and you get Pinnacles. We did a big 10 mile loop around (the park is pretty small) which took us through the 2 main caves and up into the hills for great scenics. We were all really tired by the time we got back to camp, but Jon, Melinda's boyfriend made a super tasty dinner of teriyaki burgers with pineapple - a felt so spoiled after all that hiking!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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