The Abridged Version  

2009 Summer-  Florida to California, California to Texas, plus side trips

•  Even more epic time to come. Can I survive two months of Texas summer?
  

2008 Summer- All Points US

• As I write this, I am realizing how tired I am of airports! I left the day school ended to help a friend move to Florida. We stopped in Tombstone, AZ and New Orleans! The rest is a blur....I flew from there to New England to visit family and friends. I returned to Texas soon after for a conference in Dallas, where it was WAY too hot; and then attended another in Chicago. It was an epic summer :) 
  

2007 Summer- New Zealand, Toronto, and NE

• I flew 14 hours to NZ to see my friend Sarah and her new husband;) Sarah and I met through the World Scholar Athlete Games, as participants and alumnae volunteers. I spent almost a month traveling the North and South Islands by train, boat, and bus. I saw sheep farms, mountains, waterfalls, and glaciers; and ate whitebait fritters with Radler- it is the most beautiful place I have been to so far.  I had two days turn-around before I was off to Boston, Vermont, and RI for the Deathly Hallows Book release and concert circuit....followed by another cross country trip with Susan to Toronto for a conference! The way summer should be: refreshing and relaxing. And non-stop adventures!
  

2003-2006  Walden West Outdoor School, Saratoga CA  

• If you met me here, you may know me as Frog or Paradise! During the school year, fifth and sixth graders attended four or five day residential Outdoor School (Science Camp) programs. We hiked in the Santa Cruz Mountains learning about ecology and community building during the day. At night I helped run campfire, astronomy, night hike (no flashlights!), and quiz night programs. Some weeks I also "Hubbed," running meals, coordinating activities, performing first aid- and helping homesick students. The PA system played the best music these weeks...I also completed CalStateTeach during 2005-2006. I spent so much time with the classroom teachers that I decided that teaching elementary students should be my next career! 
• During the summer, Tundra and I ran "The Core." This is Walden West's climbing wall and high ropes course. Our specialized cabin leaders belayed while we leader checked campers to keep everyone safe. I also helped out the regular day camp leaders, participated in the campfire program, and led groups during Wild Things!, the 4/5/6 year old program. Friday afternoons we mostly ate ice cream and played in the pool.
  

•  The bird biologists of the Project were so busy bringing Murres back to Devil's Slide and San Pedro Rocks after the years of egg stealing and a big oil spill, they needed someone to visit local schools. I brought the Murre decoys to local schools to be painted by students after we had discussed bird biology and ecology. I loved climbing the Rocks to help recover/deploy the decoys- we belayed ourselves on precarious guano covered ledges with seals and sharks circling below! The jump from the Zodiac to the Rocks were death-defying alone! 

•  A five day cross country trip brought me to the Northwest coast of California. I spent three months teaching three and four day programs at the only residential outdoor school (science camp) run by the National Park Service. I helped develop new programs and create materials, in addition to exploring the beautiful areas in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties. The Rangers made sure we interns saw the restoration efforts to remediate logging with huge earth movers, Fern Canyon where they filmed parts of Jurassic Park, and even the "Tall Trees"- the first area of Coastal Redwoods protected in the Park. 
• **If you haven't visited this National Park yet, put it on your life list!

• From Orick, I drove down to the Bay Area expecting to stay three months...which extended to eight...and then five years! At the Refuge I worked at the Environmental Education Center in Alviso, assisting with elementary through college fieldtrips to the Refuge, assisting special programs (including the Centennial Celebration where I learned to rule PageMaker), and directing the one week Summer Camp. I was also able to help at the six other sites included in the Don Edwards Refuge Complex. It was amazing fun living in Trailerville in Newark, driving the government vehicles, and working with the public to protect the diminishing natural resources around the San Francisco Bay.    

1998-2002  Head Student Athletic Trainer 
                                Bates College, ME  

• I picked Bates out of a hat, and it was wonderful! Even with the snow drifts taller than the buildings, I loved Bates and Maine. After trying safe walking at night, helping in the audio department, and tutoring, I ended up working in the Sports Medicine Department at Bates. I had shadowed the trainer at PAS senior year, and hoped to apprentice into certification. Freshman year I worked with all the teams. Sophomore year I traveled with women's volleyball and men's track. Junior year I chose not to go abroad to work with American football (!), men's ice hockey, and anything else. Senior year I worked with everyone, almost acting as a certified trainer. I can't watch sporting events any more without waiting for an injury. And I miss my golf cart. But not the forty pound supply bag! 

• Bates College has a wonderful Service Learning Program. I spent the summer of 2000 working at the Aquarium, teaching summer people about the creatures in our touch tanks: lobsters, sea cucumbers, dog sharks, skates, sea anemones, shellfish, sea stars, etc. We also gave talks about the Aquarium buildings and its art, and lobstering. In 2001 I returned to run their Summer Programs. I loved directing the programs, and going on the cruise that set the shrimp and groundfish limits in the Gulf of Maine. 

•  Organic baking next to a rural farm stand? Fresh corn every morning? Ginger lemonade? What a great way to earn money in the summer in a tiny town where lifeguarding is becoming more dangerous!  
  

• My hometown closed their high school in 1966 when my dad was a senior. I was lucky enough to win scholarships to a few boarding schools, and ended up at PAS. It has a monastery on the grounds, a Holy Lawn, buildings designed by Pietro Belluschi, and went co-ed three years before I entered as a boarder! We went to school six days a week, and had sports after classes. It was harder than college in many ways, but helped shaped me immensely. The monks were amazing to talk to, and I still appreciate that Father Paschal signed me out of study hall so we could watch Buffy!
  Summer 1996 I sailed with Sea Education Association out of Woods Hole MA. This really changed my life, making me obsessed with pirates and turning my interest from marine sciences to becoming a sailing captain or navigator like my great grandfather. 

• I met students from all over the world, went to amazing music events, and participated in programs in art, swimming, and writing. I even went back to volunteer!

• Where it all began...the same school and teachers my father had. You could ride your bike to school, and to the beach after to surf! K-8, 400 or less students, and almost exactly the same today as I remember it. Except they had to get rid of the AMAZING wooden playground we helped build in 1988. I wonder if they still do that geneology project utilizing the local Commons graveyards where the whole class of 40 finds out they are all related to each other?