There aren’t too many things that are more fun than spending a morning watching a bunch of labs frolic around in a pond.
LCB’s third anniversary
Heather noted that most of the better attended meetups happened to be ones that I threw together. I think I just got volunteered for stuff.
Today’s third anniversary meetup turned out pretty well. Had about 20 bloggers and tweeters show up, possibly much to the dismay of the lone newbie waitress working the patio area who was expecting a slow evening. I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers that showed.
It’s always good to get together and I think everybody had a pretty good time.
Several #jaredrumours were being formulated.
First Flush haul
Turned out to be a fantastic day for the First Flush Festival at the Charleston Tea Plantation. Met up with a few people from the photo meetup group and wandered around enjoying the festival and taking pictures.
This is what I came back with
A tin of green tea, two peach and two of the First Flush to resupply my stock from last year.
Las Vegas excursion
Travel pain aside, my weekend excursion to Vegas was a pretty good time.
On the way, there were cool sights like this to see. Not entirely sure where the plane was, but the pilot said we were passing by the Grand Canyon when I started taking these pictures.
Went to Vegas mostly to meet up with Rick and Mike and hang out. Since Sara is in that area too, we met up with her also. We were supposed to be there for Mark’s “wedding”, but he stood us up. We still had a good time anyway.
Took me a little bit to track down Rick when I got into Vegas, but eventually I tracked him down. After dumping my stuff off in the hotel room, we headed off to wander the strip and find some grub. First stop was the Vegas Hilton to see what was left of the Star Trek Experience. The Experience is gone, but oddly enough the Starfleet logo remains on the Hilton’s sign out front.
Then we hopped on the monorail to the end and decided to wander the Strip starting at the Luxor back to our hotel (Circus Circus). Turns out the Strip is a lot longer than it looks on the map.
The next day we met up with fellow geek Sara and spent a good chunk of the morning in the geek nirvana known as Fry’s. After, we decided to go for wings at, fittingly enough, Buffalo Wild Wings (a bit of an inside joke).
The rest of the evening we spent hanging out and talking at one of the hotel bars.
The trip home took almost as much time as I spent in Vegas.
Sea turtle release: DeBordieu
From the SC Aquarium‘s turtle lady:
I have exciting news to share! Recent findings of DeBordieu, 320-pound adult female loggerhead of the Aquarium’s Turtle Hospital since October 2007, have caused us to make some quick decisions concerning her release. DeBordieu is currently producing follicles (yolks) in preparation for the nesting season that is just around the corner. Just in the last week, she has gone into migratory mode with almost constant swimming. She is also completely refusing food. I have just learned that adult female loggerheads have a very small window of mating receptivity. Before and after the small window, the females actually repulse the males. In light of this information, it is very important that DeBordieu get released as soon as possible so that she does not miss that mating window. Mating will allow her to fertilize the follicles and ultimately lead to a productive nesting season. Current water temperatures are in a safe range, especially for an adult animal of Deb’s size.
DeBordieu will be released on Saturday, May 2nd at the Isle of Palms (IOP) County Park at 10am. I hope that you will be able to join us for this release, even with the short notice. The IOP County Park parking lot opens at 9am and parking fees will apply. An extra day will be added to the hospital tour schedule this week so folks can get a chance to see Deb before the Saturday morning release (Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at 1pm). Including Deb, there are currently 9 patients in the Turtle Hospital. Tour information can be found on the Aquariums website at www.scaquarium.org.
The release will be wonderfully timed with the start of sea turtle season in South Carolina. The majority of SC barrier island light’s out ordinances start May 1 and loggerhead nesting begins soon after.
You can keep up with what’s going on with the SC Aquarium‘s Sea Turtle Rescue on their blog.