So far Katie and I are still working on our PowerPoint presentation for the EPA. We should hopefully be done by later this week and be able to present by next Tuesday! It is crazy how fast this summer has gone by. Next week is our final symposium for Sea Grant where we have to give a short presentation and create a poster. In our last week I’ll be writing my reflection paper and most likely helping Jody and Darryl process some more data for the project.

As for this past weekend’s adventure, I went up to Washington for the first time and visited Mt. Rainier National Park. I stayed in Yakima, Washington (since it was fairly close to Mt. Rainier) and the drive up there wasn’t at all what I expected. It was mostly desert (which now makes sense since we are on the leeward side of the Cascade Mountains) and reminded me of the landscapes in Utah and Nevada. The most shocking part was that the first day I got there, the weather hit 114 degrees Fahrenheit! A HUGE change from the steady 65 degrees in Newport. To get to Yakima I had to drive through the Columbia River Gorge. Which, if you are ever in the area, I highly suggest going to. I’m not entirely sure how much you can do there but it was surrounded by vineyards and there were many kite and wind surfers so it looked like a really fun place! As you move further towards Mt. Rainier the area becomes densely forested and reminds me more of the Pacific North West. The mountain and its surrounding land were beautiful. There were some really cool hikes that I would have loved to do if I had more time, I’ll definitely have to go back!