Planes, Trains & Automobiles... well planes and automobiles that is

My second home trip was another whirl wind of flights, delayed baggage, cancelled flights, one of my longest and closest friends wedding and a new family member.  To say the least I had a blast and even caught up on some sleep.  I started my 12 days off from work with 3 flights that took me from Aberdeen, Scotland to Santa Barbara, California.  I had 4 great days with my dad relaxing and enjoying the company of all his early morning coffee shop buddies.  I was able to catch up with some friends from my UCSB days, went to Robert and Patsy's wedding and got to hug my god daughter.

After a fun filled weekend I was on my way to Seattle to help entice my nephew who was 10 days over due to make his first appearance.  My flight to Seattle was cancelled and to my surprise Alaska Airlines not only bought the entire flight dinner, they brought in a plane from another city, and gave us a $300 vou1cher towards a future flight for being inconvenienced.  Must say, very impressed with Alaska Airlines. 
I arrived in Seattle 1.5 hours before my nephew was born.  It was such a joy for my grandma and I to see Cadel within the first 5 hours of his life.  What a little bundle of joy!  My mom arrived later that afternoon and we had 4 generations together for 6 days.  It was wonderful to see everyone together and to see how Aislin is with her new little brother.
Here are some pictures from my latest adventure back to the States...


Did we coordinate our purples to match?!?





Robert and I



My dad and I



Everytime I held Cadel he fell asleep





"GGB what is Cadel doing?" asks Aislin



Full of giggles



So serious!



Four Generations



The Finley Family



Saved the best picture for last!

The oracle of Delphi is in

The last day of our field course was spent sight seeing at Delphi. This historic site is beautiful!

The site had been occupied by the village of Kastri since medieval times. Before a systematic excavation of the site could be undertaken, the village had to be relocated but the residents understandably resisted. The opportunity to relocate the village occurred when it was substantially damaged by an earthquake, with villagers offered a completely new village in exchange for the old site. In 1893 the French Archaeological School removed vast quantities of soil from numerous landslides to reveal both the major buildings and structures of the sanctuary of Apollo and of Athena Pronaia along with thousands of objects, inscriptions and sculptures.

Here are a few pictures of Delphi, the rest of my album can be viewed: https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/Delphi?authkey=Gv1sRgCPqj67Sz_PiEtAE&feat=directlink

The hills are alive with... flowers and some rocks

Each year I get to select training courses for continuing my education at work. I always get a classroom course and have been lucky to get a field course as well. Over the past five years that I've been working for Marathon I've been fortunate to get field trips to California, Canada, South Carolina, Ireland and this year.. Greece.

My training this year was looking at the Corinth rift system and sedimentary deposition of large scale alluvial fans. Most people who will read this last sentence will respond with... what??? Don't worry about it. Just enjoy the pictures. If you know a geologist, you will know that the pictures I am talking about will be of ROCKS. Well here are a few non rock pictures, but I had to add a few of rocks too.

To see the rest of the album: https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/NautilusFieldClass?authkey=Gv1sRgCJWA-rqxqqjNSg&feat=directlink

The calm before the... field trip - A day in Athens

Jonathan and I flew in from Santorini the morning before our field training course was to start. We arrived to our hotel, located just 5 min walk from the Acropolis. With a free afternoon in front of us, we headed to see some Greek ruins. We made it there just in time as to our surprise things close in Greece at 3 PM. We had just enough time to see all of the sights.

Here are a few pictures, the rest are in my Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/Athens?authkey=Gv1sRgCKzu9I6Xoe65kwE&feat=directlink

Easter Weekend in Santorini

I spent Easter weekend exploring the volcanic Greek island of Santorini. I was heading to Greece for a geology field trip and decided that I should take a few days before and have a vacation. I know this seems strange since my time in Scotland already seems like a vacation but I have always wanted to see Santorini and nothing about my weekend was a disappointment.

I was in Santorini for two days on my own before a friend from work joined the adventure. To be honest my first two days were spent catching up on much needed sleep and getting some sun. Both things that have been absent in my life this past winter in Aberdeen. To my surprise when I landed in Santorini, I was freezing!! The spring there was unseasonably cool, or should I just say it was COLD! Non the less, I was not returning to Scotland without a tan. I braved the wind and laid in the sun, with goose bumps. Each day, the weather warmed up and it became warmer.

When Jonathan arrived we spent one of the last two days walking from Imerovigli to Oia and back to Imerovigli (11 miles round trip) taking in the sights of the northern part of the island. The last day in Santorini we took a catamaran sailing tour inside the caldera. It was amazing. We were supposed to be on the catamaran with 2 other couples but ended up having a private sailing.

If you have any desire to visit any of the Greek Isles, I would recommend Santorini. I'm sure that the other isles are amazing and I hope to one day see them too.
Here are a few pictures from Santorini, the rest can be viewed in my Picase album: https://picasaweb.google.com/mtwildflower/Santorini?authkey=Gv1sRgCMXXtIi2pdealQE&feat=directlink