A Ride on the Magic School Bus!

OK, well it wasn't exactly the magic school bus, but it was an interesting adventure. My sister Claire and I are taking 3 classes together this semester: Geology Lab 102, Natural Disasters, or Geology 104, and I am the TA in her Spanish 102 class. We had a field trip on Saturday for our Natural Disasters class. It was 9 hours long!!!

Claire slept over the night before, and then we rolled out of bed to get to the bus. We got to the place we were supposed to meet as we saw the bus wheels start to roll away. I had to practically jump out of the moving car, and I flagged down the bus. Claire was in such a hurry that she accidentally stuck her hand in the yogurt that I had been eating for breakfast in the car. Then the rest of the day, Claire kept asking me, "Remember that time when the bus almost left us, and we had to run after it, and I stuck my hand in your yogurt?" It is fun to have sisters.

I was really happy that we didn't have to drive ourselves, because who in the world can pay for gas? Not us... I even saw one for $4.14. That is the highest gas price I have ever seen. When I was born gas was under a dollar.

This is the Teton Dam, or what is left of it. It failed in the mid 1970's. I didn't know that they make dams just out of rock. It was really interesting, but it would have been more interesting had it not been freezing outside!

This is our Natural Disaster's professor. He is perfect for the job. He just loves geology, and makes you want to love it to. He is enthusiastic, kind, funny, and very knowledgeable. I love those qualities in a teacher.

This is Claire and I looking like we just woke up, which we did, and shivering in front of an alluvial fan. Yes, I do know something about geology now!

We saw some very beautiful things on our trip, but we didn't want to stay outside to look at it because it was 30 degrees and windy!

And it snowed for part of the day!!! SNOW, in JUNE! I thought I signed up for summer semester. Boy, was I wrong.

This is the first muskrat I have ever seen. They look like mini beavers with rat tails. I thought it was cute. Claire thought it was gross. You can't see it in this picture, but its tail is as long as its body.

On our trip we went to Big Springs, Henry's Fork on the Snake River, or Mesa Falls. Wow, there are some beautiful parts of Idaho. Some people say Idaho is in the middle of nowhere, or that it is boring. I say they are wrong. You can't find this in Chicago!

I am definitely OK with having Geology class in a place like this. Learning about the earth, and rocks, and water systems has never been more interesting, well, once it stopped snowing.