Red Sea Ecological Dive Trip

In November I took my Higher Level Biology students on an ecological diving trip in the Red Sea. They all completed PADI dive certification this fall and were ready to go by the time we got to Hurghada, Egypt. We spent a week diving, studying reef ecology, and the impacts of tourism, development, and overfishing on the Red Sea. The students practiced underwater data collection techniques and designed their own investigations - this is a little part of our trip. (much of the video/photos were taken by Sven Kahlbrock and Pete Sinclair)

Katze leiter!

behold - the cat ladder - bringing access and enjoyment to world one feline at a time.

Above the Clouds; Back to the Roots

During Fall Break, I went on a little road trip with my father and Diane. We spent some time hiking in the Dolomites in Northern Italy, meandered through Austria and the Czech Republic, and had our first experiences in Poland. We ate Perogi in Krakow and visited Glebowice, where my father's father's father was born and where we found more Gorkiewicz gravestones than the number of Gorkiewiczs I have known in my entire life.

Kayaking in the Stockholm Archipellago

Hannah and I went on a 10 day trip to Sweden in the beginning of August. We spent most of our time kayaking in the Stockholm Archipelago, a vast array of islands radiating out from the capital city into the Baltic Sea. Neither one of us had been to Sweden before, but we felt right at home as soon as we stepped off the plane - we found ourselves surrounded by a boreal ecosystem so similar to Marquette, Michigan (where we both went to college) it was surprising to hear people speaking a different language.

Here is a map of our trip:
http://maps.google.com/maps?tab=ml


Our outfitter, Horisont Kajak, was located in Norråva, just outside of Stockholm, but we journeyed by train, train, bus, plane, bus, walking, bus, walking to get there...a but of an epic journey. But here we are organizing our gear - how can we fit it all into two small kayaks?

The view the first morning from inside the tent on Brannh Island.

Hannah and the kayaks after night 1.

Perhaps the hardest part of the whole trip: closing the kayak hatches! (the neoprene required finesse)

Great cliff jumping! (you're not suprised, are you? I know, one of my life passions.)



The Baltic sea turns out to be a great place for swimming because the Brackish waters don't leave your hair standing on end at the end of the day and has just enough salt to cook tasty pasta (Annie's Pasta, ahem!)

Testing out Hannah's fancy new underwater camera on a little jelly fish..."my brain is just a jellyfish in the ocean of my head"

Note to Pelican Camera Case manufacturer:
when case is thrown off a cliff, the latch pops open and the camera falls out & sinks.

Seemed like every Swede in Stockholm either owned a sailboat or a little cabin perched on a rocky ledge in the archipellago.

Waiting to play our nightly card game that nobody knew the name of (it was a good one)

Allmansrätten, or “Every Man’s Right”, is a law in Sweden that enables everyone to camp wherever they want for one night, on public or private property, as long as it is not within sight of a house or on agricultural land. This allowed us to set up our tents wherever we found ourselves when we felt like stopping for the day. Really great camping!

We saw dozens of sailboats tied up to the rocks, people just hanging out enjoying the short summer. The weather was spectacular while we were there - sunny and warm every day, with only a slight breeze on one of the days and riduculously calm waters. Sounds like this may not be typical weather for Sweden.

Hannah out for a little evening paddle.

Behold - the Yucky Swim Dock

(As we headed farther from Stockholm, the islands became farther apart (in the beginning it seemed more like river paddling than being out in the ocean) and the aquatic vegetation changed: more algae and weeds growing on the edges of islands. Swimming was sometimes a little...yucky.

Ah, so you can read Swedish, too?

Along our paddle we wandered through a few small towns. This is some type of drinking well.

We slept on the beach this night, real close to the water. Good thing there wasn't much of a tide!

These three-wheeled motorized bike things were pretty popular on the islands for hauling stuff and people where cars couldn't go.

The best ham and cheese sandwich I've ever eaten in Sandhamn (Sweden's equivalent to Mackinac Island...except no horses). This bakery also had these pastries very similar to cinnamon rolls except with cardamon - they were out of this world!

The little touristy village of Sandhamn

We ocassionally saw cruise ships passing through the islands - a few were taller than the isalnds and you could see the smoke stacks poking above the treeline as they passed behind them!

Back at the outfitter - unpacking after 7 days of bliss.

Part 2: Stockholm

After a mild fiasco involving missing our bus and hitching, we ended up back in Stockholm for a couple days and took some time to walk around the city, gawk at the totally-80's-outfits, and eat balls of chocolate rolled in coconut (just think of a grapefuit-sized no-bake cookie rolled in coconut)

We visited the Vasa museum - wow! the Vasa was a swedish war ship which sank in the Stockholm harbor in 1628 and was re-discovered in th 1900's and raised. An archaeologist's dream: they found wooden food containers, chests filled with wollen clothing, 300-year-old sails, and elaborate wooden carvings.

French hotdog, anyone?

Look at that hot dancing outfit!

Fashion mistake: if you aren't wearing Roman-style shoes in Stockholm, you are nobody.

Fashion mistake: if your waitsline falls below your ribcage, forget it!

Jane and Lara come to Oberursel

Jane and I went to a fussball game with Trevor in Kaiserslautern. It was one of those days when everything went wrong, including loosing the directions out the window and almost having the car towed.





Lara Esser came to visit us as well - she also studied Biology at NMU - and is now living just north of Oberursel! We biked to Koenigstein on some fat cruisers and spent the day doing German things

Laura, me, and Jane checking out the Koenigstein castle


mystery solved - so THIS is spaggettii ice!

Jane and Lara

Unfasionable in Milano; gelato in Cinque Terre

Tracy, Jane, and I met up in Milano for the weekend. We spent May Day wandering around Milano and then took the train down to Cinque Terre, a famously beautiful group of 5 little villages nestled along the coast. We spent two days hiking in Cinque Terre, eating gluttenous amounts of gelato and facaccia.




Jane, Tracy and me in front of the Duomo, Milano




Tracy and I at a flee market near the train station in Milano

Of all the tourists in Milan over May Day, Tracy just happened to run into Erica, who is from Marquette, Michigan (where Jane, Tracy, and I ran in college), and ran cross country against Tracy in high school.

Tracy and Erica in Milano

We found ourselves, on May Day, in the middle of an endless street parade, djs in semis, thousands of people dancing. The European equivalent of Labor Day, Adolf Hitler supposedly founded May Day as celebration for the workers, and it is traditional to 'dance in May'.

Dance in May, Milano

Dance in May, Milano

Not dancing, Milano

Cinque Terre


Cinque Terre

"Darling, I'll be out in the orchard watering the lemon trees"

View from our room in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Jane on the patio, Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre