You shall above all things be glad and young!

Happily, I feel very much both glad and young.

. . .

I have more pictures to post but I just wanted to share a quick story about yesterday, because it was such a great day --

We've had midterms for the past week and a half (they were take-home exams, which are so much more time consuming), as well as an ecology project/presentation/paper, our on-going capstone project, a semester project for another class, and our usual readings.  Yesterday was the last day of midterms and one of the projects was due, so we were totally burnt out. Our second half of ecology class was on a beach (Coquina Beach) in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which was awesome. So much better to learn about dune ecosystems when you're sitting among them!! It was a beautiful day and the water wasn't too cold, so a few of us (Robb, Ann, and I) decided to go back after class. I snorkled (and couldn't really see anything), Robb surfed, and Ann skimboarded (and taught me how!). We were out there all afternoon but had to get back to our apartments by 7 for a capstone meeting. Less than an hour before the meeting, we were driving up to the entrance to the seashore and were all thoroughly appreciating the sun sinking in the sky. Robb said he was going slow so we could see the sunset over the seashore (it's infinitely prettier than any of the beach development) and I suggested we try to catch it at Jockey's Ridge, a few miles up the road. We parked across the street, ran across the road and up the dunes. We got to the top just as the sun was sinking out from behind some clouds over the sound. The sky was lit up in an inversed volcano. Incredible!! We ran back down the dunes and across the street to go home -- and the clouds were even more lit up (corally pink) on the way home. I didn't have my camera, but sometimes it's better to just be totally present and soak in the experience without any distractions.