Dancing in the Rain

Thursday began with a delightful breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and a fruit salad (yes, we finished all 5 dozen eggs). With this scrumptious, nutritious breakfast we began the day's journey. Later we split into our teams and went to separate ranger stations to do a short hike and collect. Little did Team Orange know, the high elevation would soon affect Mari's sensitive nose blood vessels.

Shortly after Team Orange began our sojourn at the Keen Wild Heliopad, Mari's nose ruptured, just like the BP oil spill. We attempted to plug the gushing leak. With no avail, Mari was forced to retreat to the safe haven of the car. Around the same time, the storm clouds rolled in, we quickly retreated in the face of thunder. Fortunately, we still managed to collect 2 plant samples during our rapid evacuation.

While Team Orange struggled to contain Mari's nose, Team Blue moved forward efficiently. Despite the rain in the beginning, which forced us to head back to the car, we were able to collect 9 plant specimens at the Vista Grande Ranger's Station. However, thunder caused us to pack up and meet up with Team Orange for snow cones, which are now a daily snack. Christina even managed to befriend a pet raccoon by feeding it power bars. Susie (the raccoon) appreciated the treat and her new friend.

Later that night, the real adventure began went we attended the local Idyllwild music concert. Julie "cut a rug" with her famous Charleston moves by starting out solo and quickly dragging the rest of the squad out on the dance floor. Despite the initial embarrassment of dancing in front of the entire town, we all ended up having a great time. Jesse and Colyer even had the fortunate opportunity to impress the town with their boogie with Rusty.

After dancing we decided to play Ultimate Frisbee in the park at dark. Taylor even joined us and truly dominated the game. Luckily no one was injured by the wet concrete and inability to see, and we all had a great night. We are all looking forward to next Thursday, when we can break out our dance moves once again.

Disclaimer: Mari was not permanently damaged in the events leading up to this blog post. She is currently enjoyed munching on guacamole with the rest of the group.

Hayden and Sarah