Sunday, August 03, 2008

USA trip; 9-21 juli 2008

Wednesday, 9
Wake up at 04.05. Flight (KLM 1184) from Flesland at 06.10... It was 1 hour late out from Schiphol due to a flat tire. A beautiful morning and I lost my camera.
Landed at SFO around 14.15 local time. AVIS rental car: Chevy Classic, Malibu.
Best Western Coyote Point Inn (San Mateo)
The pizza in San Mateo was good, however, I was too jetlagged to appreciate it.

Thursday, 10
Morning stroll in the area
BART train from SFO to San Fransisco
Nice walk from Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf
Had a nice lunch
Sea lions at Pier 39, but not very many (as in 1993)
Lots of haze, we just barely saw Alcatraz
Hotel shuttle back from SFO
Saw humming bird outside the hotel room window
Dinner and a good red wine at a nice restaurant in San Mateo, jazz trio (took a cab!)

Friday, 11
Route 92 west to Hwy 1 south at Half Moon Bay
Sea access by the golf course provided us with the first observation of Xanthoria pollinariodes Lindblom & D.M. Wright, on a planted Lonicera by the fence!
More stops on the journey south, no more sightings of X. pollinarioides
Late lunch in Santa Cruz at a micro brewery, very homey
Had booking at Best Western at Ocean Street (internet from Coyote Point) – big room!
Explored the town
Dinner at Hindquarters restaurant with huge portions of meat and cole slaw and really good wine a short stroll from the hotel!

Saturday 12
Hwy 1 to Monterey
First stop Moss Landing (a well known spot for bird watchers) with X. pollinarioides (the only observation that day)
Monterey: good parking by Fisherman’s Wharf and a slightly touristic, but good lunch
Sea lions, Cannery Row, and the free bus back
Old town
Drove out to Best Western Monarhc Inn in Pacific Grove and got a nice and quiet room
Walk down to Asilomar and to the beach, a bit longer than we expected, but exciting (black tail deer, Moneterey pine, X. parietina at the cemetery, etc)
Dinner at Indian restaurant in Oliver St., very nice

Sunday, 13
Met the bryologists at Asilomar for the day excursion to Nisene Marks State Park (secondary redwood forest)
Short stop in Moss Landing on the return, but we didn’t see the sea otter
Registration for IAL6, Asilomar Conference center
We got a nice big room (1007) in house Manzanita, North Woods
Right after dinner was the welcome reception with lots of nice things to eat (and drink!)…

Monday, 14
Introduction to IAL6 (the Programme is found here, so I won’t og into details)
Poster was up one day (only): Lindblom & Søchting: Xanthomendoza borealis – a bipolar lichen species

Tuesday, 15
H and I skipped the morning session and drove into Pacific Grove/ Asilomar to fill gas (met a biologist in a Volvo), shop and drink coffee (espresso and cappuccino!)
Best session: Systematics and Phylogeny (Ekman & Schmitt)

Wednesday, 16
Best lecture: Lutzoni
Evening: British Lichen Society reception
IAL banquet was nice, but ended before 22
Post-party with the Oslo people and Iceland and some bottles of good Californian wine…

Thursday, 17
Printzen and Lindblom session at 16.00-17.30: Between Individuals and Species: Population Genetics of Lichens
But before that I had a quiet moment in our room. The humming bird appeared outside our window.
Night: IAL business meeting. I surrendered at 22.00 and rounded off the day with a couple of glasses of good Californian wine with Ekman and Blom and, finally, Printzen

Friday, 18
Haugan, Blom, and I drove into Pacific Grove/ Asilomar to have coffee and buy smoke
The Save Mart was big and nice
Stopped by Asilomar State Beach to look at a X. candelaria s lat
Best lecture: TGA Green
Closing reception between 20.00 and 22.00
Nice walk with Haugan back to our lodgings and exciting observations of the ’Night Police’ of Asilomar…

Saturday, 19
Leave the room and pack the car
Two sessions before lunch
Drove north and stopped at Moss Landing
Found a Comfort Inn in Santa Cruz without much ado, nice and relatively quiet
Saw an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) (?)
Met Timdal and Haugan at a restaurant at night, a ’project’ I never thought would work out, however, I must learn to trust Blom as a project leader!
Observed blue heron (Ardea herodias) on our way back to the hotel

Sunday, 20
Hwy 1 and 92 north in haze and light rain, same route back to SFO
Everything went smoothly and the flight back to Europe was on time

Monday, 21
Rain in Amsterdam
Tired
The flight to Bergen Flesland was delayed ½ hour
Met Sætersdal on his way back from conference in Tennessee!
Splendid weather in Bergen – good to be home
Had a pizza and managed to stay up until 22.30!

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