Thought I’d share a pic of the site we work at! We were out there on Wednesday and Thursday, lots of sun though!

On Saturday, some of the Minneapolis and Duluth kids and I went to mid-town to check out the Global Food Market. They had a variety of food there from all over and was cool to check out. We then went to chill at a park. We bumped into this sweet little girl on our way home. 

My parents surprised me by driving here and visiting this weekend. We took a trip to the Mall of America, Minnehaha Falls, and Lake Calhoun. I thought the fall was beautiful and there was a nice trail alongside it that you could follow.

For the fourth of July, the some of the girls and I went out to the trails near SAFL and watched the fireworks from one of the bridges. It was pretty short but overall nice.

This week, Olivia and I  are preparing to head out to our field site for both Wednesday and Thursday. There may be a slight chance of thunderstorms that can affect this, but hopefully not, but also hopefully yes because some rain can definitely help with Olivia’s sediment study.

Last time we were there, we saw a lot of wildlife. We saw some fatty tadpoles, trumpeter swans, pelicans, lots of dragonflies, and other insects. I’m excited to see what little critters we’ll see this week.

Oh, we also saw these two great dogs :’) probably the highlight of the week!

p.s. spot the frog!

It’s only been 2 weeks and this REU summer has felt so much longer! Earlier this week, Olivia and our mentor Amy, and I met to learn more about our project and possibly get out own research questions set. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we went out to Good Thunder down south and took on the wetlands of rural Minnesota. These wetlands are surrounded by corn and soy farms, which is why they are critical to study. Our team will be looking at nitrogen uptake. We spent the last couple of days in waders in swampy waters, surrounded by cattails and wild parsnip.

So far, it’s been great being out in the field. We saw big fat tadpoles, turtles, trumpeter swans, american white pelicans, and plenty of little fish. We took a couple of kayaks out to get to the water furthest out and that was a lot of fun too.

Doing field study can be a lot of fun, but I don’t think people realize how  much prep has to go into it and how exhausting even one day can be. I’m looking forward to this weekend to catch up on some sleep though forsure!!