Kauai or Bust

Mickey and I were long overdue for a "real" vacation. He had been to Hawaii several times for work, but never had time to enjoy it. The last time I visited the islands was in 2003 when I went to Kauai with my brother and some friends. I brought a touristy guidebook full of things to do. Intriguingly, it described a hike that meandered through abandoned irrigation tunnels, some of which were almost a mile long. Now *that's* my idea of a good time! We bought flashlights in preparation for the hike, drove to where the trailhead was supposed to originate, but never found it. We spent several hours (in the rain) walking up a stream trying to locate the dang thing. While we did not get to have a tunnel hike adventure, we had fun mucking around Kauai's wet "Jurassic Park" interior.

For this trip I was determined to satisfy my wanderlust, so I researched activities on the island thoroughly. One hiking trail sounded wonderful: the Nu'alolo to Awa'awapuhi loop. The northwest portion of Kauai contains a beautiful canyon that stretches out long, finger-like projections from the island's peak all the way down to the water. These projections form the striking Na Pali coastline. The Nu'alolo trail starts near the island's highest point (~4600 ft), and travels out along one of the fingers with a 2000 ft elevation drop. At it's end it connects to the Nu'alolo Cliff trail, which meanders along the tops of the cliffs lining the Nu'alolo Valley. It eventually joins the Awa'awapuhi trail, which lies along another finger and takes you back inland. The entire loop runs 11 miles.

When I asked Mickey if he was up for an 11 mile journey, he thought I was nuts. He had never really hiked, and 11 miles is a lot even for regulars. Seeing his dismay, I suggested we abbreviate it to 3 miles and back. Oh, now you're chickening out, he teased. Game on! The full 11 miles it is. We loaded our bags with snacks and several heavy bottles of water. Optimistic and energetic, we drove up Waimea Canyon to the trailhead. If you'd like to see how it turned out, watch the video below. It was certainly the most beautiful hike I've undertaken, and the most treacherous. There were several places where the trail was narrow, precipitous, and/or covered in pebbly slippery soil. To top it off, about 4 miles in Mickey's knee began to protest vehemently. We slowed to a crawl and I thought there was no way we'd complete the loop before dark! With the help of a sturdy walking-stick (thank goodness for trail maintenance and fresh-cut non-rotten branches lying around), he clenched his teeth and hobbled over 7 miles of unforgiving terrain.

Our adventures did not stop there. We had quite an itinerary the rest of our week. It included a helicopter tour of the island, a luau, a boat dive, and a tubing trip through those abandoned irrigation tunnels I wanted to explore years ago (yes! They exist!). The helicopter ride was something we weren't interested in until we found out they do them "doors-off". Moments like these reveal just how compatible you are with your partner. As it turned out, the idea of an open-air helicopter appealed to the crazy streak in us both. It felt surprisingly safe thanks to our superb and almost superhuman pilot Marty. Highly recommended, and you get some unreal pictures.

The boat dive was a trip to underwater lava tubes that had collapsed and left a few arches. There was a swell at the time of the dive, which created a challenging surface current, but once on the bottom things became calm. This was my first non-Monterey dive, and it was quite a different experience. Monterey is all about colorful invertebrates and beautiful kelp forests. Kauai is much more about flashy fish: Angelfish, parrotfish, lionfish and the like. The highlight was seeing a sleeping sea turtle, head tucked under its flipper, and a pufferfish resting on a ledge. Hard to say whether the experience was "better" than Monterey, at least in terms of wildlife. It sure was nice diving with less weight, though I still had to wear a full-body wetsuit (3 mm instead 9).

Our last activity was something we heard about from a local at the Koloa rum distillery. Sugar used to be big business on Kauai. The island was once covered in sugar plantations. However, when Hawaii became a state in 1959, minimum wages were enforced, and as a result the crop lost its profitability (the advent of cheap corn syrup probably did not help, either). The fields were abandoned but the irrigation system that supplied the sugarcane remained intact. This irrigation system consists of miles of tunnels, hand-chiseled by Asian immigrants. Today, an organization hosts tubing trips down those abandoned tunnels for profit. You wear a bathing suit plus helmet and headlamp, sit in your inner tube, and float gently (for the most part - there are a few small rapids) downriver. The tunnels are long - in one case nearly one mile - so it's not for the claustrophobic.

Now we're back in SF. I miss the chirping of tropical birds, and far-off murmur of ocean waves. Next time I have a fruity rum drink, I will think of lovely Kauai.

Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like bananas.

Apologies for the cheesy title. Yes, it's been too long since I posted anything here. Life and work have been full of distractions!

I never told you about...

- Our "hoptacular" trip to San Diego, where we visited the Green Flash Brewing Company and Port Brewing. Green Flash does not have a proper bar; rather, they open up the floor of their bottling facility to the public three days a week. Their Imperial IPA left a big impression on us: ~10% ABV, chewy, hoptacular, and almost bacony. Port Brewing had a neat little tasting room with deli cases full of local and imported beers. Mickey had an oaked Arrogant Bastard from Stone that was inspiring. I tried an unusual Hitachino Nest beer that was stored in sake barrels. I like Hitachino's products, but the strong, musty flavor of fermented rice in that beer was not my cuppa tea.

- The "Drugs from Bugs" conference in Alta, Utah. We're allowed to attend one conference/year on the company dime, and this one looked fun. Bacteria, viruses, and other pests have evolved ways to either avoid detection by your immune system, or to cow it into submission. Nematodes, for example, induce a state of "tolerance" in the immune system so they will not be attacked. How do they accomplish this? It's a question that's very interesting to scientists, because with autoimmune diseases like type I diabetes, the body does *not* tolerate itself. Instead, it destroys itself. What nematodes are doing to suppress the body's reaction could be used to create a therapy that tempers autoimmunity. This conference was held at the Snowbird ski resort, by the way. I tried skiing for the first time in umpteen years. I fell down. A lot.

- The races! It has been a very intense race season for Mickey. He had his bike overhauled since crashing last year. The engine was not only replaced, but taken apart for a polishing, tweaking, and tuning it has never before experienced. His dynamometer readings arc higher with every adjustment; his lap times descend lower (and... lower next time?). Read his great writeups here. Yes, I said dynamometer. I can also throw around terms like triple clamps, V-twin, and trail-braking. Does that mean I can repair my own car? Not a chance.

Early in the racing season we heard a hilarious term used for bravery - "testicular fortitude". We joked about the possibility something like that existed in pill form, to be handed out to racers having a slow day on the track. I was dying to play this gag on someone, so we decided to make candy-filled pill bottles with this label. I sketched out a rough idea and sent it to my brother Marc, who is a first-rate artist. He turned my scribbling into a slick graphic, which Mickey printed and attached to medicine bottles. Can't wait to hand out more of them...

Christmas in Tehachapi

This year I celebrated Christmas with Mickey's family, who live in the Tehachapi mountains of southern California. It's a very pretty area, full of Ponderosa pines, old oak trees, lots of birds and other wildlife. There are many remnants of a Native American presence, such as depressions in the rocks where they used to grind corn. Surprisingly, grapes grow in the area. There is a small winery (Triassic Legacy) nearby that makes an absolutely delicious chardonnay.

We had lots of fun baking cookies, sipping margaritas, and watching the sci-fi channel. They were playing old Star Trek (Next Gen) reruns all day, and we totally got sucked in. They played the episode where the entire crew gets infected with a virus that makes them "devolve" - Diana reverts to a fish, Worf grows armored plates and attempts to mate with Diana, and then the humans turn into chimps. I'd forgotten what a great series that was. The next best thing on TV was the "Yule Log channel", which was - no joke - a video of a fireplace that ran all morning. Apparently one of the stations gave its employees the day off and slapped that video on! The funny thing was, occasionally a hand would appear and put a new log on the fireplace!

I posted some pictures below of Mickey's Mom and Dad. Below those a gift of plush microbes I received including MRSA, black death, E. coli, and a white blood cell (not a microbe). These will have to go over my desk at work - I need to give the WBC a couple of small plastic swords, and perhaps a Rambo bandana, to be posed in a stand-off with the other bugs! Next pic is the traditional Christmas dinner a la Fimbres - handmade tamales. Ladle some frijoles over them and they are FANTASTIC. Our trip concluded with a light snowfall - just enough to decorate the mountains in white lace, but not enough to make the drive home treacherous.

Dear Papa

I am not the least bit superstitious, but events this year have tried to chip away at my resolve. Back in February, a couple of Chinese coworkers warned me that the year of one's astrological sign (when one turns 12, 24, 36, etc) is usually life changing. It can be for better or for worse, but either way something big happens. Since my age is a multiple of 12 this year, I was advised to "wear a red belt every day", as everyone knows this is the best way to fend off danger.

The year started off well, and became even better when a wonderful man came back into my life. However, shadows began to fall when my aunt lost her husband in a military helicopter accident. He worked as a paramedic, and was on a routine training exercise when something unknown went very wrong. Our Aunt Grace, a published writer and poet, also bowed out midyear. Then in August, we received news that my father had died of a heart attack. He was only 59 years old. It has been a rocky year for the Sengers. We can't help but all feel jipped.

I don't want to write much about Papa in this blog format. Suffice it to say we had a small funeral for him in Dearborn, MI, which was well attended. He is from a big family, which I find very comforting, because bits of his personality shine out from every member of the family. I only want to leave this information out here in the internet-o-sphere for others to find. If you are an old friend or colleague of Michael Anthony Senger, looking to find out what happened to him, feel free to contact us through the comments section of this page.

Memrees

Yikes, I haven't updated this blog in a long time! I've been busy with various projects along with helping my boyfriend Mickey out at the racetrack. A few weeks ago I took a trip to Boston to visit my little brother Marc. He now lives with his fiance Jamie in a cool flat just outside the city. My father, who hails from the Detroit area, flew out to spend time with us.

Aside from hanging out with family, something I dearly wanted to do on this trip was visit the places I lived during my childhood. Until the age of 7 I lived in a green three-story apartment in Belmont (pictured below). It's funny but my memories of Belmont center only on the apartment itself and the street out front. I guess I didn't wander much at that age. I fondly remember putting together a "circus" of my friends from the block. We even made tickets to sell out on the street, though only one nice lady humored us by buying one. My role was to perform a death-defying act as a "tiger", who would jump from the first story porch into a kiddie pool. My costume consisted of a paper grocery bag that I had colored with stripes, and cut holes in for my arms and head to poke through.

Another memory that stands out is the day my new baby brother came back from the hospital. Leading up to my mother's delivery, I had spent a week in the care of my grandparents, and remember the intense anticipation on returning home. I raced up the three stories of stairs to the apartment, flinging open the door. I don't think I was at all impressed with the new pale, squirming human, however. I would sometimes request that he be "put back in the belly". It takes time for babies to develop into fun playmates!

How sad it was to move away from that neighborhood. My friends had a little going-away party. A girl named Amy baked me a little pie as a gift. It was so salty that it was inedible, but I'll always remember it as a sweet gesture.

Our family moved to Rockland where I lived until I was 12. Strangely, my time in Rockland seemed much longer than 5 years. I guess it's because of all the great friends I had there. Rockland was one of those quaint Norman Rockwell-type neighborhoods, with small shops, peaceful streets, streams and parks. We kids ran all over that town like a pack of wolves. Quite a group of naturalists we were: climbing trees, combing the tall grasses for snakes, pulling wings off of flies to force-feed to our captive toads, dropping ants into spider webs, torturing cats, and hosting bug races. Below is a picture of my Dad standing in the backyard of what used to be my friend Kelly Bowman's house. She had six siblings, and were they a ton of fun to play with!

Coming back to all of this as an adult, of course, everything seems so much smaller than you remember. Absolutely nothing has changed about these towns, except that my favorite climbing tree was chopped down, and the old "haunted house" down the street looked surprisingly cheerful. Doesn't everyone have a haunted house in their neighborhood?

The rest of the trip I spent enjoying the company of my family, old and new. Caught up with a lot of relatives I haven't seen in ages, like my aunt Dot and Dan. Despite being in their 80's they are both extremely sharp. Hope I'll have the same luck. My brother is getting married next year, and it was fun to finally meet his girl. They are a great match, as you can tell from the photo below. Plus, she likes frogs, so I have no complaints.

Judgement Day

Whew, it has been a busy couple of weeks. A few months ago I received an unusual email at work. It was an open invitation to Genentech researchers to judge a science competition. I hadn't heard of this particular event - it was called the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). It turns out to be a worldwide competition among high school students for the best independent research projects. There are nearly 20 different categories in which to compete, and they range from physics and engineering to animal science and medicine.

I volunteered to be a judge and my friend Mark who has a physics background joined in as well. I didn't realize the scale of the event until we arrived to find over 1600 students and a pool of 600 judges from all over the globe! Each student brought a poster presentation with them and had their own little booth. They had to explain their work to a rotating panel of PhD-level judges every 15 minutes over the course of an entire day. Talk about a gauntlet! Pictures of the event can be found online.

There were very impressive projects, some of them almost on the Masters level. These were teenagers who were comfortable using confocal microscopes, who understood graduate-level genetics, and who built their own particle accelerators with parts they bought off eBay. Some projects were high-tech, some endearingly low-tech. Regardless of the tools they had available, big points were awarded for creativity and sound scientific reasoning. Interestingly, because these kids were from all over the world - Ireland, Pakistan, Hong Kong, you name it - a few of them needed translators to aid them in their presentations.

On top of this the Cal State University science fair came up in San Jose just a couple of weeks before the Intel thing. This was something I participated in two years ago. They needed extra help this year, so I ended up volunteering for both events. It was great fun hearing about all the wonderful science kids are up to these days, and being able to give something back to the scientific community.

Hot wheels

This past weekend I had the happy opportunity to watch motorcycle racing again. Although the races didn't go very well for Mickey (yay, he's back!), the weather was fantastic and there was lots of fun to be had in the pits. One of Mickey's sponsors donated several bottles of his excellent margarita mix and some Arrete reposado tequila, which we dispensed to the crowds Saturday night. Mickey beat me to the blog-o-sphere with more details and pictures about the day on his website, so I'll only post a couple below. Look at all those happy people!

Once the races were over we packed up the truck and made a beeline for the best pit stop of all, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant. I was curious to sample mezcal, which is a relative of tequila. Both mezcal and tequila are made from fermented agave, each using a distinct species of the plant. With mezcal, however, the agave plant is first roasted over an open fire and then fermented. The agave used in tequila is not cooked over wood but rather steamed, which allows you to taste the flavor of the plant more easily. After sipping this novel liquid we decided it had strong notes of what can only be described as "campfire". As we roasted invisible marshmallows over the glass, the bartender realized we were not interested in finishing our liquid smoke, and exchanged it for something that did not give us flashbacks of summer camp.

Stay tuned for more updates! I've been busy with work the last couple of months, but there are some interesting events coming up. Science fairs, Braidie's wedding, maybe even a SCUBA dive or two!