Where in the world is Maya?: The great Alaskan adventure comes to a close

Sadly, every great adventure must end at some point and although I was having fun, I was also ready to get home by the end of the summer. On August 22nd, I left my new home at mile number 284.5 of the Dalton Highway to head down to Fairbanks.

However, my last few days at Toolik were pretty hectic! While at Toolik I had several goals, the first of which was to see the aurora. Two days before I left Toolik, we were all standing around the bonfire and all of a sudden Jason called, "Maya, Look!" Thin green ribbons of light stretched across the sky. They were so beautiful. Although not particularly bright since in late august, it still did not get particularly dark at night. However, my second trip up North, I finally got to see the aurora!!!

As I mentioned, my last few days at Toolik were quite busy. I acid washed more dishes than I ever hope to in a while, cleaned the benches, shut down the fluorometer, packed up the spec, shut down the computers, emptied the acid baths .... Oy!

Bottles to acid wash ... oh acid washing, my favorite
(hope you didn't miss the sarchasm)

Since the bugs were gone, the last few weeks at Toolike we started to play T-Ball in the evenings. Although I am a horrible catcher, I can run pretty fast! Dan and I decided to take a break from all of our packing and cleaning to play in one last Toolik Ball game. I scored three runs!