I had a great last week in Palau!  We climber a hill, and then a old metal gunnery tower to get a view of the islands.

Julia and I are pretending to be afraid of heights, while Chris is actually afraid.  We had to do a lot of peer pressuring to get him to climb the old tower

 and we caught a great sunset from the tower

 I got in some nice last boat sitting time and enjoyed the view

 I made the local paper.  Don't worry, I made lots of copies so everyone can see and remember the time that Katharine was famous.  Actually they have so little to write about in Palau that all PICRC has to do is send the paper a press release and it goes into the next addition.  Still, I like to think it's special.  I would have preferred the front page though.

 I went on my last dive, which was 2 hours and 23 minutes long (I was freezing by the end) and I found a coral recruit that my boss missed which had never happened before.  I think I should probably retire from coral recruit finding after this, I like to leave things at my peak.

Me counting things on the final dive

I left Palau in the dark, just like how I arrived, so I still haven't gotten to see the Islands from the air.  I had a layover in South Korea and was planning on seeing a few sights since I had 6 hour to kill.  However, it became apparent from a quick glance out the plane window that I had made a grave error in clothing selection for my sight seeing mission.  I guess Korea has winter, who knew?  Well luckily I am an Oregonia on my way to being a Montana and a little cool weather never stops us, so I went sight seeing in flip flops, a skirt and a long sleeve shirt.  I was proud to say that I made it out long enough to get a stamp in my passport, eat a few fried items, and walk around a market before I lost feeling in my toes.

Dad and I on a hike in the redwoods.  Notice the down jacket!

Dad picked me up Monday in San Francisco, so the Palau adventure is officially over and I already miss the warmth, islands and wonderful people.  I think I would be really sad if it weren't for adventure stage two (AKA Mexico with Katy Reed) which starts on the 9th.  I have had such an amazing 3 months and I even managed to learn a thing or two about science and resource management!  I am leaving my computer at home for the mexico adventure, so this is the end of the blog.  Thanks to everyone for all the emails and letters and for keeping me updated about life outside the islands.  I am excited to catch up with lots of you in the next month or so!  Much Love,

Katharine