This year, my trip was to Humboldt County in Northern California; that's right, to the Redwood forest. We spent five days strait in the back country, eating nothing but dehydrated, pathetic imitations of real food. The black bears in that area don't hibernate so their out year-round. That meant we had to be extra carefull with "leave no trace" or else we'd get some uninvited visitors. There were some big trees there. Most of them 8-12 feet wide. When we got back to Oregon the trees looked like toothpicks to us.
We spent the rest of the trip in Arcata and Eureka. We travelled between the two towns several times, vititing wild life refudges, oyster farms, universaties, Duane Flatmo, local farms, Moonstone Beach detc. studying and researching the area. Each student was assigned a research prodject. Most students had to come up with a few "research questions" that related to our topics that we would ask to a person with some background on that topic who we would visit sometime on the trip. "Renewable Recources" was my research topic. I studied different types of "renewable" energy sources ex: wind farms, solar plants, hydroelectric plants etc. Here are my research questions:
1. What kinds of "renewable" recources does Humboltd use?
2. What do you think is the most effective source of "renewable" energy?
3. Why do you think it is importat that we use "renewable" recources?
4. What will the future look like if we do not use "renewable" energy instead of fossil fuels in terms of envirenmental health?
5. What will the future look like if we do not use "renewable" energy instead of fossil fuels in terms of our nations economy?
6. How do you think our nation is doing on reducing fossil fuel consumtion? Do you think we could be doing better?
Unfortunately, my interviewee (a colledge student named Jessie) only had time for two of my questions.
Oh, and did I mention, we went serfing on Moonstone Beach. It was so fun that the four ours we spent there seemed only like half an our. My teachers kept saying that it was going to be harder than we think and we might be lucky if we can stand up for five seconds on the board by the end of the day. But guess what, I stood up for five seconds on my first try! (by the way, I'm the same kid that mastered the unicycle in 24 hours of practice.) Serfing is the best sport ever. It's a lot like snow-boarding actually, just 10 times more fun! (In my opinion.)
Travel Study was full of exitement, good and bad. It was one of the most challenging trips I've ever bean on. (ONE of the most.) Part of me didn't want to go but ,overall, I'm glad I went.
P.s. I consumed 11 doughnuts in less that 48 hours.
