I had a whirlwind trip to the North Shore on Friday. First, I stopped in at my alma mater, Salem State College, and visited with my old profs in the geology department, Jim Cullen and Lindley Hanson. It was great to see them and reminisce about the "old days". Jim was my academic advisor and professor in 4 courses plus a senior year independent study (which included a one-week intensive course in field oceanography in the Bahamas... oh, how I love geology...), Lindley was my professor in Coastal Geology which was awesome because we got to go to the beach once a week! I chose Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA (again, oh, how I love geology...). Now, I'm sure you're wondering what one does when they go to the beach once a week for a geology class but it was tough. We had to go once a week, regardless of the weather. Fortunately for us, it was perfect every time. We had to do beach profiles, and take sand samples, and measure the current (which is impossible if it's a "pocket beach" which Singing Beach is), and all of this is more challenging if your field partner has been smoking something all afternoon. And then put it all together in a 25 page paper with graphs, diagrams, photographs. But that was then...
After visiting the old profs, I had lunch with my old pal, Jocelyn who is just finishing up at Salem State College after a 10 year hiatus. She's very excited to be graduating in May. I'm very proud of her. We had a fun time gossiping about old friends and getting caught up.
Once we went our separate ways I took a little tour of the North Shore. I drove through Marblehead and stopped at Crowninshield Beach. Then drove to Beverly and stopped at the Dane Street Beach. Finally, I drove to Beverly Farms and stopped at West Beach. Once I got there I realized I should have just headed right there but how does one know these things? West Beach is beautiful. I love it there. I took some pictures and then realized I was a little late for getting to Heather's house (she's 2 minutes by car from the beach). I quickly headed to my car and drove to their house. We had a lovely dinner (salmon, fresh green bean, rice, lots of wine) and chatted, chatted, chatted.
The next morning I got up at a ridiculous hour and drove to Salem State College and met the current group of geology students to go on a field trip of the CT Valley. Jocelyn rode with me in my car and the rest of the group rode in a van and an SUV. We drove down to Berlin, CT and spent a good 2 hours looking at an amazing outcrop of the East Berlin Formation. As usual, it was on the side of an on-ramp to a highway so there was the usual litter and dead animals to watch out for. And because it was a geology field trip we all had to be careful when crossing the HIGHWAY to see the rest of the outcrop on the other side of the on-ramp. These are the things you don't want your mother to know that you do as a geology student. Fortunately, we didn't have to cross the really busy part of the highway to look at the contact between the Hampton Basalt and the East Berlin Formation (phew!) because we could see it on the side that we were on.
I ditched them in Rocky Hill, CT after visiting Dinosaur State Park. (been there, done that) and headed home. It was really great to look at the rocks close up. We saw some really cool sedimentary structures (mud cracks, ripple marks, cross-bedding, slumping). And we saw red sandstone, gray mudrocks, black shale, dolomite and basalt. It was great! And dino tracks, of course! Oh, how I love geology...
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