Rain, rain, go away (and camping postscript)

While the weather for the majority of my month in Santa Cruz has been absolutely stunning, we did get a run of cold weather at the start of my third week.

The positive result of this was it justifying my decision to pack some winter clothes. I had been starting to think they were a waste of space - and then they were DEFINITELY needed.

The negative result was, well, it was raining.

Rain = gloomy = beach not fun.

Rain also = more traffic = Nat takes longer to get home:

 So much so, that she even has time to snap unflattering Hipstamatic pictures of herself at the wheel

(see what I mean about the winter clothes?)

Not quite California dreaming:

Necessity is the mother of invention. I had a done a lot of washing right before it started pouring.

Suddenly I was very grateful for all the curtain rails in the cottage:

But the worst part of the rain?

You remember how our camping trip ended with a minor flooding event?

Yes.

Well. 

Even though we did our best to rinse all the tent gear in the sink at the campsite (freezing our fingers in the process), Val and Mike were still left with a soggy, semi-muddy tent and fly.

Val and Mike live in a beautiful area on the UCSC campus with a meadow nearby. Given the warm weather we'd been having, the original plan had been to pitch the tent in the meadow for a couple of days and leave it to dry out.

Come Tuesday, it was still raining. The tent was starting to smell a tad mildewed.

Desperate action was required.

So we pitched the tent in Val and Mike's living room.  

Val (understandably) wasn't especially delighted with this outcome, especially as the dirt on the tent showered onto the carpet, but she took it far more graciously than I would have done, had it been my living room.

This left us with the fly, and no remaining floor space in the apartment.

So I suggested we go up to the Engineering Building (where our lab is located) and spread the fly out somewhere more spacious.

This was agreed to be a good plan, but Val was concerned about taking up too much public space, so she spread the fly across her own work cubicle:

The next day, everyone thought Val's desk was being fumigated.

But the fly did dry.