Monday, June 25
Today is our first full day as JASON Argonauts. I woke up at 6:30am, still tired. After stopping at the outreach center we head to the Great Lakes WATER Institute. There we met our host researcher Dr. Russell Cuhel. He is a great researcher and I look forward to working with him.

We went to Greenfield Park to learn more about taking water samples. It was fun to be outside on such a hot day. The temperature was over eighty degrees and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Last summer in Seward, Alaska we had less than ten days of seventy degree weather.

We ate dinner at a great restaurant. The Safe House was a blast; it had all sorts of hidden doors and chambers. I went through a hidden tunnel that led outside. I didn't want to go outside so retraced my steps, but the chamber had sealed itself and I was locked in. It felt just like a scene in a horror movie. So I waited for the next people to open the secret tunnel and I was just standing right behind the opening. When it opened they screamed, but I thought it was funny. The food there was good to.

Tuesday, June 26
Today we awoke early and headed to the fishing pier on the Milwaukee River. We were going to canoe down the river and stop at various points to take samples. It was even hotter than the day before. At nine in the morning it was already ninety degrees. I cooled down once we had to push our canoes because the water was too shallow. I liked pushing the canoe more than canoeing because it was so hot outside.

After that we went to the Great Lakes Exhibit at Discovery World. We were the first of the public to see the exhibit. It was really neat how realistic it was. It had been mapped out by GPS and had sprinklers to simulate rain.

Tuesday night we went to a Milwaukee Brewers game. It was my first time ever seeing a professional baseball game. I couldn't believe that 30,000 people were at the stadium that night. My town could fit in that stadium over ten times. The baseball game was one of the many highlights of my boot camp experience. Four home runs were hit while we were at the game. We left early and by the time we got to the car the Brewers had hit a home run and a grand slam.

Wednesday, June 27
I woke up today at 6:30, the usual. Today we went to the limestone quarry about an hour from Milwaukee. There we met Gaye-Lynn Clyde who owns the quarry. She taught us about snorkeling in the quarry. I had snorkeled in Hawaii before, but I had never snorkeled in a quarry. It was really fun diving there. Underwater there was a sign that said "Caution Water On Road." It would have been fascinating to see the quarry in its hay-day, trucks going up and down the road and people mining. It felt like an underwater ghost town.

Tonight we formally started Mission 1 at the outreach center. I can't believe that it has already been three days. Unfortunately, my trip is already halfway over.

Thursday, June 28
Today we headed out to the huge Lake Michigan. We were on the Neeskay, the 71-foot long research vessel. The two to four foot swells made the trip even better. It was like a roller coaster up and down, up and down, up and down. Six hours on the boat went by in a flash. One of the best parts of that day was getting to drive the Neeskay. It was harder than I thought it would be because it didn't have power steering.

The ROV (remote operated vehicle) was fun to watch. You could see the bottom of the lake on a TV inside the boat because the ROV had a camera. The visibility wasn't that great, but it was still fun to watch. I really enjoyed being on the boat and I was bummed to get off.

Friday, June 29
Today was like any other day: up at 6:30, breakfast at 7, and out the door at 7:30. We headed to the Great Lakes WATER Institute to do studies on the water samples that we had taken the previous day while on the Neeskay. We learned how to check the nitrate of sample water and measure carbon dioxide. Carmen showed us an interesting experiment where she put a zebra mussel shell and a quagga mussel shell in concentrated acid. Both shells almost completely dissolved in the acid. We found out our next missions and we graduated from Mission 1.

For dinner we ate at a pizza buffet and arcade. Somehow I amassed over 1700 tickets and I got a dartboard. Playing beach volleyball at ten at night was fun. This week went by so fast; I can't believe it's almost over.