Happy International Year of Chemistry

2011 is officially the international year of chemistry. Finally, chemistry is getting the respect it deserves.
The goals of IYC2011 are to increase the public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage interest in chemistry among young people, and to generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry. For more exciting details check out

http://www.chemistry2011.org/

Hawaii

One of the worst parts of my job is being forced to go to miserable conferences in miserable places. So in December Aleisha and I begrudgingly went to the tropical paradise of Hawaii. Before the conference started we holidayed for a week in Maui. The condo we stayed at was right on the beach in a secluded cove that was packed with turtles. It was pretty sweet.

The view from our condo

We had a pretty good run of weather but on one day we had one heck of a torrential downpour. So on that day we decided to drive the road to Hana. While only ~80 km long it apparently has over 600 corners and a stupid number of one way bridges/entire sections of one lane road. Its quite the tourist attraction but the heavy rain turned them all away. As I was driving an new Subaru Impreza the road was one of the best I have ever been on.

Nothing quite like blind hairpin corners, cliffs and narrow roads.

Aleisha and I posing in front of a random blow hole.

Much of our time was spent swimming, snorkeling and chasing fish in the crystal clear water.

The view from our hotel room on Waikiki. It made the conference bearable.