fish face

The day before I left for the Coastal Zone conference (see previous blog), I went to DaVinci Days in downtown Corvallis. This is an annual festival celebrating arts and sciences and is probably one of the activities that puts Corvallis on the map. The highlight of the festival is the kinetic bike parade and race that takes place all throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, I missed the street race, the mud bog and the river race, but I did manage to catch the opening parade the day before I jetted off to Boston.


I was amazed at how elaborate the kinetic sculptures were! All of the contestants really, really put a lot of time and creativity into them. I think the theme for this year must have been the ocean because many of the bike sculptures and art pieces around town resembled things found in the sea. There was also a fish gallery on the sidewalk where local people were invited to hang their fish art.


The College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences also turned 50 that same weekend (which may have been another reason that DaVinci Days was ocean themed) so we got in on the action too. There was a big open house where many researchers within the department had displays and interactive activities to share with the community. We brought out Guns'N Roses (the 2 jet skis) and had them on display for people to see how we collect data of the nearshore sea floor.