APS Adventure

We are now official members of the APS: American Penstemon Society.

You may be asking yourself what is Penstemon and Why would we want to be members.
Well...Shaun has Officially started his Master's Program at BYU. He is majoring in Genetics and Bio-technology. For his Thesis he will be working with Penstemon- A Utah native Plant.

This last weekend we had the chance to attend the Annual Penstemon Society "Field Trip" to Navada. Here are the details...

Day 1: We drove with Shaun's Professor & and his wife. We decided to take a small detour on our way. We stopped at the Great Basin National Park. The Mountain goes clear up to 11,000 feet. (It was a painful ear experience, if you know what I mean.) Anyway, we went on the most beautiful hike up to the Bristle Cone Trees. Bristle cone trees are the oldest living thing on Earth. Some of the trees are over 5,000 years old. This hike was so refreshing. Check out these trees!

After Checking into ELY, Navada we went to the light dinner. The initial meeting was quite the experience. Having over a 100 people in a room all completely dedicated to one plant was pretty crazy. I have never been to a conference where your welcome gift was a packet of Seeds. The Members were thrilled. People even drove from all parts of the US to attend the Society's "Field Trip."

SHAUN & I Stuck out like a sore thumb! Not only was I the only one wearing more makeup than mascara, but Shaun and I were the youngest ones there. The Average age was at least 60. Ü

Day 2 & 3: Looking for Penstemon in the wild. AKA "Field Trip"

This was an interesting approach. The Guide was the lead car, all other cars would follow and when the lead saw Penstemon, we would all pull over and jump out of the car to take pictures of the plants. Since there are literally hundreds of Penstemon Species it was fun trying to identify the type. I couldn't keep them straight-especially the scientific names. :(

After a little while, the People started chasing Shaun down for help, "Where is that BYU kid. He will know what this is."

We were in the Nevada desert and it was really hot, but it actually was a lot of fun. We were amazed at how many beautiful wild life flowers grew in such extreme conditions.

After A long day of Sun and heat outside, we ate dinner and had meetings in the evening. The society was pretty relaxed about everything so people just took their time presenting. So were were pretty tired by the time we got to go to bed.

Although the members of the society were all a little quirky in their own way, they were all SO nice! We met a lot of great people that will be really helpful with Shaun's Project.

Penstemon in the Wild



















We also found some pretty amazing flowers amongst the millions of Sage Brush and Penstemon.
I Have never seen a flowering Cactus, besides on temple square. And the White flower is a Prickly Poppy. They were just growing right alongside the road. Gorgeous!
So ALL in all it was a fun trip together! Glad to be back in our own bed...but nice to get away.