Hey, everyone. My name is Dawson,
and I'm a fourth year plant
biology/political science double
major. I'm also a photography intern
here at UC Davis.
Hi. My name is Alexa.
I'm a third year communications
major with a minor professional
writing, and I'm a social media
intern here at UC Davis.
So, yeah, we're just a couple of
interns and we wanted to create a
video series, about all the amazing
things are to do around Davis.
A lot of people think that Davis is
in the middle of nowhere, but that's
actually really far from the truth.
Yeah. Come join us on our video
series to see that Davis is actually
in the middle of everywhere.
All right. We just picked up Alexa,
I don't know if its gonna focus on her face, and a microphone.
We started in the office.
We rode a bike in the office.
Yeah, we're about to get on the
freeway, so I'm going to stop
filming, but, yeah.
Time for a travel montage.
So we haven't been on the road very
long,
but we were just joking because
people like to say that Davis is in
the middle of nowhere and the series
is called that we're in the middle
of everywhere.
So how
can you be in the middle of nowhere
when there's so
much traffic?
I don't know. You tell me.
Make it make sense.
So our first stop is the Kortum
trail.
And it literally just cleared up.
Oh, there's people.
Thank goodness.
Yeah. So here's sort of
our view. We're a mile in
and it's just, it's amazing.
The trail itself is like nine miles.
We'd be lying if we said we did the
whole thing or are going to do
the whole thing. But so
far it's been amazing.
There's tons of flowers,
tons of plants, seen a few like
giant birds that
kind of look like flying chickens.
But I don't think they're giant
flying chickens.
But yeah, we're just going to
take some photos along the coast and
just see how we can go before we get
tired.
Yeah.
So what I love about this trail is
that there's so many sort of like,
outcroppings that sort of take you
out here, sort of off
the trail and give you, like,
really cool views, and access to the
beach.
Take a look at this.
So we just finished about two miles
of the Kortum trail. What did you
think?
It was great, honestly.
The fog went away every now and
then, so you could see the coast
clearly and Dawson took like
40,000 pictures of plants.
So I'm sure you're going to see some
of those.
Our next objective is to go get some
food in town. So come along.
Okay. So we just found this place,
like, along the highway.
It's called Fishetarian.
Let's go check it out.
So far, so good. It smells like
fish, but not the bad
fish, but like,
really good fish.
It looks good.
I think the fish
and chips.
I think it's.
Just a classic.
Yeah.
Okay.
We just got our food.
And I got the fish and chips.Tell
me this isn't like to die for?
That's pretty cool.
I don't know what to say.
And then I got the clam chowder
bread bowl, I'm a big clam
chowder fan. So,
you know, let's eat.
So, yeah, we're currently in a food
coma, that was so good.
So good, you have to try it.
Yeah. So definitely recommend
checking out
Fishetarian.
It's like right on the highway.
You can't miss it.
Like, yeah,
awesome.
I kind of just want to, like, lay
down and sleep for a little bit and
enjoy the food coma, but we're on a
mission.
Yeah.
Yeah. We're heading to the Bodega
Marine Laboratory, which is
Davis's kind of like satellite
location and research center, so
super excited to check that out.
Let's go.
All right, so we finally made it to
the Bodega Marine Laboratory.
We have heard this place is amazing, and
we're about to take a tour, so we're
really excited.
Let's go meet Ellie and Suzanne.
Hey, guys, welcome to Bodega Marine
Lab.
Thank you so much for having us.
We're super glad you're here.
So my name is Ellie Fairbairn, and I
am Bodega Marine Lab's academic
administrator.
And so I take on the role of
coordinating education programs here
for undergrads, for graduate
students, but also for the public.
So I do outreach as well.
And I'm really glad you're here.
I can't wait to tell you all about
lab.
Thank you so much.
My name's Suzanne Olyarnik.
I'm the director of Bodega Marine
Reserve, the location of the
Bodega Marine Laboratory.
And I'm really excited to show you
around the research they do.
Shall we go inside?
Yea, come on, let's go.
Feel free to check out the tanks.
Everything's
got little cheat sheets, lots of crab fish, sea snails, sea anemone.
Let's go check out the reserve.
Wow. This place is amazing.
Can you tell me a little bit more
about it Suzanne?
Sure. So we're standing out here on
the north central coast of California
on the Bodega Marine Reserve.
And the Bodega Marine Reserve's
mission is to contribute to the
understanding and wise stewardship
of the Earth and its natural systems
by supporting university level
education, research and public
service.
And so this whole area is protected
specifically for students
and researchers to come out and do
their work. So students can come out
and they can make observations, they
can learn about the ecosystems, they
can do manipulative experiments,
they can do long term studies.
So it's really a place that's an
outdoor living laboratory and
classroom for not just
the University of California, but
for students everywhere.
Wow. That's just really incredible.
It's just so I mean, one I've
already said this, but it's
beautiful.
But just all the amazing
opportunities for students and that
they have this beautiful, protected
space. It's just really incredible.
Ellie, could you maybe talk more
about the mission of the Bodega
Marine lab and how that relates to
Davis?
Absolutely. Yeah.
Bodega Marine Lab is part of UC
Davis and so our mission is similar,
research, teaching and public
service. But of course, we're
located here on the north coast.
We encourage
collaboration on problems
associated with ocean systems.
We like to get our science into
policymakers and decision makers in
Sacramento and beyond.
But we also, of course, teach and
train scientists in marine science.
So at UC Davis, there are up
to 100 researchers related to marine
science, and that includes people
in the law school and social science
and engineering kind of across
colleges.
But of course, also the traditional
marine science you might think of.
That's incredible. I didn't know
that it spans so many different
fields like like the law school and
engineering that, that's incredible.
Yeah, exactly.
There's a lot of researchers at UC
Davis with their toes in marine
science, as you might say.
Wow. That's incredible.
I really want to stay out here, but
maybe we should go check out some of
the laboratories. Does this sound like
a good idea?
Sounds great.
Awesome, let's go.
So this is our wet lab.
So there are research experiments
that are set up here.
There are public
display tanks that are set up here.
So that's kind of the primary
blowing seawater lab.
Grids of all of the plant species.
Now we're talking this is I'm a
plant biology major,
so this is gorgeous.
So all of the plants.
So what are we going about to do?
I'm about to hold a starfish baby?
Wait, no?
A sea urchin?
You can do both.
Okay.
Oh, my goodness.
I can feel it moving.
So these guys are cousins.
They are both in the phylum
Echinodermata.
And even though they kind of look
pretty different on the outside,
they have a very similar body plan
when you look a little bit deeper.
This is what's left of the sea
urchin after it dies.
And it makes it a little bit easier
to see that both of these animals
are echinodermic.
Oh, my goodness.
That was amazing.
It was amazing. We literally learned
so much throughout the entire tour.
And honestly, I just wish I could
come back and just do it all again
Yea.
They showed when they pulled out the
plant pressings, I was like, oh, my
goodness, we have like a couple of
hours to film here.
This is not enough.
I don't have enough time to get
videos of all the plant pressings,
but no, seriously, like
definitely worth a visit.
If you are an undergraduate, you
are more than welcome to visit and
there are definitely tons of things.
Definitely study here too.
This isn't my field, but I kind of
wish it was because I want to stay
here over the summer.
Okay. Well, that just about wraps up
our trip to Bodega Bay, being just 2
hours away from Davis, it's just
such an amazing day trip.
Quick and easy.
If you really like good food and
good views, I definitely recommend
this place for you.
Thanks so much for joining us on a
journey to Bodega Bay and...
Stay tuned for more.
We're going to head back to Davis
now.