When BIO has a party, BIO has a party! Last night at the conference here in San Diego, the state of Georgia hosted a fabulous welcome reception for thousands of us lucky conventioneers. It was on the U.S.S. Midway, “the longest-serving carrier in the history of the U.S. Navy,” and now a museum. This was my first visit to an actual aircraft carrier — it is enormous! 

We arrived at dusk and ascended stairs to enter the cavernous body of the ship — food and beverage stations everywhere, people trying out the flight simulators and admiring the historic aircraft on display. But it was such a beautiful night I headed up to the flight deck where you really encounter the stunning size of this ship. There were at least a half dozen different full size planes sitting around to admire. I ran in to a friend who gave me an informal tour, and our walk to the front of the ship took forever, since it is 1001 feet long, which I think is close to 2/3 of a mile; and it’s 248 feet wide.

The party seemed to have a Polynesian theme with 20 foot tall colorfully lit “heads” and figures interspersed along the deck. And there were also hula dancers. Not sure their connection is to the ship and its history (maybe it was mainly based in the Pacific?) but it certainly made for a festive evening. And midwaythrough the evening (get it?) the city skyline was illuminated with a fireworks display. They were a small distraction from the beautiful full moon. I love fireworks, and my ship guide who happens to be a member of the pyrotechnics society, was positively giddy and we both were snapping photos of the spectacle. The evening drew to a close and this very tired girl with sore feet gladly hopped on the shuttle bus to head back to the hotel to close out another day at BIO2008. Tomorrow I hope to tell you about some of the advances in ag I’m learning about here, and how researchers are working to develop better and more nutritious foods.