The 2013 NAMA foray in California was everything I had expected and more. Never had I ventured on a foray off Canadian soil and there was so much to see. Everything grew way bigger there. They had weird moss covered trees with huge sprawling branches that were totally foreign to me. Today, in 2018, I am still struggling with learning the names of trees in Alberta, and 5 years ago in the beautiful forests in California, it felt like entering another world to me. It was a nippy, damp, early morning (in the winter of this coastal state) as I naively entered the wilderness in another country. The very knowledgeable mycologist on my bus, told us to “just holler if we found anything unusual or interesting”. I am sure that it was wasn’t even 2 minutes later when I came across some very “extra terrestrial ” looking, opaque fungi. They were growing in a clump and had an unearthly sheen to them. They looked like they were glowing with glittery sparkles all over them. My heart was pounding as I was thinking “Wow, I bet no one has ever seen something like this before”. I anxiously dragged the mycologist over to show him my discovery. He took one look and said, “Oh (in a quite disappointed tone). Those are just frozen Honey mushrooms. ” I have learned a lot since then, but the one thing that I consistently am so thankful for, is that mycologists have the patience to deal with all of us, especially me