Odds and ends

One hundred sixty people left the ice today. Kind of sad to see more friends go, but kind of exciting to see who will be the last people standing for winter. I'm run myself ragged saying goodbye to people so I need to get some rest. I think I might have what we call the crud. I think it is just the common cold. A thought I had today while writing Lindsay Paige was if it is a cold, why call it the crud? Why is a cold called such? I don't feel cold when I have it. However, I do feel cruddy so perhaps the crud is a better name.

This won't be the volcano blog yet. I'm too tired and a little sick and I'll need more energy to put that one together. I'm just going to post some random pictures from the season.

A picture of me at the McMurdo Geography bee. I got 3rd.

The other pictures for today are from two trips down to Hut Point almost a month ago. After driving down on the first trip to see the icebreaker, we noticed a possible safety hazard if you were going to plug the truck in over night. I'd like to take this time to blame our driver. Betty is from NYC and doesn't drive too much and happens to be slacking from her job somewhere as I write this. Love ya, Betty :-)

Do not try to plug this in. Of course, the license plate says 'Live Free or Die' so maybe you shouldn't listen to what I say.

Our second trip was to check on baby skua. The cool think about baby skua is that it is well camouflaged. If you didn't know it, you could almost walk right on top of it which is unfortunately what Jami almost did. The skua parents weren't happy.

Run away, run away!

Run farther because momma skua still has a point to make.

After Jami did such a great job finding baby skua, I took one last picture before we headed on our way. We had accidentally disturbed them enough. I blame the skua for nesting so close to the hiking trail, but maybe we didn't mark it well enough for birds to recognize it. Of course, given how much food they seem to poach us for maybe they did it on purpose.

Baby skua.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I'll post the major details tomorrow, but today has been one of the best and worst of my Antarctica experience. Best - I took a helicopter to Mt. Erebus (our local active volcano) to remove communications equipment. I hiked up to the crater (I think). Worst - my two favorite people down here who filled my heart and soul with goodness and greatness every day have left the ice. If you ever have the chance, they will also fill yours. Their floating operas have moved onto to play in another port, but their individual songs keep playing in my head. Hope they come to a town near you soon (Idaho and Olympic Peninsula).