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I flew to San Francisco to spend a few days with Mom after my big trip to South America & Antarctica (yes, there are more posts coming from the trip!). I couldn't believe how dry everything looked as we flew over the Sierras, almost no snow!
It was mostly overcast and a bit rainy during the two and a half days I got to spend so we did more indoorsy things this trip. I didn't mind as it meant we got to spend a lot of time chatting and just hanging out together, which is really the most important thing for me anyway!
We did a movie - New In Town - and boy oh boy is it bad. I mean, like, don't even bother on buck night bad. It's not like there aren't enough entertainment possibilities for a movie set in New Ulm, Minnesota! The crappy winter weather, the ice fishing, the accents, the polka, the clothes, the midwest hairdo (you KNOW what I'm talking about), the pickup trucks, the scrapbooking...but this movie managed to screw them all up and just make it all not funny. So much potential, so little fruit! The only redeeming features of the movie were: her shoes and Harry Connick Jr. He is aging very well, thank you very much. But, alas, there isn't enough of either to justify sitting through this flick.
We also hit the library and a used bookstore, did some walking, ate at Buca - an excellent Italian place, did a DVD night and accidentally shopped for shoes. Yes, accidentally! We were walking off a rather large lunch and decided to harmlessly wander through Macy's. Of course they were having a major shoe sale so we browsed. Then the nice salesman said there was an extra 40% off the reduced prices...and then he said that we could have another 20% off if we had any red on us! Thank goodness for Mom's hair! So how could we not? I was good - I walked away from a completely gorgeous pair of Stuart Weitzman heels that were over 75% off. Good me! I ended up with two pairs...one totally practical and one so totally not; Mom bought a great pair of purple suede boots.
My time was too short in California this trip, but I loved every minute of it.
I'm back in Exmouth recovering from yet another long stretch of airports. My flights home were uneventful after United canceled my 0620 from Sioux Falls to Chicago and Amber spent two hours on the phone after midnight with a rep trying to get me on alternative flights so I wouldn't miss my international connection. She was a champ and got United to book me on Northwest to Minneapolis with a change back to United from there to Chicago.
When I checked in at Sioux Falls for my 0500 flight - so much for sleep Saturday night! - the guy said I had to have a paper ticket! A paper ticket? I haven't held a paper ticket in like five years LOL He said he had me on the flight, but without the paper ticket, he couldn't let me board. Ridiculous. Eventually he sorted it out with the United guy who was standing about ten feet from him...have to love Sioux Falls Joe Fosse Field!
Then it was Sioux Falls -> Minneapolis -> Chicago -> Tokyo -> Perth -> Exmouth. No real layovers this time and that was nice, but surprisingly hard on me. Had about four hours in Tokyo so did get a dayroom for a shower and a little nap stretched out on a real bed - heaven at that stage!
Got home to overcast and HUMIDITY! The heat was a welcome change from the cold of the MidWest. All dogs, kitties and husband were happy to see me and my homecoming was great. Haven't even begun to unpack yet...last time it only took me 5 months :)
Spent all day yesterday working on the emails and other things that had accummulated since my last work day was Friday and I think I am pretty well caught up with the immediate things. Today I will be doing a little photography work, starting to sort through the 100s of job applications we've received so we can start selecting new crew for season and hopefully taking the Girls to the beach. I also want to try to find some time to work on some more photos from my trip and maybe even get another blog post up about it for you all!
While I was away our modem had a fit so Dave bought a new one. During installation, my wallpaper on my monitors got removed so in trying to find it again yesterday I ran into this image of Diva and me from way back in the late 90s when we lived in the caravan in Coral Bay. She will have been gone 2 years at the end of this month and I still miss her every day. This is my new wallpaper now and it makes me smile.
We're still cruising the Antarctic Peninsula and it's still the 24th of January. This has been a long day and it's almost beauty overload. Even looking behind the ship where we had just been could be pretty amazing with the quick changing skies
There's also pretty impressive scenes that aren't floating by
More birds, too...
South Polar Skua
Southern Giant Petrel
It didn't really get warm, but there were a couple of times I braved not being a bandit
It didn't last long, though!
This year the ice and sea conditions allowed us to get in to Esperanza Station. This is an Argentinian research station and the area has several huge Adelie penguin colonies, identifiable by the red colouration on the side of the mountain.
After Esperanza, we contined to Admiralty Bay and another research station: Arctowski. This is a Polish station and is manned all year round. In the summer there are up to 70 people living and working here, but in winter the number drops to around 20.
While we were watching them, they were watching us!
Some of the scientists hopped a zodiak and buzzed out to our ship to give a little talk from the bridge. There is no way you'd get me on a zodiak in these conditions, even though we had only a gentle breeze today!
It's not a short journey, even though our captain pulled as close as he could
They were dressed for it and even in the relatively calm seas, they managed to get some good air a few times
On the far side of Arctowski Station - to the right as you look at the station itself - across the mouth of a bay is another stretch of beautiful ice on the mountain
To the left, leading to Arctowski Station is stretch of colourful land dotted with thousands of black and white dots against red patches. These are Adelie colonies and if you look really closely in these photos, you can see them. Gentoos and Chinstraps also have colonies around the station
It was simply freakin' freezing out on the deck, but I stacked on multiple layers and kept pretty toasty
Tomorrow is the awesome Gerlasche Strait and Newmayer Channel so get ready for more ice, mountains and penguins!
The Falklands marked our last stop before Antarctica. Unfortunately, to get to Antarctica one must cross the Drake Passage. There are scores of stories about horror crossings, and about one story where it's called "Drake Lake"...and that was last year's Star Princess cruise! This year started out pretty reasonable, but during the night the winds picked up to hurricane force and 10m+ waves (yes, 10 metres) came at the ship. It was not conducive to a good night's sleep as the shipped rocked, rolled, jarred, shuddered, groaned and otherwise made her displeasure known. Jen and I took a vote and decided the time the ship shuddered from deep in her stern all the way through to her bow and then pitched to port so hard we almost fell out of bed (well, I almost fell out, she had a wall on that side!) then slowly wallowed back to the same degree of pitch starboard, was probably our favourite minute and a half of the crossing!
In the morning, after things had settled to the lowest hurricane levels, that's one step above gale, our captain came on to let us know we were in one piece and to let us know that we had been "smacked" a few times, just for those people who didn't feel it. Persistant rumours around the ship had some of the rogue waves at twice the "official" height. However big they were, they were plenty big. And I have to say how pleased I am that I chose to do this trip on a BIG ship. I can't imagine that crossing in something smaller and missing out on some of the extra locations that smaller ships can reach was a very small price to pay, imho.
But then the weather gods smiled on us and the seas flattened, the wind lessened and the days turned glorious - if totally overcast most of the time. The first piece of significant mass as we entered the waters of the Antarctic is Elephant Island. This is where Ernest Shackleton dragged his crew in their lifeboats after the Endurance was crushed by pack ice in November 1915. They spent four grueling winter months on the island before being rescued. It's an epic tale and there are several books, some based on diaries from the captain and crew, and many internet sources if you want to find more information. Elephant Island isn't huge and we circumnavigated it during our cruise. It was fascinating to watch the sea colour change as we moved and as the sun played hide and seek. The island went from relatively dull to foreboding to shimmering blue-grey with green jewelled water during our journey. Sea birds played in the updraughts of the ship and penguins jumped alongside.
Amber and Susan watching Elephant Island go by from their balcony
I think this is an albatross...I'm about as adept at identifying birds as I am at shooting them in the freezing drizzle off a moving ship!
My first Antarctic penguins. These are chinstrap penguins
Who says penguins can't fly?!
We didn't get spectacular sunrises this year, but the colours were still pretty amazing and I was glad I got up at 3:30am. We spent the whole day cruising through Iceberg Alley. Days are LONG in Antarctica at this time of year with almost no real night, just a dwindling twilight that fades into almost dark for a couple of hours before the sun tries to peek out again. No commentary really for these photos, nothing written or visual could begin to do this area justice.
Some people were hardier than I
At least my roomie, Jen, was also rugged up for the early morning cold
I had seen a few penguins in the water and a few on distant icebergs
before this gorgeous iceberg floated by with a bunch of penguins all over it. It spins me out that these little guys can actually get up to the top of a big iceberg like this. If you look really closely, you can see one straggler at the bottom looking up...not sure if he's the smart one or the slow one!
Looking at the little specks on top of an iceberg that seemed to be pretty close to the ship really shows how deceptive distance is here. It seemed to me that we were plenty close to them at some points - this is one reflected in our balcony door!
I just couldn't stop myself, the icebergs were simply too striking to stop taking photos. The colours, textures, light and shapes; the close-ups and scenic vistas...indescribable
We started this day at 3:30am and so far, we're barely at noon and there's lots more to see!
