In Chile

I love flying over southern Chile when the sun is shining! Got in late last night, no major issues (slight delay in Miami) and all the bags made it. The sun came out for some of the flight so we did get to see some of the spectacular Andes, with the long snaking glaciers, high mountains and deep fjords. It's probably my favorite flight on this planet when you can see out. 

Today Laura and myself are headed down to the ship to get our Extreme Cold Weather gear and start to think about this cruise! 

Photos from Juneau

We're on weather watch here, it's been high winds in the channels so we've been delayed, hopefully by not more than a few hours (we're hoping to leave monday midday), but we're still all on tenterhooks. My technician Christian arrived out this morning, and this afternoon we're going to take all the gear down to the docks, so that as soon as the boat arrives (it's been stuck 150 miles south of us) we'll be ready to go. 

In the meantime, aside from lots of packing, organizing and catching up on work, I have had some fun in Juneau, I really like it here, such a beautiful place. Yesterday we did my check out dive (required to work with the folks here) which was awesome - so much to see, I really should have taken my camera!), then Bob and Michelle took me cross country skiing on the Mendenhall Glacier Lake. It was hard work (no trail and icy), but to get that close to a glacier an icebergs was pretty amazing! 

Here are some photos!

View from the office i've been using here at the Auke Bay Laboratory. 

Bob took me on a tour of downtown - got to be careful of snow falling from bridges around here! 

The Governors house - where Sarah Palin used to live. Looked hard, but really couldn't see russia from here....

Avalanche on Mt Juneau! These happen everyday in the winter, pretty spectacular! 

Some of the awesome icebergs frozen into the Mendenhall Lake. 

More icebergs - this one with a hole through the middle. 

Which of course I decided to slide through! 

Bob and Michelle! 

The Mendenhall Glacier. Pretty different from when I was here in September! 

I couldn't get enough of the frozen icebergs! 

The frozen waterfall. This is where we hiked to in September, looked pretty different back then! 

Pre Christmas Christmas Dinner!

I'm sat in Chicago and still have another hour before boarding so thought i'd update. On the weekend I had a lovely pre-christmas christmas dinner with the family i've been living with this past 7 weeks, and my British friend Laura. We treated the Americans to some British traditions - mince pies, a good roast complete with Yorkshire puddings, Christmas Crackers and even some Christmas pudding to finish. It was glorious!

The meal - roast chicken for us, roast Tofurkey for Laura!

Dinner complete with Christmas crackers!

The lighting of the pudding - Hannah was captivated!

For all of those interested too, I feel completely recovered from the marathon, my legs and feet are great this year! My only niggle is my shoulder from packing the container over a month ago, I really must have pulled something! Thanks again to all who sponsored me, I made it over my target amount which was awesome!

Leaving Hawaii was a little sad this morning, i'll miss my friends here, particularly the family i've been staying with. Little Hannah is so adorable, as I don't get to see my own niece too often (who is the same age and lives in the UK) i've adopted Hannah as my substitute niece. She has adopted me as her Mimi, and was quite happily pointing out all my possessions as I packed them this morning, as well as unloading a few in the process (i'm a little scared as to what she might have added to my bags too......I found a jar from the fridge in my duffel just before closing it...). I go back in April so it's not too long before I visit, but kids change so fast. I showed them all skype before I left, so i'm hoping we can get that set up.

Well, I'm off to add another layer, and hopefully get on a plane in an hour. Just a few hours away from Cape Cod, they got ten inches of snow yesterday, so i'm hoping it's held off so the roads are clear!

Off

Off on the boat tomorrow morning, so all will be silent for a while again. Today we loaded the boat and were done by midday, so I took myself off on a hike up Mount Roberts, as it was such a beautiful day! 

I didn't go all the way up Mount Roberts, as I wouldn't have had time to get up there and back (and I didn't want to pay for the tramway). This is from just about "Father Browns Cross", beautiful views of Juneau, Auke Bay, and even into the mountains by Glacier Bay if you look way in the background. 

The Gastineau Channel, we'll be headed out in this direction early tomorrow (7am) to the Tracy Arm fjord to work. 

Juneau, Auke Bay (far back) and beyond. 

Juneau

Arrived in Juneau yesterday after a 4 hr delay in Gustavus for weather and went straight to work. Stian has been super nice and leant me his camera for this Juneau portion, so I can still continue to blog and get photos of this awesome experience. The downside to Juneau for me is that it looks like I won't be diving, NOAA changed their rules on us, and to things I don't have, so i'll no longer be diving with the group. I'm pretty bummed about this. But at least I still get to go to Tracy Arm, several people have told it is one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska. After the beauty of Glacier Bay, i'm not really sure that is possible, but we'll see! 

Yesterday as soon as I got off the plane I went to work with Bob Stone in the lab, getting the chemicals ready, getting boxes packed, looking over lists. This morning we did some more packing and took the first of the crates down to the pier, ready to load on the boat on Monday evening. Bob and Michelle then took me on an awesome ~2hr hike at the Mendenhall Glacier, just outside of Juneau. The sun didn't quite shine, but it didn't rain either, and the trail was awesome, some great views. Back from the hike we then went and moved another load of boxes down to the pier, and now i'm officially pooped! 

Photos from the last two days - 

Officially the smallest plane i've ever been on! It was mostly great, was a little bumpy in places though as the weather was still so so. In a normal large plane turbulence doesn't bug me at all, in one with only 4 seats it was a little disconcerting! 

I even got to sit in the front seat! The view coming into Juneau. 

Downtown Juneau. It's been odd coming from a town of 300 to a city of over 40,000. Juneau is a nice city though, somewhat touristy, but there are a lot of different cultures here. 

Float plane landing in Juneau.

A "fresh" piece of the Mendenhall glacier.

Bob and I at the high point of the hike, overlooking the glacier. 

The Mendenhall Glacier

Bob and Michelle looking up at the waterfall. 

Me and the glacier - it was mostly warm today, though really cooled off by the evening. 

Looking back at bergs on the lake created by the glacier. 

Glacier Bay National Park

Back from the wilds of the backcountry in Glacier Bay National Park, a wonderful 7 days of kayaking where we saw, no one else for an entire week (unless you count two sets of kayaks seen from a distance), it was bliss. We saw humpbacks, (maybe) orcas, sealions, seals, otters and more birds than you can shake a stick at. No bears or moose, which is a little sad, I was hoping, but nothing but bear and moose poop to show for it.

Each campsite was amazing in it's own right, the first on an unnamed island in the Beardsleys left us with humpacks feeding at night and playing in the morning, alongside seals and otters playing in the kelp. The second and third night were out at Leland Island, beautiful views of the beartrack mountains and a crazy creature roaring into the night, the forth night was on Sturgess Island, stunning little bay with a perfect beach fire and campsite tucked into the trees. The fifth night was in Beartrack cove where we were met with bear and wolf tracks and scat, and the sixth and final night was on Kidney Island, where we saw the first signs of moose, but none of the elusive creatures up close.

Unfortunately upon returning to civilization, I had my camera stolen from the lodge. I should clarify, not my camera, the departments fancy SLR camera I had been loaned to run the work blogs with. Ug. I stupidly left it under the table at dinner, didn't realise until after the $15 cab back home, but assured it had been handed in decided we'd just go and pick it up in the AM when going down there anyway, by which time it had "disappeared". Many convoluted and changing stories from the lodge staff (the final one being that the guy behind the desk gave it to someone who said it was theirs), the nicest park service police, and yet no camera returned. I feel stupid for leaving it, but angry that it seems like someone from the lodge has pocketed it, even more so that it sounds like this isn't the first time things have disappeared from that lodge and that it happens rather regularly. I'm also responsible for it, so that's going to be a big chunk of change I don't have.

Most of all, i'm sad because I lost all my photos from that week. I had some great ones too, I took one of each campsite we had, some beautiful bird, otter and seal shots, and some of the great vistas of Glacier Bay National Park I was going to use here and on the work blog. Stian luckily had a camera too, but as I was snapping away, he didn't take so many. Humanity just makes me sad a lot of the time, maybe before I leave someone will do the right thing and the camera might reappear. Then again I could also grow another head between now and then too.

Here are some of Stian's photos - thanks Stian for letting me use them!

You couldn't go far without a little nose sticking up to watch you - this is a sealion, but seals and otters did this too. They were our little friends throughout the kayak trip.

Humpack fluking as we pack the kayak from our first nights campsite. 

The preferred mode of transport, certainly in my world.

Three little oystercatchers sitting on a wall...

We counted over a dozen bald eagles one day, it was fabulous! 

The perfect view in my opinion, looking up the bay towards the West Arm. I loved the views in the rain and the shine, and we saw both! We couldn't have asked for better weather in reality, we're in the wet month and only got rained out on one day, and got sun burned on two! 

I'm off!

It's 11pm and i'm up at 4am to get on a plane - yay! Everything is packed away and even in the car, as it's way too early in the AM to be lugging two giant bags down the stairs. I should do that more often, stops me last minute re-arranging....:0)

So i'm off to do two of my favorite things - camping and science - and even combine those two for a few days. I'm really excited, relieved, and happy the time has finally got here. Glacier Bay National Park here I come! Don't forget to tune into my science blog (link on the right), that's where i'll be posting photos (look under Glacier Bay National Park Corals link), i'll try and check in here sometimes too, internet is going to be pretty sporadic, so no promises until I get back!

Packing

Well, I didn't get my run in today, but I did do a whole bunch of unpacking, tidying and repacking. So despite there being a period in the day when my little Grodnick did look tidy, it now looks like a storage locker, again. Ah well. 

Packing for 3 trips is proving hard (don't panic Stian, not all of this is coming with us in the kayak!), especially as there is a really tight weight limit on the planes. As far as Juneau i'm okay (2 bags, 50lbs each - i'll have a bag ~45lbs and a box ~40lbs to leave in Juneau). From Juneau to Glacier Bay National Park i'm going to end up paying extra (50lbs total limit - and i'm picking up equipment in Juneau to take over), which I knew anyway, but I was hoping I might be able to pare it down to a little less. The plane is a small 6 person passenger plane, so there are strict weight limits - and I think when my computer and hand luggage is taken into account i'm going to be at that 50lbs, and then have to pay extra for the equipment i'm picking up, which will probably be another 40lbs, and might not come on the same plane.

Packing for this kind of trip is hard, you don't want to carry too much, but you don't want to take too little. It could be pretty wet and cold (today it's 53F and raining), so having dry and warmer clothes is going to make the difference between happy and miserable. It could also be super warm (in the week it was 74F and sunny), so you also want shorts and sleeveless. I also have paddling clothes that are comfortable, so i'd always rather take those rather than risk renting something not as comfortable. And it's also my vacation, and the first ten days off i've had in over a year and a half (since I visited the UK when Lucy was born). So I want those couple of bottles of wine (we'll get those there), and the chocolate, and my travel pillow.  

And a sad realization. This might be my last trip for my Keens, they are really showing their wear and tear (treads are flat, the webbing has rough spots). I don't know if i'm just having an emotional day or what, but this has me really quite sad. It could be because they're not cheap to replace, but it could also be that these Keens have taken me places. They are 6 years old, have done too many hikes around New Hampshire and Maine to count, Yellowstone, Isle Royale, Yosemite, the Alta Via 1 in Italy, New Zealand, the 19 mile hike around the giant with Carney, Kim and kids in packs, all over Hawaii (the red mud there is from the SEA cruise, hiking through the lava fields) and thats not even counting the daily wear they had in MA and occasionally here.

So they've certainly been worth the $90 (as with most things I doodled over getting them for a good few months because of the cost, and they were not that common then either), they've certainly put in the miles to be worth replacing. Or maybe they'll last one more trip after this.......

Back to Hawaii....for a few weeks...

I'm back in Hawaii, for a little longer this time, 5 weeks. Then it's off to Alaska. Yikes, better start thinking about that trip sometime soon! The meetings were buys but hopefully fruitful, only the next few weeks will tell. It was good to meet the NSF program managers, these are the folks that help decide the fate of my proposals, so it was good to chat and get their recommendations, and I caught up with some familiar faces who just so happened to be there too.

On the last afternoon (yesterday) my friend Kathy and I worked on a paper for a few hours after the meeting, then headed for the whirlwind tour of downtown DC. It was hot hot hot, but it was awesome to see just about everything I wanted to see, even a quick stop in the Natural History Museum.

The White House, which actually was white..

Loved this. This is the White House Kitchen Garden, looks like they've got quite a good bounty this year!

The Lincoln Memorial. We did a good walking tour of many of the monuments and memorials, everything is pretty close together in DC which was nice as we had really limited time in the afternoon.

The Washington Monument as seen from the reflecting pool at Abe Lincoln's feet.

The Washington Monument on a beautifully sunny afternoon.

Cosmopolitans and oysters with Kathy, does it get much better, and much more DC, than that?

In Washington DC

Well, i'm in the Nations Capital, Washington DC. A day early than planned. Interesting story that includes me not checking my ticket that I thought had me flying out friday, until tuesday, and discovering I actually was booked for Thursday. Good thing I checked. But luckily my friend Diane was still willing to put up with me a day longer than planned and took me in for a friday of pretty much R&R&REI. Well, you know how much I love an outdoor store....:0)

I'm here for meetings next week then fly back next thursday, so it's really a fleeting visit, but planned to stop by the Adams family to catch up and meet the very cute kiddos Dahlia and Davin for the weekend. Today we had a fantastic day, we went past the Capitol Building, went into the botanical gardens, had lunch on the Mall and even stopped by the Air and Space museum and saw an awesome exhibition on planet pictures.  It's super hot and humid out, but today was the perfect mix of inside and out. This week some of us at the meeting have plans to see some of the sites by night, when it's a little cooler and all lit up. There is so much to see here as i'm just discovering, unfortunately I had no time to do research on DC before I left and I really wish I had.

Some pics from today -  

The Capitol Building. As this foreigner had to be told, this is where the US "parliament", otherwise known as the House of Representatives and the Senate, happens. Very grand.  Diane also told me that no building in DC can be taller than the lady of freedom on top of the dome. One thing I had noticed flying into DC is the lack of giant wads of skyscrapers, it makes the city quite beautiful without them. 

The Washington Monument at the end of the National Mall, always see this in movies.....:0) Despite this picture it wasn't a gray day, it was quite bright and beautiful, must have been the haze on top of the hill. 

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Was a lot of fun! 

And a hot dog picnic on the Mall. Yum! 

You grew up as an expat in the middle east if....

Found this on the internet, thought it was fun....and surprisingly accurate on most accounts, particularly #1, for those who have ever had that conversation with me.....:0)

• You can't answer the question, "Where are you from?" (And when you do, you get into an elaborate conversation that gets everyone confused)
• You flew before you could walk.
• You have a passport, but no driver's license.
• You think California is cold.
• You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.
• You run into someone you know at every airport.
• Conversations with friends take place at 6:00 in the morning or 10:00 at night.
• Your life story uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times.
• You can speak with authority about the quality of various international airlines.
• You feel self conscious around white people.
• You get offended when someone turns down an offer for food.
• You treasure pork and root beer as highly-valued commodities.
• You have ever had to wait for prayer call to be over to finish shopping.
• You are fascinated by any wildlife bigger than a gecko.
• You know that it truly is a small world.
• You have ever gone to the "hammam" or endured a "shamal."
• You get all the jokes in Aladdin.
• Rain is still one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.
• You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
• Your wardrobe can only handle two seasons: hot and warm.
• Your school memories include duck-and-cover drills.
• You are used to being stared at.
• You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
• You call a chicken burrito a "shwarma."
• Your dorm room/apartment/living room looks a little like a museum with all the "exotic" things you have around.
• You've heard of "hubbly bubbly."
• You have sat in a "men's" or "women's" section in an airport, hospital, or restaurant.
• You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don't know the geography of your own country.
• Your best friends are from 5 different countries.
• You have never spent a summer with your friends from high school because you all go back to your home town/state/country June - August
• Camping involves duning, getting stuck, and counting how many camels you saw.
• A sports tournament involves flying to another country in the Middle East.
• You remember when the first McDonalds in your country had its grand opening.
• You got days off school for Christian and Muslim holidays.
• Not being able to eat in public during the day during the holy month of Ramadan.
• Traveling home required buying candy, CDs, and Abercrombie and Fitch clothing for your friends back overseas.
• You are used to giving directions according to landmarks, not street names.
• It's normal to wake up and have four or more Pakistani men fixing your AC.
• You are used to seeing Arabic commercials dubbed in British English about Lux soap, Carnation condensed milk and Dove shampoo.
• Seeing police drive on the shoulder of the road and cut people is not unusual.
• You know someone is referring to Pepsi when they say "Bebzi".
• Having a walled in, cement house is standard.
• Ford Explorer sized cars seem small compared to Toyota Land Cruisers and Nissan Patrols

Back from SEA

Back from the 5 days with the UH SEA program. I wish I could say it was great, but man, the politics i've talked about before seemed to continue, not in the same way, but I guess it's just apparent my friend Alison is just not cut out for life at sea and was over her head. Now Alison is awesome and I adore her as a friend, but it's abundantly clear it was a good thing for me not to be on the first leg as she would have driven me crazy. By the time I arrived she had alienated the whole crew and was really rude to them, and wasn't much better to the students either, she was obviously "done", as was the crew. She'd organized some fantastic trips during the cruise, but a lot was done last minute, and really didn't cope well with the challenges that being at sea creates (weather not allowing you to sample, moorings not being good enough for certain areas etc.), nor did she seem to embrace all that SEA has to offer - namely the sailing and crewing component that makes up so much of what they do. It is the first of hopefully more UH cruises, and I hope this hasn't turned SEA off completely, Alison would be a great director for the program, as long as she remains on the ground, something myself and David, the other faculty involved talked about a lot on the way home today. So it was a tense 5 days, as I feel torn between Alison and SEA, seeing both sides. It was a learning experience for both sides, I hope both sides see their flaws and the ways to better work together in the future.

What was good is that I got to see a small slice of the SEA pie, got to ride the ship a little before i'm potentially  on a full cruise with them. I can honestly say all the SEA crew and science party were awesome in the way they handled the students, the students adored them and they were really learning. I'd feel very privileged to be able to work for SEA in the future. Some pics from the trip. 

Students up the rigging - having a great time! 

Two green sea turtles at the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island.

We had a tour of the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park from an awesome guide. 

Student Rhonda enjoying some R&R while under sail from the Big Island to Maui. 

To do an Opihi survey (limpets that are a cultural food, now endangered in many parts) for a student project we had to hike 2 miles over lava to a site within the Ahihi-Kina'u Natural Area Reserve. On the way there were these brackish ponds, where rainwater had pooled and seawater had seeped through to create these lush pools teeming with shrimp and a nesting site for stilts. It was awesome, hiking through hot barren A'A' lava and over a crest would be these pools. Our Nature Conservancy guide Matt was awesome, as well as fearless during the Opihi transects - which were often sheer cliffs being pounded by the waves. All of us came back with scratches and bruises! 

Finding our way to the sites - these are areas that have been closed to fishing for the last two years, so are sampled by the Nature Conservancy regularly to look and see if they are recovering. So the sites we sampled were GPS points to make sure the same area was being sampled. Over barren, hot and dangerously sharp lava, the trek was a challenge, as was finding sites sometimes!  

This is what the end of the hike looked like - this was the final site of 15 we did. By this time the tide was so high it was too dangerous to keep surveying, so we sat, rehydrated and had a quick snorkel in this pool before heading back out of the closed reserve. Feel very special for being able to go in there. 

David, one of the other Hawaii Faculty displaying his Opihi wounds! 

What goes on at sea stays at sea. Well maybe not. These are some of the awesome SEA crew, who made clean up day a whole lot more fun than you could imagine. In the space of 3 hours the entire boat was scrubbed and cleaned, every surface inside and out. Everyone kicked in, science, students and crew alike. 

One of the students Andrew at the helm. I was in awe, by the time I arrived they had been at sea for 3 weeks, yet they knew every rope, every command and just got on to get the job done. It was awesome to see them take on the responsibility of the ship, take commands and pitch in together. What SEA is all about!