Christmas on the Cape

Well, i'm on Cape Cod - I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I arrived on Wednesday afternoon to this....

Snow! And lots of it! And of course, my little car, safe and sound (and with new, beefier, Maine resistant battery......apparently Hawaiian batteries just don't cut it for 20F....).

It's been a wonderful few days. As soon as I arrived at Kathy and Rods we had a few visitors to say hello and goodbye, in particular my friend Laura left for the UK the day after I arrived. Sad i've missed her, but we get to be stuck on a boat in the middle of the Drake Passage in May for 40 days, so we'll get to catch up!

Thursday and friday I did some wandering around, finishing up Christmas shopping and catching up with folks, was super nice. I love Cape Cod, I had a great time here and miss so many people. I'm so happy to be closer to my Cape family.

Falmouth Beach, with just a little snow left on friday.

Then of course there was Christmas at the Catanachs. Was wonderful, such awesome friends.

The tree! It was a few feet taller when it started, but Rod made it fit! First Christmas tree in a few years, was super nice!

Christmas morning breakfast - french toast, buns, juice, coffee - yum! This was after i'd skyped with the whole family back in the UK.

Tammy giving the presents a poke.....just to check they weren't alive.....

Kathy and I compare our presents from Rod....socks! After all the opening of presents we headed off cape to Kathy's brother's house, where I was treated to a Scanlon family Christmas - a wonderful affair that didn't end until close to midnight.

And today we have a snowstorm coming through! I headed into WHOI for a while to pack boxes for the Antarctic cruise (the cruise isn't until May, but we have to send boxes by the end of January, and much of my "stuff" arrived here at WHOI ready to ship. 

The view from Kathy and Rod's back deck - snow!

Their dog Nikko enjoys the snow!

Okay, I haven't seen much snow recently okay, and I LOVE snow! So far we've had about 4 inches, it's still snowing, and much of the cape now has a power out, so we're waiting, and i'm typing fast!

The pond behind the house with their pontoon. There was a lot of ice on the pond too, apparently for the first time this year. It's definitely cold! The worst of the storm is supposed to hit tonight, and relative to other parts of the Northeast, we're getting off lightly, or so we hope!

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!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas....

Friday night saw a little Risotto and champagne with the ladies, yum!

Saturday night saw a little gathering to watch the boat parade!

Some christmas lights in Hawaii Kai as the scene is set for some boat lighting madness!

Photos in the dark of lighted objects moving on water never come out well, but this gives you a little taste of what went on (30 boats in competition to win the best light display, some of them apparently spend thousands!).

No, this is not a stuffed animal. I would say only in Hawaii, but i'm betting there are probably more out there......

Some of the boats heading home after the festival.

Weekend!

Well the weekend started with a bang - saturday morning a group of my favorite girls headed to the Kahala hotel for their awesome breakfast buffet - yum! Let the pre-marathon carbo-loading begin in style! And guess who we saw there???

Yup....you guessed it. Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) from the series Heroes! He was having breakfast right behind us (well spotted Tara!). I don't watch much in the way of TV, but i've been into this series lately and have been watching it here and there on Netflix. Always awesome to have a famous person sighting! 

Next up I had little Hannah for the weekend while Jenny and Doug had a night at the Kahala hotel, their first night away from little Hannah since she was born! They had a relaxing time and Hannah and I had an awesome time, she was such a star, no fuss at all.

We checked out the marathon preparations......gulp! Have I mentioned it's this sunday! Yikes! I'm definitely in need of that cheer group I had last year, this year could be super painful! Going to pick up my packet probably wednesday, so i'll let everyone know my number so you can follow my progress online!

And the best way to keep a 20 month old entertained? Dress up. Everytime!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Just one more lecture to give - Wednesday sees the end of teaching, just the exam to go - woo hoo! Time most certainly flies....still need to finish up a bunch of xmas presents - yikes!

Moanday....

The above picture is to remind me that this weekend was fun, really, it was a lot of fun. I got to pack, relax, run and spend time with friends, you can't get too much better than that. Had dinner with Jenny, Doug and friends on Halloween night, the photo is Hannah playing peek-a-boo with Doug and me while out waiting for Trick or Treaters!

Today however, I need to moan. Nothing seemed to go right. So today i'm going to list out my moans. Tomorrow, after a state holiday day that I might actually take off (or at least just work at home and mix it up with packing) i'll put up a happy list. Today it's moan list time.

1. A parcel of lab supplies that I ordered 3 weeks ago is still not here. Last week they "lost" it and couldn't find it on the tracking (but knew it left on the 18th October). Today I walked into my office to a phone message saying they know where it is, it's on the boat, but they don't know when it's going to get here. Not only have I had to buy supplies from a more expensive place on island to see us through till these supplies arrive, now it doesn't even look like they'll get here before the container leaves! Ak!

2. A paper I sent out the revisions for came back to me asking for 2 revisions that were already made! Not sure what went on there, but everything they've asked for is already done in the files that are already uploaded. Headquarters for the journal is in Europe, so it'll be a while before they figure it out i'm sure. This is an accepted paper that just needs to GO and stop BUGGING me! (long story....)

3. Last week I had a hard-drive conk out. So I bought a new 2TB one from the University store - Lacie (good brand), good price, good to get it there to get it immediately to save the data from this other drive. That one didn't work (made crunchy noises). Got a replacement on friday, worked, set it up to transfer files (would take 12hrs), walked away. Went into work saturday and it still had 6hrs to go. Hmmm. Didn't have time to deal with it. Walked in today, still had 6hrs to go. Ug. It had corrupted, after some playing around it decided to die completely. I'm now on the third one.......sigh. That one "seemed" to work. Guess i'll find out tomorrow if it did.....

4. And the big one. My car. :0( It is in California. Yay. It's not going any further for a while. Boo. The car shipping is being paid for through the university through invoice. I got the quote, organized the invoice and submitted it to UMaine. Told the car company. They had said originally they wouldn't take it until the invoice was paid. So I waited. The next day (after i'd submitted the paperwork to Maine) they called me up to organize the shipping. I asked if the invoice had been paid, they said no, but it didn't matter they'd take it. What they didn't tell me until friday was that though they would take it, they wouldn't deliver it until the invoice was paid. This is the first I had heard of this, and my car is now in California. So now, unless the invoice is paid by this friday (as I haven't dealt with this in Maine before, I have no idea if this is reasonable - here in Hawaii, that would NEVER happen in time), they want to store it, and they want to charge me for storage. Nice huh. No, it was nowhere in all the paperwork I signed either, I would have noticed and I checked today.

I think the thing that pisses me off about #4 on there is the attitude of the company (Transporter Auto Services - do not use them), they actually said to me today "well if you'd told us how long it would take to get the invoice we wouldn't have taken the car". Well duh, if you'd either asked, or mentioned you wouldn't have delivered it without it, I wouldn't have dropped off the car with you until it was! They've admitted they didn't tell me about that gem, but still want to turn this around to be my fault?!? Yeah, cause i'm knowingly going to give you the most expensive item I (half) own knowing it 'aint going to be delivered.....

Only time will see if this one pans out, until my car is in MA, i'm just not going to stop stressing about it......and I have a feeling it's going to be many more hours of phone calls and emails....

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!

Happy July 4th!

Watched the fireworks tonight from Paul and Tara's backyard, after a nice swim in their pool and a yummy BBQ. Feeling very full of smores and G&Ts right now, good thing I got a run in earlier! Hope you all had a good one too, yay for tomorrow being a holiday!

Stuck

Well, i'm still here! A major mess up with my tickets and I (hopefully) have a flight out tomorrow. Well, I do have a flight out tomorrow, from Minneapolis onwards I am not so sure. I have a 30 minute layover to clear customs, drop my bags and get to my next plane, so i'm 99.9% certain i'm going to miss it. Needless to say, not booking through that travel agent again......we'll see how far I get!

So what to do with an extra day? Sledding, toboggan and luge of course!

At the top of the hill....

Sliding down! I was on a small thin "magic carpet" sled.

The mini luge at the local park. Fun! And soooooooo fast!

And then we dropped into the ice racing going on - cars, with studded tires racing on ice. Bit like banger racing, only on ice. Think disney on ice. Fun!

Over the hills and far away....

My last week, in pictures, because it's 11.58pm and I have a 7am flight back to Hawaii tomorrow.....

I rented a mini-van for the trip to Lutsen Ski resort. Though a stressful rental (the car they were going to give us got in an accident the day before and they didn't have anything else, so we had to change company - all at 10pm at night!), it worked out perfectly, enough room for 3 adults, 2 kids, four sets of ski gear, two tabogans and a whole host of food and warm clothing!

Our hotel room, though very basic, was ski in ski out, so was awesome. Kim took this photo standing at our front door. Carney is already in his ski's, i'm a little less adept at getting the ski's on.

Another view from our front door, Carney and I on the ski lift going right over our hotel block. Lutsen was really awesome, we got a great deal on a two night stay (with ski passes included), shared a hotel room (two double beds) and had all our own gear. So combined with enough easy and hard runs to keep us all amused, it was a fantastic short get away.

Sammy concentrating hard on her ski form. Just as a reminder, she turned 3 last week. 3. Amazing....

The girls at the chalet at the top of Moose Mountain. I'm so going to miss the girls!

The view. That's lake Superior in the background.

Lake Superior formed the backdrop of most of the ski runs, it was so beautiful up there, and we really did get the best weather - snowing one day and clear the next.

Riding up in the cable car.

The lower Chalet - there were a couple of them around. No, I did not attempt the moguls. But I can now say green runs are no problem, and I tackled most blues just fine. One in particular was a little steep for me though....not quite up to the black runs yet.....:0)

Some other going's on this week, it hit a balmy 0C, so we decided to BBQ on the back deck (eating inside).

The girls all went to a winter carnival which was fun. Showing Sammy and Taylor how to pet a sled doggy. We unfortunately didn't get a ride, next visit.

On a sleigh ride around Fort William.

Today Kim and I went on a snowshoe around Kakabeka Falls. Only the falls weren't falling at this time of year. They were quite solid.

Snowshoe diva.

Tomorrow I am off. I'm going to miss the Mathesons so much. Storytime in particular.