Out and About

Monday evening after dinner a group of us decided to take a little jaunt up Ob Hill. Diane is the mountain goat of the group and Mike, Don and I moseyed along behind. It was such a warm evening with no wind at all and the skies were bright and clear. When we left for our walk about 10pm it was still around +34 degrees! I had worn only my down sweater and wind shell for jackets and ended up taking them both off and tying them around my waist. One of the guys ditched his coat halfway up alongside the trail and we picked it up on the way down. The views from the top were as cool as ever and it's amazing to see how much the pressure ridges and rollers over by Scott Base have grown in just two months. Quite spectacular. We could see the mountain views and ranges, Willy Field runway, Happy Camper and all of MacTown. The wind started up a titch on the way down and we'd made it just in time for the less than balmy temperatures. The next day was a work day so off to bed...

It's Wednesday now and has been a nice day off. The usual leisurely activities and chores
took up a good part of the day as did a good workout. Tonight a group of us met at the science lecture in Crary about the migration patterns of Adelie penguins. Not a bad talk, but more researcher/science guy info than a lot of us could handle and not enough cute penguin pictures. Oh and by the way, I still haven't seen a live penguin. Sigh. Since we were in the building we went down to the aquarium to see the newest inhabitants. There are pretty much no sea urchins left and not many sea stars. The fish though are still hanging out and doing their thing! We spent some time there looking at, holding, reading about the critters and talking and laughing about our personal experiences with them. I still think my fishing story is the funniest. :-) The bracchei (sp) are so fun to play with. It seems like they realize when someone comes in and they want the human attention. I'm sure that's not the case, but come on, who really knows for sure?! They were pretty still in the bottom of their tanks when we arrived and then started coming up to the top to "visit" popping their little heads and mouths up out of the water. So cute! There were some new players in one of the tanks and I don't know what type of fish they are. I'll see if I can find out. More sea spiders than I care for and far, far too many sea lice. They are just absolutely creepy! {{shiver}} As we were leaving the aquarium we turned around to find an ice machine. Wouldn't you know it, it's a snowman poo ice machine! Our joy was squashed though when we saw the sign that said it was not for human consumption. I trust it as the last thing I need is a fish parasite. Eewww.

From there we headed to the coffee house for another Tractor Club meeting as there were new members to be sworn in and I had to get my grocery list to those who can make things happen. This is a serious thing, you know? Another good time was had by all and we were up way too late making new friends and laughing, talking and chatting. It's the sunlight...bad for sleep, good for socializing.

And Erin, Happy Birthday to you!!! I hope it was a great day! I was thinking about you.