What a Great Weekend!

Today was a fantastically fun day! I suppose it actually started last night (Saturday) with the Summer Beach Dance Party hosted by the Wasties at the Waste Barn. I really had to convince myself to go rather than stay in bed and watch a movie. It was great to get out, hang with friends and dance the night away with everyone. It was lots of fun!

Woke up in time Sunday morning to go do the Scott's Hut 8k Race. As I'm not allowed to run I walked it with my friend Mike. He's such a nice guy for walking with me so I didn't have to walk it alone. He's got a jacked up ankle too so that may have been part of it. The weather was warmish and the day was gorgeous! Just a windbreaker and hat and we were nice and comfy. We did it in 63.33 minutes and I now am posted as the last, and longest, finishing time on the rec board in the hallway for everyone to see. If they understood that we walked and that many of those who finished just a few minutes ahead of us were runners it might not look quite so pathetic. Never mind though, we had a great walk.

After the race we all had brunch where we sat for a couple of hours and ended up having a coffee party there in the galley. Coffee parties are when one of us brings the French press and good coffee along with real milk-from-a-cow. It's a fantastic treat!

Finally Diane and I convinced one another that although a nap sounded really, really good, we needed to head over to Scott Base for the polar plunge. We were both having a hard time motivating ourselves to get there, but got up the nerve, changed clothes and off we went. This was an experience that I did not want to miss out on at all. I mean seriously, I bought the t-shirt months ago and haven't been able to wear it until I do it. It was fantastic!!! It was super cold waiting in line with a blanket wrapped around me and then having to put on Diane's cold, wet shoes and the wet swim safety belt around my waist. The overcast, slightly windy day didn't make things feel any warmer either! Once the technicalities were out of the way, I somehow managed to get myself to jump into the freezing 28.5 degree Fahrenheit water. It was super cold and instantly took my breath away. I opened my eyes underwater on instinct and it was neat looking; bluish-grey and kind of murky. Then after only a matter of seconds you surface and gasp for a breath as the cold squeezes it out of you when you first jump into it. It was tricky getting my arms and hands to work to crawl up the ladder and out of the hole. Then they wrapped the blanket back around me and we were done. The strangest thing is that immediately after you exit the water you are so cold and your body is so shocked that neither of us could speak for a minute. It was so cool and a once in a lifetime experience! And the feeling of salt water on your body and in your hair felt great! I forgot how I love the ocean water. It pretty much was way too much fun in a freaky weird sort of way! Needless to say, although we'd have been happy to have just had a nap that afternoon, the plunge was the best part of the day. After watching a few more plungers and doing a bit of browsing in the Scott base store to warm up we were ready to go home. The shuttle was too full to get back to town and so we ended up walking nearly 3/4 of the road back to Mac town before getting picked up by the ambulance that was heading back to the station. A very busy and pretty active day around here. Once I got back to my dorm I lingered in a hot shower to try to make my hands work again and then had dinner followed by a really interesting science lecture related to the science and scientists of the Shackleton expedition. A great day overall and my weekend was a blast!