Quick Notes

I haven't written on here in a while, which seems to be a trend, but this time I have a good reason other than procrastination. For three weeks after Christmas, I lived on a ship and sailed around the Antarctic Peninsula with about 100 other people. A week after getting back, I still don't quite know what to say about it that won't sound cliche. It was incredible and life-changing and I met tons of people who I now miss, not to mention I was in Antarctica! I even went swimming in Antarctic waters. For anyone who's thinking about going down there... Deception Island's hot sands do NOT qualify as comfortable. Not at all. Saying that the water temperatures are approaching comfortable would be way overselling it. Still, I'm glad I did it! Oh, and I saw about 1 million penguins. And loads of Fur Seals and Humpback Whales and Elephant Seals and Skua Birds and ice! The pictures will come eventually. Actually, I got a lot of help from the two professional photographers who were on the trip, and I could see the difference in my shots from beginning to end. This may be my favorite--it's a leopard seal lying on an ice floe. We got up to about 5 feet away from him. See that snot? I could have reached out and wiped it off, if I'd thought I could spare my hand.

There are so many more shots and stories that I want to show and tell, but in this venue I can't really do them justice. Honestly I can't do them justice in any venue! People ask me what it was like and I can never explain it. It's something that I know now I have to do again--either that or go there for work. It made me seriously consider dropping my ambition of becoming a veterinarian and instead studying wildlife biology. This, of course, calls for much more dedicated coursework than I've put in so far this year, but to get back there, I can do it.

Here are a few more photos from the trip. There are many, many more! I might post them eventually.

Iceberg at Cuverville Island

Skua bird at Neko Harbor

Gentoo Penguin at Lookout Point, Elephant Island

Skua chick at Hannah Point, Livingston Island

Fur Seal pup at South Georgia Island

Moving forward from this trip will be interesting. School has not held quite as much interest for me, now that I've gotten a taste of what's out there, but I'm readjusting. Just last night Eliza had a new calf on the farm. It's a spotted heifer out of a very flat-brown colored cow, and the calf is just gorgeous. I didn't have my camera on me when I went to the farm this morning because I just dropped in after a run, but I'm planning on going back down as soon as I can--maybe tomorrow morning--to get some pictures. We've had such cold temperatures lately that Rachel and Liam moved Eliza into the heated tack room to give birth, instead of the regular box stall. I hadn't actually been down to the farm all week because I had to make up work, so this morning was the first time and I was feeling guilty for taking so long to get back to my place.

Anyway, life is happening and I have homework, so this is where tonight's post ends. You may expect a lot more pictures in the future, because both of the photographers on the trip seemed to believe that I can make something of my photography. I'll be working hard.

Uruguay Photo Dump

Over the summer when  I was in Uruguay, I didn't take as many photos as I should have. It was a really cool experience which I now wish I had documented more fully. I did take a lot more than I have shown anyone, though. A few months ago I posted maybe three photos, which were the only ones I wanted to edit at the time. But today I went through and opened up a few more in Photoshop. Here they are.

Maldonado

At a museum in Punta del Este

Near Punta del Este

Waves

Estancia Finca Piedra

At a wildlife preserve on the way to Punta del Este

Family Weekend

Last month I promised to post the photos from our hikes over fall family weekend, but didn't have time to edit the photos until now. And I think most of the photos are probably on my mom's camera in Texas... oh well. Time to dive in.

For our weekend, my parents and I stayed at Pinkham Notch in the White Mountains. It's near the base of Mount Washington. The weather was iffy, so we decided early on that we wouldn't make an attempt on the summit, especially since we've done it a few times before and didn't need to again. Given our chosen path, that was probably a good decision. The route my father decided to take was up Huntington Ravine, through the Alpine Garden, and down the Lion Head. In retrospect, that was not the smartest way to go on such a damp and windy day.

Huntington Ravine is arguably one of the more dangerous paths in this area of the White Mountains, because of the rock slab and other outcroppings you have to climb up to get to the top. While these would not be too nasty on a dry day, they're slippery when wet. It's a good place to have a rope, even if it's just to be extra cautious. We didn't have one.

When we got to the rock slab, which requires a friction climb to the top, we found that it was very slick in some places, and at first it looked like we wouldn't be able to scale it. Having dismissed the marked route as not doable, we then proceeded to look around for all other possible ways up. Nothing went. Finally, we retried the marked path, and by that time it didn't seem so bad compared to the others. It went after all. Amazing, right? Who would have thought that the best path would be the marked one?

Finally we made our way to the top of the ravine, where we suddenly realized that--wow--it was actually kind of windy. The clouds were amazing, spilling from the Alpine Garden down into various ravines and gulches like the one we'd just come out of. The landscape looked very Scottish.

At the end of the Alpine Garden, which was actually a very short walk, we started down the Lion Head. I think that was probably the least comfortable part of the hike. I liked it more than scrambling up the seemingly endless Huntington Ravine, but the Lion Head was a steep downhill on rock. Even though the rocks were like stairs, all of our knees took a beating.

Just in time, we emerged from the woods and back into Pinkham Notch. It was just beginning to rain, and there was enough time to take a nice hot shower and be dressed in time for the 6:00 dinner call. It was short hike, but seemed like a pretty long day. There wasn't enough vertical rise to compare it to a lot of the hikes we do in Jackson, but there were some pretty sketchy spots in Huntington Ravine, and I wouldn't call it an easy hike.

As for photos, I just checked my hard drive and it turns out that for most of the trip, I was busy playing with my mom's new Rebel, so all the photos are on her computer. The one good photo on my camera that I actually took myself was this one:

Reminds me so much of fall! Fall is a great season. But it's winter now, so frost and snow are on their way! I have mixed feelings but winter means that morning and evening chores need doing on the farm, so I'm happy.