The most incredible hotel I've ever stayed in; the Dreams in Punta Arenas, Chile, in a seaside view room up on a high floor was incredibly luxurious after wintering at Palmer Station. This is where I'm going back to Tuesday night before my ship leaves for McMurdo Station.
Dave and I took two trips to Idaho, Boise and McCall. We were house shopping as well as enjoying the fall and winter and planning our wedding. This is the park that is downtown and was closest to the apartment where we lived. It looks so great with the upgrades and landscaping!
A hike close to McCall off of Lick Creek Road to stretch our legs. Dave and I have hiked to Snowslide lake several times, but it never gets old.
The Sawtooth Mountains are stunning! This view is from Stanley, Idaho in the downtown park. After Dave went back to work, I visited the area and camped. It was beautiful!
This is part of Hyde Park, the neighborhood where Dave and I are looking to move to in the North End of Boise. It is a small area that has a lot of great cafes and pubs and is close to the Foothills, which are filled with mountain biking trails.
My parents and I visited the park in Verdi close to Reno for a walk.
We also drove to see the coast for a couple days. Sunset at Schoolhouse beach.
A gorgeous car and sunset on the coast.
We visited a new redwood grove called "The Old Grove" in Occidental, California. It is a 33 acre privately owned grove that is open to the public in Sonoma County. Very few people know about it so we had the whole forest to ourselves, and what's even cooler is that it is not manicured like State Parks normally are, so there are a ton of small redwood trees too, in addition to the big ones. Found out about this gem from a new Antarctic friend.
Mom & Dad in the Old Grove.
Schoolhouse beach in Bodega Bay, CA, has the prettiest, most colorful little rocks instead of sand. This is zoomed in pretty far with my camera, as they are the size of tiny peas or large peppercorns.
Dave and I went camping in 0 degrees Fahrenheit in order to be able to see Leslie Gulch, a phenomenally beautiful place in Oregon on the border of Idaho. Totally worth it!!!
Leslie Gulch is on the drive from Reno to Boise.
Nothing like seeing the desert under a fresh veil of snow. So beautiful!
We had the whole place to ourselves, and it seemed so much like southern Utah!
This was in McCall, standing next to the cabin on the lake where we would like to have our wedding reception. It is right on the lake!
We visited Gold Fork hot springs on both of our trips to Idaho. What a great way to relax!
Thanksgiving. Dave and I got to be home for Thanksgiving and do some cooking. The turkey turned out incredibly well. What a fun day!
Dave and Mom with last minute touches before dinner. We had turkey, porcini green beans, mango salad, Mom made a cranberry desert, had stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie and manhattans!
My first Christmas home since college! We took a holiday photo by the tree that Mom and I decorated. Mom made a delicious and traditional lunch and I made a potato dish and salad we often eat for the holidays.
We visited my Grandparents with Dad on Christmas Day. We took their favorite, homemade chicken soup from scratch and I made chocolate chip cookies. We took photos after they opened their gifts, and the photo is Grandma with the hat that I made her for her birthday. She made us some beautiful blankets. She was dressed in green and grandpa in red!
The past 3 months flew by pretty quickly, and I'm heading South again tomorrow. I'm meeting the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel in Punta Arenas, Chile. I'm sailing with it from there to McMurdo Station, where I will disembark and fly to Christchurch, New Zealand and hopefully visit my brother and sister before flying back to the US. I will be celebrating New Years with my boss in Chile. Dave will visit some Antarctic friends he hasn't seen for years in Portland and hopefully cousin Amy too on the way. I got to see her for a couple days on my way to Washington for my 10 day Vipassana meditation class which was the best thing I've ever done for myself. It was so fun to laugh with Amy, and to see some of my cousins, aunts and uncles as well as Skype with both sets of our brothers and their families. Love you all very much, and thank you for everything! Happy New Year!!
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