Chile & Antarctica May/June

Puerto Montt, Chile.  We spent a day here on the way down because our plane rerouted from Punta Arenas which had too much fog to land (we were on the descent when they turned us around).  A wonderful day of sightseeing!  View from my hotel room.

Puerto Montt, and below a military celebration by the water with marching and a band.

Scenic walk by the waterfront.

Puerto Montt's volcano, still quite active.

Palmer Station, art night, with Adina who I wintered with in 2014.

Both the NBP and LMG at the pier in Punta Arenas. 

 

We had some crazy seas in the Drake Passage, both southbound and northbound.

Most of the day was dark at Palmer, a bit of light from 10-2pm.  But mostly this.

Recovering fish pots.  Pot fishing is always my favorite, but this is the first time I've gotten to do the grappling and recovery part.  It's a matter of putting the rope in the block (above and left of my head) and through the pot hauling machine (that Tom is operating) and as it pulls on the string of pots, and one of the pots comes close to the side of the ship, pulling the pot onto deck by hand.  Grappled it on the first try!

Cargo operations as seen from Station.  If you look closely, you can see we were lifting a shipping container onto deck using a main crane and tag lines.

Beautiful views as always from the Gerlache Straights, close to Palmer.

The aluminum landing craft (this small boat) is what we had to unload all our cargo into for delivery to Palmer Station because the icebergs were so big and proximal to the pier that we couldn't actually dock.  So we used the small crane to lower things into that small boat and they ran it to Station, back and forth for two days.

Sorting the catch.  We were putting the contents of the Blake fishing trawl net into these plastic bins so that the scientists could see the catch easier and find the small fish they were looking for.

Unique iceberg near Station.

Iceberg and pancake ice.

The glacier at Palmer Station.  It receded so much between the last time I was there (last November) and now that we now have a brand new island named Detrich after the scientist we were fishing for.

Sunrise in the Straits of Magellan, last morning before arriving back to Punta Arenas.  Every single time it's this golden/red for some magical reason.  And every time we have Commerson's dolphins swimming alongside the ship.

Sign and view from atop the glacier at Palmer Station.  We hiked up it twice, this time in the daylight and once after work in the complete darkness with headlamps.

The LMG and us three Marine Tech gals standing on the side saying hello as we tried to pull in but couldn't.

We had drillers from New Zealand drilling rock cores on the pier and on Station for data for future construction and repairs.  Surprisingly, a lot of granite!

Josephine and I walked these plastic bins full of survival gear to a place on Janus Island.  All the islands people can boat to near Palmer Station have survival gear in case they get stranded there.

Me mending a net, one of the things I did a lot of as the others hadn't learned yet.  And below is us three sailor ladies or Marine Techs, from this cruise: Josephine, brand new, in the middle and Krista whom I've sailed with on the other ship on the right. 

Big fish pic!  This was from our first of two fishing trips, a female ice fish, still in shock (they close their mouths when they adjust after being pulled all the way off the bottom of the ocean in our nets to the surface and in the plastic aquarium tanks you see behind me.  We had a very successful trip and were so gentle that they had almost no die offs.

 The drillers drilling.

The best/most rare pic for last: this is a plunderfish!  We only caught one, they are super rare and live only in very deep dark depressions in the waters only off certain regions of the Antarctic.  They are characterized by that "probe" on the chin, which is actually a sensory organ.  It's a boon to catch these fish because they are only mentioned in books from the 1960's that have pencil sketches of these types of fish, so to actually get photos and biological data on them is exciting stuff.

Had a good trip and happy to be home with Dave in gorgeous Idaho in the middle of summer.  Will post pictures soon of some of our recent hikes.  Love you all.  Happy Fourth of July!!!

Springtime in Idaho!

Beach across from the ice skating rink.  Just days later, all the trees have leaves, and 6 boats in the water now instead of just one.

 View from Mill Park beach.

Our drive to Hailey and Sun Valley for our 4 days Wilderness First Responder Recertification course.  So lucky to have Emily go to the original class two years ago with me and this re-cert too.  We stayed in Ketchum and it felt like a vacation!  Which was needed after all the commercial drivers license studying and FEMA online classes.  And we saw herds upon herds of proghorn antelope on the drive home.

Spring flowers in Idaho City.

More Idaho City.

Idaho City downtown.  We visited this quaint historic gold mining town off a Forest Service dirt road on our way home from our class.  It used to be the biggest town between San Francisco and Minneapolis!

A natural hot spring we scouted out on the way home near Lohman/Banks.

On our way past White Bird to pick up a stranded friend.

The table my brother made in high school wood shop.  I sanded the whole thing, concentrating on the nicks and age spots, and re-stained it with tea and vinegar.  Then beeswax for the shine.  This was after staining the two frames that Dave made.

Dave and I only had two days together, but they were spectacular.  We went on really long hikes on both days and I made some spicy Thai & Mexican meals.  This was at the end of a 6 mile hike up to Goose Creek Falls where I hope he gets to ride the new mountain biking trails a lot.  The next day was a combination of the hikes in the State Park nearby.

Natural hot springs north of McCall called Last Chance where Dave and I have soaked years ago.  We found them again!

Blossoms in Ponderosa State Park were all over the mountainsides, and along with these there were also pink and white trilliums, yellow and purple violets and the huckleberry bushes were starting to blossom too. Our drive down to Boise was wildly different than how we've ever seen it before, with the valley floor and all the ranches completely covered in purple blossoming camas flowers.  It was incredible!  We saw elk, white pelicans, deer and a bald eagle.  Hard to say goodbye to Dave, our condo and springtime in Idaho for sure. I'll be back late June and am so excited that we get to spend more time together them.  I'm headed to Palmer Station and fishing off the Antarctic Peninsula for the next six weeks on the smaller ship, the Laurence M. Gould.  Happy Birthday to Mike (15th) and Hanna (25th).  Love all you guys!!! Ildi

Idaho & California

 Dave and I went on a beautiful 12 mile spring hike in Riggins, Idaho up the Rapid River Trail with our friend Todd.  It was brilliant to see all the wildflowers and green grasses, and to go much further than we've been on the trail.  Nice to stretch the legs too.

 We saw this cow on the drive up to the trail head, and none of us have ever seen one with horns like this.

 A spring walk in McCall meant there was still snow on the beach and the lake was half frozen, but it was warm.

 The beach near us is snow free and now the lake is totally ice free too!

 Windy day at the beach in California, but so many beautiful flowers!

 I went to Reno for a week to celebrate Dad's birthday, and we took a trip to the coast.  Incredible flowers everywhere and it was so great to spend some time with my parents and visit Grandma too.

 There were two tall ships in Bodega Bay.

More flowers at the coast.

 At low tide we could see all the mussels on the ocean rocks and cliffs.  Beautiful!

 More Bodega Bay flowers.  We've never seen spring so brilliant there.

 We took a long walk in the Redwoods.

 There was flowing water everywhere, and wet trails.

 Flowers in Healdsburg, a new to us town that we visited and we took a new wine trail from Bodega Bay to 101, which was very curvy and hilly and beautiful!

This is Lake Tahoe on a beautifully sunny day.  We went towards South Lake Tahoe and stopped at all the lookouts because the Lake was so incredibly blue.  I showed my parents a private beach that Dave & I visited a few years ago that has great mountain views, and we had nacho fries at Izzy's, my favorite.  

Time flies by way too quickly, so the "bonus" week that I got to spend with Dave in McCall seemed like it vanished in moments.  It wasn't as cold as we thought it would be after Florida.  The crocus flowers are just peeking up and there's still a ton of snow in the State Park.  I spent a wonderful week with my parents and Grandma, thank you Szulok!  Love you.  And had an exceptional last day with Dave in Boise before he headed up to work.  I'm studying for my CDL which I will be taking within the week and my Wilderness First Responder refresher course at the end of the month.  Love you and thank you for looking at our pictures!

Sun Valley & Florida Keys

I went to visit my friend Julie in Sun Valley on my way to the Idaho airport before flying to Florida.  It was worth the detour to see the beautiful mountains.  Can't wait to go back there with Dave, as neither of us have been before.  Julie and I enjoyed the small town of Bellevue after a really long, scenic drive through Stanley by the Sawtooth mountains.

 Venice, Florida!  We stayed in Nokomis, enjoying the beaches on Casey Key and the shopping in Venice.

 It was so wonderful to spend the month of March in Florida with Dave's parents in a house in Nokomis.

 Bombax tree flowering at the Orange Groves.

Roger & Bette at Casperson beach, a really beautiful one that we got to enjoy several times.  This is where everyone gathers shark teeth because so many of them wash ashore.

 Waves at wild looking Casperson Beach.

 We went to see the Audobon Society's Rookery and it was wonderful!

This was a particularly foggy day at the Jetties.  We loved to come here because there were always a lot of birds and dolphins to see.  In fact, we saw dolphins every single visit!  And had delicious nachos sometimes.

Oscar Scherer State Park just minutes from the house we rented was a veritable southern jungle.  Beautiful palm trees and Spanish moss and bird calls.

 In the State Park.

 Snow egret at the beach.

 The Venic Pier where we went to see the fishermen catch sharks!  And we had some coconut drinks in pink chairs.

 The Venice Beach Pier.

Easter family photo in front of the Bougainvillea bush at the house.  We had a wonderful Easter together, with a delicious brunch (real corn beef hash for Dave and fried green tomato eggs bennedict for me).

 Our time at Casey Key flew by.  And the last days of our Florida stay, we rented a car and drove all the way south to Key West to visit our friends Connie and Andrew.  I caught this candid photo of Dave reading at our friend's pool in the morning with coffee.  We had a great stay there too.  They borrowed bikes for us so we rode all around Key West our two days there and visited beaches and piers.  Most memorable for me was all the flowering trees with yellow blossoms and plumerias of every color.

This was fun for us in Key west, riding our bikes along the beach we could see all the fish and other creatures in the ocean, including this lobster.  So happy Dave got to finally see Key West, as I got to already last year and knew that he would love the architecture, verdant trees and delicious, spicy food (we had the best Nicaraguan tacos ever! from a food truck by the beach.)

Here is our photo from our wonderful, super scenic boat trip in Venice of the Inter-coastal waterways.  What a treat!  Our captain said he sees manatees on these waterways a lot.  Can't wait till we see one in the wild too!

We had a wonderful time in Florida and it was exactly what I was craving, sunshine, family and a relaxed pace.  Loved all the grilled feasts we had, cards and fun times together.  Thank you very much Koehlingers! Love you guys!

Headed to Reno soon to celebrate my Dad's birthday.  We're enjoying our condo and warm weather in McCall right now.  Love you and thank you!  Happy Birthday Dad and Abigail (on the same day!).