Washington DC & San Francisco

After returning to the US, I had a day to business suit shop with the great help of Dave, and flew to Washington DC for a job interview in the Planning Office. 

I flew in and had dinner with the future coworkers, three interviews including one at lunch and then headed home the next day.  But I did get a chance to stop at the Arlington National Cemetery, which is incredible.

After some wedding planning, Dave and I took a few day trip to San Francisco to wedding ring shop and sight see.  Neither of us had ever since so much of the city.

It was my first trip through Chinatown, which I liked a lot.

 Lots of great markets...I got some sparklers for the wedding here.  Fun!

 Seaweed on posts at Fishermen's Wharf.  This was right outside the Exploratorium.

The Coit Tower from the piers.  And below is the sea lions at Fishermen's Wharf.  Love seeing and hearing these guys! They are always a highlight to every San Francisco trip I've taken.

 Alcatraz seen from Pier 39.

 Colorful sailboats at Pier 39.

I'm thrilled we went here, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory.  Also glad I captured Dave in this picture.  Hanging out on the green grass here is one of my favorite memories of Dave when we first met.  We used to park our tour vans nearby and while our passengers were sightseeing, we'd sit in the sun and joke around.

This is the city from Hyde Street and Lombard.  Lombard has the windiest section of street just below this photograph.  I love the Coit Tower all light up like that, and the bridges.

We rode the cable car!  It was scenic and fun, and a great break as we had in our earnest desire to see more of the gorgeous city, walked about 20 miles...up and down Market street, to the piers, across town to Golden Gate Park and the Botanic Gardens, around Chinatown, The Castro, Alamo Square and Haight-Ashbury.

I like that I got the conductor in the photo too.  Below is lunch at Boudin Sourdough bread factory.

Pier 39 is the most famous/touristic part of Fishermen's Wharf and has tons of shops and even an aquarium.  It was the tulip festival there, so lots of flower arrangements and pots full of flowers.

Love these historic rail cars...they're from all over the world and a quick way to get around for only a couple bucks.

The San Francisco Botanic Gardens were incredible!  Lots of native plants, a redwood grove and international trees and plants throughout.

 The loveliest smelling exhibit was the hyacinths, but there were also magnolia trees in full bloom.

 Loved walking around Market street at night!

This is the top of the Coit Tower.  We hiked up on our last day before we caught the ferry back to Vallejo.  It had some incredible painted murals on the inside.  It was an exceptionally wonderful trip, and we got to see and spend some quality time with my aunt and uncle in Cordelia.  I don't know why we haven't gone more often, it's a stunning city with tons of things to see.  Very romantic of course when you're wedding ring shopping as well.  Thank you for looking at our pics, love you!

Chile, Antarctica, New Zealand

View from my room at the Dreams Hotel in Punta Arenas, Chile.  Spent a lovely week there hanging out with my boss Mark Furnish after work (I've worked for him on and off since 2002), facilitating the move of our hazardous waste shipping containers from Mardones Pier onto the ship.  Incredible steak dinner Il Brocolino, lots of delicious prosciutto & arugula pizza at the new pizza place, drinks at the Shackleton Bar and the best New Years possible with the Filipino families and Captain Sebastien.  Happy as always to return to Southern Chile.

The sailboat Europa at sunset.  It was nothing but ocean and some icebergs for most of the 21 days to McMurdo Station, but this was a magical sight.

Deploying ARGOS floats for Glenn Pezzolli at the Scripss Institute of Oceanography with Krista and our scientist on board, Avery Snyder from UW Applied Physics Laboratory.  These machines float at neutral buoyancy and transmit location, temperature and depth data for 10 years!!! They are all over the world in every ocean and that's how we monitor the health of our oceans.  Krista and I were roomates at McMurdo and a night in New Zealand, and the only ladies on the ship.

Incredible icebergs one we were far enough south to see them.  Each one more shapely and bigger than the last, and isn't it cool to think that only 10% of each is above water.

The first time you cross the Antarctic Circle is a celebration in costume with performances and visit by King Neptune and his people.  It was awesome!

Helping Avery test his EM-Apex floats (they are incredible!  They travel to the bottom of the ocean and up to the surface everyday and transmit temperature, salinity and location data back to remote computers for a whole year until we pick them back up again).

Craft time!  I made a couple copper wire hats for my girlfriends at McMurdo from leftover science parts.  We send XBT's (bathythermographs) into the ocean hooked to these wires through which the data travels back to our computers.  Because the ocean isn't always deep there is always leftover wire, and now hats for friends instead of trash.  Although I did take back the leftover copper to McMurdo to recycle.

 The NBP (Nathaniel Brown Palmer) next to the pier at McMurdo.  It was a wonderful cruise and amazing to finally get to work on her.  Had a blast, lots of jokes at lunch, movies with friends after work and cool science projects.

 The NBP leaving McMurdo headed to Hobart, Australia for two months.

 This year's cargo vessel with the Transantarctic Mountains as a backdrop.

The cargo ship with this year's supplies (450 20 foot shipping containers, went back with the same 450 containers filled with recyclables, resale items and 70 containers of hazardous waste from Palmer and McMurdo Station to be treated at facilities in the USA)

The main reason I was on the ship as a Hazardous Waste Technician was to accompany 10 shipping containers and several drums across the ocean to McMurdo Station from Chile, and be the legal representative as well as the Spill Response Lead in case of incident.  (This project saved the program $150,000).  We got to have a hazmat drill with the Captain's crew of men and I got to advise on procedures, as well as package 5-55 gallon drums full of the ships hazardous chemicals from previous scientific cruises.

 More gorgeous icebergs on the way.

The last few miles to McMurdo Station were in this channel that the US Coast Guard Cutter (Icebreaker) cut for us and the cargo ship and fuel tanker.  You can see the Cutter in this picture up ahead.  Below is: Craft project: We painted these styrofoam coffee cups and sent them down with the water sampling machine to 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) and the pressure from the depth compressed the air bubbles out of the cups to shrink them to shot glass sized containers.  Pretty fun!

 

It was an amazing journey and I got to fly to New Zealand after a wonderful week catching up with my girlfriends on an LC-130 (9 hours) to Christchurch.  We even had a get together with McMurdo friends and everyone on the ship at Hut 10, as well as several morning coffees with the girls and dinners.

I took Krista to some of my favorite NZ spots, including the Boat Shed Cafe next to the Avon river where they punt (like in Venice) and have exceptional cappuccinos.

Springtime in the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch.  I took Krista there, then Ken my boss on the ship, then went my last day by myself and feel exceptionally lucky to have seen the spring blooms and roses.

Christchurch Botanic Gardens (I also got to see the Wellington Botanic Gardens with my niece and the San Francisco Botanic Gardens with Dave).  Below is the tourist area behind the Cathedral in downtown, now open again after the earthquakes.

Hanna & Tiora, now 4 & 8.  So proud, Tiora has read almost 900 books as verified by their local library.

 We went to a Hungarian friend's lovely 40th birthday party.  So great to see family again, lucky to get to spend time together.  Thanks guys!  Love you.  (They are now living in Oslo, Norway).

 My brother's house and the neighbor's tree in full bloom!

Dora & I did our traditional girl's day out at a nice restaurant downtown and a few days later a good movie.  I spoke again at Dora's work, the Campbell Institute about Antarctica and had lots of pictures.

Our annual girls day with Tiora was a metro into the city, pink sushi, cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and a lovely walk.

 Blossoms in the Wellington Botanic Gardens.

An awesome bush walk in Otari-Wilton before my flight that Tibor & Dora took me to.  Incredible native plants and birdsong.  Tibor and I got to spend some time together in downtown Wellington out for sushi and a beer with his boss. 

Flowers in downtown Christchurch.  I can't believe how many places I've gotten to see so far this year, lucky girl.  It was a bit busy in Christchurch doing my medical and dental tests for my job as well showing friends around the city.  Got to see Tibor and Dora for a week up in Wellington and had a wonderful visit and helped them a bit with their packing as well as enjoyed the flowers and food.  And had a great time on the NBP sailing across the Southern Ocean to McMurdo Station.  I lucked out and got bumped from several flights out of McMurdo, so I had more time to catch up with more friends.  Even got to sift through my four boxes in storage there and mail one home and gift the rest.  It's great to just be a tourist there and see all the familiar faces and places.  More pictures coming soon of Washington DC and San Francisco with Dave.  Love you, thanks for reading!

USA Fall/Winter 2014

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!!