be-celebration

my birthday was one of my best days yet!!



(although i have an intuitive feeling that many more will come!)

our shuttles crew scheduled a trip out to CAPE EVANS, one of the three original antarctic explorer huts.



a group of 17 went, all whom i love dearly and were in jovial spirits. above is a group shot we took out at the hut in front of the barnes glacier.

below, a small group loaded into the delta for our three hour drive! look at our smiles, giddy as can be.



our giddyness got giddyer. we saw our first adele penguin waddling accross the barren expanse. we stopped to take photos, curiously it waddled our way to check us out. penguins are such peculiur fellows!



when we finally arrived at the hut, we stripped down from our warm coats to enjoy the sunshine.



viewing the interior of the hut was a truely a amazing experience.

cape evans is the largest (15'x 8') of the first antarctic explorer cabins. built in 1910, the nearly 100 year old hut is now a historic site restored to it's orignal state. i loved the kitchen table, a warm gathering space in this harsh and desolate environment.





to the right of the kitchen table, bottles of preserved food line the walls.
the heinz ketchup bottle being the most stunning! it's hard to believe that it's nearly 100 years old.



cape evans was built in tera nova bay during british explorer, robert falcon scott's, second expedition to antarctica. at one point 25 men slept here, including shackleton. this is shackleton's bed.



in addition to thier rations, the explores subsisted on blubber from seals, and often ate penguins. this dead peguin still remains, totally frozen (NOT stuffed).



one of my most poinant memories is the pungent smell of these rooms. the room below contains piles and piles of seal blubber, gooy, frozen and seeping.



while i walked around inside i heard giggling and screams from the snow outside. play ensued!! besides tacking each other, and snow shovel rides, we also made snow angels and human pyramids!



i particularly enjoyed doing cartwheels with my 10 lb bunny boots out in front of the barnes glacier!



and of course, on the way home, our vehicle got SOOO stuck--almost 15 times!. the warm weather melted the snow, making driving in our 44,ooo lb delta nearly impossible. with shovels, and large wooden boards we dug out the delta again and again.



marty and andrea, remedied our spirts (which were actually still jovial), and late night--midnight--weariness. our emergency survial bags were pulled open to create a moveable water boiling station that could follow the delta as proceeded from stuck to more stuck. once the water boiled, we all enjoyed hot coco made with melted ocean ice!



after hours of digging we got home just before 2am, still sunny and shinning outside with thanksgiving day to look forward to.