After working in the clinic today we enjoyed an excursion that took us to Cape Evans and an ice cave about an hour’s drive from McMurdo Station. About a week ago the recreation department began taking people on excursions to the ice caves. Sign up is a bit challenging…the first sign up had people lined up all the way from one end of the hall outside the recreation office to the other end of the hall at the Galley. I wasn’t looking forward to that and actually wondered if it was really worth the wait but Jen kept reminding me of the sign up and made sure I was there…waiting in line at 1645. I’m glad she drug me over there because we were in line early enough that there wasn’t that many in front of us. We luck out on stuff like this because we have more liberal working hours which allow us to sneak out a bit earlier than most of the workers in Mac Town. Sign up started at 1745 and our time in line wasn’t too bad since most of the community was there with us…conversations were good and time passed without too much pain. We lucked out to get on the first trip out on Saturday which was at 1800 with a return time of midnight. The best part of the whole thing was that Jen, Greg, Jonathan and I are all on the same trip!! Our last sightseeing tour together on a TDY that has certainly taken us to places I thought I’d never travel to. Saturday in the clinic flew by and we all gathered for roll call at 1800. This is exciting! Our trip was on a Delta. 
There are about 20 in our group which is comprised mostly of the DAs (Dining Assistants). They get first dibs on these tours since their work schedule is one of the most constrictive schedules in Mac Town. On our way out to Cape Evans the Delta came to a quick stop just in time to see an Adelie Penguin that was sliding down the side of the road on his tummy. What a good penguin he was staying just outside the driving path on the other side of the flags. So cute…I’m in love with Penguins. A little later another stop just down the road from Cape Evans where we all piled out of the Delta to get pictures with glaciers and icebergs. Just down the road were two seals…OH BOY…two more seals that we will see that will just lay there like two big blobs and do nothing. I’m not skipping down the magical road like I did last time that is for sure. These are seals here…they don’t move remember?! Much to my surprise they hopped up and waddled over to check out what all the commotion was about!! They were so cute…coming within 10 feet of the edge of the road, making their little seal noises. HA HA HA…gotcha!! 
They did just about as much as the last seal did…lay there like two big blobs. I kept watching them out of the corner of my eye as I marched down the road toward Cape Evans. Much to my surprise one moved! Then the other one moved!! The first one kept stretching his hind fins, up and down, side to side, and then he’d flap them like you’d rub your feet together. He kept doing this and eventually he had turned completely around to where he faced the other direction. The other seal had a little more of a show for us. She would raise her head look up, blink at us, yawn a bit and flap her fins. I really don’t know why I identified one as a ‘he’ and one as a ‘she’. I guess I call the one that actually lifted its head to look at us the female because it took the time and effort to look at us…I guess I didn’t think the male would take the time or bother. A bit more lazy than the female…am I man bashing? I’m sorry…I guess I am!
A few more yards down the road and we were standing in front of Cape Evans. It is located on the west side of Ross Island. It was discovered by the Discovery expedition between 1901-04 under Robert Falcon Scott. On Scott’s second expedition in 1910-13, Scott built his headquarters here and renamed it for Lieutenant Edward R.G.R. Evans of the Royal Navy. Lt Evans was second in command.
The inside of the cabin is much nicer, larger and more preserved than Ross Hut. Inside there are many of the same things we saw at Ross Hut. A kitchen with food, bottles of ketchup, cocoa, and let’s not forget the 6 sticks of butter that are sitting on the shelf perfectly formed just like they were left in 1913. I say that because our tour guide told us that repeatedly…’see the sticks of butter? That’s the neatest piece of this place!’ Seriously, she did a great job on this tour and I shouldn’t make fun. I got in trouble on the tour…my curiosity took over and I stepped into the small medical clinic inside the hut. I was busy looking at all the medicine that was on the shelves (above my eye level) and completely ignored the black strip of tape on the FLOOR that had “DO NOT ENTER” written in white. I don’t know how the hell I missed that!! I was grabbed by my parka and taken out of the little room. The tape on the FLOOR was specifically pointed out and read to me very sternly. I got it!! I got it!!! Whew…I was allowed to continue my tour of the hut…thank goodness because I turned around and got to see my first EMPEROR PENGUIN!!!
I’ve been waiting this whole trip to see an Emperor and there he was, inside the hut being such a good penguin posing for photos and staying still so as to not mess up our pictures. OK OK…so he was dead and laying on a table, he was an Emperor and unfortunately was the only Emperor I was lucky enough to lay eyes on during this trip. On the other side of the hut were stables where their horses were kept each stall had the name of the horse on it along with their snow shoes which was pretty cool. There was still hay all over the stalls and next to that was whale blubber left under a large table…probably used to cut them into pieces.
Just outside the hut and up a small hill was another cross to commemorate three members of Shakleton’s trans-antarctica expedition who died in the vicinity in 1916. It was a gorgeous evening for photos and we were able to snap a lot of great shots on top of the hill!
We left Cape Evans and headed to the ice caves. Apparently, this is the first cave that has been found in several years. Everyone is pretty excited about it. I’m not sure what to expect, I’ve seen pictures on the shared drive but I’m still not exactly sure what we are seeing. Now is the prime time to see the caves…soon they will disappear as the ice shelf begins to melt and get closer and closer to Mac Town. As we drive up, I see the same expanse of snow and ice. We climbed up a small manmade snow staircase. What we have to do is enter in through a small hole about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I sat down and slid down a snow and ice slide to the inside of the cave. The picture of Jonathan describes the reaction as we got to the bottom of the slide. I’m going to go ahead and post this tonight by may add this photo later. What an amazing sight!!! The cave is a beautiful shade of blue and the waves are frozen in time just as they were crashing against the glacier. You can literally see the waves, every detail perfectly carved as if it was an ice sculpture. This is God’s ice sculpture and it is a perfect creation. I tried to stay in as long as possible.
Although today’s weather is pretty mild, the ice cave is freezing cold. I was barely there for more than 5 minutes and my fingers were going numb. I snapped as many pictures as possible and climbed back up the snow slide back to the warmth of the frozen continent!
There are about 20 in our group which is comprised mostly of the DAs (Dining Assistants). They get first dibs on these tours since their work schedule is one of the most constrictive schedules in Mac Town. On our way out to Cape Evans the Delta came to a quick stop just in time to see an Adelie Penguin that was sliding down the side of the road on his tummy. What a good penguin he was staying just outside the driving path on the other side of the flags. So cute…I’m in love with Penguins. A little later another stop just down the road from Cape Evans where we all piled out of the Delta to get pictures with glaciers and icebergs. Just down the road were two seals…OH BOY…two more seals that we will see that will just lay there like two big blobs and do nothing. I’m not skipping down the magical road like I did last time that is for sure. These are seals here…they don’t move remember?! Much to my surprise they hopped up and waddled over to check out what all the commotion was about!! They were so cute…coming within 10 feet of the edge of the road, making their little seal noises. HA HA HA…gotcha!! 
They did just about as much as the last seal did…lay there like two big blobs. I kept watching them out of the corner of my eye as I marched down the road toward Cape Evans. Much to my surprise one moved! Then the other one moved!! The first one kept stretching his hind fins, up and down, side to side, and then he’d flap them like you’d rub your feet together. He kept doing this and eventually he had turned completely around to where he faced the other direction. The other seal had a little more of a show for us. She would raise her head look up, blink at us, yawn a bit and flap her fins. I really don’t know why I identified one as a ‘he’ and one as a ‘she’. I guess I call the one that actually lifted its head to look at us the female because it took the time and effort to look at us…I guess I didn’t think the male would take the time or bother. A bit more lazy than the female…am I man bashing? I’m sorry…I guess I am!A few more yards down the road and we were standing in front of Cape Evans. It is located on the west side of Ross Island. It was discovered by the Discovery expedition between 1901-04 under Robert Falcon Scott. On Scott’s second expedition in 1910-13, Scott built his headquarters here and renamed it for Lieutenant Edward R.G.R. Evans of the Royal Navy. Lt Evans was second in command.
The inside of the cabin is much nicer, larger and more preserved than Ross Hut. Inside there are many of the same things we saw at Ross Hut. A kitchen with food, bottles of ketchup, cocoa, and let’s not forget the 6 sticks of butter that are sitting on the shelf perfectly formed just like they were left in 1913. I say that because our tour guide told us that repeatedly…’see the sticks of butter? That’s the neatest piece of this place!’ Seriously, she did a great job on this tour and I shouldn’t make fun. I got in trouble on the tour…my curiosity took over and I stepped into the small medical clinic inside the hut. I was busy looking at all the medicine that was on the shelves (above my eye level) and completely ignored the black strip of tape on the FLOOR that had “DO NOT ENTER” written in white. I don’t know how the hell I missed that!! I was grabbed by my parka and taken out of the little room. The tape on the FLOOR was specifically pointed out and read to me very sternly. I got it!! I got it!!! Whew…I was allowed to continue my tour of the hut…thank goodness because I turned around and got to see my first EMPEROR PENGUIN!!!
I’ve been waiting this whole trip to see an Emperor and there he was, inside the hut being such a good penguin posing for photos and staying still so as to not mess up our pictures. OK OK…so he was dead and laying on a table, he was an Emperor and unfortunately was the only Emperor I was lucky enough to lay eyes on during this trip. On the other side of the hut were stables where their horses were kept each stall had the name of the horse on it along with their snow shoes which was pretty cool. There was still hay all over the stalls and next to that was whale blubber left under a large table…probably used to cut them into pieces.
Just outside the hut and up a small hill was another cross to commemorate three members of Shakleton’s trans-antarctica expedition who died in the vicinity in 1916. It was a gorgeous evening for photos and we were able to snap a lot of great shots on top of the hill!We left Cape Evans and headed to the ice caves. Apparently, this is the first cave that has been found in several years. Everyone is pretty excited about it. I’m not sure what to expect, I’ve seen pictures on the shared drive but I’m still not exactly sure what we are seeing. Now is the prime time to see the caves…soon they will disappear as the ice shelf begins to melt and get closer and closer to Mac Town. As we drive up, I see the same expanse of snow and ice. We climbed up a small manmade snow staircase. What we have to do is enter in through a small hole about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I sat down and slid down a snow and ice slide to the inside of the cave. The picture of Jonathan describes the reaction as we got to the bottom of the slide. I’m going to go ahead and post this tonight by may add this photo later. What an amazing sight!!! The cave is a beautiful shade of blue and the waves are frozen in time just as they were crashing against the glacier. You can literally see the waves, every detail perfectly carved as if it was an ice sculpture. This is God’s ice sculpture and it is a perfect creation. I tried to stay in as long as possible.
Although today’s weather is pretty mild, the ice cave is freezing cold. I was barely there for more than 5 minutes and my fingers were going numb. I snapped as many pictures as possible and climbed back up the snow slide back to the warmth of the frozen continent!On the way home, we ran into a couple more Adelie Penguins. They were a bit of a distance from the road this time. Everyone piled out of the Delta for a kodak moment. We weren't allowed to get off the road so the pics we got were tinly little black specs in distance. Jen and I agree...these are not as cool as the Penguins we saw at Davis Camp.
We made it back home in time to stop by the Coffee House for a quick minute. Mila and Leslie were having a great time. They have quickly fit in here in Mac Town. I won’t have to worry about them…they’ll be fine.
We made it back home in time to stop by the Coffee House for a quick minute. Mila and Leslie were having a great time. They have quickly fit in here in Mac Town. I won’t have to worry about them…they’ll be fine.
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