"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Hello Friends...
I hope this finds you all well, warm and with as big a smile on your face as I do now. :) So the fun news that was just announced today was on November 20, 2009... Mr. Neil Armstrong will be coming to station for dinner and a talk. He is arriving on the National Geographic Explorer. Everyone is so VERY excited. We can't take any pictures "with" him and post them, all these rules he has, but I will try and get some of him.. :)
The Explorer was here last week and took Rebecca with it. ( Rebecca is our Station Manager) and dropped off Bob. Changing of the guards really. She is so very lucky, she got to ride in luxury back to Argentina. The room they put her in usually goes for $20,000.00/PP for a 10 day cruise. Nice balcony room service, SO FUN. She deserves it!!!
We had the Explorer folks over for a little food and adult beverages and dancing. Also about 35 lbs of shrimp. The DEVOURED it! They can't have shrimp due to some questionable techniques people use to capture them. So I believe the last Explorer person left station at around 4:30am. Then had to turn around and give tours all day the next day.. I got to bed by two, but I did not have to smile and talk to the tourist!!! Lucky me.
I had a wonderful day on Sunday. The weather was BREATHTAKING and a group of us went out and hopped from one iceberg to the other. The water was so calm and so clear you could see the reflection of the ice below. What beauty God displays!!
So I need to run, in the middle of making Greek dinner, but so wanted to share the fun news. I've posted some new pics on Flicker. Hope you enjoy them.
As always, thank you for sharing this with me and allowing me to share this amazingly fun place with you. What a blessing y'all are to me.
Ciao!!!
Stace
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8448893@N05/

Penguins and Icebergs

Happy Friday.
I hope this finds you all happy, healthy and having wonderful fun plans for the weekend. This past week has been full of fun things here at Palmer Station. On Tuesday, we had a fly by from NASA. They are doing "Operation Ice Bridge"  http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ice_bridge/index.html
They are finding out some pretty incredible things about what is going on under the ice. We had about an 8 min. warning that they where going to do a fly by so we ran out and where trying to figure out some way of saying "HI" there was not enough people to lay down and write it so we ran and got our float coats ( those orange huge coats we have to wear when we are around or in the water) and spelled out HI for them. They sent us a picture from the plane. It's pretty cool. Then the birders found a new Gentoo colony. There is over 150 of them about 3 miles from Station. They where not there last year. Over the past few years, the Gentoo population has increased as the Adele's , once the main penguin breed in this area, decrease every year. The birders where so excited about seeing so many Gentoos they bought us all a beer. :) The weather has also been so beautiful that I have been able to go out after work and tour around in the boat. This seems to be the season of icebergs as well. There are at least 5 large ones that are within our boating limits and a dozen more outside of them (which we can't go to..at least 4 miles out) but they look so close... we always "will them in" it has not worked. ... YET! I also was able to go over the Island with all the penguins. It still just makes me smile to see them all. It never gets old. They are in the fighting stage right now. There is only so many mates and so many rocks exposed right now to start a nest, so competition is fierce. I uploaded a video I took to youtube that shows quiet the fighting. Also it has the fly by of the DC-8. It's pretty fun... :)
 It continues to amaze me just how beautiful rock and snow can be. God did some amazing work in this remote part of the world. Even in the icebergs ... they are works of art.. My tent is up as well. Today was so pretty that I finished digging and putting it up. I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to sleep out now every night. There is nothing quiet like the sound of the water and the elephant seals and the glacier. I feel so very blessed to be able to have the privelage of sleeping under the stars in such a beautiful place. I'm going to break the 20 month mark for sleeping outside in Antarctica... Yippeeee!! I'll take some photos and send them out this weekend of my tent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVBYyYOjWTQ     
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN3F-cpI8xg.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8448893@N05/


Well, that's about it for me... I've uploaded some more photos as well to flickr. As always thank you for sharing this with me and emailing what is going on in your life. It does tend to become a bubble down here. Time goes by differently yet the same.?? OK enough thinking, I must be tired, off to the tent.
Good night my friends.
Stace

October 23, 2009

Hello. Hello. Hello! :)
So the Summer Season at Palmer Station has officially began. The big orange boat has come and gone. Taking with it the remainder of the Winter-Over crew and bringing  us 12 Summer folks. The feel on Station has changed for sure. Having Science here brings a whole new energy. The Birders ( two girls that are documenting the penguins and the giant peterals around a 3 mile area of station) are out in the boat everyday, the Krillers (three grad-students that are documenting the krill pattern. Everything down here eats the krill- Krill are tiny like shrimp)  Are all set and building their boat down on the pier getting ready to head out on the water as well. Lots more radio traffic and lots more hungry people. Diane also is here. She is the 2nd cook. What a blessing she is. Not only is she an amazing women, but she is an excellent baker and makes me feel like I do  nothing all day long. She has TONS of energy! :) She started cooking breakfast and lunch on Wednesday. It frees me up greatly to do "manager" type stuff. I think I spent $6,000.00 yesterday replacing all our old equipment. Of course it won't be here until the month before I depart, but hey, at least I get to see it. The weather has been so beautiful. Clear cold sunny days. have been able to get out in the back yard ( the area from station to the glacier) and snow shoe around, see some penguins and seals. Slowly the wildlife is coming back for summer. The snow is melting ( it does that here on the peninsula, it is wetter here than other parts of the Continent and warmer as well) we have had a couple days of rain which speeds up the melting. This is an important part, to have rocks exposed so that the birds can start their nesting. The Giant Peteral and the variety of penguins we have here make their nest out of rock. So if it is covered in snow???? No babies. We are a total of 30 people on Station now. It will stay that way until December. It's a nice way to ease into the Season. Our first cruise ship comes November 16th. Crazy. It's our favorite one though. National Geographic Explorer http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/home
We have a great relationship with them and their crew. They take a couple of us out with them to tour the area for the day and we get to enjoy their ship and crew and be spoiled rotten. It's quiet lovely. :) And they always come over to our bar (the crew) and we have a little party and snacks.
Well this is getting a bit long so I will let you all go. I have uploaded new pictures on flickr.
I hope you enjoy. And I also hope that this email finds you looking forward to a very fun and "FALL-type" day where ever you are.
Again, Thanks for sharing this adventure with me and sharing your life as well.
Cheers,
Stace

Settling in

Oct 4th 2009
Greetings!

I think I am finally settled in. Yeah! The boat departed with the winter crew on Thursday. So we are just down to 25 of us. It will once again return on the 20th of October with the remainder of our Summer crew and some science http://www.norbertwu.com/galleries/Antarctica.html Norbert Wu is coming, he is an underwater photographer. It will be pretty wonderful to see his stuff and talk to him. We met last time I was here, but it was only for a couple of weeks. This time he will be here for almost 2 months. I am the lone cook for a couple of weeks so we are not fixing a hot breakfast but I'm trying my darnedest to fatten um up with cinnamon rolls and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. Diane, my counterpart, comes in on the next boat. She is fantastic. She will cook breakfast/lunch and I will do dinner and lots of paper work. My favorite. Have had the chance to go up the glacier a couple of times and see a week old Elephant Seal. Amazing. It's still so fuzzy and little. Over the next 3-4 weeks more wildlife will be migrating this way for mating and hopefully lots and lots of whales.

So we have been in on/off safety stand down due to wind. That is when we have to stay where we are and not go outside. We have been having guest of 80mph. Aahh. it makes the whole building shake. Amazing what power the wind has.. Today is my day off, Sunday's as a rule unless the boat comes in and I am getting ready to go out boating. The winds have died down to about 15 knots so we are going to try and go for it. Hopefully we will see some penguins. :) Not much more going on here. We are settling in to our jobs and routines as a group and getting to know each other. The crew over all is fantastic. I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such great people that have done so many wonderful things and traveled so many parts of the world. Of course we played poker in the bar last night and I very shortly afterward was sitting at the bar watching the rest play.. oh well. :) I have uploaded some photos of time when the ship was here and a couple from the glacier and seals. Hopefully I will have more upon my return from boating. Well that is all for now my friends. Just wanted to share that all is well and I am settled and looking so forward to this season. Thanks in advance for sharing it with me and all your encouragements and e-mails and love. I am so very thankful for you all and count it a privilege to share this journey with you.

Have a blessed Sunday,

cheers,

Stace

Arrived at Palmer Station

September 28, 2009
Greetings to my dear family and friends!!!

So I finally arrived at Palmer Station Antarctica.. It was a long journey. 15 day's-11 day crossing and 6 of those days in the Drake.... But we saw some beautiful, beautiful things, got a lot of Science done and bonded as a Summer Crew. The last being most important. I count it such a blessing that 3/4 of our Summer crew is down at Palmer Station and it is FANTASTIC!. We have 5 FNG's (Pronounced=Fingees) New people to the program :) And they are hooked. One guy actually left a "REAL" job as an Engineer to come down. Of course he is 25 years old, so... "NO Problem" as he says... I can just go back and get another job... Yeah right... I said that 7 years ago.

We are having a long port call/change over. Six days. Enough to get to know the Winter crew and hear stories of what their time held for them. Eric, the Winter cook, is great. Gental Giant they call him. He is about 6'3 and 240... And he LOVES food. It's so fun to cook along side of him and we chat and laugh and put out some fun food for station. We are having a "Fancy-Dancy" end of season, sit down, meal on Tuesday. We are going all out. Once we decide on the menu (yeah... I know it's tomorrow...we want to allow for our creative juices to flow ) teee heee  heee. I'll send pics.

Have been still living on the boat. Tomorrow we change over ( winter crew moves onto ship/ Summer crew moves onto station) I can not tell you  how excited I will be to get off this ship. I don't get sea sick ... but boy do I go stir crazy. I want solid ground under my feet. Guess I will never be a "ship cook". There is still lots of snow and ice on the ground. I am guessing it will be about 3-4 weeks before I can get my tent up. But no worries. I am still planning on sleeping in my tent. Have to add to my current 13 months of sleeping outside in Antarctica! :)

There is a baby Elephant Seal out at Bonaparte Point, a group of us are heading out this afternoon to see if we can find it.(If the wind's die down..they have been at about 30knots all night???) I have put some photos of the crossing up and "Cross-Town Pizza" ( we,Palmer Station, invite the boat and everyone over to eat pizza on station and then have a big party up in the bar-It's a lot of pizza, this year we had some wonderful volunteers from the ship come and help out. What fun, I made Chocolate Martini's as a "THANK YOU" .)

I will write more later. Everything is in kind of a daze and confusing right now... give me a couple of days to get settled and I'll upload some more pictures. I also did a brief video picture of the journey South on Youtube. I had it perfectly timed with "Southern Cross" and youtube will not let me use it due to "legal stuff" ect... so they assigned some random song... but most of the photo's are on flickr... ( sorry...long explanation...I need to go outside :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8448893@N05/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwg8GCnjn4E

Thank you again my dear friends for letting me share this with you. 

As ALWAYS.... I LOVE to hear how life is for you... what FALL ( my favorite time of year) is holding for you and your family? What fun things you are doing ect ect....

let me know.

hugs

stace

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” - Jack Kerouac

September 12th, 2009

Well it seems the time has come once again for me to pack my suitcase and hit the road. I sit in my hotel room in Denver after several days of training in the Raytheon office, watching Anthony Bordanies "No Reservations" and thinking.... "Why did I pack so much?" But isn't that always the case? One would think that after doing this for so many years I would have it down. Not the case. Ooops!

I am not sure what this blog is going to look like. Should it deal with my travel and experiences? Or cooking and recipes? Or both? I have had so many people tell me that I need to do a blog that I finally decided to give it a try. I am not much of a writer, but I will try my best to share with y'all what I am experiencing during my time at Palmer Station, Antarctica and the amazing things I get to experience. Any suggestions I welcome with an open heart. I want to try and transport you to the place that I am. :)

We depart Denver Sunday morning, fly to Dallas and then on to Punta Arena's Chile. We will board the LMG http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/gould.jsp and begin our eleven day cruise south. A normal cruise is only five days, however there is a science group that will be doing water sampling at different depths throughout the Drake Passage.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Passage It will give us all a nice long ride to get to know each other. Hopefully it will be good weather. My crew that I will be working with seems great. We have a couple of people that have not gone to the Ice before and that is always fun. It is fun to be near them when they see their first iceberg. Or when they glimps the first sight of the station. I still get butterflies when we turn that corner and you can see just a glimps of it. Makes me smile just to think of it.