Done Washing Bottles

It has been a long week in McMurdo, and we have successfully cleaned over 3800 sample bottles.  I am happy to say that is the end of bottle washing for the season, and if asked to do more I may have to fake an injury.   We have packaged them all up and sent them down to the Helo hanger for shipment to F6 and Lake Hoare.  We also packed up all of our field gear and personal items.  I was pretty excited, I went to check out the gear issue and they had some guitars you could loan.  I found myself a really nice one, which is gonna be a great way to pass the time out in the field.  I wish I had more to talk about, but there hasn't been much personal time to do much of anything other than wash bottles.  I think I am going to go for a run at the "gerbil gym" it may be the last run I go for in a while.

Here is a picture I took from the Crary Library when I found some free time to relax.  This is a view looking to the west over McMurdo Sound.  If you look on the far right of the picture you can see the mountains that define Taylor Valley, where we will be headed on Monday.

Here is a picture of one of the loads we took down to the helo hanger with some of our stuff, and this still isn't everything.  This doesn't even include the important stuff like our food and beer.  It is pretty amazing how well we are supported here to do our work.  There is the helicopter operations crew who flies all of our gear and ourselves to camp (they even deliver our mail, which is the coolest way to receive a letter), the BFC who gets all of our outdoor gear ready, the Crary staff who gets all of our science equipment together, and then all of the awesome staff who do the behind the scenes jobs like cooks and janitors to make life in McMurdo run seamlessly.  I know none of them are reading this blog (other than maybe my aunt Natalie) but a big thanks goes out to all of them.

I also just received news about the tragedy that is unfolding in Paris right now.  Makes my heart sad to hear that, and makes me wonder why so much evil exists in the world.