McMurdo at last!

Finally made it to McMurdo! They met us at the plane, which landed on the ice shelf, and took us to McMurdo on this big truck thing (I think called a Delta)... it was cool because we could see all around but then the windows got steamed up and it was hard to see. We passed a group of 4-5 emperor penguins (unfortunately my picture didn't turn out) on the way across the ice.




Here's my dorm... apparently there are only about 5 empty beds at McMurdo (out of 1200) and we're spread out in different dorms.

We had orientation yesterday afternoon and then had some free time to explore. We found the 3 bars... Sir David Attenborough was having a drink in the fancy one (the Coffee House), which used to be the officer's club. We ended up in the former enlisted club, which had $2 beers.


You can see Scott's hut from McMurdo.... it was built in 1902 and is the first man-made structure on the continent. We'll get a tour of the inside later. We also saw some seals and skua (the only bird other than penguins here).







Here's me at the end of the point past Scott's hut. There are crosses all over for various people who have died here.

Today we had more orientation and then did snowmobile training. Somehow after 5+ years in Maine, I had never ridden a snowmobile. It's really fun! Dennis took pictures but I didn't bring my camera.