Boston

Summer of '07 was busy. The first trip was to Boston. We went to Dave's buddy Shawn's wedding, but also saw some of Dave's friends and Amber's family.

Here's a pic of Amber and me. Who said Penguins can't go to Harvard!




Oh, THAT'S how they treat us Penguins at Harvard. They stuff us and stick us in the Natural History Museum. Good thing I'm way ahead of that curve.




Ever get that horror movie feeling?





Amber's Aunt and Uncle Jean and John live as caretakers of a natural resort that once was a hippie commune until the bills had to be paid. It retains a bit of the hippie influence, if you ask me. Here I am playing in a drum circle. It really is a beautiful and relaxing place.





Told ya. Two days there and we're all hippies!





And who doesn't like to see that girl of Dave's smile???





Here's Dave and I at the General Hooker entrance to the Boston State House.





Oh, no. There's another WAGAMAMA! They took forever with Dave and Amber's food, as you can tell by the look and Amber's face. Maybe these crazies will stop eating here, and pick a nice seafood place...just like it should be.





Just before leaving Boston we visited Meng and Yiwu, Dave's Oceanographer friends from the NB Palmer. They're even better traveled than Dave and Amber. They fed us seal jerky from Norway. How cool is that? Who ever thought I'd get to eat seal?

Nathaniel B Palmer

During summer '06, Dave worked on the Antarctic research vessel, the Nathaniel B. Palmer. It's a 94 m ice breaker and we sure had fun crushing through the ice. We also visited Palmer station, where Amber is, as I write. Here's Dave and I up on the glacier. It was good to get back to my native clime.


That's me! Danger Penguin.




And the ladies love me...

Meng, one of our physical oceanographers found a long lost cousin of mine for his journeys. What can I say? We take great photos.

Here I am chillin' in a Gentoo rookery. Not many penguins stay this far south for the winter, but I wasn't scared.

Oz, part 2

So I found some more pictures of Australia. Below you see me cruising down the road in our sleeper van (#6) in Tasmania. Obviously we're driving on the wrong side of the road for normal people. Dave had no troubles driving that way (since when was HE normal,) except for the turn signals. Every turn we would make there'd be no blinkers, just Dave looking sheepish behind a flapping windshield wiper.



Dave should know better. He decided to celebrate his 30th birthday by eating pine nuts, to which he is quite allergic. So here I am comforting him through the afternoon, sick in the back of the camper van in a little Tassie town. BTW, we did find out the same over the counter drugs that America sells are sold at "chemist's" in Australia for 1/8th the price.



We stopped off at a scenic overlook. Here I am, cheesin' w/ a beautiful sunset.



Amber and Dave kept getting lost. I had to straighten them out on several occasions.


Dave and I watched a lot of the Blues Brothers at Pole, so we had to pose with them up in Cairns. If you go to Australia, be sure to sound like a native. Cairns is pronounced Cans.

Australia

Australia was a blast! First, we hung out in Sydney. David and Amber didn’t feed me nearly enough fish. They just kept eating at what they said is their favorite restaurant in the world, Wagamama. It’s really not that good. They serve Ramen noodles! Can you imagine, at a restaurant?

Then we headed down to Tasmania and traveled around in a drastically underpowered camper van. BTW, Tasmania is nothing but small mountains. I had to fix the engine. See below.

I made David and Amber stop and make me lunch beside the road at a scenic beach overlook. I then did a little sun bathing.

We finished our Australia trip in Cairns. We lived aboard a dive boat for four days and did lots of great diving. Here I am all geared up.

The South Pole

So, like I said. I’m from the South Pole. Here you see me and my buddies at the Pole itself. The flags there are all the countries that maintain an active presence in Antarctica.

I've left Pole for warmer climes and am trying to see as much of the world as possible. I have a girlfriend, Genny, named for the guess that we're Gentoo Penguins, and I have a couple of travel companions, David and Amber. They're always holding back my adventures, but I can't travel without them. You know, with penguin rights being what they are (aren't) these days. Here’s a pic of me and David. I met him at South Pole and he took me out of that cold, cold place.

I met Amber in Australia, which was my fist trip away from Antarctica. Read on to my next post for that story!