Adventure Update

The past 2 weeks seem to have flown by, yet they were so jammed packed that it felt like 2 years! Here is the short and sweet version:

Chris Jordan came out here with a film crew and did a photo shoot of the dead albatross with all the plastic in them. Chris Jordan is a pretty famous photographer and he has started to document how human waste impacts the environment and everything else. It was kind of weird to see film cameras around all the time, but I was able to blend into the background most of the time. I haven't had time to look at all the videos they posted, but someone told me that my feet are in some or something like that so you can look at there blog and see if you can see me (midwayjourney.com)

I was really glad that the crew wasn't interested in me becasue they would swarm like flies if you started talking poetically. The man they are attacking is the refuge manager, they had about 10 mini intereviews with him when we took a trip over to Eastern.

The whole crew as they were leaving. Chris Jordan is the tall one with the purple shirt in the middle.

Another exciting event that happened was a Navy Destroyer came like a mile off shore. We woke up one morning and Clipper was alive with chatter. Apparently during the night a girl on the Destroyer had appendicitis and needed to be flown back to Oahu. It was our half day that day so we went over to the Airport Opps and watched the whole thing unfold.

The C130 that the coast gaurd flew in from Honolulu to pick up the Navy girl.

Dad should think about becoming an airport manager because he could talk CB lilngo all day, over.

The Refuge has been resurfacing the airport runway so there has been a crew of construction guys and a barge stationed out here for the past month. Well the barge was only sent out with construction equipment so it was lighter then usual...well we took care of that. For an entire afternoon all the volunteers went around the island and loaded up old computers and tv to load into a container to ship home. It was extremely dirty and I'm glad that we were working in the dark most of the time because I don't want to know what we were digging through. Some of the TVs were from the Navy and still had the hand dials on them. It was kind of fun loading them up because we didn't have to worry about breaking them so we sould just throw them around. By the end of the day we filled the whole container and it ended up being the heaviest one on the barge weighing about 2600 pounds.

This is the inside of the container, we never took an after picture, but the whole thing was filled to the very tip top!

With loading up the barge with all the built up island trash everyone must have been in a spring cleaning mood because they flew out a couple of firefighters to burn an old pile of Ironwoods on island. I have to say it was the COOLEST bon fire I have ever been to!! It was cool in the day, but the night was the best. As we drove up to it the entire night sky was burning red. By the end of the night there were some really good coals that would have been perfect for 3 rock chicken!

Just making sure the fire didn't get out of handle.

I also took some time to enjoy the people here and went to watch some of the guys play basketball, I had heard the rumors of the speed of the Thai. Eventually they talked us into playing a couple games.



The barge finally left on Thursday after a month, so I had to jump off! All the guys had been jumping off and I finally had to just suck it up and jump before my chance left. The tallest point of the barge is about 40 ft, so it was a little scary to think about! We went over early Thursday morning and while they were loading I took the plunge. I told Trang to just take video the whole time because if I stopped at the edge to see how far it was down I wouldn't do it, so the video is a little long. Plus the Capt of the barge was whatching us go up and told me I better not go off the top so I had to climb back down the ladder when I get half way up. So I never got to jump off the top but I jumped from a 20 ft platform into a harbor full of sharks and ulua! It was fun so I'm glad I got the nerve to do it. The internet is going slow so I will upload the video of the jump later but here is others jumping off.

Just deciding if I really wanted to go through with it


I jumped from the spot where the guy in the blue shorts is




Just playing in some trash before they loaded it all on the barge

The tug pulling the barge and an extra abandoned boat out to sea to head home

Time out here seems to fly by and drag on at the same time. I am just about at the half way mark and I have already experienced so much and can't wait to see what is next!!!

Best Labor Day EVER!

So the weekend started off good with the best Saturday morning entertainment I have ever had. That morning I went out to the cargo pier and was just sitting with my feet over the edge when I saw a huge turtle right at my feet, then I looked up and saw a big pod of dolphins jumping off in the distance. I was able to sit there for a while before I left to go eat the delicious food at the never ending buffet.

There are so many different shades of blue here, I can't stop staring at the water!

Later that day we went on a mini expedition to explore some of the island.

We ended the expedition by going over to the finger pier and taking a tour of the tug boat. To bring out all the construction stuff for the new runway a 240 ft barge is docked here for about a month. The captain of the tug boat gave us a first class tour and even gave us drumsticks at the end!

Checking out the engine room, one engine was 1000 horsepower and the other was 300 HP!

Sitting in the captain chair

That night we had a labor day bbq. The party was complete with a little ping pong, shuffle board, foosball, and pool

Some of the thai are pretty professional when it comes to ping pong

This is the stage where the band plays. They have a really good band, but they only know about 12 songs.
The full moon was that night and it was the brightest I've ever seen. This is my sweet bike named "The White Tern"

Monday morning was very exciting. First with a huge breakfast and then we went snorkeling at the cargo pier. Before snorkeling around we had to just jump into that crystal clear water!

Me and Pong (the chef) before jumping off

This is how they treat the women out here

From left to right: Kittypong, Me, Pong

Ok sot the coolest moment happened when we made it about half way down the pier...we just happened to run into a monk seal!! It swam right up to us the first time and was about 3 feet from Kittypong. It was eating a fish and made a funky face and then swam away. We finished swimming out to the end of the pier and saw HUGE ulua and a couple sea turtles. Then we started heading back. We made it about half way again when Darlene told me to come look at a huge parrot fish. So I swam back and when I looked around the concrete pillar up popped a seal face. It was only a couple feet away and kind of startled us at first. I tried to turn on my camera as fast as possible, but only caught the tail end of the seal. The lighting is bad under the pier so the video is not clear at all, but I will never forget my swim with the endangered monk seal!

After the snorkeling trip we finished the afternoon off with a good game of Settlers

The last hours of sunlight were BEAUTIFUL, the sky just stretches forever out here!

The barge guys went fishing on Sunday. They had to travel about 5 hours to get outside the refuge, but caught some huge ahi, one of them was about 180 pounder. Well on Monday night they cooked up a bunch of different recipies and had a bbq on the pier. I don't like fish, but that was some really really good food! If all fish tasted like that I would eat it all the time!

Well it was a busy weekend and I am sad to see it end, but I do love the work I do out here so it is a win win situation!

Midway Baby!!

So I finally made it to the middle of nowhere! I got to midway last friday night and it has been a whirlwind since then. But first I had to get to this speck of sand which is a story all in itself...

We took a G1 plane over here and it took us about a little under 5 hours. We left from Captain Cook Aviation in Honolulu which apparently caters to the high class because they had the fanciest lobby and they even had chocolate covered almonds for free. Anyway we boarded the plane and took off. The plane was really small and it was weird looking at the pilots the whole time cause I guess there is no need for a cockpit door with only 10 passengers. It was a little shaky taking off and it felt like the plane was fish tailing in the air for a little bit, but we leveled off eventually and it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.

Laysan Atoll

Pearl & Hermes Atoll

Midway Atoll!

I was taken over from the plane to eat dinner, then I went to my house where I met with the old volunteer, then we had an "orientation" at Captain Brooks (the pub) then I finally got to bed at about 10. That first night was well...busy I guess you could say. In the middle of the night I heard a knock on my door, I had no idea what was going on so I said come in. There was no answer then about a minute later another knock so I yelled come in, but no one came in. I decided to get up and when I came out Trang (the other volunteer) told me that she had just been bitten by a centipede! Luckily the island PA lives next door so we called him over and he just put an ice pack on it. So we went back in her room and still found the centipede in her covers. We killed it and I went back to bed, but Trang slept out on the couch. When we were first looking through the house I saw a bowl over the drain in my shower which was only half on the drain, but didn't think about it. Then the doc told us that they come up through the drains, so now I don't question covering my drain anymore!

The next morning John Klavitter (one of my bosses) had me and Trang out and checking the duck seeps. Which we do every morning. We just have to walk around the 12 wetlands and look for dead or sick ducks. The Laysan Ducks are critically endangered and they have had an outbreak of botulism so we have to treat and removed infected ducks. The ducks are really cute and it is really really cool to be able to handle and even hand feed and endangered animal.

Laysan Duck

This is communication seep-1 of the 12 we check

This was the first sick duck we found. The sick ones are very lethargic and have squinty eyes, but after some anti-toxin and hand feeding they are good for release after 4 days

After that we went snorkeling to Reef Hotel. I think they said it was about 5 miles from Sand Island and it is the most northern tip of the atoll. It was cool to get to ride on the boat and travel to a spot in the middle of the ocean and yet when you jump in it was only about 15-20 ft deep at the deepest parts.

This is what the water looks like right off the shore ALL THE TIME

Debris mixed in with the coral

HUGE school of manini

Sunday we went out to Eastern Island to check out the duck seeps over there. When we were at the dock a monk seal came right up to our boat to check us out. Eastern is uninhabited and the birds go crazy out there. There are sooty terns that were nesting on the ground so they got all crazy when we walked through the colony. On our way back we ran into some dolphins. I couldn't get a good video of the dolphins since we were going so fast.

It was a very Hitcock moment

Well that was just the beginning and only about 48 hours. I had the IT guy out here look at my computer and so I should be able to blog more often now that my computer is running a little faster.

Summer Fun

Just trying to catch up:

Summer 09-Part 1:

My summer started out in Scottsdale



Then we took a LONG road trip to Utah so we could be there for Kaysie & Jason's wedding. It was such a nice wedding and Kaysie looked extremely beautiful so it was nice to be there (thanks again to the Nolan Larsens!)



Finally these are just some other pictures of what we've done for the first half of the summer.

one final look back

OK I am finally bored enough to work on my blog. Since the last real post was about the stuff I did last February I have got a lot of catching up to do! Here is the really short and condensed version of my last 2 months in Hawaii:
This video covers just about everything exciting about being a student at byuh, from eel hunts to early mornings at the dock, to the average everyday adventures, to the beauty of Hawaii





This video all took place in the last couple weeks I was there. On my runs I went around town and reminisced about the 3 wonderful years I spent at Brigham Young University Hawaii:

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Feliz Dia de Madres Mi Mama! Every since having Hailey I appreciate Mother's Day so much more, not thinking of myself but of you. I finally have a tiny understanding of how much effort you have put in over the last few decades of your life serving us kids. Thanks for everything you've done for me and continue to do for me and my new little family. You are an amazing mother and an amazing grandmother. I can't even begin to describe how much your relationship with Hailey means to me. Hailey sure loves her "Big Gimma!" Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

Alicia

Happy Mother's Day! You have done so much for me over the past 21 years...and don't think the next 21 are going to be any easier! Thank you for ALWAYS being there for me. You have done everything for me from making me breakfast, making my bed, checking my email to doing my research for me! You do so much for me so THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU!!

Love,
Rachel