Happy Thanksgiving from Antarctica!

 Holidays are a favorite time for all in Antarctica and we tend to celebrate with extra enthusiasm.  On Thanksgiving Day we actually had a normal day of work.   Well almost normal.  In spirit of the holidays I became the McMurdo Turkey.

 This thanksgiving Turkey was busy filling fuel tanks around the station so that we all could enjoy our extra day off from work.  The truck behind me is named Scharen and we depend on her to transport fuel out on the sea ice.  With the large flotation tires we are able to drive across the snow with out getting stuck.  In town we have to keep all the buildings fuel tanks filled as they rely on the diesel for heat.  The tank that I am on top of here supplies fuel for the science labs.  Behind me is our ice core freezer.  Core samples are brought in from the field and held here until our re-supply ship come in late February.  Once we unload our year’s supply of goods the ice core will be transferred to freezer containers and loaded on the ship.  From here it will travel by sea to California and then the containers will be fitted to a truck and driven to Denver, CO and the National Ice Core Lab.

At the end of another log day it is finely time to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We all change into our best clothes and make our way to the Galley.  Our team of cooks have been incredibly busy preparing a huge feast for us all.   As you can see the desert section is still my favorite.  Even though we are all thousands of miles from our families back home there are no shortage of friends to share the festivities with.

As usual every one stuffs them selves to the point of almost bursting. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as we all did.