Room With a View
Remember when the “harsh condiments” won 1st prize for their costumes at the Halloween party and were promised a boondoggle for the prize? Well, we all certainly remembered, but we were quite certain Recreation had forgot. We were also convinced that permission to visit the destination as adverstised would be declined by the folks at the chalet — the policy makers — due to the fact that the station manager actually told a coworker on new year’s that “room with a view” was off limits to all USAP (United States Antarctic Program) participants. That and all boondoggles this year were discontinued due to… well, no one is actually sure why.
Enough with the politics. The good news is that Recreation did come through and 9 of us costume winners along with 2 guides did ride skidoos out to “room with a view” and had the time of our lives. I hadn’t been on a snowmobile in more than 18 years, but it was just as much fun as it was back when I would ride every weekend on Tawnya Roppel’s farm growing up. The one notable difference being that the hand grips are now heated! Oh, the comforts of modern technology.
The “room” is really not a room at all. Rather it is a location. Somehwere near the base of Mt. Erebus. Approximatley 10 miles from town. And it certainly does provide some fine views. Thankfully the weather that day was nothing short of perfect. It made the task of 11 adults with nothing but one football and one frisbee entertaining themselves in a wide open field of snow simple. Of course the company contributed significantly to the happy vibe of the day. The pure joy of being outside, on our own, away from town for an entire day is quite evident on our faces in the pictures below.
Me & my skidoo buddy, Mary, on our sweet ride!
One of a few stops along the way
The famed “Room With a View”… not much of a room, but certainly
some outstanding views.
This is how excited we were to be FREE for the day!
We all had individual photo shoots as well…
Yeah, look at me go!
Ok, same shot with the help of photo shop. How fun is that?
(compliments of Bill Jirsa)
Another angle of the same shot. My face says it all.
We played silly games…
Nathan and Bill double somersaultin’ it!
Wheel-barrow races!
We renamed our boondoggle, “poondoggle,” and naturally spelled it out for fun.
Happy from above
Departing the room
disclaimer: it occurred to me that i haven’t given credit where credit is due for the photos both on my blog and my smugmug site that i have posted, but did not take. ice folks make a habit of sharing their photos on the i:drive here which is fantastic b/c then i can supplement my photos with those i either missed, or those that are too good to pass up. it would be painstakingly difficult to note the individual pics, so i won’t. 90% of them are mine. but those other 10% are the work of a motley crew.
see more photos at: http://ej.smugmug.com
Tags: Travel
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