21 June, 2001

Happy Solstice to all!

With 24 hours of daylight Solstice looses its importance up here!

We had a surprise day off today but we still worked around the lab, catching up on unfinished business like writing and readings. Glen cleaned up the diurnal data and it's now ready to graph but we didn't get out into the field. The remainder of the team, Rommel, Joe and Hjojung arrived from Prudhoe this afternoon. Rommel and Joe flew over in the Sky Arrow while Hjojung flew commercial. They spent the rest of the day unpacking the multiple boxes of equipment, computers and materials that have continually arrived over the past weeks and set up their shop/lab in an adjoining building, the Racquetball Court as we call it. The group has grown and more is starting to happen.

After dinner I took a walk on the beach and found 2 more plant species growing there. We all stayed up till midnight (?) to take advantage of the longest day of the year however!

A day to catch up on journals!!! Somedays are so busy there is hardly time to keep current.

Mertensia maritima, also found on the beach and looks like a miniature succulent. It's common name is oysterleaf.

The solstice at midnight. This is what 24 hours of light is like; look at how long the shadows are! This is one of the many buildings at NARL. Most of the structures are used as labs or storage areas and also house different departments of the College.