20 December, 2001

Details....At this point I feel that my trip is essentially over. I won't bore you with travel plans back home, except to say that backlogs, mechanical delays and weather have messed up quite a few plans. This has been an awesome trip. At some point after settling in at home I would like to write a summary of sorts. "What I Learned" or some such closure item. Now is not the time. I'll include a few pictures from Crary Lab--my favorite place in McMurdo. Thanks for reading, and thanks to all of you who wrote. Don't hesitate to keep writing!

This is McMurdo, as seen from the top of Observation Hill. Most of the structures that you see are containers. The population of McMurdo is supposedly limited to 1000, but summer numbers are sometimes closer to 1,200.

There is a pretty awesome aquarium at the bottome of Crary Lab. It contains huge fish that are sacrificed for scientific study, then served in the Galley! It also contains this "touch tank" with a representative sample from the bottom of McMurdo Sound. Very interesting.

This is the skull of a Leopard Seal. It is the only predator that can be of concern to human beings. It has been known to bite, and even try to drag a person into the water (at which point all bets would be off). This skull is about fifteen inches long, and the dental structures suggests caution, doesn't it? Leopard seals can eat up to twelve penguins a day.