Six-foot tall, a beast covered in fur growled as he approached. Inside were two innocent creatures oblivious of his approach. Unusually cold, but inside it was cozy and warm. Suddenly there was a loud banging. They knew he’d found them. Inside the safety of their home, they scurried frantically. There was loud barking, and another loud bang followed by a deep growl. The beast was at the entrance trying to get in. Finally, the door opened and Aspen stood face to face with the beast. Covered in a fur-clad parka, goggles and with the longest beard she had ever seen, stood her Grandpa. He growled as Aspen hugged him.
“Grandpa- your back!” Jack yelled as he ran and jumped into a hug, Vader, the black lab barking at his heels. The beast carried Jack inside and set him down, and began to remove all his Arctic wear. He started with the goggles and hat, and then the fur-lined parka, boots, and finally the snow pants revealing his base layer underneath. It was a good thing it was unusually cold in South Carolina or he would have had a heat stroke.
Jack put the goggles on in no time and was stomping around in the boots, a great explorer. Pretending to stab a flag into the ground he said, “I claim this land in the name of Jack Attack, Explorer of the Universe and beyond.” Aspen laughed shaking her head while Grandpa unpacked his backpack of travel goodies. It had been a little over a month since they had seen him. Always having awesome adventures around the world, he was just back from Antarctica. Seasons being opposite in the southern hemisphere, he traveled during our winter in order to be there during their summer.
Aspen and Jack sat patiently on the couch while he placed all the items from his trip on the coffee table. There was his passport, airline ticket stubs, luggage tags, various South American coins, patches, maps and so on. Jack examined each item in awe. Grandpa Dean plugged a thumb drive into his laptop to show them the pictures he took along the way.
“I flew out of Atlanta to Buenos Aires. It was a long flight but the excitement of what lay ahead kept my brain busy. After landing in Buenos Aires we spent the day touring the city. It was beautiful but there was a lot of traffic.” Jack and Aspen watched as pictures from the city scrolled by on the screen. “You know how I like to collect coins from the countries I visit. Well, this time it was really hard. They don’t really use coins anymore since they are basically worthless. We got ice cream, which cost 70 pesos, which was $4.50 in US dollars. Luckily the waiter found us a few pesos during dinner, which was a HUGE portion of steak. The three of us could have shared it, it was so big.” Grandpa Dean said using his hands to show how enormous the steak was. “We flew to Ushuaia next, and toured Tierra del Fuego which is a national park.” Jack’s eyes lit up.
“Did you see any animals?” Jack asked.
“A few birds, a pair of Upland Geese and a Falkland Thrush. The trees were more interesting. Due to the soil and cold, it takes the Lengas trees 120 years to mature. That’s a long time. Makes you really think before you cut down a tree.” We crossed the Drake Passage, which was remarkably calm. We saw some amazing icebergs- some of which were blue!”
“What makes them blue?” Jack said looking puzzled.
“The intense pressure within the glacier depletes the oxygen,” Jack still looked confused. Grandpa Dean continued, “It squeezes it out, Jack. Ice is normally white colored because it reflects all light. The oxygen-depleted ice absorbs the longer light waves and reflects the shorter blue waves making it blue. Remember, the color of an object is the color of the light waves they reflect.” Aspen and Grandpa Dean made eye contact and he shrugged and she giggled, neither of them knowing if Jack understood. Pictures of the ship flashed across the screen. Jack and Aspen pictured a cruise ship like in the commercials on television. They watched lots of documentaries about shipwrecks, the Titanic, and deep-water exploration. The ship was more of a military-explorer type ship they had seen in those shows. Grandpa Dean talked them through the different pictures of the ship: his room, the bridge, the dining area, and the deck. It was pretty ordinary.
“Who is that?” Jack asked pointing to a photo of three men on the bridge. Grandpa Dean explained that was the captain on the bridge. The ship’s captain was dressed pretty casually, which surprised Jack.
Next, there was a picture of the ocean that Aspen had to ask, “What exactly am I looking at Grandpa?”
“Well, see there,” he traced a faint darker blue line with his finger on the screen, “That right there is the fluke!”
“Oh- it’s a whale? What kind?” she asked.
“It’s a humpback- it was huge!” Jack’s eyes lit up again. Next on the screen was a photo of the dining area.
“How was the food?” Aspen asked.
“Oh, it was terrific. I expected basic nourishment but they went far beyond that, three great meals a day. One of the strangest things was the sun set at 12:04 pm and rose just a few hours later. We were at the bottom of the earth that was tilted towards the sun, so it was always light.”
“But how could you sleep?” Jack asked.
“The cabins had some portholes with flaps which made it dark, but the light did make it hard to keep track of time. My stomach did not care what the sun was doing and it let me know when it was hungry so that helped. We saw some huge elephant seals, two kinds of penguins, Gentoo’s and Chinstraps,” pictures continued to scroll by on the screen. “They were very safe about contamination, cleaning boots between each stop and on the ship. You don’t want to introduce anything to the continent that should not be there. We made it to Palmer Station through the ice. The sound of the ship breaking up the ice was like cars crashing. We zigzagged around the huge icebergs, saw more humpback whales, and had some spectacular views of the ice. Finally landing at Palmer Station, which is a huge research station. Scientist study all kinds of things there, from arctic marine life, ocean studies, weather, all kinds of stuff. Some of the researchers came down and talked to us about their work.” More pictures of buildings on the ice, a Zodiac full of people, and more icebergs scrolled by.
“Hey, that iceberg looks like a dragon,” Jack said pointing to the screen.
“Yep, that was one of my favorites. They have names” Grandpa Dean continued, “but of course I can’t remember them.” More pictures scrolled across the screen, different birds, the horizon, and icebergs. “We did lots of bird watching from the ship’s deck: Albatross, Arctic Shags, Dolphin Gulls, Kelp Gulls and more. We landed at Neko Harbor, which was an old whale-processing site. You know they used to harvest whales. They warned us about the glacier calving and creating icebergs before we disembarked.” Jack looked confused, so Grandpa Dean elaborated. “You know a big chunk breaking off; a big enough piece of ice falling into the sea can cause a tsunami so there was a big security talk and alarm. Luckily when it happened it was a minor break that did not cause anything alarming.” Jack’s eyes were huge watching his grandpa describe this dangerous landing as if it was a Sunday walk in the park.
“Wow, were you scared?” Jack asked.
“Excitement is a better description of how I felt. I knew the crew was not going to let anything happen to us,” Grandpa Dean said confidently. “After landing, we walked a little way up the penguin highway. It was like a deer trail through the woods but was through the snow for all the penguins to march back and forth to collect rocks and then return to their nests. This one little guy kept stealing rocks from other nests. Most of the time he got squawked at and ran off. Every now and then he would get away with it and parade triumphantly back to his nest with his stolen treasure.”
“What’s that big bird, Grandpa?” Aspen asked when she saw a new picture of a large brown bird. It looked more like an eagle than a penguin but had huge webbed feet.
“That is a Skua, honey. They prey on the penguin chicks and eggs. If they steal an egg from unsuspecting parents then can spend up to twenty minutes pecking a hole in it for their beak to enter, then they suck out the contents. There isn’t a lot to eat down here so they get creative. But that’s nothing compared to the leopard seal. When it captures a penguin it peels the skin off the muscle and organs leaving it like a discarded sweater inside out on the ground. Later the skeleton and skin on the ice are the only evidence of the meal.” Jacks eyes were gigantic imagining this. Next were pictures of tents being set up on the ice.
“How was sleeping on the ice?” Jack asked.
“Cold and loud” Grandpa Dean chuckled. The proximity of the Arctic Tern nesting site made for a loud evening. I didn’t warm up till the next afternoon back on the ship after several hot chocolates and a hot shower. We visited several islands, I sent some postcards from one, and we did a Polar Plunge on another. Stripping down to a bathing suit with icebergs on the horizon in 30°temperatures with 30 mph winds was just a little crazy. Once I jumped in it suddenly became harder to breathe. As I was drying off I suddenly felt warm, like it was no big deal. We figured we were in shock and hurried to get our clothes on.”
“The seas were pretty calm for the most part, but that one trip out was really bad, we had to turn around and go back to the ship.” A picture of a small inflatable red Zodiac scrolled up and the waves looked very intense. “The Drake Passage has a pretty deadly reputation but we made it. The view of Cape Horn was amazing. We did some more nature watching on the return. We came upon some humpback whales sleeping, just drifting along. The Captain stopped the ship and we just watched them. It was so amazing. With the fun part behind us, the trip home seemed to take forever. Once back in South America it was smooth sailing home. I never realized the smell of home; the earth, dirt, grass, leaves; Antarctica is so sterile. You smell nothing.”
“What was your favorite part?” Aspen asked.
“I couldn’t pick just one thing; the animals, icebergs, adventure, oh and the food was fantastic!” Grandpa Dean replied. Jack looked confused. “What’s troubling you, Jack?”
“Well, I thought penguins stood on their nests? Some of your pictures it looked like they belly flopped on the nest?” Jack replied.
“You’re thinking of Emperor Penguins Jack. Like what we saw at the aquarium. They don’t make a nest, so they use their feet to insulate and protect the egg from the ice.” Grandpa Dean laughed, as he stood pretending to have an egg on his feet.
Laughing Aspen asked, “What was the worst part?”
“Hmm, the rookeries smelled pretty bad, lots of poop, but I’d have to say the worst part was how long it took to get home. You know, going there you’re so excited. Every moment of anticipation, but once you’re done and coming home, I think the tiredness catches up to you. Overall it was a great time and now my boots have touch seven continents.” They scrolled through the pictures one more time asking more detailed questions trying to get every drop of information they could from their Grandpa Dean. Jack and Aspen loved adventure even if it was through the stories of others.
Christmas passed with many cookies eaten. Aspen spent time with family and friends during the holiday break. Meanwhile, another record-breaking year was in the books for the wildlife center.
