Sunday, September 16, 2012

Back From Vacation

I had a good time on vacation the past few weeks.  I was in Copenhagen, Denmark for about a week and Czech Republic for a week.  It's a long trip from Midway to Copenhagen though.  I'm posting a couple of vacation pics today.
Things haven't slowed down around here, even though all of the albatross are gone.  The NOAA Ship Hi'ialaki showed up today with some researchers and a film crew.  We've had quite a few planes stop by to get fuel on their way across the Pacific, and we've had some sick and dead Laysan ducks from botulism that have been keeping us busy looking for more.  We one of our volunteers left while I was off island, thanks for the help Liz, and a new volunteer came to help out for about 6 weeks, welcome to Midway, Sarah.  Since our volunteer program will be suspended for a while, we'll be losing our volunteers in 2 weeks with no replacements. I hope that won't last too long, because the volunteers do a lot of work!

 This is what the Parade field looks like now with no albatrosses.

 It was kind of a gray day today, but the water is still blue.  The dolphins were splashing around the beach a couple hours before, but I didn't have my camera then.

 I got a photo of the Hi'ialakai pulling in to Midway while I was on Eastern Island this morning.

A US Coast Guard C-130 came in earlier this week to pick up a couple of people that were dropped off from a passing Coast Guard ship.

 This is Copenhagen, Denmark.  Pretty much every person that goes there takes this picture.

 They had a nice sand sculpture area across from the Opera House.

 Here is the Powder Tower in Prague, Czech Republic.  It was built in 1475 and was used to store gunpowder in the 1600's. 

This is the National Museum in Prague.  I have a lot of photos of buildings in Prague, but since this is a Midway blog, I guess 2 are enough.

5 comments:

Seagull Steve said...

The volunteer funding got cut?! What a bummer.

biobabbler said...

oy. Seriously, cutting funding for a program where a lot of people do work FOR the government, FOR the people, FOR FREE?!?

erg. Ridiculous.

Reminds me when the gov't was talking about outsourcing work & I was a fee collector for the NPS getting $8 an hour, pulling in $1,000s an hour (sitting in that booth), & I had an M.S. in Conservation Biology. Try finding the equivalent in the private sector, and GOOD LUCK to you. Dodged that bullet, but I was offended in advance. =)

Anyhow, I was going to say how fabulous the clouds are as background to that tower-of-powder. Lovely shots.

SO sorry the funding was cut. I do not approve! =(

Peggy Miniclier said...

So the question is can you be an unfunded volunteer. And what's the cost? Love reading your blog. I'm going to Copenhagen next year, any important tips??

Pete Leary said...

The funding issue is sort of complicated for volunteers. They don't really cost much to have here, except for the fact that our budget has to do with the number of FWS employees & volunteers on island. That's where the expense comes from, so volunteers paying their own costs won't cover that. It looks like only extra congressional funding will take care of it, and that doesn't seem too likely anytime soon. But we'll continue to do what we can!

Pete Leary said...

Hi Peggy, a couple of tips for Copenhagen:
Wear comfortable walking shoes.
Things are pretty expensive there, especially food, and you have to pay for water in restaurants.
If you'll be there a few days and want to see a lot of tourist attractions, get the cOPENhagen card. You get free entry to many sites and free metro, buses, and water taxis.