Fourth of July McMurdo Style
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2003
1
24
43
Trip End
Jul 29, 2008
McMurdo Station,
Antarctica
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
It's not quite the same here (without the summer and all) but the Rec Department did a pretty fabulous job this year. There aren't any fireworks allowed-reason being that fire is probably the most dangerous thing that could happen down here for us. Basically if there were a fire, the best the fire department could do is get everyone out and protect any structures around it.
We had our celebration on Saturday, along with a two-day weekend. It was supposed to start on Friday but we had a big storm and the whole town was socked in with snow. So everyone pitched in and shoveled a lot to get the town back into shape. Most everyone ended up getting off work early on Saturday to get ready for the party.
BBQ in the Heavy Shop
I helped make chili for the Chili Cook-Off. I was on a team called "Hot Chix Chili" (it was chicken chili)-it was really fun and guess what? We won. It may have helped that we were serving tequila shots and reminding everyone who approached our table to vote. And, it was pretty good chili too.
The party was set up in the heavy shop, where I work. The mechanics spent a couple days deep-cleaning the shop and putting all the equipment away. There were booths set up, like in a carnival and you bought tickets to do whatever the booths were offering. Some of the most popular were "You The Man"-where you would sit in a chair while a group of guys told you how awesome you were. There was "Handwriting Analysis", which was busy all night long. There was also a dunk tank, balloon darts with clowns, soul cards and a penny tossing game. People were a lot more creative this year and it definitely topped last year's event. There was a band and dancing too, but I didn't actually stick around for that.
We ended up having Sunday and Monday off which was a real treat. I
14 more weeks!
