Recreation

We have a pretty small community here, so we don't have as many big social events going on as at the other stations I've been to. But I love Palmer's brand of recreation. Everyone is very playful and creative. One morning when the boat was arriving, we'd had a big snowstorm the night before and a bunch of people waiting to do their line-handling duties spontaneously built some of the most impressive snowmen I've seen!

There's also this AWESOME hut about a 10-minute walk from station where you can bring a sleeping bag and mat and sleep for the night with a stunning view over Arthur Harbor at the glacier. I haven't gone yet because I was soaking up the great luck of not having a roommate, but I'll start taking my turn now that that has changed.

One of the Marine Lab Technicians who comes here on a lot of the port calls introduced a game she used to play as a kid--Skittles--and then one of our community members actually built the game for us to play here!

We have also had some trivia nights, which involved a lot of confusing silliness when costumes were encouraged. I also took my first turn ever at hosting trivia, which was a lot of fun.

And, one of the best things ever  about Palmer--the hot tub!!! I love it and go in there several times per week. It has to be one of the best views of any hot tub on the planet!

And then there are the very Antarctic kinds of recreation, like this hang-out area behind the trades shop, which its frequenters like to call "Hobo Camp," and which sometimes involves them bringing out the smoker and preparing delicacies such as...Spam.

And then there's turning community chores into fun. Everyone takes a turn once/week doing the dinner dishes and kitchen clean-up. People tend to form teams and sign up together with the same group every week. I'm lucky to have gotten drawn into a group where we celebrate the end of our frantic cleaning with a shot of (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, per individual preference) shots and laughter. It makes even the chores around here feel fun.

But the BEST part of recreation at Palmer is rec boating, which we've had to wait a long time for since the sea ice stayed packed in around station for so long. But the next couple posts will be about that!