by By Grace Bowman, Baldwin Wallace University
Editor’s Note: This is a delayed post from earlier in the cruise… transport yourself back in time!
Hello from Alaska! This morning I woke up early in order to see the beautiful view and to watch us dock. Seeing the sun glisten off the mountains was life changing. I spent the time with Victoria watching the pilot boat send a member of their crew on our boat and helping us dock in Dutch Harbor safely. While watching, a bald eagle came to say hi. It was the coolest sight to see and the best welcome to Dutch.
At 9 o’clock we mustered to clean up our lab spaces in which we divided tasks equally. We also gave out our cards of appreciation and STEMSEAS swag to some of the crew right before lunch which they all seemed to really like. Thanks to Trinity, we also all got personal papers that we could have other people sign so we took some time to do that while spending our last full day on the ship together! It was funny because we all went around asking each other and members of the crew to “sign our yearbooks.” After a nice lunch of fish and fries with some fruit, I headed out with the rest of the science party to go on a hike.
The hike was around 5 miles with an elevation gain of 978 ft, but the grind was worth it for the beautiful view at the top! I spent most of the hike talking with Kyle and exploring some of the bunkers on the hill. Once Kyle, Victoria, Rip, and I made it back on the ship, we went to get a nice cup of apple juice to reward ourselves and then shower. Brian was so generous and made us Irish stew with some rice for dinner and we got some King’s Hawaiian rolls on the side which are my personal favorite.
After dinner, I relaxed in the library with Kyle and Victoria. At 19:00 we had our final check in on the boat, where we also got STEMSEAS certificates signed by all the mentors! After that, I headed to my room with my roomie Maddy and we cleaned up a little before she went to watch Atlantis with some of the others while I went to bed. What a fun day this was!
