Reception

Tonight we had a surprise wedding reception, even though it has been a few months since we got married. It was very nice with many of the usual traditions such as breaking a plate and putting money in a shoe (Czech traditions), and a dollar dance, cutting cake, and throwing the bouquet. In usual Midway style we had Christmas decorations since they haven't had a wedding reception in many years, but it was still great. We had live music too. So thanks to everyone on the island for a great evening.

Here is our cake.

Dasha says that they got the sign right. I wouldn't know. It says "congratulations". The volunteers made our fancy hats.

This was part of the crowd up at Capt. Brooks.

Airport Open House

Today was another beautiful day. We started out with coffee over at Melanie's house (our Physician's Assistant). The brand new Airport Operations building is finally open so they had an open house today complete with jumbalaya and firehouse chili. We got a tour of the new building, equipment, and the fire truck and runway sweeper. We also had a game that firemen do all over. The point is to spray a ball (in this case a marine debris float) past the opponent's flag. It's like reverse tug of war. We had a lot of fun.

After that we had a good game of basketball in the gym and cooled off with a jump off of the cargo pier.

Here's the big fire truck and the new Airport Ops building.

This is the spray contest.

Kristen, Brent, and Dana are having a good time.

Nice Weekend

After another day of hand pulling verbesina on Eastern Island yesterday, we had a nice break today. We had a good snorkel trip today. It was a spot that didn't have a lot of coral, but had good fish anyway. We were going to try to go outside of the atoll, but it was too rough out there. It's been sunny and not too warm lately so it's been great weather.

Here's a close up of the water barge that ran aground years ago. You've seen it from afar in some of my older pictures.

These albatrosses are trying to get out of the sun under a hibiscus bush. Normally, they won't sit that close together without fighting, but if there's shade, they don't mind. The chicks get very hot in their down coats in the sun.

Chainsaw Thursday

We had a good chainsaw Thursday today. We should finish Radar Hill in the next couple of weeks. It will feel good to get that done since we started that project just after I got here almost 10 months ago.

Dasha gave a presentation about the Czech Republic at Capt. Brooks' tonight. It went well. Brent also gave a presentation on his boat ride from Honolulu. He had good pictures of a few of the other islands.

Here's one for Sasha and Edgar in the Czech Republic. Dasha is showing a slide of the size of the Czech Republic compared to North Dakota.

Here is one of my last sunset pictures from "Rusty Bucket". There is a pregnant seal hanging out there and will probably have her pup there also. That area is now closed so she won't be bothered by people.

Nice Day & 5k Run

There was not a lot going on today. I sprayed some invasive species, the visitors went snorkeling, the volunteers checked the albatross plots and watered the new plants, and that's about it. Quite a few people have been getting ready for the 5k run (or 10k bike ride) we'll be having on Apr. 12. The prize is a nice flat TV. It's a drawing, but you have to participate to be in it. The TV has to stay on the island, but it would be nice to have it for 2 months.

Here is the old WWII gun over on Eastern Island. I showed it to you many months ago, but here it is again for the new blog readers.

No News

It was a nice warm day today. We had our group of visitors out to help us clone bunch grass. Again, it helps alot to have so many hands helping out. Tonight we had some good beach volleyball, so there isn't a lot of news but it was a good day.

This green sea turtle is eating a bunch of Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish (they aren't really jellyfish, they are a group of polyps, but they are a lot like jellyfish). They have a really painful sting (which I learned in Hawaii), but the turtles don't mind. Normally, the turtles eat vegetation, but they will also eat various jellyfish.

Tropic Birds

This morning was another day of checking tropic bird plots. There was even a chick already. I also finally had some time to spray the verbesina. It's the first time since Greg left on vacation on the Kahana last week. We also have a law enforcement officer here for a week and a half. Although we haven't had any problems, we are having new groups in every week, so we are going to have a full time person here soon.

Here is the new red-tailed tropic bird chick we saw today. It probably just hatched.

Brent is banding the tropic bird while Dasha is holding it. Usually someone has to hold its bill, but this one was very calm and nice.