Thursday, January 05
Antarctica

Antarctica - Our final full day in Antarctica will be spent inside Deception Island and at Hannah Point. Chinstrap penguins will be our hosts today. This evening we bid farewell to Antarctica and begin our journey back to South America.

JOURNALS for Thursday (Updated 10:00 am EST)

Geoff Green

This morning we had an early start. By 6:30am we were all in the Zodiacs making a landing on the Antarctic Continent, and by 7:15 our entire group of 52 were sitting on top of a spectacular cliff watching the sun rise over Paradise Bay! A combination of fatigue and pensiveness meant that our group sat in silence staring out over the Antarctic wonderland. Truly no words could fully describe the scene before us. Glaciers and mountains in every direction. Icebergs below drifting by. Whales, seals, seabirds all around. I think there was also a slight feeling of melancholy in the air since today is our final full day in the Antarctic. Our expedition has blown by so fast! And yet it also seems like we have been together of a month. Time loses meaning here. In fact, I don't have a clue what day it is here. Mother Nature overwhelms all your senses here. So many of the things we feel are important back home are trivial and superficial here. One of our students Meghan really nailed some of those things yesterday in her impressive journal.

This is definitely a trip that I wish would not end so soon. I could easily spend a lot more time with every person on our SOI team. Thankfully, even though we are heading back across the Drake Passage today, we do still have another 5 days together as we journey home...

This afternoon we will be making our final stop of the expedition at Port Lockroy. At the moment the students are all down in the lecture room captivated by Bill Lishman's talk on Operation Migration. Last night our incredible day concluded with an after dinner talk and slide show by Fred Roots about his remarkable 1948-51 Antarctic Expedition. He shared with the students stories such as his 6 month unsupported dogsled expedition. A feat that will never be replicated. Fred is one of the most incredible people I
have ever known. He is 83 years old but still a teenager at heart and an inspiration to all. The kids love him and he is simply a wealth of knowledge on virtually every subject, and he shares that knowledge with a passion.

Well, stay tuned this evening for more student journals and photos.

All the best from the land of ice,

Geoff

JOURNALS for Thursday (Updated 10:30 pm EST)

Peggy Armstrong

Oh, oh, we are heading north! We've had our last landing! Way too soon.. ! Will it seem like a blur after we are home, and get the laundry done, get the guano smell out of our clothes? Or will it change us? I'm thinkin' the latter, but it will be hard to measure these changes. Can we prove it to ourselves? How do we spread "the gospel" of this visit?

Amber Church

We have just returned from our final landing and zodiac trip. Tonight we will enter the Drake Passage and start to make our way home. As we prepare ourselves to take our last looks at the Antarctic Continent my mind is filled with images from the last week: vertical black peaks rising straight from the sea and dwarfing our ship, colonies of penguins stretching as far as the eye can see, whales swimming below the zodiacs and surfacing directly along-side us, ice-bergs that are more elaborate than some of our finest sculptures and white, blue, green and black as far as the eye can see. The sheer scale of this place alone could instill wonder in the most hardened of cynics. I am also struck by how time seems to stretch to infinity here. We have been looking back over our photos of the last few days ago and they seem more like years ago. We are so involved in this experience that we have almost lost ourselves within it.

Some of the students are very depressed at the prospect of saying goodbye to this magical place. I'm lucky (or naive) in my optimism that I will return; I have yet to say goodbye to any place I have gone, I'm not about to start with the most amazing one. And to be honest, I don't think anyone ever truly says goodbye to the Antarctic, they simply spend the rest of their days trying to return. The true gem of comfort for many of the students is the difference they will make on their return home. If they don't go home to tell the world about their experiences how can we expect the world to care about a place that many of them will never have the opportunity to visit.

Now that we are again moving north, Tyler, Dave, Jason, Jason and I will have the opportunity to take a larger leadership role in the education program and work with the students on youth engagement. I'm very excited to work with this group. From what I've experienced with them in the last few days this group has the passion, motivation and enthusiasm to do great things. I don't need to teach them anything, but I'm very honoured to work with them and encourage them to take their creative ideas and help change our world. Their respect for the past and hope for the future will take them the rest of the way.

To everyone back home.don't worry, we'll make it home someday.

Love to all

Amber

Meghan Hughes

We have made our final landing, the zodiacs have been packed up and our journey is coming to an end, in terms of time but for many of us our journey will never end, it will live on in our memory, live on in friendships, and live on in our daily activities by incorporating everything we have learnt into every day life.

When I was going to bed last night, I went to sleep thinking what could top a day like this? Since we had followed whales as they went swimming in the ocean, and had gotten off the boats and instead of landing in our zodiacs landed on ice, since our boat was stuck, and even though nothing can be compared to that, each day ends with all of us wondering, how could it get better?

Today was amazing, we woke up in Paradise Bay, with water so blue, and snow so glistening, and we hiked up and had the slide of a lifetime on very icy slippery snow. We also learnt how Bill had migrated with geese and many other birds, and then we made our final landing, our final zodiac ride, or final time stepping foot on Antarctica, at least for now but hopefully not forever. But how many people can say they've been to Antarctica? Not many. An experience like this only comes by once a lifetime, if that! After coming back onto the research vessel, the mood changed, we knew the end was closer now than ever, and it was hard to think about or even imagine, we were planning to get together somewhere and find another 4 thousand dollars so we could go to the Arctic with Students on Ice for another amazing experience. We also then had a lecture given by Fritz and had an hour of free time where I spend watching the water move aside as the ship sped north.

I can feel the tears coming, but letting them fall would be like letting the journey come to an end, just like the water that is pushed up by the boat has a short time flying through the air, and is then forced back down into the ocean. That's like this experience, we've had a small glimpse of the beauty of nature, a glimpse of Antarctica, a glimpse of a world so few people can explore.

The day isn't over yet, and the droplets are still spraying hopefully as a sign more experiences like this will come, and we can all remain a family since the bonds created on this expedition are so strong, our karma so great its even obvious by the amount we have done! We went farther than any other Students on Ice expedition, and many days had three landings a day.

This trip has been amazing, and I know in my heart it will never end, the memories will remain until the day I die!

Raphaelle Descoteaux

Here we are again in the Drake Passage after having such a good time in such an amazing place that is Antarctica. Today was perfect, except for one thing: we had to say goodbye to the penguins, the mountains, the glaciers, and the Antarctic continent as a whole. Frankly, I hadn't seen this coming. No matter how packed our days have been up to now, I cannot believe that I'm not gonna see gentoo penguins feeding their chicks or glaciers along the steep slope of the mountains or blue icebergs floating so gracefully at the surface of the water. at least for now!

I must not be sad about this, however. I know that each of us is going to bring back memories of this magnificent place and that, in some way, we will pass this on to other people who have not had the chance to live this incredible experience. And that's one of the most important things about this trip. As we've been told before, we are ambassadors not only of the Antarctic but also of the global environment. I hope that the stories and images we bring back will help us sensitize more people to the current situation of our wonderful planet and help make a difference, however small it may be.

Antarctica was such an inspiring place to me with all its beauties and wonder, and I wish to pass this inspiration to many more people. I hope I never lose it, although if I ever do, I'll have to come back. which doesn't sound that bad after all!

An Understanding

A place exists in all of us - we seldom dare to see
Reflections in the ice and voices seldom heed
Yet if the ice is cold enough and wind slows down to breeze
And sun splits through an overcast to keep away the freeze
We realize a smallness and a balance all too frail
We also feel a greatness and the soul with voice to hail
To all there is to listen - we exist! - alive today!
And honor for tomorrow with the best of all our ways

Dr.Brad

Jenny Chimbo

This is the last day we will be in the continent of Antarctica and I just arrived from Port Lockroy where we saw more gentoo penguins and got to tour an old British station. It was very interesting and got to see the way the scientists lived and how their environment was. We then went to the best gift shop in Antarctica and got a couple of things. I got something for everyone so don't worry! Plus I will go back to Ushuaia and there is a variety of souvenirs which are just great.

Well in the morning we went to Paradise Bay after having to wake up at 6 in the morning! This was crazy! There we hiked a small hill and then slid down. This was really really fun! So waking up early was worth it. Then we went on a zodiac cruise. We got to see whales, minkes. On our way back I got wet along with Kathryn and Orla. Diz was responsible for this! She was trying to be funny but we got her back. The Russian zodiac driver did the same to her and others in her zodiac. This was fun but this small war has not ended yet!

Sophie Breton

Bonjour à tous!

Nous avons déjà entrepris notre retour vers le nord, et ce après avoir battu le record de la position la plus au sud jamais atteinte par une expedition Students on Ice!

Mes nuits sont de plus en plus courtes, histoire de profiter au maximum de ce voyage. Ceci dit, nous sommes tous un peu fatigués, mais c'est une belle fatigue qui semble disparaître chaque fois que nous mettons le nez dehors, ou qu'une baleine passe nous dire bonjour.

Le beau temps est de la partie depuis hier, nous avons eu la chance de souper sur le pont (BBQ), et de veiller au soleil jusqu'au p'tit matin. La crème solaire n'est pas de trop, même si nous l'aimons tous, le soleil est méchant par ici.

Je vous quitte là-dessus, c'est le temps d'aller admirer le paysage!!

Ciao et à bientôt,

Cheryl Horton

Our last day in Antarctica began early!!! We were loaded into zodiacs by 6:30 am (3:30 am in Texas) and off for an early morning hike at an abandoned Argentinean station.where we proceeded to climb coming to rest at the pinnacle of rock outcropping overlooking Paradise Bay and surrounding glaciers and mountains!!!! It was so majestic, that it was hard for anyone to leave.but leave we did---sliding down on our backsides on very hard snow making quite a fast moving toboggan run.which got us to the bottom quite fast. We proceeded on the zodiacs where we could leisurely view the majestic mountains (these are still part of the Andes chain of mountains), enjoy the penguins porposing (swimming like dolphins in and out of the water)---and watch them beneath the clear deep waters, watching crabeater seals dozing on passing icebergs, Minke whales feeding, watching an avalanche..often just stopping and turning off the engines and listening (listening to the Arctic terns.the whales surfacing.the penguins calling out when they also surfaced.and the water lapping on the sides of the zodiac) and observing all that was around us. And all of this under clear blue skies and no wind.what a way to start the day.

We spent part of the afternoon at Port Lockery, which is an old British research station that has been restored as an International historical site.a few people spend the summer there now mainly for tourists.and home to a colony of Gentoo penguins. It is located on a small island. The restored hut was really a trip into the past.and with our 82 year old and 73 year old previous Antarctic explorers (part of the educational team) explaining how it was when they were in Antarctica.what a unique experience---to be able to have such living resources at hand!!!! This is our last scheduled zodiac ride.and on toward the Drake. We will be passing through an area which is known to have many whales before the Drake.so hope we will see many more---we are still looking for our first Orca. We have such beautiful weather for the past couple of days (a high system).and highs are followed by lows---so who knows what we may find on the Drake this voyage.

More later.

Cheryl

Kathryn Jordan

Thinking back to the first day I arrived at my cabin, #309, walked into the room and saw that my roommate was not one of my friends. I was a bit frustrated at that point because I didn't have that sense of comfort. My roommate's name was Raphaelle I soon came to find out. We both were nice to each other and kept the talking to a minimum. As time went on I don't know what broke the ice, but the next thing I know we were just letting loose and singing in the cabin with our imaginary microphones to songs from movies like Grease and Aladdin. It was such a great moment where I realized that there is a reason besides the obvious why it's great to break out of your comfort zones and meet new people. I'm actually happy I wasn't partnered up with one of my friends because then I wouldn't have met Raphaelle, a girl the complete opposite of me, but yet connected in so many other ways. If I do the math correctly, United States plus Canada, minus all the stereotypes, it equals a good match.

On this trip I have met so many amazing people, a lot of inspirational people who have given me the motivation to keep on pushing myself to the limit. I heard that this trip would help me "find" myself so to speak, but I don't think that happened. Instead, I stepped out of that box and through observation found that this may not have been my moment of finding out who I was, but yet an eye opener to trying to see the world in more perspectives. There is so much out there, so many people to meet.

My friend Dianna, better known as D, described me as, "You're a New Yorker because you have the 'New Yorker' attitude, extremely outgoing and pretty loud, which is a good thing by the way." I just laughed and I'm sure many tend to agree with this. However, when it comes to my talents, a majority of my life and till this day I am a shy kind of girl when it comes to sharing them. I have a thriving and loving passion to sing, but to get to that point and just sing in front of so many people, my crazy, loud, outgoing self goes back into her little shell. One of the chaperones, Tishani, had asked me about my singing and I told her about it. Later that day she told another chaperone, Ameet, as well and he began to question me. He had told me that I better sing before this trip came to an end, I laughed and said I would. That night, one of the chaperones, Dave, took out his guitar and sang a song that came to him as an inspiration from a road trip he took with a bunch of friends. Right then and there in that moment, the way I saw everyone listen intently, no one being rude or anything gave me the confidence and desire to want to create a song myself. As the night grew on, and curfew grew near, I pulled Dave aside and told him that if he wanted to, I thought it would be a great idea to do a song together. To my surprise he was just excited as I was and hopefully before the trip ends I will get to keep my promise of singing before the trip is over, but yet do it collaboratively with someone else that shares a common interest and passion as mine.

Dianna Pfister

Wow. where to begin with this story of a lifetime. First, I must say that, if it were not for the tremendous support I received to get here, well, I wouldn't be here. I would also like to say that, the moment I met the other SOI members, we were immediately connected. Of course, I will walk out of this trip with a trillion memories and still laughing.

Originally, I wouldn't have minded staying in Argentina because well.it is simply gorgeous. Hiking through the Andes Mountains and struggling through peat bogs

(Which I learned is a huge source of energy, like a giant battery, but is going to waste because we don't use it) and over rocks that took my breath away, literally. I suppose I'm just a little out of shape.

When at last the time came to embark the ship, I was excited, yet hesitant. I didn't want to leave Ushuaia however, I knew the best was yet to come. The ship was much smaller than the ferry I took from Italy to Greece last summer, but it undoubtedly has its positives. Don't worry mom, I get 3 full meals a day with 3 full courses. I drink ice tea everyday. I am sure I am the only person who hasn't completely unpacked my suit case. I am just so used to living out of a suitcase for long periods of time that it doesn't make sense to me. I think our cabin, room 327 is neat though, and I have curtains around my comfy bed that keep out the bright sky at night. And since we are on a rather tight schedule, there is little time for bathing. Usual attire on the ship is PJ's and slippers.

Attire for outside the ship though is much, much different. I wear 4 layers on top and 3 on the bottom and 2 pair of socks ( I realized that toe warmers cut off circulation and I had to take my rubber boots off on Cuverville where we saw lots of Gentoo penguins.

When we went to Baily Head, getting off the zodiacs, we were shocked because there was a highway.a highway of penguins! I was totally astounded. We walked along the highway, over a stream, then a small hill where, we were overcome by the sight of ½ a million chinstrap penguins and the smell of guano. Since this is the time of year when the penguins are nesting, we saw a ton of cute chicks. I witnessed chicks being fed, Skuas snatching up chicks, and a penguin covered in blood red guano (a good sign that there is a lot of tasty krill around).

We have done a lot more hiking than I anticipated. It is well worth it.I am beginning to see things in a different light now. One climb up a steep rocky, guano covered "hill" led us to see a leopard seal 70 meters below bobbing near an iceberg.

Another hike to Neptune's Window gave us another surreal feeling. As I was approaching the incline up, there were boulders scattered, reminding me of a scene from Mars. It wasn't easy to get up either. At the top, once again my breath was taken away. 40 meters below to my left, there was black sand and rock (like I am used to seeing in California) that was caused because of the volcano. There were also a lot of nesting petrels on the cliffs to the right. And, looking straight across, was wide open ocean and, in the distance, we were able to see the Antarctic continent. Walking along the shores of Deception Island was literally walking along an ash laden whale graveyard. The place was on Deception Island where there was an old whaling station.when the whalers left, they left everything behind, including whale carcasses everywhere and water boats. We also had the chance to go swimming. Now, when I came on this trip, they had mentioned that we would be swimming in a hot spa so, after posing in the -2 degree ocean water, I ran to the spa expecting to find hot water..I was covered head to toe in ice water and found that the spa was COLD! Brrrr! I was fun anyways, and an experience to last a life time.

Our next large hike was on Danco Island. I again was shocked because Diz said that we could leave some layers down at the bottom of perhaps the largest hill I've ever seen. Of course, I left all my layers on because I didn't want to end up getting cold. It was a very challenging hike due to the fact that almost the entire time everyone was falling knee or thigh deep in snow. Going up did get pretty sweaty, so slowly I began taking of my hat, then mittens, then unzipping my dirty white jacket. Once I reached the top, I was so out of breath and excited that, I simply couldn't stay standing. I fell perhaps 6 times in a row in a 3 foot drift then I decided I would have better luck getting to everyone else if I just rolled there. That caused me to exert much more energy, so I bailed on the idea. Once at the top, I decided, why not go further, so I continued to walk to the other end of the hill.I ended up getting stuck in a drift and, when I tried getting out, my boot stayed in the drift. I ended up putting my glove on my foot, and I became nervous because I thought I would have to go down this huge hill and into the zodiac with only one boot. My boot did get dug out though.it only took 3 people to free it from the snow. I went as far as we were allowed so as we don't fall over the edge.the fact is, we couldn't see past a dramatic drop, to see if there was anything other than well, a drop. We had a mini snowball fight and ate only a little bit of snow. It was the best tasting snow ever! I learned though, that the snow is not good to eat because it is so pure and lacks vital minerals. Although water is healthy for us, water by itself is not.

After, we slid down the hill, which was a ton of fun but it was far from the best slide.

At last, we reached yet another hill, a much bigger hill at Neko Harbour. I was in love with this place.although I don't care too much for rock beaches, this beach was composed of pink granite rocks.I learned that, a large portion of granite is located on Antarctica however, it is too far for people to make use of it (which is a good thing I think because, it is so much more beautiful in its natural state). I realized though, that this is what the ancient Egyptians, although on the other side of the globe, used to make the figure heads of their Gods. It is incredible to imagine how everything is so closely connected.

Going up the hill was much easier because there weren't 3 foot drifts. The foot prints of previous SOI had hardened, forming almost perfect steps for everyone to climb up without falling. Even though there were somewhat of steps, it was an exhausting hike. At the top, there was Fritz in a hole that was his height. He gave us a lesson about the difference between Artic snow and Antarctic snow. We also learned that there are BUGS that live in some of the coldest regions on earth.

The most exciting part though was when we had yet another chance to go down. Walking towards the path to the slide, my heart was pumping and I was pumped for before me were many slides made by previous SOI, and they all had virtually vertical drops.big drops. As I was watching people go before me, I saw them immediately disappear over the edge and did not see them until 30 meters below at the bottom. Going down was incredible.everything I passed was a blur, and I was going down so fast that, I flipped of the path and still, continued to fly down! It was amazing! Of course I got some snow up my back, but it was well worth it. Sadly, we couldn't go down it again because we had to leave.

I enjoy cruising in the zodiac because you get to see so much. In our first zodiac cruise we saw a minke whale, leopard seal, and crabeater seals. The best time out on the zodiacs was when we saw humpback whales. They are so gorgeous, and are so immense. It is almost hard to imagine that we share the world with them.

Today was awesome. After having our final slide down from a cliff, we jumped in the zodiacs and went after 3 minke whales. I almost didn 't know where to look because there was an avalanche from the top of a glacier, and whales on the other side. It was outrageous! I was in Juliet's zodiac (she is the marine biologist on our trip) and we hung back from everyone else who, continued into to cove. Out of no where, the three minke' s came right at us.I was so overwhelmed with excitement and nervousness that I didn't know which way to point my camera. One whale swam directly under us, one directly 5 feet from my right. Wow. It was utterly unbelievable.

Another part of this expedition, which has left me with a new frame of mind, was when we had reached the furthest south that any SOI has traveled. I woke up hoping that we would reach the Antarctic circle, and found that, we hadn't.we had reached a place that made such a defining moment for me. Looking over the bow, I saw a sea of ice 3 feet thick with 186 meters of water below that. It was remarkable.I have always heard stories and seen movies with a ship being in this situation, but to actually see with my own eyes, a ship stopped in its tracks by ice.. I was a little uneasy going down the gangway, down to the pack ice; I am definitely not used to going down the gangway and not stepping into a zodiac. However, that curiosity within me continued to grow with every step. I wandered on my own and lay down in the ice, noticing for the first time how really, the snow is different from home. We had a moment of silence which happened quiet naturally. This was such a unique place to be; seal tracks and seals dispersed around the pack ice and icebergs, various birds called, and "booms" of cracking of glaciers echoed across the flat ice.

Of course we had to add some humor, so we dropped a large rope from the bow of the ship and everyone grabbed it and pretended to pull (my jacket now looks as though I went rolling in penguin guano). We also formed the letters "S" "O" "I" using our bodies and had Diz took a photo of us from the top deck of the ship. The crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy took advantage of the solid ice to give the ship a nice new blue paint job.

Port Lockroy is amazing, and I found that it was a very emotional place for me. I admit a tear did roll down my cheek. I realized for the first time how ridiculous some human traits can be. For example, our need for money because we want sooo much, and do have nothing is very frightening. Then realizing that we must suffice with mere simplicities such as memories is worth so much more then what we can purchase with money. I feel as though having little can bring out more character in a person, and can cause us to be more dependent on what we were given. When you have nothing, you notice smaller things, things which, most of the time can seem insignificant.

Life is more bountiful when one has nothing but oneself.

Tyler Kuhn

On December 22nd, I was not going to Antarctica. On December 29th, I boarded a ship with a cast and crew I had never met, to a place I had heard so much about.

Our trip here has been an amazing one. We have seen so much and learned so much in the last few days, it really is difficult to reconcile with the fact that I left Ushuaia only 8 days ago.

I spent much of these past days contemplating where I am, who I am with and what happens next. The first thing that struck me was the group of people I was to travel with. It really is an amazing collection of people. The enthusiasm within the group is almost overwhelming. It starts at the top with Geoff, the (some might say half-crazy) glow he gets in his eyes when conversation turns to the Antarctic, and Diz, so excited about showing students the wonders of the world and getting them in touch with this wilderness.

However, this energy which emanates from the top is also coming from every student. They all started as enthusiastic students, keen on a new experience and a new place, but I suspect each and every one now possesses a glow in their eyes when the Antarctic is mentioned, and have connected with nature, in it's purest form. a land where humans are visitors and snow, ice, wind, water, birds and whales are the true owners. Very few places in the world have remained like this, and experiencing it certainly humbles me, and I hope has changed everyone's impression of humanity.

What struck me the most about this journey, was not the scenery. which is simply beyond what can be described. but being in one of the most amazing places in the world with two particular people. Onboard with us were Fred Roots and Fritz Koerner. Fred first went to the Antarctic in 1949. He possesses 57 years of Antarctic stories and experience. Fritz's experiences though shorter in years are by no means diminished. To step onto the Antarctic continent with these two and hear their stories told from the shores of the Antarctic continent is like nothing else I could ever experience.

To be in the presence of excited students, passionate educators and such enthralling scenery is exactly what Students on Ice should be.

I only hope I will be able to do my small part in enjoying the trip with them, and helping them understand that they can make a difference regardless of age, interests or experience.

I am sad to leave this group, but not the continent. I know She will remain here (and with our help remain as She is) waiting for me to return, but the group in whose presence I shared this journey, they are what I will miss.

From a land of frozen stories.

Tyler Kuhn

Jason Shim

This morning, everyone awoke at 6:00 am to go on a Zodiac cruise of the aptly named Paradise Bay. We landed at the shore, climbed to the top of the hill and simply sat in silence as we took in our final day in Antarctica. There have been few times such as this when I have felt overwhelmed by such beauty. I think part of the magic of coming to Antarctica is because it takes a lot of work to make it all happen, both before and during the trip.

After an exciting slide back down the hill, we went on the Zodiacs to look at rock formations protruding from the water. Fred explained how the formations came about and we also had the opportunity to get close-up photographs of crabeater seals, Minke whales and Gentoo penguins.

Our next stop was Port Lockroy, where I sent out just about 300 postcards, thanks to the help of Bianel who helped me place the stamps on every single one of them. The woman at the desk said she had never seen one person send that many out at one time. I was just thankful she had one of those spongy stamper things. I think I would be thalking like thith if I had to lick three thundred thtamps.

I was a bit sad to board the Zodiac after Lockroy, because it would be the last time I would be riding it. We hit the Drake Passage right around dinnertime and we joked at our table that it might be fitting to have t-shirts made that say, "I survived the Drake Passage". Or quite simply, "I hate the Drake." The rolling started getting so steep that my pop can fell over.

I was puzzled when I first saw the handle next the vacuum toilet in my room. I figured it was to help people get up after they sat down. But really, it' s in the perfect spot to hold onto if you're throwing up. Believe you me, it does a good job.

I'll probably be trying to lie down as much as possible the next couple of days and avoiding seasickness. I've taken well over 5,000 pictures here and I need to start sorting them all. While my body is feeling icky, I'm otherwise feeling great. It's been an amazing trip with fantastic people. Mom, Dad, Stacy and Katie, will be home soon. Love you Jenners.