On Dec. 23rd, we arrived in Antarctica!
We had some beautiful views of sea ice and glaciers out of the tiny windows of the C-130 aircraft. (My attempts at photography out the scratched airplane windows don't really do these scenes justice.)
The C-130 plane was pretty comfortable for our group of ~18 passengers plus Air Force crew. Our cargo was palletized and wrapped and sat in the back of the plane. The passengers sat along the sides and center of the plane in four rows parallel to the tube of the plane. We read, slept, and occasionally wandered around to look out the small windows once we began to approach the Antarctic ice.
The USAP provided a packed lunch for our 8-hour flight, including two sandwiches and many assorted snacks to keep us comfortable during the flight.
The venerable Ivan the Terra Bus picked us up at the Airfield and took us to McMurdo Station, dropping the New Zealand teams at their Scott Base on the way. More updates coming soon on our science preparations, science goals, and Christmas celebrations!
