100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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I went up to the ham shack last night. The 20 meter band opened up and the next thing I knew I has working the pointy end of a very large pile up. We did do some rag chewing and some of the contacts were especially fun. I will have to spend some more time up there. We have another 2 day weekend coming up for new years. I am going to volunteer in the galley, cleanup around the ham shack, and work on my movie.

This photo of a skua and her chick was given to me by a co-worker. The orca picture was taken last year in the shipping channel. The shipping channel is a cut in the sea ice made by an ice breaker in order to get the supply ships (and others) to the ice pier here at McMurdo. The Swedish Ice Breaker "Oden" is cutting the shipping channel this year. We are still hoping the sea ice will breakup and move out leaving a liquid McMurdo Sound.

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Anonymous said…
That's a big fish, huh!
GM
2:01 PM
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