Wednesday, July 8

A Run and a Swim

I woke up this morning and ran 2.5 miles. It felt awesome. I left the hilly driveway and headed towards Annaberg Ruins. Just shy of the parking lot, I entered the Lienster Bay trail. What a neat trail!!!! I ran along the gravel trail just a few feet from the shore for another three tenths of a mile. After 15 minutes of total running, I turned around and headed home. The run took me closer to 45 minutes than the intended 30 minutes. It's hot and the hills are steep. I'll work on getting faster once I'm more used to running in the heat. For 6:30am, it was hot. I passed two other tanned women runners during my workout. I probably looked like a newbie to the area, given my still pale complexion. I'm getting more tan, but slowly. Something interesting I learned on my run: there is a tree, and I forget the name and will add it later, with a fruit that produces a caustic sap which had been dubbed “death apples” by Columbus. I'd like to read more about that tree when I can remember the name to Google it.

The work day included an exciting Hurricane Plan Meeting. Part of the meeting involved an inspection of some park properties to identify any areas where there may be needed repairs prior to a storm making landfall. Things like tying down a gas tank, making sure storm shutters are available, making sure drop-down shutters work, cleaning up debris in the yard, and cleaning out gutters. We made a list for each place we had to inspect and then returned to our normal day. I hope the things we found get fixed before a big storm comes. Better yet, I hope we don't get a big storm while I'm here.

After lunchtime I had a wonderful call with the folks at the Risk Management Division in DC! It was mostly a call to check-in and see how things were going, summing up the park experience, and making sure I'm on track for the internship after two full weeks on-site. I feel great about my experience so far and it was awesome to touch base on areas where I felt like I wasn't sure where to go next and how well I'm doing overall, based on what I've sent in on my weekly reports. Things are going well.

More research and more reading filled up the afternoon quickly. Before long, it was time for a swim. I took the trail down to Solomon Beach and started swimming with Christy, one of the park's collateral duty safety officers. I only brought my goggles to work today, not my mask and snorkel, and boy, did I get a lot of saltwater in my mouth! Good grief! I made it probably a few hundred meters before I had to turn around and throw in the towel. I waded and treaded water around the shore and searched for sea glass. I found one piece. I swam for a total of about 15 minutes. After Christy returned to shore, we hiked back to the office, making a pit-stop to shower under our building.

Eventually, I returned back home and after catching up with Mom on the phone for a bit (she was calling from the beach at Ocean City, which made me realize it's kind of neat to know we're in the same ocean, something like 1500 miles apart). I grabbed a delicious and top-notch chicken parmesean dinner at the Maho Bay Restaurant with Dwight. I love the NPS discount there! Nowhere else on the island can you get a plate overflowing with fresh pasta, marinara, chicken parmesean style, with italian vegetables, a small salad, and iced tea for dinner at that price. Normally I think it's $18. I cleaned up with less than $11 of damage. It still put me about $3 over budget for the day, but it was well worth the wholesome meal. Apparently, it's movie night on Wednesdays! They were showing Harry Potter 3 (I can't remember the book- I know... it's a horrible shame) and I would have stayed to watch, but the mosquitoes were attacking. I had even brought my bug zapper racquet, but it's too late if they've already bit you. A new plan quickly formulated- watching Matrix Revolutions on the laptop over at Dwight's. Instead of popcorn, there was banana and chocolate pudding, the little hunt's snack pack type ones, which totally reminded me of elementary school pack lunches. It was refreshing to break the routine of coming home, showering, eating, and going straight to bed.

This weekend there is hope for a trip to snorkel Francis Bay and around Whistling Cay, plus a hike on the southern part of the island along the Reef Bay Trail area. I'd love to get out there this weekend and do lots of exciting things. I've been on the walking trail at Francis Bay and it was very cool to see the mangrove trees near the salt pond.