Breathtaking indeed!
I’ve been waiting for you to post some pictures taken on y’all’s trip, and they didn’t disappoint.
If I recall correctly, you mentioned, wistfully, that y’all’s recent trip would likely be the last such an excursion; may I ask if that’s indeed the case?
At risk of boring 100 people to answer one…
I am still working on the photos, I made 6000 of them on two Nikons, plus more on the cellphones. There will be a link posted to at least a public google photos folder for those interested as soon as I sort through them all and put some notes on some of them.
And no, it will NOT be the last “jumping in and out of zodiacs” type expedition for my wife and I, but I may not be allowed by NSF to go all the way down to the actual geographic South Pole to Amundsen-Scott station to do my neutrino work. This makes sense, as any serious medical issue would result in the longest and most expensive “ambulance ride” known to man, as one flies from Amundsen-Scott to McMurdo Base, about 900 miles, then from McMurdo to Christchurch NZ, another 2400 miles. And weather can make flying a no-go sometimes, even during the “antarctic summer” when I go down.
But I have already arranged for her Christmas present - a week on a 17-person ship that will poke about the Galapagos next spring with 2 Cornell U professors as guides, and a passenger roster of a bunch of ornithology grad students, plus us two. So, more penguins, but also other birds and such.
My wife and I were able to do one of the small ship tours about 25 years ago and it was fantastic. Lonesome George was still alive and crawling at the time.
I’m not a fan of water since I almost drowned as a kid but I did go snorkeling on one of the reef tours. It was great once I got my breathing under control just getting in the water! The guide wanted to know if I was ok and I had to explain about this 14 year old kid, not knowing how to swim but knowing how to float, and opening his eyes to see the bottom of the diving board in the deep end of the pool…
Good thing my cousin knew how to pull me out.
The King of the house now has free roam of all 3 floors… 
Now he can get in triple the trouble 24/7
PS - There is a lock on the door side if needed…
That’s why cats have nine lives to expend… 
We should have done it then, too, but busy, busy, busy we were. Better now then never!
Did he have any hesitation pushing the door? We couldn’t get Dewey to push it open and ended up propping it up all the time, it goes into the basement where the litter box is.
In the beginning he did but his drive to be next to me 24/7 got him over it. Last night was a nightmare. I’ve never slept in the same house with him before. All night long he was tapping my face and laying on my legs. After a few hours, I put him upstairs and locked that cat door.
We need to figure this out because I’m exhausted
I really did laugh out loud upon reading this! He loves you.
Yeah, Pumpkin tries to sleep with Nisha any time he can. Not a problem for naps, but after a few hours he’ll get the zoomies.
Although not sure he’s as bad as this one: (this is not my cat; just a funny video)
I should mention that my MIL always closes her door so he’s used to that. If we did the same, I would imagine continuous meowing…
When Nisha goes to bed, Pumpkin will often sit by the door, often with a “present” of one of his favorite toys:
You have another cat named Johnny and who the heck is that other guy?
Ollie is a treasure! As one who cannot have cats due to allergies, I love hearing about Ollie’s antics.
Here are some antics. We woke up today with Ollie in our house. I locked the cat door and took him outside and up to my MIL’s place where he always sleeps.
He was in our house, cat door was still locked. We have no clue how he pulled that one off. I wasn’t drinking last night and remember quite clearly putting him to bed last night, and not in my place.
I know I put him upstairs because the keyring fell apart when I was locking her door.
Cat is Houdini.
Ohmygosh our orange kitty also pseudo-sploots with his front elbows/arms hanging out/off 
like on chair rungs, the edge of bed (like photo), out of boxes.
Ollie is #7 for us in 25 years. He’s our 3rd ginger. We have never had a splooter or arm hanger before. He’s so funny. 
LOL he is a character!
