Wow! It's been a while. Although I was originally going to be down on the Gulf for 21 days, I extended my detail and stayed for a whopping 60 days on the beach. It was an amazing and exhausting experience. My job, in a nutshell, was to make sure that while the oil was being cleaned up off of the beach the natural and cultural resources weren't destroyed. I worked the night shift for a couple of weeks, but the rest of the time worked during the day. How do I summarize two months of working on a beach in "Lower Alabama" (the western edge of Florida, near Pensacola)? I'm not sure I can. I've thought a lot about how I could write this post, and haven't come up with any great solution. I'll break down the "highlights" from my two months on the beach:
1) Seeing a sea turtle nest hatch, and getting to help get the little guys out to sea.
2) Watching dolphins frolicking and feeding almost everyday just off the beach. I tried to take cool pictures of this, but it didn't happen.
3) Watching the shorebirds everyday. I never thought that I would take an interest in birding until this job. But, I think I'm hooked now!
4) Seeing Portuguese Man O' Wars washed up after a stormy night.
5) Meeting and working with people from all over the country. This was by far the best part!
6) Observing and being a part of the crazy amount of logistics it takes to run such a humongous operation. The amount of equipment and the number of people coming and going, and the need to be able to track everything --- the controlling of chaos--- really, I was amazed by it all.
7) Going to a free Bon Jovi concert... on the beach... in Alabama. Ha! I never expected to do that!
8) Seeing a zydeco concert. More interestingly, seeing a zydeco band cover Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe." Who knew accordion solos could sound so cool?!
9) Going to the National Naval Aviation Museum. Lots of planes!
10) Watching the Blue Angels practice right over my head.
11) Seeing the sun rise --- and set --- every day.
12) Getting a really awesome sun tan that everyone in New York should be jealous of!
13) Being able to help out with the clean-up effort!
14) Seeing this out of my "office window" everyday:
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