It's a pleasure to meet you...uh... your Royal Highness

British people joke about Americans not knowing how to address royalty, but in all honesty, why would we? It's not like we ever get the chance to meet a princess or anything. Oh wait, I did! Even after being told, and practicing for half a day, when it came down to the moment when I shook Princess Anne's hand, I still had to stop and think about what I was saying. I also think I did a little bow while I was concentrating on not saying "Your Majesty." Anyway, she had some very good questions about krill to which I had some even better answers. So good in fact I think I am now 10th in line for the throne... More impressive (to me at least) than meeting the princess, is meeting an Olympic Athlete. Princess Anne competed in the 1976 games. I don't know how she did, but it's still pretty cool.

This was saturday. Friday I had the opportunity to take a day cruise on the Holland America cruiseliner Rotterdam. Fort some reason the picture posted crooked and I don't know how to fix it, so just tilt your head until it's right side up. The picture also didn't turn out very good, but it gives you an idea of the size of the ship, and if you look closely, you can see the people lined up along the entire starboard side of the ship. We were celebrities.

We were welcomed onto the ship by thousands of Grandparents saying "Oh, now you can have a hot shower and some real food." Apparently we live in igloos and eat polar bears... But the food was good. And I had a double scoop of french vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone. And a few free beers. And some whiskey in the Crow's Nest (possibly the coolest bar I have ever been to) courtesy of an Arizonan named Karen. Everyone was so fascinated that I knew anything about the environment there, they were all offering me there granddaughters in exchange for a mini lecture. A nice gesture, but I had to decline.

We cruised through the Lamier Channel. A 1/4 mile wide passage between the continent (I was within a couple hundred feet of it) and some island. On either side, the mountains rise straight from the sea to 2-3,000 feet, making for spectacular scenery. The channel itself is full of penguin colonies and seals, glaciers and icebergs. After we went through the channel, I sat in on the first of two Question and Answer sessions of the day. 8 of us sat on stage in the Queen's Room (the two-level Auditorium) in front of 600 people to answer questions about global warming, holes in the ozone layer, and alien insects. It wasn't until after the session, when we brought out individual krill that I got to tell people about the science we are doing here. My favorite statement was "If it weren't fer global warming, we would be living on an iceball circling the closest star." After a few seconds of stunned silence, the woman facilitating the Q and A session stepped in and said, "There's not much you can say to that." Boy was she right... Aside from a few drama queens trying to stump the scientists, everyone was really welcoming and excited about our work and experiences, leaving me with a good feeling about the direction the cruise ships are going with Antarctic cruises; where the science and environment are the tourist attractions, and connecting the scientific community with people who wouldn't normally associate with it is the goal.