Tag: Antarctica
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Ferdinand Magellan and The Age of Discovery!
Flat Hal and Flat Halena feel like time travelers bouncing around time. Events make a lot more sense in order, so let’s slow down a moment. Ferdinand Magellan — 1520 — Discovered Magellan’s Straits between the Atlantic and the Pacific. (He saw a species of Penguin, named Magellanic for him!) HMS Beagle — 1831 to…
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The Flat Friends have been making stickers for the first segment of our grand adventure.
(As a side note: the Flat Friends had a lot of fun sharing the stickers we designed with our fellow passengers! Everyone enjoyed having a fun way to remember the amazing places we visited.)
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Ernest Shackleton did NOT reach the South Pole First
#flathal #ErnestShackleton #Antarctica He did NOT achieve his goal of walking across the frozen continent. It would be easy to look at his four expeditions and see where he fell short. But remember, he didn’t just a take journey or go on a grand adventure. He might have had fun along the way, but he…
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On such an exciting journey it can be hard to fit everything on our minds into a single entry…
…we try to stay focused, and share the adventure the best we can. Here’s a special milestone moment from our San Antonio port call. Flat Hal and Flat Halena are pausing for a moment as we sail towards San Antonio For over a month the Flat Friends, along with just over 1,000 other passengers have…
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A Well Timed Day At Sea
At home, the weekend comes after five days of school, unless there is a holiday or something special, it is predictable. A routine we know, and can pace ourselves for — but when we travel sometimes we have four amazing, full days in a row, other times we get an easy day after each day…
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The Flat Friends Final Day Of Scenic Cruising In Antarctica Was A Huge Success!
For four days it has seemed like something amazing was just waiting to be discovered just outside our cruise ship. We sailed among whales… truly among them! They were on all sides of us, several everywhere we looked! Penguins raced alongside the ship, and posed for pictures on shore. We sailed near icebergs that seemed…
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The Sun Set And The Snow Moon Appeared!
Flat Hal and Flat Halena were really confused as they were taking pictures. Sunset was easy enough to recognize, and it was fun trying to capture the golden hues of the setting sun around the stark, frozen landscape of Antarctica. But less than an hour after the put away their cameras it looked the sun…
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The Flat Friends Watched An Iceberg Calving
Flat Hal and Flat Halena stepped out on deck to see if the sun was setting. It was 9 at night, and the sky was starting to change colors. An iceberg that seemed as big as a building caught our attention, so we decided to photograph it. Suddenly a loud cracking sound startled us. A…
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Flat Hal and Flat Halena ExperiencedSummer Snow Flurries In Antarctica!
Being told it is summer doesn’t make it feel like summer, no matter how many games we play. No matter how many feet of snow and ice we see, stacked up across countless miles, it is still hard to believe the Flat Friends have come to Antarctica. But somehow, it all began to feel real…
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Scenic Sailing in Antarctica
Overnight our ship seemed to aimlessly meander through an area we had sailed during the day. In reality this was part of the “safety first” motto aboard. The ship returned to water it had “scouted” during the day. The bridge officers knew of any hazards, how much ice was present in the water, and made…
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Photographing Whales in Antarctica!
Flat Hal and Flat Halena made a game out of seeing who could get the most interesting photo of one of the whales. At one point we thought we counted five swimming near the ship! We tried to get one blowing. We decided just because the human eye can see something doesn’t mean the camera…
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The Flat Friends Are Ready To Begin Their Antarctica Sailing Adventure!
Flat Hal Returns To Antarctica With A Friend! Some experiences are so amazing the moment you get home you want to share it with your friends. Flat Hal had so much fun visiting Antarctica with Flat Stanley he couldn’t wait to share it with Flat Halena. Our first day it was foggy, and really hard…
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Scenic Sailing In Antarctica Was Inspiring
#flathal # flatstanley #antarctica Antarctica is a continent with no First Nations or Indigenous people, no “natives” to stand up for it, protect it, and tell others about it. A program called Antarctica Ambassadors has been started for people who want to learn about Antarctica, and share that knowledge with others… are you interested? Flat…
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Is Tourism In Antarctica Good Or Bad?
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica This might sound like a simple question, but for us, it required a lot of thought. Flat Hal and Flat Stanley were invited to join an already planned trip, so they missed those initial discussions over a year ago. We chose to visit on a ship that would not offer landing options.…
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Scenic Cruising in Antarctica
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had a fantastic last day of scenic cruising in Antarctica. When we first stepped outside to take photos it was snowing— leading to interesting attempts to get the camera to focus on the white landscape and animals with a lot of white in them. The sun came…
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Day 3 Antarctica Showed the Flat Fellas Another Side of Itself
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Having seen moody and overcast, and bright, vibrant sunshine, day three offered dense fog and mist. For most of the day it seemed impossible to identify the horizon, the water bleeding into the mist. The flat Fellas spent part of the day looking through photographs we had already taken, and working on…
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A Fun & Cold Time Watching The Sun Set
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica The high of the day was only a little above freezing, and the temperature seemed to drop quickly with the sun, but the color didn’t just linger in the sky, it seemed to get more brilliant and interesting as the time passed. For most of an hour, maybe more the sky reflected…
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The Sunlight Gives Us A Blue Sky And A Blue Ocean
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica With help from Google’s Gemini AI:The sky’s blueness is primarily due to the scattering of light by air molecules. The ocean’s blueness is mainly due to the absorption of longer wavelengths of light by water molecules. While both involve the interaction of light with matter, how it happens is different.
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Day 2 Antarctica Showed Up Ready For Pictures!
#flatstanley #antarctica #flathal @hollandamericaline After showing us its moody side, Antarctica dazzled the flat fellas with endless expanses of ice, mountains, and the occasional wild animal. “A Colony of Gentoo Penguins to Port!” It was such an exciting announcement. The flat fellas joined other passengers in rushing to the rails of the ship. The scoured…
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Antarctica has its own color palette.
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica A place without fire engine red, except on man-made structures, this is a content that mixes blues with gray tones to create a unique landscape all its own. The blue ice here is like the blue ice in glaciers the world over, the bluer it is — as we understand it —…
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The Flat Fellas First Day In Antarctica
#flathal #flatstanley #antarctica The overcast weather seemed like it might be a bummer at first, but as we looked at our photos we realized it was highlighting the way the ice of Antarctica seemed to glow on the horizon. Our photos captured a moody tone, depicting the harsh conditions living here must entail. Flat Hal…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley are sailing the Southern Ocean!
#flatstanley #flathal #southernocean The Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica. Whether you are coming from the Atlantic or the Pacific, you can sail as far south as you can, and reach the Southern Ocean. Here you will find a place where scientists from around the world gather to study and do research. Flat Hal and Flat Stanley…