Surrounded by bears, killing time

Baltimore celebrating turning on the Christmas lights on
Georg Washington Monument, next to where we live.   

November ended nice and peacefully with Thanksgiving weekend, celebrated together with Annas professor, Bob and his family. We ate really good food and played American football - there were even talks about me and Anna qualifying to Superbowl next year. Anna got (almost) two days well needed break from her insane amount of studying before she went back to her dungeons again.

The most important part of thanksgiving, eating desert.
I think we need to import this holiday to Sweden.

Saskia and Anna were very skeptical of my excellent pathfinding skills, as
I took them to one of the parks to fill their starving gills with fresh water.

The girls enjoying a banana in our lunch cave

Thanksgiving Critical Mass Ride, gaining momentum for the Baltimore bikers! 

Then there was the glorious world movie premier! I had finally "finished" (it's never really finished) the movie I have been working on for the last few (many) months about the Jan Mayen ski and sail trip that we did this spring. I filled my audience with champaign and Swedish chocolate balls so that they would like it, and I think it worked. Now I just have to figure out what I should do with the film, after all the time spend it would be fun to find a bigger audience somehow and I put some (a lot of) effort in and made sure that the music was royalty free too. At some point I will post it online here so you can see it. 

World premiere, Jan Mayen Ski&Sail Movie!

Now, after all this I was exited to start working again. But if there is one thing you learn in the States, it is that administration here takes time, and that patient is the word of the day. It turned out that the security process to get me into the NOAA building takes longer then they anticipated and the new prognosis was that I will be able to start working in 3-30 days... So back to killing time again, without being able to make any substantial plans (yes, I have been obsessively rooming the web for cheep flight to go skiing in the snow filled rockies, but that will have to wait). Fortunately I am pretty good at killing time, and in addition everybody seems to be doing what is in their power to make the process as quick as possible. I did kind of panic though and got a very strong urge to leave the city for a while to make something useful of my days. It ended up with me renting a car and driving 3 hours south west of Baltimore to Shenandoah National park to go hiking by myself for a few days. In between the big cities on the east coast there are actually some pretty great nature around, though somewhat patchy. As soon as I got home me and Bob and a friend of his went surfing for a day too. A lot of driving but it's amazing how a bit of outdoor activity can help you set your spirit straight again. 

Arrived pretty late, but the winter sun was still shining nicely on the mountain range.

I hiked until it got dark along Big Run river valley where a local had pointed me to an area with plenty of wildlife and good fishing for brook trout. I found a little patch for myself along the creek, made some tasty food and watched the rising moon. I starting to think about the large black bear population in the park, and as I just finished a book about the Native Americans, it felt like somebody was watching over my shoulder from the old days too.

Hiking alone in Shenandoah National Park. Was there something
observing me from outside the glow of the fire and headlamp?

I soon adjusted and the darkness started to feel comforting instead. The next day I woke up with frost on my tent to a beautiful day. It is great how small things like sleeping, eating and walking can be so satisfying when you are out in the wild.

Crisp and frosty morning

Same fire, different day, this time no old ghosts around. 

Bear country.. I doubt this set up would have
stopped a hungry climbing black bear, but
at least it kept the food away from my tent

Tree and rock growing old together!

No fish creek in the background. Damn it!

Surfing again, its actually still pretty nice and warm (no not in the water) around here.  

Gummibears doing what they do, studying and studying and studying 

As always I feel like I stumble headfirst into December, I can't believe it is already the 10th. Next time I write it will probably be Christmas. Back to training, yoga, studying (I try to imitate Anna by doing some reading too) and... waiting. Hopefully they will let the Swede through in time.

As you can see I now got the domain www.climfish.com! I got into a buying streak this week and as well as caving in and buying a black friday deal projector to watch movies on I got myself my first own web address, well worth the 10$ a year it cost me to try and impress you all :)