Voluntter and Anniversary Week

2009-08-29 16:45:39.000 – Sue Rose and Jeff Cohen,  Summit Volunteers

Intern Hedda watching the sunset

Observer Note: The following comment was written during my last shift and was meant to be posted last Wednesday, August 19. With everything going on that morning, I forgot to post it before leaving and did not realize it until coming back up this week. My apologies to our volunteer Sue Rose, who wrote this comment, as I know she put a lot of work into writing it and deciding which of her wonderful pictures she wanted to share. Enjoy! -BC

Jeff and I are first time volunteers at the MWObs. We came up here to experience life on the rockpile and to celebrate our 2nd anniversary by working as volunteer cooks for the week of 8-12 to 8-19. We had a busy, wonderful week. We cooked up a storm (no pun intended). There was a lot of cooking and prep work to do in a hurry at first as there was an EduTrip arriving 8-13, and renovation work on the kitchen was scheduled to start when they left on 8-14.

We were treated to an amazingly beautiful sunset our first night (see thumbnail photo). I like to do photo journals as well as cook, so I began snapping photos as soon as we arrived. I got to see many of the crew at work and the alpen glow on several mornings.

We cooked not only dinner for the EduTrip, but did most of the cooking for the next 3 days in preparation for a major kitchen renovation project (new flooring and stove.) Even with all our cooking, there was time for a nighttime stroll on the Auto Road with some of the EduTrip members and a sunrise walk around the summit with EduTrip participant Anne Umphrey. Marty the cat seemed unfazed by all the renovation work which started soon after the EduTrip left the summit.

There was another glorious sunrise on Saturday August 15, and we had a great time cheering on the bike racers riding in Newton’s Revenge as they arrived at the summit . The remaining photos here show some of the many scenes of our amazing week:

Observer Mike Finnegan at work

Intern Alex Jacques doing a terrific for our hiking friends

Observer Ryan and Engineer Bob Tsigonis viewing the new septic system through the early morning fog

Observer Mike and Intern Hedda Peterson filming the ObsCast about the kitchen renovations

A foggy morning view of the Obs tower

Obs Museum and Gift Shop attendant Sharon Nothnagle

We had mostly wonderful weather and found time to visit ‘our’ wedding rock with it’s magnificent view of Lakes of the Clouds Hut. Later we watched Intern Hedda painting the kitchen wall. Former volunteer Karen Hoffmeister brought a much appreciated stack of pizza and other goodies when she heard about the gorilla cooking we were doing for the Crew without a stove. Brian and Alex began moving kitchen items back on August 18, minus the stove for the time being.

Today, August 19, was supposed to have been our wedding day on the summit back in 2007, but temperatures in the 20’s to 30’s and winds gusting to 94 MPH caused us to postpone the wedding to August 20, 2007. We had a glorious day then, and a wonderful anniversary week now. Many thanks to the crew for an incredible week!

 

Sue Rose and Jeff Cohen,  Summit Volunteers