Jennifer's Blog: Memories of the past twelve years in pictures

2004

Cape Hatteras National Seashore: My first park ranger job and I got climb this lighthouse everyday multiple times. I spent from March to October in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Enjoyed every minute despite often finding sand everywhere you did not it want it to be. I hated when I found sand in my bed for the life of me I never could figure how it got there.

Cape Hatteras Light Station is the tallest lighthouse in the country at 208 feet tall. Imagine having to climb that multiple times a day but was worth every step it took get to the top.

This one of the many views from the top of the lighthouse and it's the Cape and Diamond shoals beyond it are the very reason the lighthouse was built in the first place. This area off the coast of North Carolina is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Today you can still find many shipwrecks either hiding on shore after a storm in the waters themselves including the ironclad the Monitor from the civil war was sunk somewhere off the coast in 1862 just nine months after facing off the confederate ironclad the Merrimack or also know as C.S.S. Virginia..

Got enjoy sitting through a hurricane which as frightful as it fascinating. Hurricane Alex was a tropical depression just hanging out there in the ocean about 175 miles south/southeast of Charleston South Carolina on July 31st. Seem to drift slightly south with no real change until late in the day on August 1st when was classified as a tropical storm. When I went to bed on August 2 it was still south of the Outer Banks and a Tropical Storm but by the time I arrived at work on the 3rd it had officially been classified as a hurricane the first of the season. Early on 3 August, Alex had become a hurricane, and began lashing the Southeast coastline with gusty winds, rip currents, and intense rain squalls embedded within the cyclone’s rotating feeder bands. During the afternoon, several reports of sustained winds near 75 mph and gusts nearing 100 mph around the Cape Hatteras area were received by the Hurricane Center associated with then Category 2. If you can believe we opened the visitor center and museum and even a visitor or two came in. By mid morning headquarters which is located in Manteo which was north and east off the island itself made the decision to close the facilities and send us back home to our 1950s trailers in the housing area where seasonal rangers lived. I sat the storm out with my housemate watching Lord of the Rings on a laptop since the electricity went out for a short while. While Alex never made landfall meaning the eye never hit land it reminded me the true power of weather just like a tornado ripping through tornado alley. Weather is an awesome power and it best to respect and to be prepared so you stay safe.

2004/2005 Colorado

After a great spring, summer and most of fall I came home but not to Kansas but to Colorado where my parents relocated and also where my sister, brother in law and my aunt and uncle lived. I spent a cold winter enjoying the snow and mountains. I worked my very first day after Thanksgiving at Best Buy crazy and I have to say I am glad that I never have gone shopping on that day it's crazy. We welcomed a new addition to our family when my niece Allison Grace was born in February to my sister and brother in law. I enjoyed spending time with my family and getting to know my sweet niece.