The reception was so bad we missed half of what she said, and we got cut off completely once, but we did get to talk to Aly Thursday at the Snare Creek archaeological dig, and wish her happy birthday. We learned that she really likes digging in the dirt all day, that they’re finding many significant artifacts (including “a whole lot of nails”) and that they stunned and captured a big bug in the cabin that no one seems to be able to identify. Sounds like she’s having a blast!
We also learned that we knew more about what the dig staff had in store for her than she did.Michelle had called the Alaska Summer Research Academy staff at the University of Fairbanks earlier in the day to ask if it might be possible to call Aly at the dig site. Kate, the coordinator, told us that the crew calls in every evening by radio telephone, and that they assign a different student to report on the day’s activities each time. She told us that she would ask them to have Aly call home.
She also told us that the dig staff had taken a cake with them for Aly’s birthday! When Aly called at around 7:30 pm, they had yet to have dinner—she says they don’t usually get around to it till later. That meant that while we talked to her, we knew that birthday cake loomed in her immediate future, but she didn’t.
We signed off all too soon, because of the bad connection. We’ll have to wait until she returns to hear it all. In the meantime, we celebrated her birthday with a decent bottle of wine at dinner and homemade cheesecake for dessert—which Aly doesn’t like, so she’s not missing out.