Catching Up!

Ok, so where were we?
Right!  Disneyland half marathon weekend.
Two weeks after returning from California, I headed up to Orlando to run the Miracle Miles 15K

Very inspirational race.  You are running to raise money for the tiny babies at the Winnie Palmer Children's Hospital NICU.  Since the race was three months ago, the one thing that still stands out to me was a sign that said something like "The tiny babies Thank You".  I saw it at a point in the race when I really wanted to walk.  But damn those tiny babies... they have it worse off than I, so I kept running ;)

The following weekend was the runDisney Tower of Terror 10 Miler.

80 degrees with 80% humidity at the 10pm start time.  Whoa.
I am usually a very sweaty person, but this night topped it all.  Absolutely soaked from head to toe once I was done.
Loved this course (the stretch on Osceola Parkway was a little boring, but other than that it was great).  Loved the after party.  Would totally recommend it to anyone.

The next week I went to Texas for a conference.
Before leaving on Saturday I was able to explore the Alamo

and the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

I was glad to see these places since I had never been, but I definitely don't plan on spending lots of time in Texas throughout my life.  No offense Texas.

The day after I returned from Texas I got to hang out with my good friend Matt, whom I had met in Alaska.  He is a fancy diplomat now.  Well he is stationed in Haiti, so I am not sure that part is fancy.
Anyways, he was in Miami for the weekend to go to the movies and stock up on stuff at Costco.  We only got to hang out for about an hour, but I am glad I saw him!

A few days later someone became a big sister!

So of course I headed to Maine to meet my new niece Molly!  Cutest, most kissable cheeks ever!

After being back in Miami for two whole days, I headed across the pond for a seminar at sea onboard one of our ships.
We got to visit Italy

Astrological Clock in Sicily

and Greece

Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the back ground - Athens

The original Olympic Stadium!

LOVED Mykonos!

Santorini

and Turkey

ruins of Ephesus

We did work onboard... proof:

Great trip!  I love Europe!

Four days after my return from Europe, I headed back to WDW for the third running of the Wine & Dine half marathon.

Yup, this one and Disneyland are my two favorite runDisney events.  Oh, and probably Expedition Everest too :)
LOVE the Wine & Dine half.  It honestly gets better every year!

The next weekend I was able to visit with my friends Danielle & Bill when they passed through Miami before heading out on a cruise. They are always so much fun to visit with!

For Thanksgiving, I went to Annette's in Tampa and joined her family for turkey day in Orlando.
Thursday night Annette, Brian & I braved the Black Friday sales.
Oh my hell.  Toys R Us was my worst nightmare.
Target was awesome... Toys R Us not so much.
I told Toys R Us they should go check out how Target was running their operation and copy them.
Yeah, I am thinking Black Friday shopping is not for me.

All of last week I was onboard my company's newest ship as we had 2 two-night inaugural sailings for travel partners & media.  That was followed by a 3 night sailing for our sales meeting.
90% Exhausting.  10% Fun.

I am home this week cramming all my Christmas cheer into 5 days (cookies, gift wrapping & christmas cards) before I get on another ship on Saturday for one more seminar at sea.
Whew.

I am really excited to relax in Maine for the holidays!

Galapagos Islands... the cruise!

Just to give you a little information on the cruise itself, this itinerary was a little different than most other cruise itineraries… we made two stops almost every day.  On shore, we had excursions led by the Naturalist Guides, they were great, very informative.

Each night before dinner the Cruise Director would give a talk about the stops the following day.  After the talk we would sign up for our excursions… usually called “Long Walk” or “Short Walk”.  I signed up for all the long walks, except for one.  I wanted to try out one short walk, since I was there for work and should be experiencing everything.

The long walks were generally three hours in length and were on varied terrain… sand, gravel, rocks, boulders, stairs. 

I saw people of all ages and physical ability on the long walks.  The ship provided walking sticks which I found helpful at a couple of the stops.  The short walks were about two hours long, were usually done on flat, even terrain or were zodiac rides around the island looking for animals from the water. 

All excursions are included in the cruise.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we took a zodiac from the ship to the island each day.
Sometimes they were dry landings where we could step right onto a pier:

And sometimes there were water landings, where we jumped off the zodiac into the shallow water:

 Both were manageable and the guides were always there to help.

Snorkeling was also available at some of the islands.  The ship provided all the gear and they would let us know when to bring it ashore for snorkeling from the beach after the walks. 

Since the ship only holds 94 passengers, I wasn’t sure if I would be bored on a small ship.  I was not bored for a minute, it was really fun to experience small ship cruising.  It was very casual, so no formal nights or anything like that, which I loved.

my stateroom was small, but I had plenty of room

With only 94 guests the ship did not have what I call the “Ding” machine when you exit/enter the ship.  Accounting for guests before sailing was done manually…. We would need to check off our name on the list the Cruise Director provided at the entrance to the ship.

Definitely a laid back atmosphere.

A few of the islands in Galapagos are inhabited, so there are shops, restaurants, schools, etc.  Totally normal.  On the last day of the cruise we were in Puerto Ayora all day and a co-worker from the Quito flew out there to show me two of the social responsibility projects our company has set up there.  When getting a contract to sail in the Galapagos, it is expected the company also do something to help out the community as well.  We have set up a greenhouse and partnered with the American Red Cross to set up a hospital, both located in Puerto Ayora.  

It was really interesting to be able to visit both of these places.

Well I guess that about sums up my trip.  It really was a once in a lifetime experience and would encourage anyone to visit this amazing islands!

Galapagos Islands... the animals!

So where were we?   Oh yes, we had just landed in Baltra.

The flight from Quito was a quick two hours.

After going through customs we were met at the airport by the Cruise Director and a couple of the onboard Naturalist Guides who accompanied us to the ship.

We took a bus to the pier, where we boarded the zodiacs to take us to the ship.

Riding on the zodiacs was really fun and was how we got to each island.  No docking at a pier for the ships sailing the Galapagos.

Our home for the week

Once everyone was aboard we set sail around 1pm for our first island, North Seymour.

Let me just say that the animal sightings were plentiful in the islands, it was great!  Since I had worked in Alaska before I knew the chances of seeing animals there were slim… not the case in the Galapagos.  They were everywhere.  They also could have cared less about all the humans.

Since the Galapagos are protected land, these animals have never been hunted so they have no fear of humans.  They never flinched when we walked by.  It was incredible.

I know people are most interested in pictures of the animals, so here you go…

Male Frigate bird

Male Frigate bird trying to impress the female with his red pouch

Baby Blue Footed Boobie trying to fly

Sea Lion... isn't she beautiful?!

We were so close to her!

Some other Sea Lions along the beach...

the male was trying to hit on the female and she was not having it :)

Blue Footed Boobie - love those blue feet!

Pelican

Crab

Sea Lions

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas

Nazca Boobies

Baby Albatross

Hawk

Galapagos Friends :)

Sea Turtle

Hawk

Marine Iguana

Penquins!

So cute!!

Land Iguana

Also so cute!!

2 iguanas fighting

we were very close to the fight

one ended up bleeding!

Sweet baby Sea Lion

Lonesome George, the last of his kind

Scientists try to mate him, but he is not interested.

Giant Tortoise

The second morning, we did a sail around Kicker Rocker.  It was beautiful!  Kicker Rock is a large rock formation off the coast of San Cristobal island, the size alone was impressive.

Each evening as we returned from our excursion, there was a snack table/bar set up on the back deck where we could grab a drink, sit outside, watch the sunset and talk about everything we saw that day.   

Everyone really came to enjoy that relaxing part of the day!

Next up, a little more information about the cruise itself.