Galapagos here i come

I am now definitely sure I'm going to the Galapagos Islands (off the coast of Ecuador) in late January-early Feb. I am so stoked! I have to start researching it a bit and see what kinds of stories I can pitch on the wildlife. I have one assignment, but there are always others. I'm going with the photo editor of the magazine so it should be really fun. It's a 7-day cruise, the first carbon-neutral cruise in South America. Now other companies are following suit.

A friend asked, what is a carbon-neutral cruise? See my post a few days ago on global warming, but essentially the company offsets the carbon emissions from the cruise's burning of gas/fossil fuels and use of energy by contributing to projects that offset the emissions, like tree planting and methane capture technology for dumps, etc.

But I'm really excited about seeing my awesome friend Jen when I go through Florida!! I've blogged about her before, I met her at the Conservation Genetics workshop a couple years ago and she studies shark forensics (identifying shark species from their DNA from the often illegal shark fin trade). We may head down to the Keys. It will just be fun to spend some time with her. She was MY blog mama, she blogged through her husband's cancer and grief after he died Oct 2003. And she is my super athlete woman inspiration, having run and won triathlons!

Oh! Speaking of which, yesterday I ran 8.5 miles - the furthest ever - at a pace of about 8:30 min mile. I am trying to train for a half marathon along with our church's student pastor, Chris. Here is his blog: kennedyatseminary.blogspot.com - check out the video linked there on Nov 21, 2006 entry. Pretty cool stuff!