For The Journey Not just the destination…

On our third day in the Galapagos, we went to South Plaza Island. I’ve added the photos to our Flickr Group:

• Honeymoon Flickr Group – Galapagos Islands

The day started early. Some reason, while we were there, Thomas and I shifted our schedules naturally to wake up at 6AM. We caught the sunrise on a couple mornings. It was a great time to walk down to the ocean and watch birds catch breakfast. Sometimes, we even found sea lions sound asleep up on the beach.

The boat that we took to all these islands was called the Sea Finch. The usual routine was to get on it each morning and head to an island for a tour. Then we would get back on for lunch, and then do some snorkeling in the afternoons.

South Plaza was a beautiful island with really interesting plants – it had green cactus trees and red and yellow ground cover. We had a great view off of a cliff to watch various birds diving into the water for food. We also saw a bunch of land iguanas there. They were mostly hanging out in the shade of the cactus.

The far end of this island was called the sea lion bachelor pad. It was another cliff area that the young male sea lions would climb. I was very amazed that they would be able to. We didn’t see any of the bachelors up on the cliff, but this little baby was resting on the rocky shoreline. They were just so cute.

I was able to get the rest of the Ceremony and Reception photos from Bo posted today. He did a great job of capturing group shots – both at dinner and the ceremony audience. I’ve added them to our Flickr wedding group:

• Flickr Group for our Wedding Photos

Here are a few of my favorites from this bunch.

Thomas and I face our minister, Greg. He wrote a beautiful ceremony that really reflected us and told our story. Part of it was that we had to write love letters to each other and he wrote them into the ceremony, which is where we first heard them.

This shot is just a neat angle – from the loft area. This is what the tables looked like before dinner, though this one happened to be missing the wood and moss part of the centerpiece. The salads had strawberries in them and they were delicious.

I don’t remember what Thomas said here to his mom, but there’s no mistake about his look of guilt, and my look of “I can’t believe you just said that.”

I love this shot – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my parents’ dance before, but they look like they’re having such a great time. I was very proud that they came in second place (short one month) in the anniversary dance for who has been married the longest.

This is a great shot of our exit. The sparklers turned out great and Uncle Gary chauffeured us off in the VW Bus… just what I had always wished for.

Actually, this photo of my grandmother and me was taken at the Rehearsal Dinner. We received another CD in the mail from one of our Swedish guests – thank you Bo! He got some great shots and really captured the festive mood.

I’ve uploaded the photos he sent from the Rehearsal Dinner to our Flickr sites. There were some that have been restricted, so to see those, you have to be marked as a friend/family member on my flickr group. Let me know if you need to know how to do that. Otherwise, enjoy the photos:

• My RD Flickr Set (includes all the RD photos I’ve posted, including restricted photos)
• Our RD Flickr Group (includes all RD photos, not just mine, and excludes restricted)

I’ll try and get some of these new ceremony and reception photos posted tonight.

I grew my hair out for the wedding, so that when I curled it, it would still look long. I thought it looked very nice.

With the wedding over though, it was driving me nuts. My ponytail was getting caught in my camera strap on the honeymoon, and my hair kept covering my face while I slept. Not to forget, it was getting kinda stringy (yeah, the pose in that photo has a long story to it) and made me look younger than I am.

So I called my hairstylist and she was able to take me today. I told her I wanted it just past my shoulders and slightly layered around my face. I think it looks nice – more body and makes me look closer to my age.  The photo is a bit blurry, sorry.

On Day 2 in the Galapagos, we went to Santa Fe Island. As we landed, we were immediately introduced to a small colony of sea lions. These were my favorite animals of the trip – they reminded me of giant puppy dogs.

So here’s some things to note about sea lions. First, to tell a sea lion from a seal is their ears. Seals’ ears are flush with their heads and sea lions have these cute little floppy ears. They kind of look like Shrek’s ears

They were very curious animals. This one checked out Thomas’ camera bag, and I had a baby (about the size of a large dog) crawl into my lap. While snorkeling, the sea lions swam along and had no problem coming right up to the group.

They’re also very lazy. I think we saw them sunning themselves on the beaches and cliffs at each island we went to. This photo also shows how many there were, and how close we were able to get. I liked watching them stretch – they would tilt their heads back so their chins faced the sky. We saw a few napping on boats in Finch Bay – the boat owners get annoyed because they stink up the boats.

They also seemed very playful, especially the young ones. They would romp around in the water and wrestle and climb on each other. They really looked like they were having a good time. I was amazed at how well they get around. We saw a bachelor area, where the bachelor sea lions will climb – it was about a 40 foot cliff, though most of it had been worn smooth from the oil on their coats.

And finally, I thought this photo really showed the size. The babies were about the size of a large dog. We saw a few that were still nursing on their moms. The mothers were much bigger, and the daddies were the largest. They would bark to let us know that it was their colony, and we made sure to stay away from them.

On this island, we also saw our first land iguanas, some beautiful pelicans, and a beautiful Galapagos Hawk. I’ve added these photos to our Flickr Group.

• Honeymoon – Galapagos