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Journal
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008 I made it mid way through day four of the Churchill pictures, so I took advantage of six cent Wednesdays at Ritz/Wolf camera and printed the keepers. This was a good excuse to look at something other than my monitor and also a great way to further proof the images (except now every flat surface of the loft is covered in polar bear photos). 
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 Continuining the wacky weather phenonmena here, about a half hour after sunrise this morning the city was blanketed with cumulus clouds, and then they completely disappeared about ten minutes later. 
Saturday, December 27, 2008 The temperature today neared 60, covering the city with an eerie blanket of fog. 
Friday, December 26, 2008 The eight story parking structure adjacent to our building has some interesting ice build up on its windows, so between the trek around the city to find the one open grocery store to procure a missing item, and the Wii Winter Sports tournament, we bundled up and went on a little photo safari.  
Thursday, December 25, 2008 The holiday season is all about rituals, and for the past 10 years our ritual has been holiday travel. This fall was busy with work, the trip to Churchill (pictures pending) and Thanksgiving occupied much of November, and Christmas/New Year's just kind of snuck up on us. Truth be told, with the insane weather we would have likely wound up hunkered down in the makeshift cot-camp at O'Hare anyway so I've made peace taking a staycation this year. So this year the only trip I'm taking is one down memory lane... Last year we celebrated Christmas in Samburu, Kenya. The staff at the Samburu Serena created a lavish poolside buffet with hours of entertainment, culminating with "the elephant dance" (sadly, we have no photo, video, or wikipedia entry to refer you to - imagine one of those horse costumes where one person is the front and another person is not the front, and there is a tale surrounding an elephant and villagers)  Christmas of 2006 is one of those days we will never forget. We spent the morning in Rwanda visiting the Sabyinyo group of gorillas.  We had a few hours free in the afternoon, so our guide asked if we wanted to go see Lake Gisenyi. When we arrived, we noticed the nearby Congo border and inquired if we might be ale to get a passport stamp. A bit of miscommunication ensued and the next thing you know we were a half mile into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) looking WAY out of place.  The DRC, you see, is not on the usual tourist circuit and crossing into it was probably way more iffy than standing within charging distance of a 500 pound silverack mountain gorilla. This is the only known picture of either one of us drinking a Fanta :) But we did get the stamp, and actually our passports now have a very conspicuous "out of Rwanda, in to Congo, out of Congo, in to Rwanda" Christmas day trip page.  Christmas 2005 was our first safari. We arrived into Nairobi on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas morning enduring a brutal ride from Nairobi to Amboseli. The last hour was so bumpy and dusty that we were actually laughing as we banged around the minivan. When we arrived at the lodge, we were greeted with cool towels, baby monkeys on the doorstep of our room, and a full blown Christmas parade.  In 2004 we were in Quito, Equador en route to the Galapagos. We were traveling on frequent flyer miles, so we arrived a day or so ahead of the rest of our tour group. We spent Christmas day playing tourist in Quito, visiting the Pululhula Crater and the Mitad del Mundo (the equator landmark) before whiling the afternoon away at the Marriott pool.   In 2003 we took a trip to Anguilla. It rhymes with vanilla and if you happen to miss you flight as we did, it is a short ferry ride from St. Martin. Christmas day was spent lounging on the beach at our hotel making a mockery of winter. A sand snow man  A sand snow angel  We used to have a lobster tradition, and this was the last year it was observed. Dinner was at Blanchards, which we had to visit after reading the book A Trip to the Beach. In 2002 we were in the British Virgin Islands, just the two of us on a chartered 34' sailboat. The most memorable part of this trip was that I had a broken arm, but in tears at the orthopedic doctor I negotiated a removeable waterproof cast which turned out to be stellar for grabbing moorings - it was like a big claw !  In 2001 we contemplated staying home (international travel was still iffy due to 9/11) but at the last minute we found ourselves on a cruise. It was one of those bargains where it was cheaper to go than to stay home, and you definitely get what you pay for :) With a new port to explore every day, we looked at it like transportation augmented with towel animals. We spent the day in Dominica, exploring on our own for a bit but then returning to the ship to sit in the sun because we were tired of locals trying to sell us weed.  In 2000 we were in the midst of a train tour of Italy and Switzerland. For Christmas we were in Florence and I remember hearing Italian singing from the night mass as we walked back from Christmas dinner at Trattoria Ponte Vecchio.  In 1999 we were midway through our scuba diving honeymoon in Micronesia. This is another one of those unforgettable trips. We were in Yap, had bonded with a group of 12 others staying with us at The Pathways, and had arranged a fancy group dinner at the newly opened Trader's Ridge. We then wandered in to the local party where they counted from one to one-hundred and then sang "Feliz Navidad" at midnight.  Our first Christmas trip was in 1998, to the South Ocean Beach Resort on the non-touristy part of New Providence in the Bahamas. On Christmas night we went into Nassau to experience Junkanoo, a carnival-like parade that begins at midnight.  And in case you are wondering, we did "Christmas at home with a tree" twice. The last time we actually ordered the tree from LL Bean - not sure if they still do this but I think it was the best tree I've ever seen, no wall sides whatsoever and delivered to the door right on schedule.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Driving down Grand today, I spotted a chipper mascot outside Honey Bear Ham.  It's really too bad our holiday meals are already planned out (more on that later) because though I've never had it, I have a bit of a hankering for some Honey Bear Ham !
Sunday, December 21, 2008 As we descended the ramp from our heated garage on the sixth floor, the thermometer on the car slowly dipped: 54, 34, 20... By the time we reached the open doors on the ground floor we were in single digits, and when the thermometer reached zero we wondered if it was actually capable of displaying negative numbers. A block later we learned that indeed it can.  In retrospect, it would have been far more impressive in Celcius. Note that the -3 was the actual temperature not factoring in the wind chill. 
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 Chicago has seemed a lot like Churchill lately - ice storms, sub zero temperatures, and lots of snow accumulating on the ground - except the only wildlife I see on my semiweekly walk to the office is Burberry-bootied pampered pooches. Though the ice may form on Lake Michigan, the odds are pretty low that I'm going to see a polar bear. Or so I thought... To my surprise, these fabulous images from fellow traveler Jan from the Netherlands arrived in my inbox yesterday. From their vantage point on an adjacent tundra buggy, they were able to capture these images of me (white puffy coat) with a curious polar bear.  Note that I am not wearing gloves :)  And note how the three of us obediently kept our hands inside the vehicle.  And here are a few stills from the video I shot :)  
Sunday, December 14, 2008 Not making much progress on the Churchill pictures, but here's another in the mean time. This image was captured on our last full day on the tundra buggy. Our amazing sun-filled morning included a great arctic fox sighting, followed by the unforgettable experience of watching a mother polar bear nurse two cubs. We ate lunch overlooking the sleeping mom and cubs, and then returned to our habitual photo taking. Andy and I were poised in adjacent windows, and he asked that I momentarily hold his camera, which was positioned on a beanbag in the open buggy window, while he retrieved something from the other side of the vehicle. The mother bear stood up just as Andy walked away, and though I couldn't see through his camera, I depressed the shutter and hoped that it was focused and aimed in the right direction. 
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Still going through the Churchill images - good thing I have a week and a half off over Christmas to sequester myself and finish this task before 2009. I don't want a repeat of Kenya/Zanzibar where it took over 6 months. This shot is from our last day in Churchill. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset in front of which two polar bears cooperatively paced back and forth with their long shadows being reflected on the newly formed ice. when they moved, our expert buggy driver Chris would reposition our arctic coach, perfectly aligning the bears with the slowly sinking sun. The sun is a little blown out on this one, but you get the idea :) 
Sunday, December 07, 2008 Taking a bit of a break from the bears, I finished going through the pictures from our trip to Argentina back in October.    In bear-related photo progress news, I'm through the first day - woo hoo ! (...and apologies to those who posted comments recently, the feature is temporarily broken but feel free to email us)
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