See Jane Lecture

This billboard was spotted in Pennsylvania by The Jane Goodall Institute.  Love it !!

I've had the honor of attending Dr. Goodall's inspiring lectures... twice!  Once in Indianapolis and again when she came to FAU.  And I met her afterwards too, both times, what a thrill for me !!  She is a true hero.... for women, for animals, for our planet.

Her fall 2013 lecture schedule is now available... if she's not speaking in a location near you, her website is now LiveStreaming many of her lectures!  So now anyone, anywhere can "attend" and hear her amazing insights about animal welfare, our planet, the environment.  All the details are here:

http://www.janegoodall.org/see-jane

Earth Day 2012

UPDATED on April 25: 

Breaking news today from the Jane Goodall Institute!  The date for movie ticket sale donations has been extended to MAY 3 !!  Enjoy a movie while helping save & protect chimpanzees....

Hi there ... hope you enjoyed the weekend?

Did you celebrate Earth Day in a fun or special way?  I'd love to hear about it!  Sal and I saw the new (family-friendly) nature film Chimpanzee ... fabulous cinematography!  You can watch the official trailer HERE.  While reminding us all of the fragile status of our fellow creatures and their habitat (although I wish there had been more emphasis on this), the film tells the story of an adorable orphan named Oscar:

The best part? A portion of ticket sales (on or before April 26) will be donated to the Jane Goodall Institute to help them continue their amazing work protecting these precious animals.  So swing in to a theater soon and meet lovable Oscar!  :-)  

We also took a nature walk at our local wetlands, Green Cay Nature Center.  It was so special to see newborn baby birds in their nests!  An Earth Day treat!

Earth Day is also my parents' wedding anniversary ... and yesterday they celebrated their 45th!  Congratulations, M & D !!

Have a great week ahead,

need a holiday gift idea?

How about adopting a manatee for that special someone?

It's a perfect gift for those who have "everything" ... for those who are difficult to shop for ... to introduce a child to animal welfare and environmental stewardship ... or for those who hate the clutter of physical gifts, LOL! And it's all for such a worthy cause ... helping support the welfare and habitat of these precious (and threatened) marine creatures. It costs only $25 and supports the wonderful work of the Save The Manatee Club (SMC). Your gift recipient will get an adoption certificate, color photo and biography of his/her manatee, and routine updates about the manatees. (Adopt at the $35 level and get a FREE 2012 manatee wall calendar too!)

My adopted manatee is Lily (that's her in the banner photo above). Sadly, most manatees are identified by their distinctive scars from gashes inflicted by boat propellers. I've been her adoptive "parent" for about 17 years! She spends winters here in Florida, at Blue Spring State Park. I feel a special bond with her ... my name Susan means "lily". You can choose from several manatees available for adoption, by name and location.

Sal and I have been longtime supporters of manatee protection. We're even featured on the SMC's website!! ... I was beyond thrilled when they contacted me a few years ago for my thoughts about, and a photo of, our day spent kayaking among the manatees (this eco-activity is not disruptive to manatees and is approved and sponsored by the SMC).

On behalf of Lily ... and all manatees, thank you!

penguins with close-knit friends

There was recently an oil spill off the coast of New Zealand and, as usual, the wildlife really suffered. Including penguins ... the oil not only makes their body temperature too cold, but they ingest the toxic oil when they preen themselves.

So, in an effort to help them, a NZ yarn store put out a call for their customers to knit sweaters (or "jumpers", as the Kiwis call them) to protect the penguins.And what a response they received! Word spread and more than enough sweaters poured in to their shop from around the world. What a gesture! So now the oil-soaked penguins will have the warmth they need until they can be painstakingly cleaned of the crude. And after they're clean, they still need to wear the sweaters for a bit until their natural oils re-coat their feathers.

If you're a knitter and would like to help these precious birds, the sweater pattern and mailing address are posted HERE (although they have received enough for now, they're saving all the surplus sweaters for future disasters).

And aren't they just so ADORABLE sporting those little sweaters ?!?!?

Hope you're enjoying the weekend,

summer in Florida ... life is good

After Buddy's (wonderful!) appointment at the clinic (see my previous post), I had lab work to do ... so I didn't have time for our traditional celebratory visit to Sonic. Instead, I stopped at a McD's drive-thru to grab one of these yummies:

Have you tried their smoothies? They're pretty awesome (better than I've had at some smoothie shops!), especially at only $2.50 for a small. The mango-pineapple flavor actually rivals the smoothies I enjoyed in Hawaii, yes they're that good! One of summer's simple pleasures....

I hope that you're enjoying summer. The sometimes oppressive heat aside, I love summer here in Florida! ... the water's nice & warm for swimming (I'm a whimp when it comes to water that's colder than 80 degrees F!), the days are longer, the sun's even brighter, the scent of fresh-cut grass wafts in the air, daily late afternoon thunderstorms are "like clockwork", and it means getting some new sandals (found these sparkly beauties at Target on clearance, and they're 100% non-leather (you know my policy!) ... what a find!):

Sal and I have been spending a lot of time outdoors, savoring summer. Last week, we went for a nighttime nature walk led by a naturalist at Green Cay Nature Center. They hold them only once a month, and they book-up immediately, so I was lucky to finally get us in! Before the stroll through the wetlands, she gave a mini-lecture on the ecosystem there, and introduced us to the cutest little owl named Oliver. We got to meet him up close (this photo was not zoomed, yes I was that close to him!):


(Owls blink very often, so I was glad to get a shot with his eyes open ... apparently he caters to the paparazzi, LOL). He's only about 4 or 5 inches tall, and was rescued and rehabilitated after being hit by a car (he needed a wing amputated, poor thing). Now, he calls the GC Nature Center home. So precious!

We enjoyed a lovely nature walk along the wetlands boardwalk and saw birds roosting for the night, and used flashlights to capture the "eye shine" of various other creatures....their eyes shine in the dark! Alligators have a red eye shine; I kept scanning the water surface with my flashlight and spotted a couple gators lurking in the pitch black night. Eerie, but very cool !!

And of course, what's summer without trips to the BEACH ?! It's one of my favorite places to enjoy some of my favorite things ... sun, sand, surf, swimming & Sal. {wink} Our beach has a sign that's updated daily by the lifeguards... they post the ocean temp, swimming conditions, etc. And last weekend, they added a note, "life is good" (lower right). Made me smile! :-)

Hope you're enjoying summer and that "life is good"! :-)

Susan

drawing a line in the sand

Today Sal and I headed to our local beach to participate in a (peaceful) protest of offshore oil drilling, and to promote the pressing need for clean & green! energy sources. All in the name of protecting wildlife, our coastlines, the environment.

The event, Hands Across The Sand, was held today at 750 beaches worldwide!! Isn't that awesome? About 200 of us gathered here on Delray Beach, lined up hand-in-hand for 15 minutes, drawing a symbolic "line in the sand" against offshore oil drilling. Sal and I have always been proponents of renewable energy ... wind, solar, hydroelectric, etc. ... and in light of the current horrific oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, we felt especially compelled to join in today's event.

We stayed afterwards to splash in the waves and revel in the beauty of our (still oil-free) beach.

Hope you too are enjoying some of summer's pleasures this weekend!

wildlife + oil = heartbreak

I can hardly stand to watch the oil spill news reports anymore!

My heart BREAKS seeing the images of the helpless wildlife stuggling in the oily goop that's washing up on Gulf shores! Here are just a few (photo credits: AP Photographer Charlie Riedel & Boston.com):

OMG, right?

I feel as helpless as these birds look.

But there is something we can do to help protect against future oil disasters. On June 26, there will be a Hands Across The Sand event held nationwide (and not just in coastal states!). Sal and I will be participating right here on our own Delray Beach! A human chain will be formed along the beach, concerned citizens hand-in-hand ... a metaphorical barrier to more offshore oil drilling. Let's send a message about the importance of clean, renewable energy ... our coastlines and wildlife depend on it!

Here's a scene from the event held back in February along a beach in Florida's panhandle, which is IRONICALLY now cleaning oil from the Gulf spill off its beautiful beaches:

Please consider "joining hands" with me and Sal later this month at a H.A.T.S. event near you!

must-see TV

Hi everyone, hope your week is off to a great start. I meant to post about this yesterday, sorry.....The Today Show aired a great series over the past 2 days, "Ends of the Earth: Warming Waters".











I love stuff like this, it combines 2 of my passions, travel and the environment. The hosts were each broadcasting from a cool location around the globe: Meredith in Australia, Matt in Belize, Ann was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Al was in the land of fire and ice, Iceland. (I've been to Belize, but have yet to visit the other locations...someday. I'm impatient!)

Anyway, they showed very cool footage and discussed the delicate ecosystems of each locale, highlighting the challenges that the world's animals and the environment are facing. If you didn't catch it, you can read about it and/or watch video clips HERE. Enjoy!

You can also enter to win an eco-vacation to Costa Rica in their "Green Your Routine" sweepstakes. Check it out and good luck!

live from New York, it's....Sarah's twin!

Hey everyone.....hope you enjoyed the weekend.

Did you happen to catch Saturday Night Live? It was the season premiere and Michael Phelps was hosting. Yikes, he didn't exactly give a gold medal performance! I wasn't expecting him to be hilarious, after all he's not a comedic actor, but a little enthusiasm, a smile even, would've gone a long way. He didn't seem happy about the gig at all. What gives? Tina Fey, on the other hand, did a spot-on imitation of Sarah Palin, the GOP's VP pick, for the show's opening skit. It was a funny parody! (".....and I can see Russia from my house!.....") Good stuff, LOL! Tina obviously studied Sarah's mannerisms, voice, etc. and got it all so right. The physical resemblance between Tina and Sarah is striking, too. If you missed it, here's a video clip of the skit (note that it's not Rated G, just in case you have young ears in the vicinity of your computer):



On Sunday, Sal and I discovered another local gem of nature. We went to Green Cay Nature Center, a wetlands & nature preserve just north of us, in Boynton Beach. I happened to see it while I was out running errands the other day. It's a boardwalk through a created wetlands, full of natural beauty and wildlife. It's a serene place, much like the Wakodahatchee Wetlands here in Delray Beach that we love so much.

Enjoy the week ahead.....

I'm wild about wildlife!

I'm here in a remote part of Alaska and I have a WiFi connection, I'm loving this! It's Friday night....nearly midnight and it's still so incredibly light outside! It won't get dark until probably 2:00 AM here! How cool, the days are long and I feel more energetic.

We flew from Juneau to Anchorage on Tuesday (even that was a spectacular view):

and rented a car and drove south for 2 hours to Seward via the incredibly scenic Seward Highway, a US National Scenic Byway on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska:

We visited Kenai Fjords National Park, both by boat tour and then a land hike to see Exit Glacier, up-close (brrrr.....):

The boat tour through Resurrection Bay and the Gulf of Alaska was thrilling, wow, we saw so much wildlife! Sea otters, humpback whales, orcas, steller sea lions, puffins......just too awesome! It was so cold out on deck, but I was out there snapping photos anyway even as I turned into a human popsicle.....I didn't care, it was so worth it.

(awww.....)

The orcas were a real treat; the pod was especially playful and inquisitive....they came right up to, and swam under, our boat!

And the boat tour company participates in the Denali Green Tags program, which gave us the opportunity to offset the carbon footprint left by our boat trip and support renewable energy. So, we toured green!

Seward is also home to the 2004 champion of the Ididarod race, and he has opened his facility for tours and to meet the dogs. Of course, we just had to go! For the "summer version" of a dogsled ride, they hook up a dog team to a wheeled cart for an "Ididaride".....and you really get a feel for the power of the dogs. Wow, they sure do love to run!

Then came the really fun part: you get to pet the dogs and play with some of the up-and-coming champions.....the puppies! So adorable, as you can imagine.....and they made us miss Buddy & Aruba even more!


the pup I'm holding has one blue eye, one brown eye:

and this pup sure wanted to give me a kiss:

Afterwards, they gave a demonstration of the arctic gear that the mushers and the dogs wear (including paw booties) out on the 1,000 mile Ididarod trail every March. Most races last 9 days or so, at temps as low as 60 degrees F below zero. Brutal!

We left the quaint town of Seward after a couple of days and returned to Anchorage for one night. From there, we headed north on the Alaska Railroad for an amazing ride to our next destination.....I'll leave it as a surprise until I blog about it soon. Hint: in the interim, I'll let you "wonder" where we are.....

P.S. ~ The trash cans and recycling bins in Alaska are all designed to be "bear-proof":


I love knowing that you're joining us on our Alaskan journey, and I'll meet you back here soon! Enjoy the weekend.....

Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Hi everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start. It's April 15....hope your taxes are all done and that you're getting a refund.

I meant to post this to my blog earlier, it's so neat.....last week, Sal and I went to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, 50 acres of land that our county's water utilities company developed into a wetlands ecosystem ("Wakodahatchee" is a Seminole Indian word meaning "created waters"). Sal and I were impressed at this environmental haven that they've created for wildlife. It's an amazing place, we saw so many birds and other creatures as we strolled the boardwalk, and it was so peaceful. It's like having our own "mini Everglades" right here in metropolitan Delray Beach! We plan to return often, and next time will bring our lunch or dinner and sit and listen to the birds and enjoy the peace and quiet. Anyway, here are a few pics of some of the wildlife we saw that day:

Sal on the boardwalk (my favorite wildlife!)....{{wink}}

a little bunny rabbit nestled in the grass.....

a blue heron landed right next to us on the boardwalk.....so majestic:

an iguana ran across the sidewalk right in front of us.....

and of course the almighty alligator was there.....this one swam right under us as we peered down from the boardwalk....eerie!

a new adventure on my must-do list

Yesterday Sal and I attended a travel expo in West Palm Beach. It was super fun for me, I just love that stuff! One seminar was about an expedition that I can't stop thinking about.....a polar bear safari in northern Canada! Sign me up! They take you out in an elevated tundra buggy and the polar bears surround you as they migrate in the fall (or, I guess it's actually early winter that far north). You also get to see the northern lights at that time of year. Spectacular! It would be wonderful to see these amazing creatures whose future is unfortunately in such peril.

Tarzan & Jane

Recently, Dr. Jane Goodall came to FAU to speak about peace and compassion, and afterwards held a booksigning for every single one of the 1,000+ people who stayed afterwards to wait in line.....she was there patiently for hours! Someone waiting in line near me astutely concluded that it was probably that same patience that was partly responsible for Jane's success with the chimps in the African bush. Our local newspaper aptly titled an article in the next day's edition, "Famed Chimp Researcher Wows FAU". That she did! How wonderful it was to watch the audience give standing ovations to this esteemed scientist. And what a cute story she told about how, as a child, she loved reading Tarzan and how she was jealous of that "other Jane" in the stories.....almost prophetic, I think....

It was a thrill to meet her again (I had once before about 10 years ago in Indianapolis) and to personally thank her for her commitment to animal welfare and the environment. They didn't allow us to snap our own photos while we were with her, but instead had their own photographer and uploaded the digi shots to the Internet for us....unfortunately, this photo of us isn't the best....it's a bit blurry and the top of my head is cut off....but I'm smiling while Jane is signing my copy of her book Jane Goodall 40 Years at Gombe: A Tribute to Four Decades of Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, so the photo is perfect to me.

Just Do It: recycle your athletic shoes

I was in the waiting room at the dentist this morning (yes, taxes and the dentist in the same week, ick!) and read about a great concept in a magazine.

We all have 'em.....athletic shoes (a.k.a. "sneakers", if you're a Seinfeld fan) that have worn out, and then we throw them out. No longer! Thanks to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe recycling program, 20 million pairs of athletic shoes have been recycled into material used for athletic facility surfaces, such as basketball and tennis courts, running tracks and playgrounds. Nike will accept and recycle any brand of athletic shoe (but no cleats)......you can send your shoes to a processing facility in Oregon, or they have a map of drop-off locations around the country. Fabulous!

see Jane inspire

"The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves."
--- Dr. Jane Goodall

Wow, today I'm feeling so fortunate! I was able to get a pair of tickets to attend Jane Goodall's lecture at FAU on February 27. Sal and I are thrilled! I've met the esteemed Dr. Goodall once before when she lectured at Butler University in Indianapolis back in the 90s. Her topic then was conservation, but this lecture will focus on peace, tolerance, and compassion. In addition to her lifetime of work and accomplishments as a primatologist, conservationist, animal rights activist, and founder of the The Jane Goodall Institute, she is also a United Nations Messenger of Peace. An extraordinary woman!

Whole Foods Market bags new idea

Whole Foods Market will be going green with its bagging options (refer to my posts dated January 13 and 15). Starting in April, on Earth Day appropriately, they'll no longer offer shoppers the option of disposable plastic bags. Customers will instead have several choices, including canvas bags, recycled paper bags, or they can bring their own bags. This will prevent an estimated 100 million plastic bags from entering the environment for the remainder of 2008 alone. How awesome is that??? See the complete USA Today article.

newsprint bins

I'm in the process of organizing my scrapbook studio, although Sal would argue that [insert chuckle here], and with good timing saw the coolest storage item featured on The Today Show....newsprint bins!.....from The Container Store. I love stuff like this! Talk about the ultimate in recycling, they're made from woven, recycled newspaper.

As a follow-up to my earlier post about canvas grocery bags (Jan 13), a recent Associated Press article said that China will soon ban free plastic grocery bags. Like much of Europe, they'll begin charging customers extra for them to discourage their use. When Sal and I went to a grocery in Ireland last summer, we found that they do indeed charge a fee if you want a plastic bag. The USA is catching on to the fact that we can't keep burning or burying plastic bags forever.

kayaking with manatees!

On Christmas Eve, Sal and I went on a Save The Manatee Club sponsored eco-tour.....a "do-not-disturb" kayaking tour among the manatees in the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. Our guide was a biologist, and it was an unforgettable experience! Although capturing photos of the manatees was difficult (they came and went so quickly, I didn't want to get the camera wet, etc. etc.), it was fabulous to be among them and so up-close. It was a peaceful day of enjoying the natural Florida......