Galapagos Islands

Several months ago I was asked to plan something for the ladies in our ward, and I (with the help of several very creative people) came up with the idea of a "Get-Fit Trip"

The rules were this: each of the sisters was to make an extra effort to be more active. They were to tally up each mile they went and report it to me each Sunday. Each mile walked, biked, or ran was counted mile for mile. For any other activity they did (lift weights, aerobics, swim, clean out the garage, etc) they got 1 mile for each 15 minutes.

Each Sunday I would total up the miles traveled, and then report how far we had gone. At the end of the activity we would have a party celebrating the place where we arrived. I even had a blog where I posted information about places that we had "visited". Well, the end of the activity was supposed to be right around time for my finals, and I got called to be a primary teacher, so honestly, I kind of dropped the ball for the month of May and most of June. However, there were several of the participants that wanted to continue, so I started back up again (with the help of my friend Julie who tallied for me) and we set the date for our party.

At the end, we had traveled 5917 miles!!!! I couldn't believe it! From
Brigham City we had traveled as far as Edinburgh, Scotland, Bordeaux France, Madrid, Spain, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, Santiago Chile, and even Nagano Japan. WOW! How to choose where to go for our party? After studying my map a bit more, I realized that there were a group of islands 500 miles off of the coast of Ecuador that were exactly 5917 miles! After doing a little research, I fell in love with the Galapagos and knew that this was the place for our final destination.

I decided that that I would study and learn everything I could about the Galapagos, and that I would take the sisters in the ward on a virtual trip to the Galapagos by way of pictures, information, and videos. I found a plethora of information on the internet, and wanting to be legal, wrote and asked permission to use the information on my presentation. The response back was fantastic! It seemed that everyone was willing to share so that the word would get out as to how wonderful these islands are.

I ended up spending close to 50 hours putting together the presentation, but it truly was a labor of love. Except for the day of panic when I couldn't get my laptop to correctly play the videos, it really was a terrific experience for me to learn about all of the wonders of the Galapagos Islands. I believe that those who joined me for the "trip" enjoyed themselves, and learned a lot also! It was so much fun pretending to be a tour guide for this trip! And Lou did a fantastic job as the "button pusher" to keep the presentation on track with what I was saying.

The Galapagos are so beautiful! And the animals there are not afraid of humans. I really would like to visit one day!

I am SO very glad that I had this opportunity! I know that I will probably never be able to actually go to the Galapagos, but I know that I have done the next best thing!

Comments

Doran & Jody said…
Woot! So glad it turned out!
Only YOU know how much time and stress you put into something like this. So here is a GREAT BIG PAT ON THE BACK fer ya!!
August 7, 2010 at 10:21 AM
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