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Germany visit

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Hello, we are checking in from Meckelfeld where we have spent some time visiting Carsten's parents and other friends and family. Inga and Kay hosted a lovely dinner where we visited with Dominic, Kerstin and Stiene, Maya, Uwe and Jan and of course Katrin. We then had our usual slumber party at Falk and Svenni's house. We had a casual visit, playing games and eating - Pernille and Pauline joined us Saturday and Barbara on Sunday morning. Sunday night was dinner at the Italian restaurant with Inga and Kay and Ulf and Heike. The restaurant is under new, friendlier management - no more grumpy Italian dude! The food is still good. Inga and Kay asked us to help with their cat Cooper. All we have to do is give him his insulin injection twice a day. On Tuesday morning we could not find him anywhere! We searched up and down the house - silly cat! We had to leave but we came back later and looked for him again three hours later - still no sign of him! Of course, when Inga and Kay got hom...
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Galapagos Flora 2

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Hi! Tomorrow we head home so I thought I would do a final wrap-up of the Flora Cruise.  The snorkeling just kept getting better. We were swimming with sea lions, sometimes as many as four of them within 5 feet of us! We did a nice walk along a beach and saw this guy shedding his shell. The others are hoping to catch him at his most vulnerable and eat him - just a little crab cannibalism.   During WW2 the US established a base on Baltra (the airfield is now the local airport). They had to have barges to bring water to the troops since there is no fresh water source on Baltra or Santa Cruz. Of course once they were done they just left the barges behind. Local marine iguana. Lava Heron Fresh turtle tracks. The sea turtles lay their eggs there just above the dune. Here they can expect 70% of the 100-250 eggs laid to make it to the ocean. Male Frigate bird showing off his suitability as a mate. The females were circling overhead - kind of like Tinder.... I found this hunk and caugh...
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Galapagos Flora 1

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Hello from onboard the Celebrity Flora! We figured if we travel all the way to Galapagos we should explore above the water as well as beneath it.  We boarded on Sunday and have enjoyed several excursions already. We started with a Hike followed by snorkeling Monday morning and then a kayaking excursion in the afternoon. Galapagos Mockingbird The rocky shoreline, lava rock. These crab are black when born, at that point they have many predators. As they mature they change color because of their diet. Obviously losing their camouflage would seem to be an issue - happily their shell gets so hard the birds don't find them worth the effort. Marine Iguana. These are cold-blooded reptiles who rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature. They are vegetarians and eat algae off the rocks in the ocean. They can stay down in the water 35-40 minutes. They slow their heartbeat down and have a way of storing oxygen in their muscles. Once they are done eating they find a nice hot lav...
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