Last year Paul and I had the pleasure of taking an amazing adventure into the Arctic with Heritage Expeditions on the Spirit of Enderby (Professor Khromov). In addition to seeing a ton of wildlife (polar bears, arctic fox, walrus, puffins, whales, etc.) we were fortunate enough to meet some of the local experts who have spent years of their lives studying and helping to better understand many of these animals. Two of the people that we met were Dr. Nikita Ovsyanikov (a polar bear expert has worked on the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve for 30+ years and has dedicated his work in educating and studying their behaviors) and his daughter Katya Ovsyanikova - who has been going to Wrangel since a child and has dedicated her time and studies to sea otters and other marine critters as well.

So, why am I blogging about this now?

Katya is in the US this week (she arrived yesterday) to speak at the Sea Otter Conservation Workshop at the Seattle Aquarium. Since she arrived we've been chatting about the state of affairs for polar bears and the possibility of the hunt being opened up again in the Chukotka region of Russia (aka the Russian Far East). While there has been some media attention stating that the polar bear hunt has been reopened (Russia lifts ban on polar bear hunting and Russia's Chukotka backs polar bear hunting), there is also still some debate about the current status. It has not yet been approved by the Russian Federal Government even though it's been signed by the Chukotka Regional Government. Because this is still under debate, you can help to influence their decision by writing to them now. A more formal letter about the state of the polar bear is attached below.

What can you do?

(1) Tell as many people as possible, tweet, facebook, do you know someone in the media? Please spread the word! And, if they want to talk to Katya - shoot me an email and I'll get you/them hooked up!

(2) Write a letter of discontent to the Ministry of Natural Resources:

123995, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya 4/6,
Moscow, Russia
Minister - Truntev Yuriy Petrovich

(3) Sign the petition: Help to save Polar Bears in Russia!

Dear friends!

Sadly, there has arisen in Russia a very disturbing situation with polar bears.  The plight of polar bears in Russia hangs in the balance if legislation currently before the Russian Government is passed.

The total number of polar bears in the wild is only about 20,000.  Part of the Chukchi-Alaskan population, which was almost exterminated by the middle of the twentieth century, lives on the Chukotka Peninsula (North-East Russia). At present, specialists estimate its size to be no greater than 2,000 bears.  After the USSR imposed a moratorium on polar bear hunting in 1957, the Russian coast was a stronghold for polar bear conservation. For decades, and the Chukchi-Alaskan population had a chance to increase in numbers. Unfortunately, poaching also increased in the Chukotka region, and has been thriving there, particularly since the 1990s.  Poachers now kill up to 300 polar bears a year for their pelts, and do so without even trying to conceal it.  There is a huge black market for those pelts, with each one selling for about $20,000.

In 2007, a bilateral Russian-American agreement on the conservation and management of the Alaska-Chukotka polar bear population was legislated, mentioning a possibility of issuing a hunting quota for indigenous people on both sides. Disregarding the fact that IUCN's Polar Bear Specialists Group considered the situation with polar bears critical, the Russian-American Polar Bear Commission issued a resolution that a quota may be introduced on both sides of the Bering Strait. The decision was reached despite the fact that there is not enough data on the size of the population.  Moreover, the possibility of a moratorium was not even considered. As of March 2011, after more than half a century of moratorium, the hunt is being re-evaluated and potentionally re-opened in Russia!

Global warming has been rapidly shrinking the extent of the Arctic sea ice, the major platform from which polar bears hunt during most of the year.  It is difficult for polar bears to survive the ice-free seasons because their main habitat (drifting ice) is shrinking, and what remains is far from the best hunting grounds. More and more often in recent years, scientists have observed famished bears, as well as fewer females showing up to den on Wrangel Island, the main polar bear “maternity ward” in the Chukchi Sea and a protected Nature Reserve since 1976.

Under these stressful conditions, the impacts of poaching on the polar bear population are disastrous, and implementation of hunting will simply constitute legalization of poaching, and a cover for the poachers.  With regards to traditional use, the indigenous people of Chukotka have never hunted polar bears for subsistence. Legalization of polar bear hunting is just a path to the commercial use of the species. And, while a quota is intended to be issued only for “subsistence” use by indigenous people, trophy hunters are actively lobbying for implementation of the quota, which, in itself, is revealing as to the consequences of legalizing polar bear hunting. 

It is not global warming that is dangerous for polar bears; the species has survived cyclic warm periods and glaciations before.  It is the presence and activity of humans in the Arctic that pose a very real threat for bears.  With all the pressures on the population now, it is disastrous, malicious, and inhumane to open the hunt.  It would be tragic to lose such a unique species because of greediness and cynicism of a small group of people that is interested in exploiting these animals for profit.

We are deeply unhappy with this situation and are trying to raise people’s awareness and to convince the Russian government not to legislate polar bear hunting.  It is not too late, and we have to do everything possible to express the discontent of the people.

For further information on the subject, see the article by polar bear specialist Nikita Ovsyanikov:
http://premier.gov.ru/bear/eng/news/11730/

And, for additional information - check out some of these links:

• Excerpts from the book: Polar bears: Living with the White Bear, by Nikita Ovsyanikov: http://www.wild-russia.org/bioregion1/1-wrangel/ovs-book.htm
• More on Wrangel Island: http://www.wild-russia.org/bioregion1/1-wrangel/1_wrangel.htm
• IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group - The official website for the Polar Bear Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission: http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/index.html 
  • 2010 Summary of polar bear population status: http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/status/status-table.html
• Center for Biological Diversity: Help stop Exxon and Alaska from Killing Polar Bears: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1209535
• Big Oil goes after the polar bear, again: http://www.examiner.com/green-activism-in-newark/big-oil-goes-after-the-polar-bear-again
• Center for Biological Diversity: Global warming vs. polar bears: http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2011/01/06/center-for-biological-diversity-global-warming-vs-polar-bears/
• In Russian: http://belyemedvedi.ru/

Thanks for reading and an even bigger thanks for giving your time and your signature to help these beautiful mammals.
kt

I thought I would get this done in one post but I realized quickly that it would take a couple! This is part II focusing on our trip in Alaska (Summer 2010). If you want to read a bit about the first part of the trip (Anchorage to Denali National Park to Seward), read this post: http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/Where-in-the-World-summary-and-other-photography-related-stuff!.aspx.

As for the last few days of this part of our trip we ended up in Homer, AK. The drive from Seward to Homer isn't as stunning when it's not along the coasts (the first half is but the 2nd half - not so much!) but there are a few really beautiful spots along the way. This is the Ninilchik lighthouse about 40 miles north of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula:

However, by the time we got to Homer, it was raining...again. We had beautiful weather for the day we did the Kenai Fjords Tour and I feared that the weather was gone. Everyone with whom we spoke said that this summer's weather had been about the worst they can remember. Even our Kenai Fjords tour captain said it was the first day in roughly 60 where he had seen sun on the Aialik Glacier. So, we thought we were doomed to have rain and nasty weather for the rest of the trip.

Amazingly (and luckily), we were wrong. The sun came back out and after we settled in at the Land's End Resort on the Homer Spit the kids were on the beach - for hours! As expected, we completely lost track of time and around 10pm we realized that it was so late (and still light out) that it was time to get ready for bed! Our next day included heading out to Katmai National Park to view bears and we wanted to make sure we weren't tired. However, we weren't scheduled to take off until late afternoon so we knew it wasn't going to be a problem.

As for the Land's End Resort - this was our favorite place to stay of our entire trip and we will go back there. The beach front lodges allowed for separate bedrooms for everyone and we had a washer/dryer in the lodge (which was very helpful 8 days into the trip!) as well as a fully stocked kitchen/fridge, etc. The prices of the lodges were more than reasonable given their quality and we could not beat the location and the views! We would DEFINITELY recommend it to anyone and it will be a place that we return to again and again (we hope!!).

In Homer itself, there are all sorts of places to visit but a "must-stop" is at Boardwalk Bakery to see Jackie and have some of her famous pastries! If you get there early enough there are all sorts of choices! And, you'll love Jackie. There's also the Salty Dawg Saloon where you'll have to deface a dollar and post it on the walls. There must be thousands in there! Above all however, you MUST visit the folks at K-Bay Air. They're located right next door to the Boardwalk Bakery and their trips out to Katmai National Park with Michael and co CANNOT BE MISSED!!! If you don't believe me - check out their numerous fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g31009-d1173531-Reviews-K_Bay_Air_Bear_Viewing-Homer_Alaska.html. Even the flight-seeing was spectacular as we flew over glaciers, mountains, volcanos, stunning bays, little towns and all sorts of different waterways.

Here are a few pics on the way out the Katmai National Park (KNP):

The Homer Spit:

Mountains and glaciers and bays - oh my!

This is Fourpeaked Glacier:

This is the river delta at Halo Bay (south of Fourpeaked Glacier) and it's where we were about to spend 3.5 hours watching bears. If you look closely you can see at least a few bears (yes, those spots are bears!!) in this pic!

Finally, we landed on the beach (with large tires setup for this kind of landing) and we walked in about 1/2 mile to where the river delta has lots of salmon. We were lucky with the salmon as well as it was a late season and we got there when they were really running. We proceeded to find a female with a single cub and then we watched her fish. We started calling her "Mean Momma" after she continued to leave her cub and wander off hunting. At points we estimated that she was 1/4-1/2 mile away from her little guy - who was often standing up and crying. She also fished - and caught - 5 salmon in front of us and each time the cub would wander over to get food. She would turn away and keep eating. It wasn't until the 4th or 5th salmon when she actually fed the little guy. However, by the end of the day the cub had eaten and been nursed so we're not so sure of her moniker. Below are the pictures of "Mean Momma" and her cub. At one point we thought a large eagle was sizing the little guy up for it's own potential dinner (ok, not really but it certainly was close and stayed close to that cub for quite some time!).

This is "Mean Momma"

Here she is really haming it up!

She was pretty good at fishing!

But she really didn't want to share:

And she often left the cub to fend for himself:

But, in the end, she nursed the little guy:

And, at the very end of the day she was heading straight for us and I snapped this one:

And, since I'm sure a few of you are wondering - how close were we? What kind of rifle did our guide have... first and foremost, NO RIFLE... no barriers! Just a real understanding of behaviors. While Grizzly attacks can happen there have never been documented attacks on groups of 6 or more and our group was prepped with information to help us react positively and not invite an attack. I was truly impressed with Michael and co. from K-Bay Air and not ONCE did I feel threatened or scared. This is somewhat amazing given that "Mean Momma" was probably only 30+ feet away in this shot (above) and she seems to be heading straight for me. But, she was so focused on salmon and I didn't have any! Just to give you a bit better perspective - here are two shots that Michael (from K-Bay) took of us:

The entire day was wonderful and I will never forget it! We took it easy the following day and just hung out on the beach and wandered about the spit! What a wonderful place - thanks Homer!!

And, after another day we drove up to ANC to get the kids on a flight back down to Seattle. Ironically, when we first told the kids about the trip we were very hesitant about how they'd react to flying "unaccompanied" and so we told them that we could make other arrangements, etc. if they were nervous, etc. And, even after we told them about the bears, the helicopter and all of our planned tours - what was the first thing they told their friends? "We get to fly back without parents!!"

In the end, I think their memories will be of the animals and the stunning scenery. I know mine are!

Next, after the kids were safely on their way back to Seattle - Paul and I headed to ANC to meet with our group going to Russia. That will have ot be another post for another day!

Thanks for reading,
kt

Paul's usually the one who writes our "where in the world" posts  (here's his category link) but after a few folks specifically came up to us at SQLConnections and SQLPass and told us how much they enjoyed our shots, I thought I'd put together a summary post with a few of my favorites and a few tips I've learned a lot the way.

(NOTE: this is now part 1 of I don't know how many... but, I do hope to get the other parts done this weekend! Sorry, we had WAYYY too much fun on these trips!)

First, Paul and I took an amazing trip in August/September where we first went to Alaska and then we flew over to Anadyr, Russia to board the Spirit of Enderby (Professor Khromov) for a 14 day expedition in the Russian Far East and up into the Siberian Arctic and Wrangel Island. Our entire trip was absolutely perfect. We started in Alaska for 10 days with the girls (8 and 10 - at the time). We rented a nice big car and the four of us set out for a bunch of driving. We stayed in Anchorage our first night and we chose the Captain Cook hotel (which we'd all recommend!). It was only one night and it was solely because our first day of driving was going to be long. And, we didn't want to start the drive late in the day. So, we had a nice dinner and went to bed relatively early so that we could venture out the next day and drive up to Denali National Park. We had been told that the drive can be incredibly long - depending on traffic - and we were pleasantly surprised when the drive wasn't too bad. We stopped in Talkeetna for a late lunch and if we had more time (and if it hadn't been raining), I would recommend a scenic flight from Talkeetna. If you're planning a trip, you might even want to spend one night in Talkeetna. There are some trapper cabins there and quite a few little shops and restaurants. There's also a train that goes in/out from there so you might decide to take the train up to Denali from here?

We arrived up at Denali National Park around 5pm after a leisurely day of driving from Anchorage. One of the highlights was the moose that walked out onto the road right in front of us as we were leaving the grocery store in Anchorage. Wow, they are BIG!

But, at this pace I'll be writing about every hour of the entire trip... so, I'm going to cut to a few of the highlights and a few of the things that we'd recommend the most.

We loved Denali National Park but your options to access it are very limited. You can drive all the way in to the entrance at 15 miles in and I'd recommend that for sure. There's even a parking area by the entrance and you can wander around the river area that's there. If the lot is full they'll let you park in the lot that's just beyond the entrance area so if it's full, drive over to the guard and ask to park there. If it's not full then you're good! There are some bathrooms there as well and the river doesn't run too deep so you can wander around the river area and explore! If you want to explore any further then you have to book a tour or use the park buses. There are some special options for professional photographers and there are also 4 "free days" in September that you can sign up for (I think it's by lottery) but outside of that - you're taking a bus. We did the epic 96 mile drive into Kantishna on a bus that was not all that much better than a typical school bus and it did not have a bathroom onboard. There were frequent [enough] stops but it's definitely not the most exciting drive. We stopped for a lot of animals and because it was overcast and rainy - many animals came out. That was the best part of it. We would not have seen any of this if it hadn't been for the weather so we really can't complain. But, the bus picked us up at 6am and dropped us off just after 7pm. It was a VERY long day. Probably my favorite thing to see - wolves:

This first picture is of two juveniles (probably Spring 2010 pups) playing with two adolescents (probably Spring 2009 pups). These are pups from the pack where the second shot shows the Alpha female. Apparently, only the Alpha male/female breed within a pack and the park collar's the alpha pair (you can see the collar in the pic.. however, I did have to laugh when a couple of people on the bus said - wow, look there's a dog in the park, see, it has a collar... er, they weren't listening to the driver at all!!). Anyway, these were wonderful to see. The driver also mentioned that he doesn't see wolves every day - probably only 10-12 times a season. Cool!

And here's Momma:

And, I can't forget the Dall Sheep. Here's one of my favorite shots:

Our trip in Denali National Park was fantastic and I'd highly recommend the Kantishna tour (Denali Backcountry Adventure: http://www.denalilodges.com/denali_backcountry_adventure.html). Ideally, you should even try to stay overnight for a day or two in Kantishna but it all depends on how much time you have. You can also bus in and flight out. There are lots of possible options and you should really do your homework if you want to create some of these combinations as many have limits on luggage, etc. But, if you plan it right and have to the time to leave stuff with another hotel then you might be in good shape to do this. Staying in Kantishna would be especially good for those of you who want to hike/wander in DNP. But, weather is hit/miss and the bugs can be horrible during certain times of year. We got lucky as it wasn't a bad season (in general) and we were relatively late getting there as we didn't get to DNP until mid-August.

The day prior we also took an amazing trip via helicopter out to a glacier and we landed and wandered about for 20 mins or so. It was incredible! I'd HIGHLY recommend ERA Helicopter Tours and specifically their Denali Glacier Landing Expedition: http://www.flightseeingtours.com/content/e3/e15/e20/. One of my favorite shots is of Paul and our pilot in the distance with a large ice stream between us (the helicopter is even futher behind them off to the back far left). The colors were stunning and the flow was fast and powerful (and I suspect - VERY cold).

We also went to a sled dog display put on by the DNP Rangers (here's their link). We went with our good friend Don Kiely who lives up in Fairbanks and drives down to the DNP area to paddle the Nenana River. He also runs the Second Chance League (a sled-dog rescue program) in Fairbanks. I know things are tight for everyone right now but if you're a sucker for animals (I am!) and you have a few extra dollars this holiday - consider a donation to help feed and/or care for some of these very neglected sled dogs (it's a pretty harsh sport and dogs that don't perform can lead a miserable life). You can read more about the program here: http://members.petfinder.org/~AK17/index.php.

We stayed down at Denali Cabins (about 5 miles from the main entrance) and there are a bunch of hotels closer up to the entrance of DNP. Most of the hotels are in Glitter Gulch (if you look) and one that we thought had a good restaurant/bar/view was the Grande Denali Lodge. We ate at the Alpenglow restaurant a couple of times because we really liked the view. However, they did do some major landscaping to a beautiful mountain to get their view and as a few locals say it's a bit of an abomination of the view coming around the river. So... you can make the call. Now that it's there though - we took advantage of the view!

We only had 2 full days in DNP and we made the most of them by booking EVERYTHING in advance. Depending on the time of the year - you might want to do the same as some of these tours can fill up.

Then, we drove down from DNP to Seward. This was the longest drive of the trip and it took us a full day to do it! We did stop for lunch and we stopped many times for photos. So, if you give yourself about 10 hours then you can do it pretty leisurely. I think the total mileage is about 360 miles (with lots of hills/mountains, etc.) and after 2 days of rain on/off and not a single viewing of Denali (Mt McKinley) we thought our chances of seeing her were over. However, on the drive down to Seward, the sun came out and so did Denali. That's part of what took us so long. We probably stopped at 10 different viewing areas to see Denali. It was great. What a BEAUTIFUL mountain. Here's a picture of the monkey's standing in front of Denali.

We didn't have every moment planned in Seward but I was dying to setup a Kenai Fjords Tour. Paul was hesitant because he and the girls can get seasick. To be honest, I get seasick as well (almost always on the first day but then I get much better but the difference is that I don't care and will go on the water almost no matter what... I LOVE being on or in or near the water!!!). So, when the weather cleared and the seas looked like they were going to be calm, I was excited. Still, we decided to wait to book our tickets until morning. And, sure enough, at 8am I called straight away. If I had waited any longer we might not have gotten on the tour and in the height of summer I bet we wouldn't have. But, if you have any question of getting seasick then you might want to wait and see. Apparently the weather can be anywhere from "horrible and nasty" to "sunny and gorgeous" and anything in between. We got lucky and got "sunny and gorgeous" but it was cold! And, these Kenai Fjords Tour boats can go FAST! Paul used his GPS to clock our boat at 31mph just outside of the no wake zone. Wow!

We HIGHLY recommend this tour company: http://www.kenaifjords.com/ and our captain/guide was absolutely fantastic. I'm embarassed that I don't remember his name. He was alone in the bridge with the door open when I wandered in and he was only happy to chat. Paul joined me and we learned a bit about his cat. What an impressive boat: http://www.allamericanmarine.com/cats/P120_OrcaVoyager.html. We did the 11:30 am departure for the 6.5 hour tour: http://www.kenaifjords.com/kenai-nationalpark.html#1130am.  As for a favorite from this trip - wow, that's hard! We saw Orca, eagles, sea otters, mountain goats, puffins (horned and tufted), all sorts of other sea/marine birds including kittiwakes and comorants) and a lot more! We saw the landlocked Bear Glacier (and the lake in front of it) and we went within a quarter mile of the Aialik Glacier (you can't get closer because of the potential for glacier calving). Here's a list of glaciers in Alaska: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_glaciers_in_the_United_States#Glaciers_of_Alaska.

Here's a picture of the Aialik Glacier:

And, another one of Aialik Glacier up close!

Finally, here's one of the land-locked Bear Glacier from afar. The trees are blocking the lake that's in front of the glacier:

As for animals, we saw lots. The Orca's are one of my favorites and I'm really looking forward to more whale watching with the family now that we've all figured out how to do it without getting sick (wrist-bands and dramamine seem to work wonders for everyone!).

And, we fell in love with Ray's Waterfront restaurant for dinner: http://rayswaterfrontak.com/ and the Marina Restaurant (for breakfast!). Both of which were recommended by our friend Pat Wright. Thanks Pat!!

Our other full day in Seward we visited the Seward Sealife Center (definitely recommended!) and Exit Glacier (also HIGHLY recommended). One of the cool things that they do at the center is a lot of rehabilitation and minotoring of the local sealife. They even have a live monitor at Chiswell Island. You can see the sea lions there LIVE: http://www.alaskasealife.org/New/research/index.php?page=NewChiswell.php. Their site is a bit hard to navigate (IMO) but there's TONS of information there. Definitely worth a read and possibly a donation (again, if you're a sucker for animals - which I am!!).

My favorite picture from the Exit Glacier hike is one where an idiot went way up next to the ice. The reason I like the picture is for perspective. Check out how small this guy looks (bottom left). Originally we thought it might be someone who didn't speak English but alas, no, it was an idiot who claimed he didn't see the MANY signs posted that said do not cross. And, if it had been an actual Ranger who had caught him (instead of a VERY nice volunteer) he could have been fined as much as 5K for going where he did...

OK, so, at this point we're 7 days in to our holiday and we're loving every minute of it. The next part of the trip is where we drove from Seward to Homer and stayed on the Homer Spit. This is probably the highlight of the trip for me as we went to view bears at Katmai National Park (yes, we were touring SQL Server code-names on this trip!). Since this post has already turned out to be WAYYYY longer than I had hoped, I'm going to stop here and leave the bears for tomorrow. My plan - to get all of my "where in the world" posts done this weekend!

I'm wishing you all well over this holiday weekend and I hope you're able to stay awake long enough to read this (turkey coma's are hard to overcome - I know!!!).

Thanks for reading,
kt

PS - If you want any additional information about Alaska and/or the places we stayed, feel free to email me!

I know where I go but where the heck does the time go (it seems to move much faster than I)? First off, I hope everyone had a truly lovely holiday season. I know they've long since past for everyone but maybe this reminder will bring back a nice memory from the holidays as it does for me. Paul and I escaped the world of SQL and focused on finding frogfish. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the right time of year to find them though. Oh well - we did see some very coolstuff including a batfish (the odd-shaped-bottom-dweller kind) and, we also read a ton of books (a completely strage combination of books - list below) and we relaxed.  It was really quite lovely.

Once the holidays were over, we were back into the fire... Paul worked from home (mostly writing) and did a lot of work from there - including blogging (as always) and I was back in the classroom. We were only home for 10 days and then we were off again. Right now, we're both on the road - in Hyderabad, India this week (and last) and Bangkok, Thailand next week - teaching some classes on performance tuning, maintenance and high availability. I thought I'd do a quick post to remind you that I do exist (yes, I know - I really do *want* to blog more but it's not easy for me... first of all, before I publish a blog post I probably read it 50 times and that's after I even get the courage to write one... blogging is just different for me than it is for Paul... for that, I'm sorry. I'm *really* going to try... no, really. I will try to get a really good post out there as often as possible but for right now, I'm not going to give a number or a goal - just know that it drives me nuts that I don't blog all that often.)

In the interim, interviews/podcasts - for some reason - are a lot easier for me. Paul and I did a few interviews with TechNet in December and these are being made available for download as they're edited for publishing. The first one is available now and it's titled: New Features in Partitioning and Indexing for SQL Server 2008. Here are the download links:

• WMA - http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/5/2/F52567BB-D32D-437E-A9A7-60D898AA03C7/TechNetRadio-01132009-web.wma
• MP3 hi-bandwidth - http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/5/2/F52567BB-D32D-437E-A9A7-60D898AA03C7/TechNetRadio-01132009-hi-web.mp3
• MP3 lo-bandwith - http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/5/2/F52567BB-D32D-437E-A9A7-60D898AA03C7/TechNetRadio-01132009-lo-web.mp3

OK, that's it for me for today. But, I do have a couple of other posts brewing. I will work to get these out as soon as possible as I have a small break from teaching, writing, and conferences (yes, I've been writing too!). Oh, speaking of which, we've *all* finished the SQL Server 2008 Internals work (Kalen doing the large majority) and it's getting really close! You can pre-order it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft%C2%AE-SQL-Server%C2%AE-2008-Internals/dp/0735626243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233824791&sr=1-1.

Thanks for reading - I'll be back soon!
Kimberly

As for books, in no particular order:  

• Robin Maxwell's Mademoiselle Boleyn
• Josh Grogan's Marley & Me
• Sheridan Hay's The Secret of Lost Things
• Tucker Max's I hope They Serve Beer in Hell
• J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books 2, 3, 4, 5 (these were re-reads - always a safe bet to bring with me and a fun re-read as Kiera (7) goes through the series now too) and where is the 6th movie? Ugh. ;)
• Tom Philbin's The Killer Book of Serial Killers: Incredible Stories, Facts and Trivia from the World of Serial Killers
• Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (last, but not least!)

OK, I told you it was a very wide-ranging book list; a few were purchased at the airport on the way. I've since read the entire Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer: New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn (and I have to admit that I loved the series (especially Breaking Dawn))... I really hope she completes Midnight Sun; I absolutely loved Twilight from Edward's perspective (maybe even more than from Bella's). And, if she continues writing in this world - I really hope she writes as Renesmee. The Twilight movie was not spectacular - defnitely read the book before going to the movie - but, I loved the casting of Bella and Edward. And, I'm hopeful that the next movie will be *a lot* better. Next on my reading list, I'm planning to read many Robin Maxwell books starting with The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. In the end, the holidays were really relaxing.

Oh, and here's a great shot from India... At least he has a helmet??

OK, I never really understood it when Paul said "Seattle doesn't even compare to Scotland" (in terms of weather) until our trip in September. And, well, that's also why I was so silent in September. We were teaching in the UK (London and Edinburgh) and Ireland (Dublin) for the first couple of weeks and then we were off to Paul's sister's wedding (in Helensburgh) and some sight-seeing in Scotland (Glencoe/Kyle of Lochalsh/Portree and all around Skye). We put over 1000 miles on our rental car... And, I could go on for hours about how many castles, sheep and highland cows we saw but I'd probably spell everything wrong. So, for this post, I thought I'd just pass on a few of my favorite shots (including Paul in a kilt!).

Enjoy!

(click-through if you want to see a 1024x768 image)

This is Paul and his Father Garth - just before the wedding festivities started... no, they don't look alike at all??! WOW!

And this is Stirling Castle - which we saw on our way from Edinburgh to Helensburgh...

On a free day between arriving in Helensburgh and the wedding, we took a long day drive around Inveraray and Kilmartin and ended up driving through Oban and then back to Helensburgh. We saw a couple of cool things - lots and lots and lots of sheep:

and the shores of Loch Fyne around Inveraray were stunning:

and, Castle Sween (which is now apparently owned by [not all that friendly] people that run a trailer park... and they won't let anyone park near the castle (even though there seemed to be plenty of spots...). Instead they want you to park about a mile away and walk to the ruin. But, the good news is that there are great viewing spots up the hill as well:

Then, after the wedding, we took off for Kyle of Lochalsh and Skye. We drove past Lochcarron and this shot is across the loch from the church and [the new and old] burial grounds at Lochcarron.

Then we went up to Strome castle:

And, over to Applecross (which is one of Paul's favorite spots - mostly because of how hard it is to get there AND the excellent driving on the way (up the Bealach na Ba)):

And then heading up the coast from Applecross:

And, Eilean Donan Castle which really hit more as a drive-by/stop-quickly-photograph because umpteen tour buses has just arrived and the one thing neither of us likes is sight-seeing crowds. We did go into the Dunvegan Castle and we were there with only 20 or so people (in the entire castle) so that was a bit more our speed:

And one of the hightlights of our trip was taking the Glenelg Ferry to Skye. The turntable ferry driver (pictured there straightening/turning for the second row of cars - yes, it can only take 6 cars total!) was excellent. Once we got to the other side (and there were no cars waiting on either side), we all chatted for a few minutes... great guy - and even though the Glenelg Ferry isn't the main transport to Skye (there's a relatively new bridge that's just by Kyle of Lochalsh), it's really worth the drive. The drive is BEAUTIFUL and there are some excellent places to stop along the way. And, once across, there's a "hide" on the other side (about a 1/4 mile walk) that allows you to view the small lighthouse, seals, sea otters, and all sorts of sea birds, etc. And, the bridge is right where we were staying but we still went out of our way to take the Ferry over (yes, we took the bridge back).

And, I have a soft spot for highland cows.......... (ok, Paul wanted to kill me after our 50th cow. "Can we please stop so I can take a picture" probably still haunts him.)

And, Dunvegan Castle on a notably miserable day that this picture doesn't even begin to show:

And, there are just tons and tons and tons more... but, that's a fairly good sampling. Oh, and a final place to go - Neist Point:

In fact, if (no WHEN!) we go back for a few days, we're planning to stay/dine at the Three Chimneys (we heard amazing things about the restaurant but just didn't get a chance to go because our hotel was 30+ miles away...and a nice dinner needs a nice bottle of wine (and not 30 miles of single track roads to drive)). So, a night (or two) at the Three Chimneys and at least another road trip to the lighthouse at Neist Point. Apparently, you can even stay there. The lighthouse is on the other side (45 minutes by foot - but worth it):

Enjoy!
kt

Actually, I can't even begin to tell you how great it is that Paul loves blogging so much... he does an amazing job filling in everyone (even our family :)) with our travels through his "personal" posts on his blog (and, he always researches the sites/details as well). And, so, with our mostly business event to China over the past couple of weeks, Paul posted a few links on our side travels (which consisted of about 2.5 total days over our 2 week trip). I have to admit that we were originally going to try and stay for Chinese New Year (New Year's Day is Feb 7) and spend even more time tatting about but ended up cutting the trip short for more work (isn't that always the case :). But, having said that, we made every moment count by squeezing in as much site seeing as possible (we had 1 spare day in Shanghai and 1.5 spare days in Beijing). It really was an amazing trip and we hope to get back to China someday and spend even more time there.

So, if you're interested in hearing a bit more about the trip - and don't already read Paul's blog (which is surprising because he really blogs a lot and he's had some great/technical and deep posts on all sorts of stuff!!!), check out these posts on our travels:

In Shanghai the first week: http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2008/01/21/PersonalFirstTripOfTheYearChina.aspx
In Beijing the second week: http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2008/01/27/PersonalAndOnToBeijingAndTheGreatWall.aspx and http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2008/02/03/PersonalFinalDayInBeijingSightseeingLotsOfPhotos.aspx

I hope your year is going well and Xie Xie (thank you!) to all of the folks that made our trip in China really special! I hope that everyone has a Happy Chinese New Year (and can travel safely through the holidays - especially given the terrible weather conditions that are happening all over China right now).

Kimberly