Where I go the Lizards follow, or maybe it’s me who’s following the Lizards?

I recently took my family on a long awaited vacation to Maui. When we announced it to the kids back in January, our four-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, they were ecstatic. (OK, so maybe the twins didn’t really “get it” until we got there, but my older daughter has been excited for months.)

One of the more colorful of the plastic LizardTech lizards.

As a habit, I, the always-prepared-for-anything mom, take lots of snacks and toys on the plane to keep my kids busy so they are less likely to irritate the “can’t stand kids that scream” passengers (nothing against you, I was in your shoes once myself). Among the toys I always bring along the ever-so-popular LizardTech Lizards. They are small enough to fit in my pocket and provide a big enough attraction to keep my kids busy playing with them for a while. Can’t go wrong!

Having arrived at our condo and dumped our luggage in a corner, we were ready to hit the sandy beach! As we were running along the pathway to the water, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw something small with a tail run across my pathway. Immediately I thought: a rat! Wait — that’s too small for a rat. A mouse? Still, a mouse is a bit bigger. Plus, how dare rats and mice ruin my perfect paradise getaway by showing themselves in broad daylight.

A rat? A mouse? No, an authentic lizard!

Suddenly it dawned on me – it looked like the little plastic LizardTech Lizard I had had to snatch out of my son’s mouth on the plane. Did my husband play a joke on me and tie a string to the plastic LizardTech Lizard and run it across the sidewalk SOMEHOW? No, he was running behind me with the kids (I must get to the water first!).

That’s when a friendly Westin Hotel employee walked up to me asking if I’m OK. I must have had “that look on my face.” I told him what I saw and he laughed with delight saying “what you saw was a little lizard.”

“WHAT? A LizardTech Lizard?”, I asked.

He looked puzzled. “No, a Maui authentic lizard.”

Wow, I thought to myself. I’ve been to Hawaii four times and this is the first time I saw a lizard.

I see lizards…everywhere!

And so my quest to find more “Maui authentic” lizards began. We saw them virtually everywhere, at the park, playground, running across sidewalks, by the pool, on the trees and so on. I even took a few pictures to share. Enjoy and remember, next time you’re in Maui, you’re not alone. There’s a lizard watching you whether you like it or not!

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So, this is my story. Since I’m a LizardTech employee I am not eligible to submit this “lizard tale” for a chance to win a swanky new iPad 2 as part of our Esri contest. But you can! It’s not too late, so submit your story today!

Here are all the details: http://www.lizardtech.com/landing/esriipad/index.php

Good luck!

Justyna

My family (Donna, Ian, and Maya) and I were fortunate to spend two weeks in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. We spent the first week at the Hotel Sotavento on Playa De Ropa and the second week at the Hotel Krystal on the beach at Ixtapa.

This image of our trip in ArcMap will open a new tab or window.

Our first week we swam and snorkeled at both the beach and pool, went fishing and caught a fairly large needle fish, which strongly resembles a barracuda, and snorkeled again at a nearby reef. Ian and I sailed on a Hobi Cat in very strong winds. The kids also climbed and explored on large rocks off the beach. Body surfing and boogie boarding were a big part of our beach experience here. Donna and Maya perfected their surfing techniques.

Up the beach at Ixtapa, the hotel was a more “American style” resort with lots of snowbirds escaping winter in the upper Midwest. The surf was a lot higher at this beach so boogie boarding was more dangerous. On our last day the waves approached twelve feet high and they closed the beach.

A highlight was our day trip to Isla de Ixtapa. We enjoyed fantastic snorkeling at three different beaches. Ian spotted a small moray eel in the sandy swimming beach and we followed it for some time with masks on. He and I also made a jungle trip to the top of the island, following the trails of small deer and rabbits. Our afternoon ceviche lunch – fish or shrimp cocktail “cooked” in lime juice and served in a dish with salsa and other goodies – was interrupted by a dozen sting rays jumping three to four feet out of the water in choreographed lines as if herding fish.

Stopping at a wildlife sanctuary back on the mainland we photographed huge crocodiles and turtles as well as birds and iguanas.

In town we got a good look at the street life of Zihuatanejo, where people live a lot differently than they do at home. The kids got to see how food and transportation are handled in countries that do things differently than ours. We hope to return in the future and explore some of the volcanoes that are just inland from the beach resorts.

I recently got back from a short vacation with friends and family in Hawaii. Although I’ve been part of the LizardTech Engineering team for many years, I’m relatively new to the geospatial industry, so you’ll forgive me if wax a little misty here.

One of the things that made this trip particularly memorable for me was geocaching all over the Big Island.

My wife and I found one cache that brought us through an ancient petroglyph site. Others of us found a cache placed by a 6th grade class near a 100-foot seawall. There were others… all of them at sites conveniently close to us but uncrowded and beautiful. I’m grateful to the locals who posted these, becoming private tour guides and sharing their intimate knowledge of beautiful places close to their homes and their hearts.

I’m continually struck by how small a place the world has become. From our living room at home, we get online and look at the road from the airport to the rental home we’ll be staying in. The aerial image shows the roadway, the round-abouts, the beach, the pool and the rooftop over our suite. When we arrive in Hawaii – 2000 miles from home – we walk, for the first time, through a brush trail looking for a 10-inch package and find it as easily as (well, with no more frustration than) if it were a box of Christmas lights in the garage.

This is just the fun side of it, but “better living through geospatial technology” is a worthy goal and we at LizardTech are proud to pursue it.