Of Vistas and Bears

A beautiful Ketchikan rainforest and the location for viewing bears — from a platform!

Outside the weather is foggy, drippy, and chilly, perfect weather for a cruise through the beautiful inside passage. As our ship glides past small wooded island after island, I step outside on our little balcony, attempting to capture the scene with my camera. The sky and water are perfectly matched in color, a gloomy shade of gray. My small camera is no match for this Alaskan landscape.

Twenty years ago, we took this same cruise, though we remember little of the passage. Alaska is vast, its size prohibiting meaningful overviews and instead begging small, curated views.

After much debate surrounding a small ship cruise versus a bigger ship versus staying on land only or figuring out a combination of the two, we opted for a somewhat big ship and a few days on land — all booked at the last minute. Prior to booking, we were specific regarding what we wanted to see — bears, eagles, moose, otters, whales of course, and glacier bay.  So far we think we made a good choice.

A black bear eating salmon.

A mama bear with cub looking for salmon.  Cub is about seven months old.

Later today, we’ll visit Juneau and watch whales. More to come.

Thoughts on Traveling

Me in Moeraki, New Zealand. What amazing beauty.

While browsing the magazine International Travel News, I came upon a little gem written by an ITN contributor —

“Each trip you take will change your mind about what you like.”  I like this idea but would amend the line to “…will change your mind about what you like and will change you, if you let it….”

After reading the line, I decided to take a little “Where-We’ve-Been” travel inventory, in part so I could ponder what I like and how I’ve changed, through travel and life. But I’m also thinking about what I want from travel going forward.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with all the little details about where we’ve been these past four years, I’ll just bore you with the summary —

Since spring 2014, we’ve taken ten cruises, including three transatlantic (😲), four guided bike tours, plus our own to the San Juan Islands, visited eight national parks, and 24 countries, most for the first time. Also we visited three new continents — Australia, Africa, and Asia (I still can’t figure out how to categorize New Zealand and the islands of Bora Bora and Tahiti — which we also visited). 

That’s a lot of travel.  And lots of opportunities to learn and change and grow.

We met this little guy on Kangaroo Island, a must visit for those who love wildlife.

For me, travel is best when I discover something (or many things) new, learn, and expand my understanding of the world, its people, and its wildlife.

During our travels, we enjoyed the privilege of hearing and seeing how people live on tiny Kangaroo Island just off the coast near Adelaide, AU, surrounded by wildlife, how folks on the remote Shetland and Faroe Islands, located on the rugged far north seas, craft their lives far from urban cities, and how people live and work, happily, in the dusty South African bush — where many say, “A bad day in the bush is better than a good day in the office.”

On an early morning safari ride, our ranger spotted this resting lion. I loved everything about our African safaris. Ah, life in the bush.

But after four years of lots of travel and a “I gotta see it all” stance, I’m moving toward a more measured, thoughtful selecting of what I like in travel.

For now that means more travel focused on nature and wildlife and less on cities. Learning is good. 

But before I sign off, a little Wallaby cuteness