Capturing the Moment

 Heading to Antarctica: Chapter 1  I've made it to the beautiful Silver Cloud, my home for the next five and a half weeks. The first voyage is a big one traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Falkland Islands, on to Antarctica, and finishing in Ushuaia, Argentina. We will cross the Drake Passage twice, sail the waters of Cape Horn, visit the bottom of the world, and hopefully see lots of penguins, but let's start from the beginning.    Day 1: First line of action is getting all the paperwork cleared and then moved into the cabin. My roommate for this voyage is Patrick, the Assistant Expedition Leader, who lives in Finland but is originally from Germany. Turns out he is also one of the best fooseball players onboard. We are pretty involved in the guest checkin procedure, but end up sailing off the pier around 6:30pm. Proud Gentoo mother King Penguins!  Day 2: We spend this day at sea, cruising from Buenus Aires to Puerto Madryn, Argentina...

        After being stuck in the middle seat of the middle row of an 8hr red eye flight from Miami to Buenos Aires I checked into the company provided hotel right in the mix of the old part of the city. I was able to do a lot of walking, checked out a famous memorial graveyard filled with massive tombs, crypts, and statues, and visited a local arts fair selling things from leather made goods to local foods, to jewelry made out of horseshoe nails. I met a few of the other expedition team but it wasn’t until the next morning when the vans pulled up that I realized about 20 of us were all embarking at the same time. I knew the incoming Expedition Leader, Brad, from my time of the Silver Muse in Alaska. And my good friend Ceili, who has also worked at UnCruise and Tole Mour, would be on, but otherwise it was a lot of new faces and names for me to learn. Not to mention the fact that I was going from an expedition team of 2, to a team of 28! Pretty soon I woul...

  A lot has happened this Fall. Mostly it has been taken up with the antics of our two wonderful kids. There is nothing to quite prepare you for having two under two. It used to be that when I was carrying Catalina, then Heidi would be having a little break...now I look over and we each have one in our arms. That just means I need to take both of them, one of the back and one on the front. In between family time in Vermont I have squeezed in a few short UnCruise rotations in Alaska, Pacific Northwest, and finally Hawaii.    Now it is November and changes are afoot. The golden orange and red leaves have long since fallen, and have been replaced by snow and ice. The Vermont view is beautiful in both of these seasons. We had an exceptionally majestic morning after an evening of light snow that I managed to capture these psuedo time lapse pictures of. This is looking right down the driveway to the tallest mountain peak in Vermont, Mt. Mansfield.    And wi...

A Taste of Alaska in Washington's Olympic National Park    View from Hurricane Ridge Inside the forest at Lake Crescent Port Angeles describes itself as the gateway to Olympic National Park. This is where we dock the Safari Quest on the last day of our Pacific Northwest trips here in Washington. Scenic, 5000+ ft Hurricane Ridge is a 45 minute drive, and the glacially carved Lake Crescent is only 30 minutes away, giving us two great options to choose from.   I have been taking my groups to Hurricane Ridge, to explore the totally different environment that one can find at 5000+ft . Mountain firs and hemlocks abound, grey jays jabber from the limbs, and Mt Olympus pokes up from behind the remaining glaciers deep within the park’s 1,000,000 acres.   During the spring trips we encountered 10ft snowbanks… I’ll be sure to bring snowshoes next Spring. During the fall we found that we could escape the heat from below and exchange it for nice crisp mountain...

  The UnCruise Pacific Northwest trip holds some real gems for our typical adventure travelers. There are places where we can kayak, stand-up paddle board, beach walk, and go for a skiff tour all before lunch. We can hike up ridge lines and quite often end up atop the tallest summit in the island archipelago. The wildlife abounds and the geology stuns. Some days are just so perfect here that even a casual kayak excursion can be etched in your mind for years to come. And for someone like me, it is always nice to have a few pictures to make that memory last even longer.   This week we had such a kayak around one of the northernmost   San Juan islands, a little chunk of wilderness called Sucia Island. It is a state marine park, filled with well maintained trails for hiking but lacking the crowds that generally go along with such trails. There is no way to get to the island except by private craft…and there is no way to get there quite like the luxury and comfort of...

Hard Charging Mountain Climb     Near the top of Eagle Cliff   As the expedition leader aboard the Safari Quest one of my many daily challenges is to find destinations that can offer multiple level s of challenge to the guests. This may be a choice between a kayak and a skiff tour, a beach walk or a long hike, or maybe even a climb up a mountain vs driving up. The more options that guests have for activities means it is easier to self select which group to go out with. One of the great things about the Pacific Northwest itinerary is that every spot we go to gives us multiple options of difficulty level so I can easily personalize the activities for the passengers we have on that week. Hard Chargers on the Summit    This week we had a group of hard charging hikers onboard so I searched for a good challenge. It came in the form of a mountain ridge climb on the little known Cypress Island, one of the 172 San Juan Islands. The total hike is only...