How to spend a perfect week in the Cook Islands In late October, I found myself staring at a massively selfish problem: I was 200 credits short of retaining my platinum status on Qantas. With our 25th wedding anniversary just weeks away, it hit me—why not turn this milestone celebration into a status run? Two […]
Getting to the Big Island If you remember, the original plan was three nights in Waikiki, but just before we left, we decided to change that to three nights on the Big Island for some night sky photography. Then, thanks to our cancelled expedition, this turned into six nights. We scrambled a bit, canceled our […]
Getting to San Juan Island We caught an Uber to Renton Airport, at the south end of Lake Washington. I’d never even heard of it before, but there were planes everywhere—none of which I recognised. It turns out they were Boeing planes, still waiting for their airline branding. It was pretty cool to see them […]
Wild Alaska on the National Geographic Sea Lion with Lindblad Expditions Our six-day expedition started in Sitka and ended in Juneau, offering activities such as hiking, kayaking, paddleboarding, and fly fishing. We planned to explore glaciers and fjords, and hope to spot wildlife including moose, bears, bald eagles, puffins, sea lions, orcas, otters, and humpbacks. […]
Getting to Sikta The flight to Sitka was stunningly beautiful. We flew over countless small islands, each with just a home or two and a dock. Exiting the plane was a bit unusual because there were about 20 state troopers waiting. Apparently, Sitka is a training facility, and there were 50 new recruits on our […]
Brooks Camp – The Densest Concentration of Brown Bears in the World (Here’s a link if you want to skip the section about how we got to Brooks Camp, including an epic moose sighting in Anchorage, and get straight to the bears) Getting to Anchorage Our journey from Australia included a brief stopover in Southern […]
Seventeen Years of Dreaming of Returning to Brooks Lodge Brooks Lodge is pure magic—our first visit was back in 2007. It was such an amazing trip that it earned a spot on our website home page. Deep down, we knew we’d be back eventually. Fast forward 15 years to December 1, 2022. I stumbled upon […]
The Grand Finale In the afternoon, we made our way to Saunders Island. Another wet zodiac ride brought us ashore, where we encountered a massive gentoo penguin colony right at the landing site. Walking a bit farther, we discovered grazing sheep and Magellanic penguins burrowing into the hillside. The orange route markers made it resemble […]
The Unexpected Beauty of the Falklands When I mentioned our expedition was heading to the Falklands, most people gave me a puzzled look. Like many, my only association with the Falkland Islands was their role in the 1982 war—until we visited last year. The islands are bursting with diverse bird life, from penguins to albatross, […]
Two Days Tuns into Three To avoid the worst of the winds—what we affectionately called the “purples”—the ship changed course. This detour added another day to our already two-day journey between South Georgia and the Falklands. Honestly, I was perfectly content staying in the cabin. I spent hours looking through the images and video from […]