hiking, adventurous travel, pilgrimage
West Point Island
After our rewarding morning watching Rockhopper Penguins on New Island in the Falklands, we were eager to see more. The captain and activity leader continued to follow the weather reports and decided to keep us on the north side of the island group to find more sheltered conditions for taking out the zodiacs and for our landings.Read More
Strictly speaking, the Falklands Islands (also known as Islas Malvinas Islands) are not part of Antarctica. However, on our recent cruise to the southernmost continent, it was one of the places our ship, the Ocean Endeavor, visited. In fact we made three different stops—at New Island, West Point Island, and Stanley.Read More
Continue reading “Antarctica & the Falkland Islands”
It was becoming real!
Though our recent trip to the Antarctic officially began in Buenos Aires,it was when our travel company, Quark, flew us to Ushuaia, Argentina, that we could really believe that we were on our way to the 7th continent. After arriving in the town of 150,000, our group was allotted a couple of hours to explore.Read More
As much as we enjoy hiking trips, we also like driving trips to special places. Our recent trip to visit our friend Lorinda in Richland, Washington, was the starting and ending point of a rich, beautiful, educational, and just-plain-fun tour to the northeast corner of that state.
Richland (population 57,000) sits on the confluence of the Columbia River (the largest river in the Pacific Northwest) and the Yakima. Although it’s an arid region with hot summers and cold winters, the region supports large landholdings producing wheat, cattle, milk, apples, potatoes, cherries, grapes, and hops.
As one woman we talked with remarked, “I love living here, you have to seek out the special attractions.” Lorinda, knowing that Ralph and I love spending time outdoors, had lined up a special attractions–visiting the Grizzly Bear Research Center at Washington State University.Read More
Continue reading “Exciting visit to Grizzly Bear Research Center”