Living in the Past

28th May, 2026

Sometimes it is difficult coming up with a meaningful title for a post, when you have 2 or 3 totally unrelated topics to discuss. I had an interesting day on Wednesday, some of which was marginally related to travel, and a few off the wall thoughts as well. Here goes.

A Beautiful Music Venue – Channel 24

Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won’t give in
We’ll keep living in the past
Jethro Tull

I was invited to join a retired men’s group a few months ago – a bunch of guys, mostly retired, who meet every two weeks around lunch time to discuss what’s going on in our lives, and a topic of the day selected by the host. It’s been a lot of fun, and the group has expanded since I joined – a good group of interesting guys.. Wednesday was a bit different from our usual format – the hosting member has a family member that manages Channel 24, which is a local, relatively new music venue in Sacramento. Aside from our usual meeting agenda, we were given a full tour of this beautiful facility – the main theater has a large open floor, and can seat over 2000 concert goers. It’s high tech, has multiple bars, and has been quite successful in the first year since opening. 

Unfortunately for me, I stopped listening to new bands and musicians around 1995, so with the exception of Bonnie Raite and Los Lobos, I did not recognize any of the groups that have performed there, or that are scheduled this year. Maybe I need to listen to different stations on Sirius once in a while. 

What was interesting on the tour, was seeing the number of bars stationed throughout the facility. As it turns out, the younger audiences do not drink as much – in general alcohol consumption is down across the country. Must be a lot of people with heart conditions, like me. Either that or there are a lot more dispensaries doing business in the area – everyone loads up on gummies before the show. 

Maybe I’ll go to a concert there some day….if they get more old-time bands. How about Ian Anderson? Steve Winwood would be OK.                      

Travel Season is Upon Me

I have managed to survive this long break between trips without going too stir crazy. But June will be the start of a stretch of more frequent adventures, starting with a “Birds of Prey” photo workshop, and then a short trip to visit the last two public caverns in the state, located in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. A few weeks after that, I’ll be off to Iceland with a National Geographic land tour. My expectations are pretty low for that – I had been hoping to schedule the ship based tour, but for some reason, it was not available this year. I’m squeezing in a couple of activities on my own, so I’ll hope for the best – I’m going back to Iceland for a Natural Habitat photography tour in 2027, so I know I’ll be seeing more if this trip does not turn out well.

After Iceland, I round the year out with the Kodiak Island trip, Patagonia/Igwaza Falls, and then Christmas in the Sea of Cortez. I’ll have a couple of domestic trips this year as well in July and October.

I’ve crammed six major trips into 2027 so far – I’m not sure what my health status will be in 2028, so going a bit overboard for next year. So far, I’ve got the Northern Lights trip in Churchill, a long cruise to the Falklands & South Georgia Island, Iceland, a cruise to Svalbard, a land tour through Madagascar, and I just recently booked an Amazon River cruise. I’m also planning on the Christmas Sea of Cortez trip in 2027 as well.

The Amazon trip should be amazing – the river boat is luxurious, with only 48 passengers. This will be during the rainy season when the river is high, and the ship can travel down the smaller tributaries. The amount of wildlife to see should make for some great photo opportunities. I’m also hoping to see the pink river porpoises. 

Max has already checked it out – swimming in the Amazon. What could possibly go wrong?