Tag: cruise

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?

May 29, 2026
Enough Already

April 13, 2026

AI, not real, and I have a much better camera cover

If you follow the Weather Channel, or live in California, you probably noticed that we have had what seems like a winter storm in spring. It’s been raining (more like pouring) for a couple of days, and snowing in the Sierra. We normally do not get thunder and lightning storms here but there have been some booming storms rolling through at night. I would not care usually, other than worrying if my pool will overflow into the house. That has never happened, but I always need something to worry about (it’s in my genes). The last time I checked the rain gauge in the backyard, it was up to 4.5 inches.

That’s a lot of rain.

Unfortunately, some activities that I like to do are dependent on relatively dry weather. I was scheduled for a birds of prey photo shoot this weekend, where we had setup shots of hawks and owls at a local falconry organization. That would have been a lot of fun, but they do not fly their birds when it’s raining. Makes sense. I would not want to be standing out in the rain with my camera gear anyway, and the shoot has been rescheduled in May. They have a Shriek Owl, and I really wanted to get some shots of the little guy. We have them in the woods behind the house, and can hear them calling at night. We used to sit out on the patio to listen to them. Sigh.

My main concern with this weather pattern is my upcoming trip to Moab Utah which is for a course in astrophotography. It’s going to be really hard photographing the Milky Way if there is a lot of cloud cover. Depending on which weather service you look at, most of the nights for my stay in Moab will have some cloud cover, and on some nights, rain. Expletive removed. I have been exceptionally lucky with my travels the past year + – the only significant rain I’ve had on a trip so far, was the first day on the Road Scholars trip, in Snow Canyon Utah. It was kind of fun hiking in the rain that day. But the rest of that trip was perfect, and you can get some interesting shots with rain and clouds in Red Rock country. As long as you have a rain cover for the camera. Which I do have for all my cameras and lenses.

Real photo

We did get some rain going through the Panama Canal this past month, but we were on the ship by then, and it sort of added to the overall experience as we went through the canal locks. Besides, everyone other than myself was drinking heavily, so it was a really nice party.

I’ve never been to Arches before, and have not been to Moab since 1970. I imagine it has changed in 56 years. Hopefully for the better. If this is the same hotel I stayed at with my undergraduate geology field camp, I hope they do not remember my name. Another long story involving a large group of long-haired, muddy, tired geology students and a lot of beer. Some other time.

At any rate, I have a free day when I get there before the course starts, and plan to do some day hiking – the weather should be OK then. Once the course starts, we have three straight nights of Milky Way photography in the park, between midnight and dawn. Thursday and Friday look grim on the forecast, but Saturday night may be OK. All of that could change by the time I get there so who knows. I have no clue as to what the trip lead will do if it rains. The course ends on Monday, but I’m staying an extra two days, and the weather is clearing both days. So, I may have more opportunities on my own. I’m not going to stress out about it – I’ll make the best of the situation.Just roll with it.

I must be due for something good happening…ongoing medical issues, having to bail out on the Baja Gray Whale trip, still living the life of Eleanor Rigby at home and being forced to give up wine (and martinis!!). And now a potential wash out of a trip I have really been looking forward to. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. Something’s gotta give (a great Jack Nicolson movie).

Peace

April 13, 2026