Sierra Grace Harley graduated from Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California. There was no prom or school celebration
so we decided to try to make it at least memorable. We ordered tee shirts, medals, remote control cars, pool basketball hoop
and balls, special toy pistols and contacted relatives that could not attend to send videos to usher in some of the various
events. My daughter Alexandra and her husband Adrian were the prime instigators and planers. With my assistance we
constructed a major revision of our back yard to accommodate the 7 challenges. The graduates , Rob is a classmate and
boyfriend, were one team and Sierra's parents Garrett and Deb were the other. Sierra's sister Kayli directed and policed the games.
The participants had all been sheltering together so didn't need masks while the rest of us wore masks and social distanced.
We all had a great afternoon and hope if you decide to watch this you will enjoy it.
Strange times require strange activities.

This is from a recent trip to the Great Bear rain forest of British Columbia in Canada.  A small private company called Mothership
adventures is the outfitter aboard the Columbia III. There are 5 guest staterooms and there were 9 guests.  The owner and
captain is Ross. It is primarily a sea kayaking trip with all the gear. On this longer trip of 10 days they are able to get far enough
north into the area of the Spirit Bear territory and we had some fantastic sightings. Great food, wonderful people and fantastic
scenery and wildlife.

This video is of the Pantanal in Brazil which is over 150,000 square miles in size and is the largest inland wetland in the
world. It is south of the amazon area and contains an incredible variety of wildlife. Our hopes to see wild Jaguar were
wildly surpassed as we had approximately 20 encounters with one watching a pair walk the river bank for over a quarter
mile and one taking a Caiman and swimming to shore and hauling it up the bank into the woods.

Both JoAnn and I have been to the Galapagos before and were somewhat cautious as to the status of travel there now.
We did think that our son and his family should experience this remarkable place. It in fact surpassed our expectations
in all respects and we all had a wonderful time. The National Geographic Islander is the perfect size vessel to be sure
activities were never crowded and the leader Dr Lynn Fowler and all the naturalists were outstanding.

A Lindblad trip to Alaska with daughter in law and granddaughter

This is from a recent Lindblad-National Geographic trip to French Polynesia to some very remote islands including
Millennium Atoll, Flint Island and Rangiroa.  The undersea specialist was able to see extensive changes is the lagoon
of Millennium Atoll from his visit only 3 years ago. All the "clam towers" were dead and coral bleaching was present.
The southern line islands belong to the Republic of Kiribati. You can see from the map in the video that the country is
vast and is made up predominantly of atolls. The government is buying land in New Zealand and elsewhere in the hope
to be able to relocate as their country disappears with the rising ocean.

We took our granddaughter to Thailand over the Christmas holidays. She turned 16 during the trip and she had selected 
Thailand as the destination. It was wonderful one on one time. As a side note would my most faithful follower in Wilmington
​Delaware care to lit me know who you are?

At the beginning of August 2016 JoAnn and I took a driving trip around the southwestern U.S.
This 10 minute slide show includes some photos of Tioga Pass area, Grand Canyon, marble canyon, glen canyon dam, horseshoe bend, Monument valley, Valley of the gods, Natural bridges, needles overlook into canyonlands, Canyonlands, a valley near Moab, Arches National park, Capitol reef, Goblin valley, Grand staircase escalante and Bryce canyon. E-mail me if you need any specifics.

This video was taken on a trip with Coral Reef Adventures on a sunset snorkel adventure off Kona on the big island
of Hawaii. At dark the plankton and krill sink to the bottom. We snorkel at the surface holding onto a small floating 
platform which has bright lights pointing down into the water. This brings the food source back to the lights and concentrates
it at the area just below the platform. The Mantas are attracted for an evening snack and they do barrel rolls just below
the platform scooping the food into their wide mouths. They are filter feeders with no teeth and no barbed tail so they
are totally harmless. Their throat is actually only the size of a golf ball so they couldn't swallow you even if they wanted
to.  The birth of the baby dolphin at our hotel dolphin center was a added bonus.

This is the 3rd and last camp of our Lindblad expeditions trip to southern Africa in August of 2016. Four days at Chitabe camp
in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.  Highlights include amazing interactions and behaviors of lion cubs with their mothers
and 16 wild dog pups with the rest of the pack. There are "tree shaker" elephants, leopard, cheetah, honey badger in a mud
hole, giraffe, kudu, hippo and more. 

This is #2 in the series of camps we visited on the last African trip. The 3rd and final camp, Chitabe, should be posted soon.

This video covers 4 days at Chiawa camp in Zambia. Soon to follow will be videos of  two camps in Botswana, Duma Tau camp
and Chitabe camp. This was a Lindblad photography trip led by two wonderful photographers Rikki and Jack Swenson.
As very seasoned African travelers we rank this trip among the best we have ever taken. The many leopard, lion, elephant
and wild dog encounters were especially amazing. There were so many great experiences that I had to break this 12 day
trip into the 3 video series while editing out lots of wonderful behavior. Five leopard at one time!!!

This is a short 11 minute video of a sheep ranch stop in the Falkland Islands as well as some of the wonderful animals there.
This includes both rockhopper and megallanic penguins, striated caracara, black-browed albatross, cormorants and other
shore birds. This concludes our Lindblad/National Geographic trip to Antarctica-South Georgia and the Falklands.

A 32 minute video  continuing the trip from the Antarctic peninsula to the natural highlights of South Georgia Island.
Blessed with good weather we were able to make all the scheduled landings. Good times were had by all.

This is from a Lindblad/National Geographic trip to the Antarctic Peninsula this February. Our third time but the first time getting far enough south to cross the Antarctic Circle. There were many highlights but having our niece Jamee with us was special. I feel she
added to the enjoyment of the trip for both passengers and staff.

This is mostly in Tasmania with JoAnn having feeding encounters with most of the exotic species both in the wild
and in sanctuaries.  One fantastic day with Craig Williams of Pepper Bush Adventures for a full 11 hours. He is
a very pleasant fellow with total knowledge of the flora and fauna.  His family is now 7th generation and he has
been caring for his wilderness area as a nature reserve. His closest neighbors are miles away. The day was a
private experience for us including a wonderful meal he cooked at his reserve followed by watching all the nocturnal
critters come out as darkness arrived. A dozen or more Quolls, wombats, possum, what seemed like herds of
wallaby and a half dozen tauny frog mouth birds.

The Lindblad ships video chronicle had people, interviews, history and ship life.  From me all you get is nature and wildlife. Lots of
amazing coral, orangutans, Komodo dragans etc.

A few days in Singapore before our Lindblad/National Geographic trip through Indonesia. We stayed at the Fullerton Bay Hotel
and had a view across the water to the twice evening light show from our rooms balcony.