2012
For three days of our Alaskan cruise, we explored from inflatable zodiacs and climbed on numerous glaciers within Glacier Bay — including John Hopkins, Lamplugh, Margerie, and Rendu — seeing many humpback whales, an Orca Whale pod and numerous Sea Otters.
With sunny, clear weather, the glacier blue ice was beautiful. Studying ship-board maps, the up-close and memorable effects of climate change are now indelibly fixed.
Upon exiting Glacier Bay via Lynn Canal, we sailed to our final stop in Juneau, where we disembarked.
A fascinating side note: since my next door neighbor in Santa Fe’s last name is Rendu, I enquired if he had any connection to the Rendu Glacier. Upon researching, he learned that a great, great uncle was a Jesuit Priest who spent a number of years in Alaska, and it was he who Rendu Glacier was named after.
2000
The expanse of the sea has always fascinated me. At 22, two of us crossed the Atlantic in a 33-foot sailboat. Thirty years later, living and sailing on a tidal river flowing into the Chesapeake Bay reawakened that ultimate sense of freedom for me. Weather’s myriad of moods on the water — from the calm of the river at my home on the Eastern Shore to the pounding of the Pacific Ocean — provided me another extreme visual palette.
