A Travel Quiz – Where in the world?

I think that travel is similar to attending weddings and funerals. With every wedding or funeral I attend, I’m always reminded, at some level, of every other wedding or funeral I’ve ever attended. The good, the bad, the unique – all those experiences become part of our story. So, back to the above picture of the gentleman in the photo.

You might think that I’m at SFO on my way north, and that the news guy is videotaping the only man in the airport wearing a mask. You’d be close to right. Yes, as far as I could tell on that day, the guy in the hat was the only one in the airport who was wearing a mask. But, the date was March 13, 2020 and I was in Auckland, New Zealand on my way back from a wonderful cruise. Clearly, the news media was out and about to capture the reaction the public was having to the awful news that was just beginning to explode around the world. The next day, New Zealand closed its borders. I was one lucky cruiser.

Fast forward to August, 2022. Everyone has a Covid story and will continue to have Covid stories. The depth and breadth of this pandemic will continue to reverberate for a long time. I hope that all my readers will, as one friend stated, “Stay safe and then be adventurous.”

As far as this cruise is concerned, we were tested when we got to the hotel in Anchorage (ALL tested negative). We were requested to wear our masks at all times. There was another cruise line getting ready for a trip at the same hotel – I don’t think any were wearing masks. Nat Geo/Lindblad is so cautious on this that we were also told that we were expected to wear our masks at all times on the ship unless we were outside or. eating or drinking (and a “slip the mask down to take a drink” was demonstrated.). And, regretfully but understandably they set a policy of not letting the naturalist staff dine with the passengers which was always a traditional highlight. I’m happy to say that there has been NO grumbling about these policies. No one wants to take the chance of missing out on this trip of a lifetime let alone compromising the staff that’s responsible for making sure that we all stay safe.

Our local guide in Nome was a marine biologist and the driver was his pilot.  The guide commented that Nome was the town in Alaska that everyone’s heard of but no one’s ever been.  Population 3900.  For tour buses they use school buses.  After lunch prepared by the locals at a Catholic Church that’s been converted to a community center, we had a quick stop to visit a fellow who does gold mining in his homemade setup and the opportunity to pan for gold as Ron is demonstrating, a small kennel and demonstration of dog sledding in the summer, and a viewing of a local herd of musk ox.   We were essentially told be be one with the bus when we got out to take pictures so they didn’t stampede.

Finally – onto the ship.  Yes, our shoes were hosed off before we were allowed on board.

We sailed on the Endurance, one of two new icebreaker ships by Lindblad.  She is drop dead gorgeous and we’ve been on a lot of ships.  We heard that the long time hotel director for Lindblad was asked to help design her (and her sister ship, the Resolution) – apparently he spent a lot of time at the shipyard and considers that he birthed these two.  The dining room is designed so the galley is in the center of the space and all tables are window tables.  Glass walls to the outside – everyone has a fabulous view.  There are two large public spaces – one a lounge that serves as the education/debriefing room and the other that’s a library.  

This is our third Nat Geo/Lindblad trip (we met one couple who’s been on 14).  After the day’s excursion, there’s a pre-dinner debriefing by the naturalists on what each of the  groups got to see (in our case, on hikes and Zodiac trips) and a preview of the next day’s exploration.  Everyone has a camera of some sort (smart phone cameras are just as valued) and there are National Geographic photographers who are part of the team who loan equipment and give lessons. So, cocktail hour consists of story and photo sharing in a big way.

One of the big improvements for the new ships is that the lounge is configured so that there are multiple monitors deliberately placed so that everyone can see the presentations.  

I was ecstatic to see the collection of skulls in the library (during my docent days at Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen, where I took kids on hikes, we gave classroom talks ahead of time and my favorite activity kit was a guess-the-animal observation game using skulls).

Finally, a bit of navigation. Included in every cabin is a touch screen that eliminates all the usual paper program of the day that used to appear on your bed every night. Biographies of the guides, menus, guest directory, news of the day etc. are all available. On the left is a picture I took of the nautical chart and on the right is an app recommended by one of the guides called Cruisemapper. Our sister ship, the Resolution, just returned to Nome from Greenland and we just began the Greenland to Nome journey which is why the route line shows us reversing. Apparently, it doesn’t show every day of the trip but it’s a pretty interesting view.

The rest of our first day included safety lectures on polar bears, and a couple of stops to watch about a dozen gray whales feeding. Speaking of feeding, we’ve been visited by the maitre d’ to ensure that if we want to eat plants, we can. The kitchen is doing an excellent job.

We’re three days at sea – next stop Herschel Island, our formal entry into Canadian waters.