Wow, what a year.

It started slowly with no trips planned. By the end of January, I was quite distressed. Then, my mother caught the travel itch. I am not one to scratch my mother’s itch. But, the opportunity to travel the world, subsidized by her, was irresistible. All of a sudden, we had multiple trips planned, ending in our busiest travel year ever. We traveled around the U.S. and around the world. We hopped around so much that there were mornings I awoke not knowing where I was (this feeling was not alcohol driven).

With the year ending, I went back through all the travel blog posts we did this year (40) – and I re-read each and every one of them.  If you haven’t read them, I highly recommend you take a few moments to explore each location. They are quite good, well worth the read.

Chronology.

January – fretting, are we going anywhere this year?

February – Winslow, AZ

March – Bird Hunting in Scottsdale 

April – preparation for the trips ahead.

May – Massachusetts

June – Arizona, Eastern Washington, and Vancouver, BC

June/July – Alaska Cruise

July – Mediterranean Cruise

August – Grand Canyon, Bryce & Page, Arizona

September – Vietnam and Cambodia

October – Canada Cruise

November – recovery

December – planning next year’s trips!

Jeff’s Favorites

Each trip produced many photographs, over 16,000 photos by me alone. Trying to cull these photos to just a few favorites has been quite a daunting task. After much work, here are a few of mine:

The Vancouver skyline lit up for us with great clouds, colors, and reflections.

The weather didn’t cooperate much for us in Alaska. But, when we came up to Margerie Glacier (in Glacier Bay), the water was quite still, allowing for a nice reflection of the boat.

This was my first visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (been to the South Rim many times). The colorful sunset sky combined with the rocks being lit up in an orangy-red provided for a breathtaking scene.

This photo is a combination or landscape and street photography. The tiered rice fields of Sapa, Vietnam were a captivating green and would look great alone in a photograph. The woman carrying the burden of the 100 pounds of rice on her shoulders may have also represented her burden-laden life.

Shot in Bac Ha, North Vietnam, near the China border. These basketeers were enjoying their time at the local market and more importantly, enjoying their time together.

We arrived at the Pre Rup temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia just before sunset. The clouds were amazing, giving us a fantastic background for our lion silhouettes. Ten minutes later all the clouds were gone.

Kathryn’s Favorites

I asked Kathryn to do the same. I think she had even more trouble than I. [I certainly did!]

The night Jeff caught his Cape Royal (at the North Rim) shot (above) was the same night I captured this rainbow across the canyon. It was an amazing evening.

A view of the Milky Way with the lights of the south rim of the Grand Canyon on the horizon. Although our night shooting at the North Rim did not go as planned, the stars were spectacular. Even caught a shooting star.

Bryce NP never disappoints, but this sunrise sky made it especially beautiful

A return visit to Palouse provided the opportunity to reshoot one of my favorite photos. This time with more of a macro focus.

Halong Bay was beautiful, especially after the steep climb to the top to capture this shot.

 

Onto 2018

After such a scary January past, we got a jumpstart on trips for the upcoming year. Check out what we have planned already:

  • January – Tucson, AZ, Prescott/Watkins Lake
  • February – Death Valley and Grand Canyon
  • June – Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Mammoth Lakes
  • July/August – England/Wales/Scotland/Iceland/Greenland cruise
  • October – Cape Cod, MA

Are you interested in joining us on one of these trips? Drop us a note and we will get the ball rolling.

Have a great 2018 and please follow the continued adventures of J&K!

And remember, it’s all about the light.