The Galapagos Islands: An Introduction

We headed to the Galapagos Islands to conclude our trip to the western hemisphere. The Galapagos had been on my bucket list for some time, and we thought of it as a “prize” after our US sojourn. The islands are a unique destination that did not disappoint one bit.

We chose the National Geographic / Linblad Expeditions’ Gemini, a 48-passenger ship. We rarely take group tours, with the occasional allowance for a day trip, but we made an exception as doing the Galapagos on our own would have been difficult and inefficient. The islands are a national park and visiting any part requires a licensed tour guide. By choosing the cruise, we were able to visit 8 islands in 7 days – Baltra, Santa Cruz, Rabida, Santiago, Isabela, Fernandina, Genovesa, and Bartolome. Everything about the trip exceeded our expectations.

There are no large ports in the Galapagos, and for this reason the cruise ships are small (generally about 100, 50, or 16 passenger capacity). 48 passengers was our “Goldilocks” solution – just the right size. We splurged for a balcony to ensure that little bit of extra space and fresh air. The balcony came in handy for drying swimsuits and water shoes.

Without ports, you never actually dock, which means that egress from and ingress to the ship is by zodiac. We learned that driving a zodiac is truly a skill. Note the crane on the back of the ship to raise the zodiacs up each evening and that zodiacs can tow multiple kayaks.

While zodiacs are not the most comfortable mode of transport, you do get used to them quickly.

Despite our study of the Spanish language, we did not know the significance of the word “Galapagos.” It has a dual meaning, signifying tortoise and saddle. Tortoise is related to the famous gentle giants who have roamed the islands for centuries (as opposed to turtles who gracefully glide through the sea), and saddle for the shape of the shells, especially a certain sub-species with the marked saddle shape (which allows this type to reach higher trees and shrubs).

That’s Lonesome George, the most famous Galapagos tortoise, known for being the last of his species, the Pinta Island tortoise. He died in 2012, and the American Museum of Natural History (NY) helped preserve him for posterity. Explorers ate tortoise meat and mostly captured the smaller females, leading to challenges for reproduction, and leaving George without possible mates. He is on display at the Charles Darwin Research Station, which is doing amazing preservation work. More on that later.

The Galapagos are a photographer’s dream – a target rich environment. I only used my phone for the photos featured in these posts, having given up on schlepping all the camera gear I previously owned. These days, phones take very good pictures. Several others on the trip had the big guns out, and their photos were definitively a step above. And although sometimes I miss shooting with a “real” camera, overall, I don’t.

Here are a couple of photos of Darwin’s famous finches, which are still thriving throughout the islands – some species better than others. Being so small, they are tougher to photograph. These are the only 2 photos of them I took. But don’t worry, there will be plenty of bird photos in a later post.

Lastly, the Galapagos are volcanic islands. The landscapes are barren, wild, and rough. I wasn’t sure I’d appreciate this geology, but the amount of wildlife it supports, and the unusual scenery was fabulous.

Much more to come soon,

Shana & Jeff

Bay Area Adventures

The original reason for planning this trip to the United States was to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, which she decided to do in beautiful Santa Cruz, California. We rented a great house there with a view of the ocean from the living room/balcony. Shana and I picked up our nephews, Jeremy and Ethan in Berkeley, and drove with them to Santa Cruz, where we discovered this view only a block from the house.

The weather was beautiful the entire weekend, and we visited a nearby butterfly sanctuary. We were a bit too early in the year to see the Monarch butterflies, but did have a great walk among the trees where they will soon return.

Some of us sat on the beach, walked along the shore, and even tested the cold waters.

But, what we did most of all was play a new game called The Gang, which is a cooperative Texas Hold-'em game. If that sounds contradictary, I can assure you that that it was quickly addictive and we played many, many rounds trying to master the subleties.

On Mom's actual birthday, we had a lovely dinner at Shadow-Brook in nearby Capitola. The food and wine were fantastic, and we had a really good waiter, who made the whole experience exceptional.

After our Santa Cruz adventure, we spent a night at Karyn and Jim's place so we could see their totally new kitchen (sorry, no photo), enjoy more good wine and get even better at The Gang.

Returning to Walnut Creek, we spent an evening with our friends Peter and Jill where we drank even more good wine (sensing a theme here), and laughed late into the night. It is always good to spend time with them.

On our final day in the Bay Area, after hanging out with our friend Sacha, I went to play bridge with Mom at a weekly pairs event in the community where they live. Each team pays $2 (we paid $3 because I am an outsider) to enter  and plays four hands against each of five different teams. We played very well, and finished in 4th place winning $7! A fantastic result considering that we have rarely played togerher.

That evening, Mom dropped us at the BART where we began our long journey to our last stop, the Galapagos Islands. More on that soon.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Seattle Escapades

We started out a 3+ week trip with a visit to Seattle, arriving in late August to see family and friends. While we speak and/or video call with our families often, in person visits are always special. This time we met two new family members, Coco and Calvin, Shira’s newly adopted dogs.

It is ironic that Shira and Brent got dogs, as our dog Clyde had seemingly convinced them (before we left Seattle) that they weren’t dog people; now they might be crazier dog people than we ever were. 

We spent a lot of time hanging out at Shira’s place, including for a Labor Day BBQ and a family dinner for nephew Gavin’s 26th birthday. (We all missed having nephew David there, but luckily we had just seen him in San Sebastian.) It was good to catch up, play games, enjoy the dogs, cook together, and be goofy.

We also saw Jeff’s cousins Neil & Tracy, who, now that Neil has retired, hopefully will find the time to come visit.

We stopped to see our former neighbors, Greg & Jeff, but failed to get a picture this time. And our good friends from SoCal, Jeff & Lauren, were in Seattle to help their daughter Eliana move in with her boyfriend. We met them for brunch and a walk in Juanita Beach Park.

We especially enjoyed celebrating nephew Noah’s high school graduation with a kayaking adventure with Ballard Kayaks, which took us up and back through the Ballard Locks. It was a perfect day to be on the water. Adam & Gavin joined us, and Shira and friends watched us go through the locks from above.

While paddling, we saw seals, various sea birds, and salmon. The locks were built between 1911 and 1917. They link the Puget Sound (sea water) with Lake Washington (fresh water), and are quite the engineering feat that includes a fish ladder. They carry more boat traffic than any other lock in the US. We were the main attraction for the boaters and others watching from the pedestrian crossing as the locks rose and lowered.

It was probably the most unique kayaking trip we’ve ever done. The one thing we sadly could not do during our visit was take in a Mariners' game as they were on the road. It was great watching them and talking about their chance while there, which have significantly improved with their recent streak. 

After a week in Seattle, we headed to Northern California to celebrate Jeff’s Mom’s 80th birthday. More on that in our next post.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff

The Dog Days of Summer aka August

 

August began by celebrating our friend Angela’s birthday. Her apartment is the perfect place to watch the sunset, an activity that is always better with friends and wine. She hosted a fabulous evening, and we had a beautiful sunset (which is not always guaranteed).

Angela is our stand-up paddleboard buddy and we’ve enjoyed some good times on boards this summer. Being out on the bay is always a perfect summer moment and a great way to beat the heat.

We had our second repeat visitor last week, our nephew David. His visit coincided with Semana Grande, a terrific time to be here. With the nightly fireworks, concerts, and other options, it was a fun visit.

We liked watching the volleyball tournament a lot. As usual, the fireworks were a highlight. One night, David and I went to watch them from the beach. That helped confirm that watching them from our apartment is optimal. While you may miss some of the beach level fireworks, you avoid the overwhelming crowds. You can decide – the photo on the left is the view from the beach, the one on the right is from our balcony:

We planned a day in San Jean de Luz, but David woke up not feeling well. We went and enjoyed the day, including a bit of shopping at the local food market, while he slept. We get local, kilometer zero produce here, yet somehow the produce in France is always superior. While walking along the boardwalk, we noticed this quintessential French beach picnic – note the fresh baguettes protected by the umbrella:

Thankfully David recovered quickly, and we continued with the fun, including a sunset and lots of card games:

What we enjoyed most was David’s company and his perspective on the world and politics, especially since he had spent the prior week in Italy at the Revolutionary Communist International World Congress. We also tried some different restaurants because David is vegan, which was easy enough to accommodate but took us off the beaten path.

Oddly, we didn’t post about David’s first visit in September of 2021. Upon reviewing our late summer/early fall posts from 2021, we think it’s because his visit was sandwiched between our epic August trip to Ireland, the film festival, and a trip to the US in September. So, he’s finally getting his due now.  

One final note: in our last post we featured the Bilbao bullfight artwork. San Sebastian’s was creative, but not as good. Here they are side by side:

I learned that supposedly the bullfights during Semana Grande in the Basque Country do not end with the bull’s death, rather they are more of a celebration of the art of bullfighting. But this does not make us any more likely to go see a bullfight as it is still a bloody affair.

We are now in prep mode for an upcoming trip to the US and then the Galapagos. Perhaps during our US visit we’ll remember to take a few photos – something we are often remiss in doing. You can be sure there will be plenty of photos from the islands!

Stay cool,

Shana & Jeff

A Tale of Two Music Festivals

This year, San Sebastian's Jazzaldia and the Bilbao Blues Festival partially overlapped. Fortunately, we were able to see music here during the week, before heading to Bilbao for the weekend.

For Jazzaldia, we had tickets to see The Beach Boys' Sound of Summer Tour. The concert was very fun as they played many of their hits (who knew they wrote that many songs about surfing?), along with covers of other songs mostly from the 60's. I wouldn't say they sounded great as Mike Love and Bruce Johnson are in their 80's, but it was definitely worth seeing. John Stamos appeared with the band, which was a bonus as he is a lively performer and a super fan of the group. The videos they showed demonstrated how central The Beach Boys have been to US culture for over 60 years. They also included a lovely tribute to the recently passed Brian Wilson.

Right after The Beach Boys, we went and saw Jaime Cullum perform a free concert on the beach, which was fabulous. There were lots of people on the sand, but we sat on the wall at the side of the beach where we could hear very well without having to deal with the crowd.

Finally, on Friday evening, we went to a free concert by a band from Romania (of all places) called JazzyBIT. There was a fairly large crowd, and for a band we had never heard of before, we really enjoyed their music.

On Saturday morning, we took the bus to Bilbao and headed out to watch Spanish Rockabilly star Al Dual. He was very good, and we were not surprised to learn that he is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Nashville (although we were a bit surprised to learn that there is a Rockabilly Hall of Fame).

Afterwards, we went to lunch at a fantastic Asian fusion restaurant, Kimtxu. And, while we usually don't include photos of food, the duck and mushroom cannelloni was as impressive aesthetically, as it was to eat.

Saturday night, we saw Jimmie Vaughan, the brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan, perform. Unfortunately, we were less than impressed with his set, and left early, but it was a beautiful night, so it was great to just be outside.

Sunday morning, before the concerts, we went to the Guggenheim Museum to see exhibitions by two American artists: Barbara Kruger and Helen Frankenthaler. Kruger's work is very political and based on words. I am not sure how much I "like" the art, but the messages definitely resonated.

In many ways, Frankenthaler, whose exhibition is called "Painting Without Rules," is the opposite of Kruger -- abstract painting with no obvious political intent. The painting below is titled "Tutti Fruti," which was quite a contrast to Kruger's above piece about war.

While we were at the museum, we also got a couple of photos of art that we have previously seen. Clas Oldenberg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen's oversized soft shuttlecock (which we've now shown from multiple angles), and Jeff Koons' Puppy, probably the most popular permanent exhibit at the museum.

After the museum, we saw Delanie Pickering, a young American blues artist from the northeast. She was amazing! Definitely someone to watch. We also enjoyed Martin Burguez and His Rhythm Combo before heading to a Morrocan restaurant for lunch, which had a terrific menu and confirmed our desire to travel there in 2026.

As usual, we had a great time listening to the many variations of blue music performed (all for free), and enjoyed eating at the more diverse offerings of Bilbao. Shana also really appreciated the advertisments for the bull fights that will take place in Bilbao during their Semana Grande later this month, featuring a very creative use of the Bilbao metro's Norman Foster designed entrances.

 

More about our continuing summer adventures soon.

Jeff and Shana