Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

Today was a little different from yesterday. The thermometer was only 5 degrees colder - about 20 degrees - but the 25mph winds made the wind chill about 8 degrees so we never lingered longer than we needed to with the windows open. The light snowy conditions from yesterday also turned into a lot of blowing snow today. We had some good bear sightings at the start and end of the day that weren’t washed out though. Afterwards we came back to the hotel around 5, we had dinner, then headed out to hear some local history from, well, a local.

That’s it for the full day trips out in the buggies. Tomorrow we do more activities around town and then at 3:30 we head out for a nighttime buggy ride. Here are a few pictures from today:

Above, the bears would sit in some strange positions or contort themselves as they got up from a rest

Above, this guy took a while to get his front legs working

Above, with the strong winds, bears hid on the leeward side of small rises which made it tough to see much of them. This guy raised his head just long enough to check us out.

Above 3, bears walking

Above, let’s play find the polar bear. He’s the snow-covered lump in bottom center. Sometimes they allow themselves to get completely covered with inches of snow. Their fur can keep them very warm in spite of it.

Above, a view of other tundra vehicles from ours

Above, this bear heads to the Hudson Bay with a tundra vehicle in the background

- Dave

Here is a picture I took today. Let’s have some fun with it. Submit your best caption via the comments section here by the time I get home late Monday night. Whoever writes the best caption (e.g. most clever, funniest, etc.) will get an unframed print of any one picture of their choice in the blog’s photo galleries.

- Dave

- Dave

On our first day out on the tundra, we were pretty lucky and saw a lot of activity. We left on the buggy about 8am and returned about 4pm which correlates pretty well with sunrise and sunset here. During that time, we saw many polar bears - probably a dozen or so. Two of them came up to the tundra buggy and checked us out, two young males sparred a bit, and there were a few mothers with cubs. The weather varied a bit between bright overcast skies to blustery, snowy , and dark gray but overall, it was cold but it wasn’t too cold. Here are a few pictures.

Above, a curious bear approaches from a distance to check us out

Above, looking down on the bear from the back of the buggy which has a small open deck

Above, looking to the side at the bear who stood up to get a closer look at us

Above, the bear got bored with us and went to check out the buggy behind us

Above, a cub leans on his mother as they approach the buggies’ path

Above, another mother and cub in the foreground with two buggies in the background

- Dave

- Dave

Ahoy from the balmy shores of the Hudson Bay. Seriously, we arrived in Churchill today and instead of the arctic blast I expected when we got off the plane, it was probably 25-30 degrees. Supposedly that’s very unusual. They’ve warned us that the rest of the time will be much windier and colder. That’s ok with me but I’d like to at least get some sun. It’s supposed to be overcast and snowy the whole time.

Above: our plane at Churchill airport

Above: Yours truly enjoying the warmer weather

Churchill is a small town but not terribly small. It is after all a working grain port and also there is the 6-week window of the year when people come up to see the bears so there’s all the usual things here you might expect. A grocery store, post office, bank, gift shops, etc. That said, we walked up and down the main street this afternoon and I think we’ve done the town. We also were driven around on a tour and we saw a field where a guy breeds Eskimo dogs. There were dozens there including puppies. It’s hard to deny they’re cute. People took a lot of pictures.

We also were taken to an example traditional dwelling like the local Inuit used to use. It’s basically like a teepee. While we sat in a circle, a local couple sang for us, did a traditional dance with a drum, and answered questions.

After dinner, we had our orientation. Right after the slideshow ended, we heard gunshots outside and a truck with blue and red flashing lights flew by. This was the polar bear patrol and when a bear wanders into town, they race towards it and fire blanks to scare it away. A few minutes later, we saw the bear come up the road! He came up one side of the hotel and turned the corner down the other side of the hotel. We watched from inside - we have been warned dozens of times already about going outside after dark. I thought the bear was huge but supposedly he was only a teen. Wow.

We head out tomorrow at 7:30 and stay out on the tundra buggy until 4:30. They say the polar bears are very active right now so it should a great time.

- Dave

It’s a beauty way to go. Or so I’m told by Bob & Doug McKenzie (and to be complete, Geddy Lee too).

When this post goes live, it means I’m flying up to Churchill, Canada for a photo workshop with Andy Biggs to shoot polar bears. There’s a summary itinerary page here and I’ve updated our Itineraries page too. I expect it to be very cold. The 10-day forecast calls for a 20 degree high during the day and 10 degrees at night. No, not Celsius. I should have enough gear to stay warm. I did buy some new cold weather boots that claim they’re “rated” to 40 degrees below zero. They certainly look impressive if nothing else.

This is a “short” trip (yeah, I know, it’s all relative). It’s a nice change to pack for a trip that’s only a week long. There’s so little luggage compared to all of the other trips this year that it’s easy packing. Although at this point, I better be pretty good at packing. This is the only trip so far where for the most part I’m already packed two days ahead of leaving.

Meredith is not coming on this one since the trip will be filled with photo nerds who would drive her batty talking all day about all things photography. She did say once though that she finds it amusing when men talk about their photo gear. She said something about machismo, adequacy, and measuring up but I just didn’t understand what she was talking about at all. Anyway, the hotel claims there’s wireless Internet in every room so, time permitting, I’ll try to post enough to give people a sense of what it’s like.

- Dave

We arrived in Boston early Thursday morning after a red-eye flight from Oakland, CA. Here are a few stats about our last 4 weeks on the road:

• We drove 4,500 miles. That’s equivalent to driving from Bangor, Maine to Miami, Florida and then to Los Angeles, California.
• We bought 170 gallons of gas. Yes, this was a big part of the budget.
• We visited a total of 12 National or State Parks in 5 states.
• We consumed a total of 20 gallons of water, 20 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 8 ham and cheese sandwiches, 6 freeze-dried dinners, 6 quarts of yogurt, 1 gallon of apple juice, 3 boxes of cereal, 10 packs of oatmeal, 10 apples, and 8 bananas plus we ate one restaurant meal per day.
• We spent 14 and a half nights in our tent, 12 nights sleeping in real beds (4 unplanned), 1 and a half nights in our car, and 1 night on the plane.
• We visited 8 friends/family.
• We took 11 showers at hotels or friends’/family’s houses and 5 at campgrounds.
• We saved $120 buying an annual National Parks pass at the start of the trip.
• We posted 37 blog posts.
• We (mostly Dave) took 2317 photographs. It should have been higher but 75% of our days were cloudless (that may seem backwards to many people but cloudless days are dull photographically speaking).
• We bought 8 more tent pegs.
• We had one car wash including a vacuum.
• We visited two wine tastings.

Looking back over the last 4 weeks, the trip seemed to go much faster than our other month-long trips. It’s always a mixed bag coming home. On the one hand the trip is over which is a downer. The upside is having all of our conveniences again. There’s a bunch of “admin” to do such as unpack, pick up mail from the post office, restock the fridge, etc. but that’s not too bad. Getting to see friends again is always great of course. I have yet to post any photo galleries from the trip but I hope to in the next few days.

What’s next? I’m off on my last trip early Tuesday morning. I’m going on a photo workshop to Churchill, Canada to photograph polar bears and I’ll be back on the 17th (supposedly they have the InterWebs up there so stay tuned for more blogging). Meredith says it’s now time to work on her resume. That means it’s time for me as well when I get back. Apparently one has to eventually pay for all of the fun.

- Dave

This would be the place we would have included our view from our window while we stayed with our friends Sharon and Charla in the Bay Area.  Unfortunately, we forgot, again.  Sorry.  I feel like we let down our readers. 

Sharon and Charla moved from Boston to Alameda (an island in the east Bay) about a year and a half ago, and bought a beautiful old house which needed some TLC.  So far, they’ve completed renovation of the kitchen, where Charla whupped us up a mess of vittles every day (she is a great cook!).  Anyway, had we taken the picture, you would have seen their back yard, which features a lemon tree, an orange tree and an apple tree, as well as tomatoes.

We really chilled out while we were there (4 nights!), but we did manage to do a few things:

• Visited Sharon’s horse Red Hot at her stable in Walnut Creek to put metal flashing on the wooden fence so she would stop eating it.
• Went to a wine tasting at Rosenblum Cellars, a winemaker on Alameda that sources grapes from growers throughout California.
• Spent an afternoon in Monterey walking around Cannery Row and eating seafood.
• Visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.  The woman who lived here believed that she needed to perpetually build her home to appease angry spirits (it’s hard to describe this place.  It is a Victorian mansion with 160 rooms, and it’s completely wacky).  The woman who built it was the widow of the Winchester gun guy, and was crazy.  Also, the guy who gave us our tour was like a cross between Barney Frank and Paul Lynde, which made the experience all the more interesting.
• Cleaned and dried out our tent!
• Watched the Pats-Colts game (wah wah wah waah).
• Had a yummy dinner with my high school friend Jenn and watched election night coverage at a party with her friends (Yay Obama, boo California Prop. 8.)

Here are a couple of pictures:

Charla (left) and Sharon sated on Monterey seafood

The four of us doing one of the things we do best

- Meredith

I know "Yosemite" is a funny-sounding word, but with all due respect to Warner Bros., I don’t get the connection.  I’m pretty sure Sam would not have prospered in Yosemite.  There weren’t many people for him to rob or claims to jump.  Although, there were plenty of varmints to shoot, so maybe that’s it.

Sam is a bit different from Yosemite’s other famous men.  Let’s compare:

Exhibit A: Yosemite Sam

Exhibit B: Conservationist John Muir 

Exhibit C: Photographer Ansel Adams

Exhibit D: Grizzly Adams (no relation to aforementioned Ansel)

The first thing we should look at is facial hair.  At first glance, it seems that Yosemite Sam fits in with this crew of famous Yosemite men.  However, upon closer examination, we see that Yosemite Sam simply has a giant mustache, while the others have beards.

But the differences run even deeper than that.  They all wear different types of hats, for starters. 

Now let’s look closer.  We’ll start with John Muir, one of the most influential environmentalists and conservationists in American history.  The only thing Yosemite Sam was interested in protecting was his pride, and he repeatedly failed at that.  How about Ansel Adams, an avid nature lover and an American photography icon?  Yosemite Sam is an American icon too, although mostly on the mud flaps of semi-trucks.

It is Grizzly Adams that Yosemite Sam most closely resembles.  Grizzly Adams spent most of his life in the mountains of California, capturing animals for zoos and circuses.  His claim to fame was making "pets" out of grizzly bears and wrestling them.  Idiot.  I never saw Yosemite Sam wrestle a bear, but he did go after Bugs Bunny quite often, and there was that one episode with the shark ("Down! Ya shark-livered varmint!").

Maybe he fits his name after all.

- Meredith