After being a university professor for 38 years, I retired to pursue two of my passions – experiencing nature and photography. My main photographic interests are capturing wildlife and landscapes. Learning should be a lifelong activity, and I enjoy researching the places I visit and the wildlife I am lucky enough to observe. My purpose in starting this blog is to take you along with me, let you learn about nature, and inspire you to seek out your own adventures.
What I do
I enjoy hiking, biking and kayaking. My favorite destinations include exploring our national and state parks, wildlife refuges, forests, mountains, deserts and ocean coastlines. I have visited all 50 of the U.S. states multiple time, 50 of our national parks, and 9 foreign countries. In October 2022, I was able to take the trip of a lifetime to Madagascar which was #1 on my bucket list. Aside from Madagascar, some of my favorite journeys outside the U.S. have included trips to the Galapagos Islands, Iceland, Costa Rica, Brazil and the Great Barrier Reef.
I am an amateur photographer who has taken a number of online photography classes to try to improve my skills. In 2021, I participated in several photographic workshops including Yellowstone in winter, Yellowstone in spring for baby animals and Costa Rica for rain and cloud forest wildlife. These experiences allowed me to work on improving my photography skills. In 2022, I visited Death Valley for landscapes, Alaska for brown bears, and Madagascar for lemurs. In 2023, I went on a number of tours including Olympic National Park for landscapes, the inside passage of Alaska for the herring spawn, Katmai National Park for brown bears and the Pantanal of Brazil for jaguar.
My other hobbies include training dogs, competing in dog agility, kayaking, hiking and doing genealogy. I am a NADAC agility judge and UKC obedience and rally judge. I am also completing a genealogical certificate in American records with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies.