ALOFT OVER ABQ

The title pretty much explains it...

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MEMORIES #4 - ADVENTURE

Often the best way to create a lasting memory is to embark on an adventure. 

Some sort of activity you cannot do at home.

Plan ahead. Plan an adventure. Get out of your proverbial Comfort Zone.

And the memories will follow.

QUOTE #4 - Brian Blessed

"You can't call it an adventure unless it's tinged with danger. The greatest danger in life, though, is not taking the adventure at all. To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we've all got to go after our own Everest." 

- Actor/Adventurer Brian Blessed

MT FUJIYAMA, JAPAN - THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE

(One of those rare occasions when I don't use one of my own photographs for an entry. The photographer is unknown. I use the shot based on family ownership of the neg.)

I have often referenced that my parents were instrumental in passing on their love of travel and adventure. This is an illustration of that. My father, an officer in the Navy, was very much an explorer and took advantage of his military career to travel around the world and experience a multitude of things.

When I was but a very small boy the family moved to Yokosuka, Japan for a year or so. Even at a young age the experience taught me the value of understanding other cultures and honoring them. It gave me a sense of exploration that while visiting other peoples and places might be at-times inconvenient or uncomfortable, the rewards far outweighed any difficulties I might endure.

The world was a place to be explored and experienced, not feared or reviled.

My sisters are engaged in the very bittersweet action of taking down my parent's home. Going through possessions, making sure the meaningful items are passed down and treated with respect. 

Family photographs are among the most treasured possessions in any household, and when my older sister forwarded this photo of my father standing triumphantly atop Mount Fuji in the pre-dawn light, I knew I had to share the image as an example of what I hold so dearly: the desire to explore.

A quote of mine, which I have shared before, is "What intrigues me most are those things in the distance, on the horizon. That is where I want to go; what I want to see next."

It keeps us moving forward.

James Barber atop Fujiyama waiting for sunrise

A LITTLE TWEAKING

A wee bit of brand tweaking this morning, adding the bug line 

* TRAVEL * ADVENTURE * MARTINIS *

to our logo. 

The purpose is to broaden out the focus just a bit. After three years of travel items, I want to branch into other, related, areas and discuss other topics such as lifestyle, entertainment, night life, food, fashion or whatever else catches my attention. The effect of this will feature a few more essays and topics than what had largely become a daily paragraph about whatever shot I'd selected from the archives.

It's a gentle tweak, but hopefully one you'll enjoy.

Feel free to comment below.

And today's photograph, to kick us off in the right direction, is of an elegant evening under the stars and next to the fountains at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas. The restaurant featured is PICASSO. 

The food was good, though admittedly not spectacular. The ambience, however, consisting of patio dining on a warm summer evening as the fountains danced, was worth every penny (and there were quite a few pennies that night).

(No, your computer monitor isn't having problems...I put a filter on this shot 

to add a bit of watercolor-effect to enhance the image and mood.)

NO SINGLE WAY TO TRAVEL BEST

"To thine own self be true"

                        -- Hamlet, act 1, scene 3

As I write this, I've just completed reading Michael Palin's excellent account of his circum-Pacific trek in 1996 entitled FULL CIRCLE. Coincidentally over the last couple of nights I've caught episodes of British adventurist Bear Grylls' Man vs Wild TV series. At the moment I am high over the Midwest somewhere on a transcontinental flight from Baltimore to Phoenix, sitting in coach directly abutting the First Class bulkhead.

Palin, familiar to you as one of the original six Monty Python comedy troop members -- he was, and will forever be, "The Lumberjack" and "Parrot Salesman" -- has had a second life as a well-known Traveler and travel documentarian. His road-trip exploits began with a recreation of Jules Verne's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, and continued over a multitude of years and other paths and pathways. (You can find more information and copies of his books at Palin's travel sites here and here.)

Grylls is an adventurer in the strictest of senses. I get the impression that the more physically uncomfortable and rugged the terrain, the more at home he is as a human being. He genuinely thrives under conditions which would make the common person wilt...or cringe with disgust. From eating bugs for protein to sleeping in a makeshift (sheep's wool) sleeping bag made from the just-skinned flesh of a dead sheep, Grylls immerses himself into a full-sensory, no-frills exploration of the world around him.

And then there are some explorers who would prefer to revel in the pristine isolation of a high-end resort hotel, completely removed from even a whiff of hardship or, frankly, their surrounding environment. They don't want to explore. They don't want to be challenged. They simply want to relax and "escape" from the world by hiding behind insulated walls. I won't mention any particular explorers who match this description, but their ilk can be found on several Travel Channel programs and perhaps the pages of a luxury magazine or two.

This is not to say you cannot have a luxuriously immersive cultural experience, but it's up to the seeker to make that count. The South African travel program Top Travel (also seen on the AWE American television network) does this sort of thing well, with the two hosts -- Jeannie D and Janez Vermeiren -- each of whom experiences any particular destination in their own way. She is thrilled by ultra-luxury, while he wants the down and dirty physical challenges. And both find joint experiences which give them a flavor for a place, which is what I like about this particular program. Opulence doesn't always translate to experience, and this program works to ensure that "lux" doesn't trump "life" but enhances it.

Likewise, without a little hardship you miss those things which can be the most self-satisfying. You can't, for example, trek across a glacier with first enduring some cold (and probably a strenuous hike to get to the top). A visit to a reef would be spectacularly sad if all you did was remain high and dry aboard the boat -- you have to get a little wet and likely choke down some seawater in order to see the really good stuff. And unless you're a famous celebrity or person with excellent connections, it's a really long line to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Myself, I fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes...as I believe Michael Palin must. There is room at times for pure relaxation and enjoyment, but as Palin comments in FULL CIRCLE, the people in luxury class don't always get that true experience of a place. Only by getting your hands and face a little bit dirty -- getting uncomfortable in an invigorating way -- can you emerge from a destination with a whiff, a soupçon, of local color and flavor. 

(For purists seeking references, he discusses this in the section marked Day 189 - Cuzco to Machu Picchu. His comments regarding the difference in passenger experiences on the northbound train from Cuzco, Peru is telling. The people in First Class see the world from behind sterile smoked glass windows in air conditioned comfort, while the people in coach get the true, full-on and memorable experience of the Peruvian culture. And if you're on an Italian train, even the First Class customers can sometimes experience the Coach class experience.)

Some of my most memorable travel experiences came from moments of discomfort. Of challenge. Or simply of exploration -- getting away from the hotel, away from the cruise ship, away from the spa -- hunting/doing things on my own. I dislike feeling rushed, feeling obligated to move on simply because an itinerary demands it...or worse, my group is moving on and growing impatient at my delays. (Or, conversely, a dallying group when I'm already on to the next point of interest.)

My wife and I are well suited to each other in this regard. She usually wants to delve more deeply into the experiences I do, and is equally willing to keep it moving when the surroundings need to be updated. We're attracted (mostly) to the same sorts of shops and experiences. It's only when we get others than the usual pushme-pullyou group dynamic takes hold. Which is only fair, given that there are times I might delay a group who wants to keep moving while I want to explore something in a bit more detail.

It's a compromise of style and objective when you're traveling with more than one person. Each of us comes with our own agenda and interests and the balance must be struck somewhere between Bear Grylls' mud-and-blood-soaked Scottish Highlands endurance test and Jeannie D's palm-oil slathered bikram yoga retreat. Both are culturally valid experiences, and it's up to the participant to find which best suits their wants and needs -- while giving them something of a destination.

We've become, it is said, much more of a culturally homogenized, cookie-cutter world. The McDonald's in Rio de Janeiro differs from the one in Chicago pretty much only when it comes to the menu. A few local items may be thrown in the mix, but the Big Mac is the Big Mac pretty much universally. The Sheraton in New Orleans and the Sheraton in New Delhi (is there one?) may have slightly different decor, but they're Sheratons nonetheless. Some people like that sameness, that reliability. That's fine for them, but it doesn't mean they've really been somewhere. Just "been" there.

But even if the hotels are the same, the true difference in a destination is what you find outside the revolving door and taxi queue: it's on the street or in the great outdoors, not behind the walls of your hotel room or the luxury restaurant in the lobby even if they ARE the best in town.

And whether you're Bear Grylls, Michael Palin, Janez Vermeiren -- or Todd Carmichael, Andrew Zimmern, Anthony Bourdain, Phil Keoghan or dozens of other "travel personalities" -- the point of travel is to experience something new, different and personally enriching.

Something you can tell friends about and share with strangers.

A flavor, an experience, a vista, a serenity or a sense-numbing chaos, the important thing is to Travel with a capital T.

Otherwise, honestly, why are you even leaving home?

The Importance of Urgency, Pt 3

  
“Voyage, travel, and change of place impart vigor”   – Seneca

In the last two columns I've remarked on how quickly things can change, and that a sense of urgency is oftentimes the difference between realized and unrealized travel dreams -- or dreams of any kind, really.

This does not mean you need to run out and do things you cannot afford, or make no realistic sense. I want to dip my toes into the Arctic Ocean. But it's not a "drop everything, do it NOW" target. It's just something I'm planning to do before I die. That noted, it has to have a place in the overall planning for my trips and activities over the next handful of years.

But sometimes life throws curves at you that make you realize that certain things should not be put off. That putting them off becomes a commitment NOT to do them. Nor does just "wishing" you could someday do something contribute much towards actually doing it.

What has to occur -- and this is more your internal battle than anything happening in the "real" world -- is for you to commit to certain steps to accomplish the next thing on your agenda. And having a reminder that our stay here is not an extended one can give you that sense of urgency.

Since 2010 we have been on a tear. We do not have children, and so it became almost a game to see how much we could check off our Life Lists during any given year. Our usual gambit is for one big trip and several smaller trips throughout the year. This doesn't include any of my business trips, nor does it include "weekenders" in which I might take off up into the desert or up the coast on my own, just for a photo safari or to get "away from it all".

The timing was opportune in ways we could not at that point have even grasped, but gave strong truth to the need to do things NOW.

Three years ago we received medical news which increased our sense of urgency. It was not of the immediate "you have six months" variety, but it reinforced we are not immortal and need to double down on accomplishing those things which feature prominently on our list of intended adventures. (The nature of the news is also irrelevant. Friends who need to know, know.)

So we asked ourselves: what is important in life?

And among the several answers which came immediately to mind -- love, family, friendship -- was an urgent sense of adventure and discovery about our world. There were -- and still are -- things we NEED to see and do in life which (we hope) enriches us and our lives in ways that are important.

And so we ramped up what had already been a fairly solid schedule of things we wanted to accomplish as soon as possible. And we did a LOT. Shortly I will publish a recap of our last decade of travel, and it's a doozy. Better than anyone could possibly hope for.

In less than a week we're off on the last Grand Adventure, at least for a year or so. A cruise through the Panama Canal. With notable exceptions -- Wind Star -- we tend to avoid cruises unless we're going with friends, as we are in this case. But cruising the Panama Canal, which has been an ambition of mine since I was a young boy, cannot be accomplished without boarding something, and a cruise ship -- medium-sized, seems like the most graceful way to accomplish this.

As with all of our trips, items will be checked off our respective lists. Obviously cruising the canal will be. Also our first time setting foot on South America. My fifth continent, my wife's fourth. We'll add Guatemala and Colombia to our countries list. My ambition is to photograph much of our journey, and probably capture a few martinis along the way.

So now it's almost time to stop, take a rest to regain health -- and assess the world from a different perspective. The recently retitled "Daily Escape" will continue to publish for the two weeks we're out of the country. I promise a full accounting upon our return.

Time to revisit the No Opportunity Wasted Life Lists and revise them with new goals for the coming decade. I'll publish mine when it's ready fro Prime Time. 

It's been a blast, and so much more to come. I have a couple more essays to publish -- including an open letter to Phil Keoghan, creator of No Opportunity Wasted, which has changed our lives in a number of ways-- and then will see you in a few weeks.

The Importance of Urgency, Part 2

"Traveling is more than just seeing landmarks and monuments -- you should want to experience the culture and understand how other people live" 
    - Justin Scheman, Contestant, THE AMAZING RACE

Paris, aka The City of Lights, is perhaps the most romanticized and dreamt-about travel destination on the planet.

It was no different for my wife and me. We had often dreamed of a trip to Europe, starting, of course, with Paris. It was something we both shared as a destination, with both of us having childhood aspirations of visiting that most special of places. In my case, it was fostered by films such as AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, or FUNNY FACE. In her case it had been a long-time dream of her mother's to get to see the Eiffel Tower and the River Seine.

Sadly, by the time my wife and I managed to cross the pond, my mother-in-law had passed away. This made for a bittersweet moment when we paused during our first night on the town to call her father from a pay phone (remember those?).

The Musee D'Orsay

My wife regaled him the the story of our first dinner at Le Rotonde restaurant in the Montparnasse district. It had been a wonderful and colorful meal in a picture-perfect Parisienne bistro with fabulous food and adept service (who cheerfully reassured us Americans were warmly welcomed) -- and one very elegant mature woman with a model's gracefully aging looks and a lit cigarette at the end of a holder reading Le Figaro at the table next to ours. No scene from a movie could have better captured the essence of our dreams.

He was, of course, supremely happy for us, and it was a call my wife would come to appreciate far more than we had even imagined.



It was, as we were to learn, her final conversation with him.

Le Metro

Three days later, after we had left the city to explore the countryside amid towns like Chenonceaux, we tried calling again. His male nurse fumbled something about her father being "in the bathroom". It was an odd call, but we put it aside and went back to enjoying our day at the Chateau named for the town (or is it vice-versa?).

The next evening we tried again and learned the awful truth -- that one day after that perfect call from his daughter -- he had passed away from a long-simmering heart condition. We had traveled after assurances he had plenty of time left, but sadly fate had different plans.

We frantically called some relatives, finally reaching my cousin Linda, a travel agent for AmEx, and she saved the day by booking us quick passage back to the States. Not an easy task when you're in a small town in back country France, and you don't speak the language beyond a handful of phrases from the guidebooks.
But the loss of her father was a deep blow. But in its own way it reinforced the need for adventure in our lives.

A year further on we made plans and returned to France to complete our journey, plus touches of a couple of other countries. It would be another decade before we returned to Europe, but the memories of that first trip -- the good and the bad -- will be with us for a lifetime.

And it reinforced the message of urgency. The shared adventure. Things happen, and often we are bogged down in the daily stuff. Travel breaks that up. 



Then, three years ago, the message became more important than ever. 

(to be continued. THE IMPORTANCE OF URGENCY: OVERDRIVE)

Visiting the Eiffel Tower for the first time

The Importance of Urgency - Part 1

"I think the locations themselves are sometimes the bigger star than perhaps we realized." 
            -- Phil Keoghan, THE AMAZING RACE



I have remarked, on numerous occasions, on the importance of doing things now rather than putting them off. We all have and set our own priorities in life, and travel is one of mine. It's a passion I share with my wife.

We both maintain life lists of places and things we need to go to and do. My to-do list still includes a cruise through the Amazon and a visit to Antarctica. My wife's first and foremost goal is to go on an African safari with a side-trip to see the great apes.

(I also need to get up to the arctic to fulfill a lifelong dream of setting foot in each of the world's four oceans. I have done so in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian, and only need the Arctic to complete the "set". Obviously to be done in the summertime.)

In the last few years we've moved into overdrive in accomplishing our goals in travel. Part of this is having years ago fully embraced tv presenter Phil Keoghan's NO OPPORTUNITY WASTED approach to living, which requires you to set in motion specific steps to accomplish your goals -- this as opposed to "someday" or "I wish" or "When we're able" approaches. Keoghan states in his book, "Do It Now". And for good reason.

As anyone who regularly reads this column knows from your own, personal experiences, life can be unforgivably fragile. It tosses challenges and grenades at us with equal vigor, so we need to appreciate the good times along with the bad -- and keep perspective on the bad times when they come along.

A little under three years ago we were dealt such a blow. Close friends know what it was, but I won't
go into details. It was a shock of a medical nature. And while everything is, for the moment, under control it woke us up to the reality that things can change in a heartbeat.

So, we reasoned, what are we waiting for? We do not have kids -- the five year plan became the ten year plan, which is now in its thirtieth year...so the ship has sailed on young'uns. We have good financial resources, and more control over our lives and lifestyle than do many people in this world.

So we went a little crazy, but crazy in a good way. In the last few years -- even predating the medical thing -- we have planned and accomplished a good number of the "Life List" goals we set out for ourselves. When I go back over one such compilation I did many years ago I have to note we've done well over half.

And now things are, out of necessity, winding down a bit. Several things have happened which have required us to step back from the twice-yearly budget bombs and take a sober look at what we want to accomplish next. The last three months have been difficult for us -- my wife and I -- and have shown the need for us to be a little more rational about our approach to the life lists. Don't get me wrong, we're still going to cruise the Amazon, see Antarctica and go on a safari -- but not necessarily in the next year or two.

Destinations Unknown

In the less than a month we embark on the last currently-planned "Big Trip". It's a two week cruise which, in the middle, transits the Panama Canal. It follows in the trend of the last four years' explorations to parts (for us) unknown and relatively exotic. Transiting the canal has been one of my lifelong ambitions. I'm fascinated by huge engineering projects, and the canal is one of the largest in history. And it puts aside yet one more Life List goal for me.

Which puts me in a mood to look back and recollect some of our adventures of the last decade and a half, and lock down some thoughts on the importance of travel in a well-balanced lifestyle. It doesn't need to be global, it just needs to get you out of your comfort zone and into something new and different. It's about education and exposure to other cultures and experiences.

One of my favorite personal philosophical mantras -- and yes, I have more than one --  is "What intrigues me most are those things in the distance, on the horizon. That is where I want to go; what I want to see next."

Contemplating the Future

It's a quest, in many ways, to find adventure and expand horizons to something new. 

This quest has taken us to some very wide ends of the world, hitting perhaps a dozen adventures which will forever stay with us in our memories. I truly feel adventure should be shared, and I am fortunate to have a partner who is as passionate about travel as I am.

If you are a true Traveler -- capital T -- you have multiple destinations in mind at all times. If you are a follower of the previously mentioned No Opportunity Wasted, you have some form of plan in place to reach those destinations.

Monet's Garden, 2001

In our years together the adventures (and budgets) have grown from relatively modest beginnings. In our first year of dating we visited Las Vegas, New York, Newport, RI, Annapolis and Washington DC. Those last four were a whirlwind trip designed to introduce the woman who had just become my fiancee to the rest of my family. It was my soon-to-be-wife's first time on the Eastern Seaboard and we made the most of it.

In the intervening years between 1986 and roughly 2000, our destinations were fun and adventurous, but pretty much low budgets and close quarters. (My family lives in the DC area, so that and New York became the de facto East Coast destinations, while San Francisco and Las Vegas were pretty much it for the West Coast. Add an infrequent Hawaii to the list and that covers the vast majority of our 20th Century travels.)

In 2000 that changed with our first trip to Europe. France. Paris -- the first of our Life List destinations. 

(To be continued)

Off the Beaten Path