Lost Travelers.....

Hello, again.

You probably thought you had a 'lost blog writer' since I haven't entered a post for almost a week.

Truth is, we've been crazy busy photographing about 1,000 children and students this past week and then following up by carefully preparing all of these wonderful images and sending them off to our professional photo lab. It's a pretty big job....but certainly worth it.

In fact, just today a mother called from another school we had photographed and told me how appreciative she is that we have documented, by virtue of priceless photographs, her children as they have grown through the years.

She said the pictures have not always been 'perfect'....but have always been 'precious' (bumps, bruises, missing teeth, blemishes, braces, oversized glasses, etc. included). Now there's a mom with a great attitude and perspective on what school photographs are really all about and her call really warmed my heart.

This is one of my favorite school pics we took this year. I figured that since this is a travel blog I just had to share this photo. Who knows, this young man just may be our pilot on some future travel-ography.com adventure.



Now that you know what we've been doing, let me get to the title of this particular post, which is not 'lost blogger'.....but 'lost travelers'.

We continue, every day since our return from our Duluth trip, to hear positive comments on what a great time everyone had on our very first travel-ography.com adventure. And I must say, Linda and I had just as good a time as everyone else apparently did.

However, there was one element to the process that I must confess I wasn't really prepared for....that being the prospect of having some of our party get 'lost'.

It happened on our first stop on the second day, as we all hopped off the bus to enjoy the sights and sounds of the beautiful and powerful Gooseberry Falls, along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was a magnificent morning, made even more so by the fact that the forecast had called for inclement weather.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the various stages of the falls, taking photographs and hiking on an assortment of paths that all gave different perspectives to this awesome display of Mother Nature. A time had been set to reboard the bus and everyone, after enjoying fresh air and falling water, walked back at their own pace and got on board. Almost everyone!

I was one of the last ones to board, since I had ambitiously hiked quite far back into the woods to photograph a part of the falls that I new would be beautiful. At that point, I had shared the great view with two of our more 'adventuresome travelers'....Linda and Phyllis. As I hoisted my camera and tripod to my shoulder, I started back, while noticing that they went just a bit higher for an even better view. Assuming they would be following, I made it back in pretty good time and even stopped for a couple of other good shots along the way.



Once back on the bus, we took a head count and noticed we were two short. I knew which two.
Linda (wife) and I walked back down the trail but didn't see them. We searched two or three alternate paths but still no sign of them. Finally, just as we were going to call in 'Search and Rescue' (kidding !), there they were, a bit tired and a bit out of breath, but with big smiles on their faces. They had become lost after making a couple of wrong turns (and asking the wrong person for directions on how to get back). I didn't let on at the time, but I sure was relieved that nothing had happened to either of them and that the worst thing to come out of this slight misstep would be the gentle ribbing they would take from their fellow travelers on the bus. All ended well.

Although, I might ask you to look back on the previous post and note that, while I said 33 people were with on our trip, there are only 31 on the group photo by the big ship. Guess which two are missing. Once again, their 'adventuresome spirit' had separated them from the group. I must say, however, that Linda and Phyllis were a delight to have with us and because of this, I'm going to try 'photoshop' them in to the group photo. They'll be the ones wearing the 'blaze orange' or 'hiway department green'. Ha Ha. The trip wouldn't have been as fun without them.

I think the above photo I captured, shows why the adventuresome ones were so adventurous. As always, click on the photo to see a larger version, then hit the 'back' button to return to the blog....or if you are reading this in email, hit the X to return to blog.

By the way, Bob was missing for a few minutes at the Split Rock Lighthouse later that day, to the point where we had him paged. I must admit, Laurie and I were a little concerned for him too, but, alas, he had ventured to a better vantage point to get a good photograph of the lighthouse and was found shortly thereafter. It was kind of 'cool' to hear the man's voice on the loudspeaker blare throughout the grounds: "Would Bob of the travel-ography.com tour group please report to the motorcoach."

Later that night, Bob and Laurie again had left the group and went down by the harbor to see if they could see a big ship come in. After waiting over an hour, they finally saw faint lights approaching in the distance. Thinking of the rest of us, Laurie called the hotel and reported to us that a '1,000 footer', one of the largest ships on the lake, would be entering the harbor within minutes. Most of our group had just retired for the evening, however, Linda and I literally ran the three blocks to the harbor and made it just in time to share the remarkable moment with Laurie and Bob. When a '1,000 footer' comes in, especially at night, it's a pretty special sight.

I'll share more stories from our Duluth adventure in future posts.

New York in November is only one month away! And we have a great group going with us on this exciting 4 day and 3 night journey to the 'Big Apple'.

Ironic, that today I had planned to start posting a series of photographs from the last time Linda and I were in New York City, and the first one was going to be of the Strawberry Fields Memorial to John Lennon in Central Park. It turns out that today would have been the former Beatle's 67th birthday and to commemorate the event, Yoko Ono unveiled the Lennon Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The tower is a beam of light, radiating from a wishing well bearing the words "imagine peace" in 24 languages. The plan is for it to be lit each year between his birthday, Oct. 9, and the anniversary of his death on Dec. 8.

To see the 'Peace Tower' will be a priority of travel-ography.com.

Anyway, here's the photograph I took a couple of years ago in Central Park and it has quite a story attached to it. The man in the background is, none other than, the man credited with bringing the Beatles to America. I'll tell the complete story in an upcoming post.


We'll be visiting this site when we travel to New York City this November 10, 11, 12 and 13.

I can't wait !!!

Steve