San Francisco Zoo

In early September, we went to the San Francisco Zoo. It was a disappointment. About a third of the exhibits were closed, the animals did not look well cared for, many were alone, and there was a lot of half-finished construction. We did get some video footage of animals. The site was great but the zoo needs to be reinvigorated - both in its physical plant and collection of animals.

Jeremy's Jazz Band at Hotel Healdsburg

We went up to Hotel Healdsburg to see Jon's friend, Jeremy, play in his jazz band. We were joined by Craig and Franchesca. It was a good time.

Reykjavik

We flew from San Francisco to Reykjavik, Iceland to get ready for our Iceland/Greenland Expedition. We spent a little time walking around Reykjavik, a small Scandanavian town. We went to Flyover Iceland, kind of touristy but fun to do and the Blue Lagoon - Iceland's premiere tourist destination. We arranged for the private spa at the retreat spa with water massages, anti-aging ritual, and a private part of the lagoon. We also could get into the public part of the Blue Lagoon. The morning of our embarkation, Jon walked around the harbor area and got lots of photos of our ship, the National Geographic Endurance, and the Harpa Reykajivk, We also toured the Perlan Museum and Hallgrímskirkja. Check out Care's Rizbee On the Road Blog for more details.

Iceland/Greenland Expedition

We enjoyed our 2018/2019 National Geographic Expedition to Antarctica so we booked another National Geographic Expedition on their new polar ship, the Endurance for an Iceland/Greenland Expedition in 2020. Unfortunately Covid struck and we had to postpone twice. This year, we finally went. The maps below show the progress of our journey. Click on one of the labels to go to the named place.

Guest Slideshow

The following is a slide show of images taken by and submitted by guests on our expedition.

National Geographic Endurance

On Monday, the 25th, we boarded the National Geographic Endurance for our Expedition to Western Iceland and East Greenland. The Endurance is a new ship, specifically designed for polar expeditions and can maneuver through significant ice. We were delighted to see our Captain was Oliver Kruess, from our previous Antarctic expedition in 2018/2019. The ship was absolutely fabulous as was the guest experience and the exedition. This section describes The Endurance and includes images and video from this trip and our Epic Antarctic Expedition in January 2024. Click here if you want to skip the ship and go right to our Iceland/Greenland expedition.

The Bridge. Linblad Expeditions, the cruise line the owns the Endurance, has an open-bridge policy. That means one can go up to the bridge at almost any time, see what is going on and talk to the officers. The officers are usually very willing to describe what they are doing. While the ship is underway there is always an officer and a lookout on the bridge. In tricky situations, the captain is there, too. The 360 timelapse on the right below was made while at open sea crossing the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland and compresses an hour into just under five minutes. Natalia, the officer in the white shirt, is the navigator. She was driving the ship. Her parents and little brother were aboard and they come on the to the bridge for a photo op with Captain Kruess around 2:40 into the video.

Stateroom. We were in Stateroom 518 on the Main Deck with a nice balcony (w/hammock) - although it was too cold to be out there much. Our stateroom was well-appointed with a queen bed, plenty of store, a sofa, and a nice bathroom.

Ice Lounge and Two Seven Zero. The Ice Lounge, on the aptly named Lounge Deck, was the center of activity for passengers. We had a daily recap (with drinks and hors doerves) of the days activities as well as informative lectures by the expedition staff and the plan for the next day by our expedition leader. We had several parties there as well and it was always available for reading and relaxing as well as coffee and drinks. There was a nice fire pit on the stern deck behind the Ice Lounge but we never used it because it was so cold. The main restaurant Two Seven Zero was on the deck below the Ice Lounge. We went there for dinner each night after our daily recap.

Observation Deck and igloos. The topmost deck of the ship (immediately above the Bridge Deck) was the observation deck. It had a library, spa, bar, and restaurant. It also had a deck running around the ship. Rumor had it that six laps around the observation deck was one mile. On the stern observation deck were two "igloos", geodesic domes with a bed inside. Passengers could sign up to spend the night. It was very cold (no heat in the igloos, but the crew did provide hot water bottles in the bed). We did it one night. It was cold but fun.

Base Camp. On the Expedition Deck, the lowest deck passenger were allowed on, was base camp. That had a set of lockers where we stored our cold-weather gear and is where we would embark and disembark on zodiak boats and kayaks for shuttles to shore or explore the waters near the ship.

The Garage. Immediately aft of Base Camp, on the Expedition Deck, was the garage - where the expedition staff and crew stored and maintained the shop's Zodiaks and kayaks. There are large doors which open to the sea and cranes to raise and lower the zodiaks from the garage to the ocean.

Sick Bay. We were glad we never had to use this but the ship had a well-equipped sick bay and a doctor aboard.

The Ship's Laundry. Immediately forward of Base Camp, on the Expedition Deck, was the ship's laundry - a busy place. They have to clean hotel and restaurant linens as well as guest and crew clothing. We had a reception there and the pastry chef provided some snacks. Care spoke with the laundry staff to get some tips.

Engine Rooms. The engine control room is directly across the hall from the laundry. Here, the engineering officers control the engines - which are four big diesel generators - as big as locomotives - providing all of the ships power. It was like a mini-bridge but did not have an external view like the bridge has. At the very aft on the expedition deck were the engine rooms with lots of big pieces of equipment.

Wine and Cheese One afternoon we had wine and cheese up on the observation deck during tea time. There was no shortage of delicious food and drink aboard.

Art. The ship hosted an extensive art collection with original artworks inspired by polar regions.

Resolution Tour The following is a Linblad video tour of the Resolution, Endurance's sister ship. The two ships are almost identical.

Day 0 - Departing Reyjkavik

The evening of September 25th, we departed Reyjakivk Harbor (it was a tight turn) and headed out to sea. The video below right is sped up 2x. We left the harbor very slowly and carefully.

Day 1 - Ísafjörður

After leaving Reyjakavik the evening of September 25th, we travelled overnight to western Iceland town of Ísafjörður. We woke up docked in the town. After breakfast we took a bus to an an adjacent fijord, Álftafjörður, where we hiked a very windy hike to a waterfall. In the afternoon, we did a very rainy walk around town. Here is the Daily Expedition Report and Care's Rizbee on the Road blog for Ísafjörður.

Day 2 - Arnarfjördur

We were supposed to leave for Greenland after Ísafjörður, but there was a storm in the Denmark Strait so we had to hang out in the western Icelandic fjords for a day. We saw some whales in the morning and in the afternon we went to the Dynjandi Waterfall. This was our first shore excursion in the zodiaks and we got to make our first wet landing (where we wade in from the zodiak). Here is the Daily Expedition Report and Care's Rizbee on the Road blog for Arnarfjördur.

Day 3 - Denmark Strait

We made a run across the strait - the weather was still a bit rough so we had some rocking and rolling overnight. Today was a day at sea. Here is the Daily Expedition Report and Care's Rizbee on the Road blog for the Denmark Strait.

Day 4 - Ittoqqortoormiit, Scoresby Sund

We woke up to see a small village of Ittoqqortoormiit (about 350 people) on the coast of Greenland - the last habitation we will see until we return to Reykjavik. We toured the town and got to see some Greenland Huskies and their owner. We were shadowed by a Danish Coast Guard ship. The Danish Coast Guard provides protection to ships in this part of the world. Here is the Daily Expedition Report and Care's Rizbee on the Road blog for Ittoqqortoormiit.

Scoresby Sund. In the afternoon we did our first shore excursion on the Greenland tundra in Scoresby Sund.

Day 5 - Storfjord

We headed to Storfjord to do some hiking and kayaking. We did a hike in the morning amid a dusting of snow, but right after lunch, the lookout on the bridge spotted a polar bear along the shore. After watching the polar bear for a while we took a Zodiak cruise (instead of kayaking) in the afternoon to avoid encountering the polar bear on his turf (or his waters). We cruised around icebergs and encountered another zodiak full of "bears" handing out hot chocolate. Here is the Daily Expedition Report for and Care's Rizbee on the Road blog for Storfjord.