Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story. ~ JRR Tolkein

Looking back at 59 years

You know turning 40 didn’t bother me, turning 50 didn’t bother me, but I have to admit 60 is getting to me a little bit, but I had a good birthday for 59.

On Thursday, my assistant and a faculty member took me out to one of my favorite local places for lunch. It was a lovely day and a lovely lunch. Thursday night a friend asked me what I was doing for my birthday and in fact, I had no plans. So giving it some thought I decided that since the weather reports looked good, I’d do a whale watch out of Moss Landing on Monterey Bay with Sanctuary Cruises, I’ve been doing whale watches with them for over 20 years.

I definitely found some luck on my birthday weekend, pulled a $100 scratcher ticket and there were open seats on the whale watch. We had a gorgeous day on the bay, even got a little bit of a sunburn through my SPF 50. The temperatures were great, the seas were calm and a whole lot of marine friends decided to show up for my birthday. As we were cruising out we encountered a pod of over 2000 long-beaked common dolphins and we stayed on them for about an hour. We had dolphins everywhere, riding the bow, jumping and frolicking in every imaginable direction.

We then moved on to a couple of different groups of humpback whales and one group was particularly fun. They were obviously diving to feed and a full raft of about 200 sea lions were also chasing and feeding on the same bait ball. Both the whales and sea lions would dive at the same time, diving down and raiding the anchovy school. We’d know when and where the whales would come up as the sea lions would surface blowing and gasping for air right before the whales.

We would see a total of eleven humpback whales, several of them did full body breaches and one lovely tail lob. At one point the dolphin super pod, five whales, all of the sea lions and flocks of birds were all feeding in the exact same spot, it was an amazing display of nature.

I’ve spent this week eating very freely, not worrying about my various conditions or diet. Which meant I’ve been doing a lot of cooking, wrapping up the week this evening by making a big pot of gumbo, with some fry bed topped with maple syrup for dessert. Writing this made me just go and have another bowl.

I’ve also been reflecting this week on my life, a combination of approaching sixty and retirement (17 months, 4 days, but who’s counting). So tonight I want to revisit some of the amazing things I’ve done over my journey. Yes, I’ve been lucky to do these things, but it’s not all about luck, there’s a lot of planning and determination in making these things happen. And they don’t always work out, I’ve just failed at getting a trip to Antarctica set up for December.

I’ve always been a bucket lister, I make and keep a list of 100 things I want to do before I die. So tonight I want to reflect back on some of them and some other big things that have happened in my life.

My first adventure in life, due to the kindness of a work colleague of my mother’s was a trip to Disney World. It was my first plane flight, Eastern Airlines – Albany to Orlando. It was my first dinner at a fine restaurant, Limey Jim’s. I remember being fascinated by the sommelier. It kicked off well, our first day and night in Orlando was at a hotel outside Disney and happened to also be where the Junior Miss America pageant contestants were staying. Talk about heaven for a 14 year-old boy, still my favorite day ever at a pool, I was the only male within 20 years of their age. It was also an amazing time staying at a hotel within Disney, a fabulous experience.

Since then I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve done all 50 states and about 20 countries. I’ve done the Burning Man Festival 8 times, I’ve photographed Polar Bears in the Arctic, hiked in the high passes of the Himalayas in Nepal, had an anaconda swim through my legs in the Amazon, wandered the old city of Marakesh hiked across Scotland, literally fell in love with the woman of my dreams and had her fall in love with me, then had her break my heart and make me lose my mind, only to find out that I have one of the most amazing friends imaginable who helped me hold myself together. I’ve walked a thousand miles on the Appalachian Trail, I’ve published three books, written over 2000 blog posts and a number of scientific papers. I’ve spoken at conferences as a presenter and a keynote at one point speaking to an audience of over 1000 people. I’ve hugged an 80,000 pound Grey Whale!

I’ve met some of the most amazing people on my adventures, people who live full-time in the Amazon forest, former French Foreign Legion soldiers, deep ops special forces, an actual assassin. I’ve had the absolute honor of becoming friends with several Sherpa and the variety of weirdos and fantastic humans I’ve met on hiking trails and in the desert at Burning Man has truly been spectacular.

I’ve also had a series of experiences I honestly can’t talk about publicly, including things like accidentally becoming an international drug smuggler. More than anything else about my life, I can say I’ve rarely if ever been bored. I have eight nieces and nephews I dearly love and soon will be living closer to all of them.

What’s next is really the big question and one I’ll no doubt be writing about here. I hope you’re having an amazing life my friends, but if not, find the will, make the plan, have that adventure, we only do this once. ~ Rev Kane