We had a memorable start to the year with a fabulous holiday season cruise to South Georgia to take in the region’s diverse and striking wildlife. Our cruising plans for Dirona had long included a visit there to view Ernest Shackleton’s grave in Grytviken, but we just didn’t get that far south.
In late January, Jennifer accompanied James on a business trip to Israel , where we spent time in Old Jaffa, the oldest part of Jaffa. Archaeological excavations date the city back to at least the early Bronze Age, about 3300 BC. James was greatly impressed when there decades earlier, and we were excited that Jennifer could finally visit. We’d considered visiting Israel in Dirona, but aborted our Mediterranean trip during the coronavirus pandemic.
Throughout the rest of the year, we crisscrossed the continent, spending weekends in Santa Barbara; Washington, DC; Orlando; Los Angeles; Nashville; Palo Alto; New York; Burlington, Ontario; San Francisco; Chicago; Houston; and Ottawa.
 |
 |
 |
| Left to right: Toasting Shackleton at his grave; Old Jaffa, Israel; and reflecting pool, Washington, DC | ||
This spring we decided to get a new SUV. Our Honda was getting pretty scratched up from all our off-road adventures. The BMW X5 is a good mix of performance and practicality, and we like the look. We took the new car on several road trips, including Westport on Washington’s west coast, Snoqualmie Falls, Portland, Oregon and Point Ruston, WA.
Our major hiking adventure for this year was a 4.4-mile (7 km), 4,639-ft (1,413 km) climb to Camp Muir, at altitude 10,090 feet (3,075 m), the base camp for Mt. Rainier ascents. We were thrilled to have completed the difficult, high-altitude trek.
 |
 |
| Road trip to Westport in our new car, left, and 10,090 feet (3,075 m) at Camp Muir | |
In September, we returned to the North Pole and Le Commandant Charcot with a unique trans-Arctic trip across the top of the planet, from Svalbard directly to Alaska, that crossed all three northern poles: the Geographic North Pole, the Magnetic North Pole, and the Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility. Less than a thousand people have reached all three of these points.
We celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary and Jennifer’s 60th birthday in style this October with a crazy weekend trip to Peats Bite in Sydney, Australia to. The restaurant, famous for its long, relaxed, multi-course gourmet lunches that extend well into the evening, has hosted many celebrities, including James’ doppelganger, Queen guitarist Brian May.
After returning to scuba diving late last year, we managed to fit in quick visits to the Maldives and Cozumel, Mexico this year for some spectacular diving. We also made excellent single-day dive trips to St. Lucia and Barbados as part of a Caribbean cruise over Thanksgiving. After the cruise, we were in Las Vegas for the 60,000-attendee AWS re:Invent conference, then spent the following weekend in the exact opposite environment at the isolated and chill Amangiri resort in the stunning Colorado Plateau.
 |
 |
| Celebrating Jennifer’s 60th and our 35th in Australia at Peats Bite, left, and diving in the Maldives | |
We’ve always enjoyed live music and this year an unusually large number of bands we like were touring. Live concerts we saw included: Collective Soul, Eddie Vedder, Shinedown, Bush, The Offspring, and Black Stone Cherry. We particularly enjoyed the Bush concert, where we met the band, attended an intimate acoustic pre-show warm-up, and watched them perform two songs from on-stage. When Jennifer finally got James to drop his “no musicians over age 70” rule, we also caught great shows by Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and The Who.
 |
 |
| With Bush before their Seattle concert, left, and Black Stone Cherry in Chicago. | |
James continues to enjoy the big engineering challenges that his role at Amazon exposes him to. He still spends a significant amount of his time with AWS, but also works with many teams and technologies across Amazon, including retail package delivery, robotics, self-driving cars, satellite systems and Alexa.
For the first time in four consecutive years, we won’t be spending the holiday season bundled up below 60° south in Antarctica. Instead, we’ll be at the equator for a few days of scuba diving in Indonesia before enjoying the New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Singapore. It should be an exciting way to finish the year.
Click below to view previous annual summaries:
Wow, lots of great trips, you two are master travelers.
Thanks John and all the best in 2026!