December 19, 2023 • 44 mins
Part Two of our 100th episode transports you across the globe, to explore memorable adventures, as shared by our remarkable guests: from the rich culture of Guatemala; the allure of Scotland; the intrigue of a hidden Rembrandt during World War II in the Netherlands; to Panamanians, who embrace the elderly.
We journey from Ecuador's steam trains and the sandy beaches of the British Virgin Islands to the speed of Shanghai's trains and the tranquility of Tianjin Park, China. We share little-known facts about Jamestown, Virginia, and Madrid. Patricia Schultz, author of A Thousand Places to See Before You Die, shares a special trip to Machu Picchu.
Master architect, Tim Peck joins us from Mozambique, there's a heli-skiing trip in Whistler to remember, and a refreshing hike to a waterfall in Dominica. Prepare for a moment in Egypt at King Tut's tomb, a Russian MiG jet chase, a visit to a modern replica of Noah's Ark, and a sacred experience during a massive bird migration.
This two-part 100th episode is about more than just sharing incredible stories; it's a testament to the transformative power of travel, and the memories we create along the way.
_____
Suggestion: Take down the episode numbers of any of the tales you especially enjoy, to hear the full stories.
_____
Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
Contact Lea- she loves hearing from you! @lealane on Twitter; PlacesIRememberLeaLane on Insta; Places I Remember with Lea Lane on Facebook; Website: placesirememberlealane.com.
New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, wherever you listen. Please consider sharing, following, rating and reviewing this award-winning travel podcast.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lea Lane (00:11):
Here's the second of the two sections of our best
memories from Places.
I Remember, Episode 100.
Wow, enjoy.
Sandra Smith, who sailed soloin the Pacific, was adventurous
on land as well as water.
She explains in episode 54.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So I was at the airport I got a reservation to
get up to Mexico to get my boatand these ladies behind me were
talking about this place,Antigua, and Guatemala, and it
sounded so wonderful.
They said no, there's artistseverywhere.
So I quickly ran up to the deskand changed my ticket and flew
to Guatemala City to go to thisAntigua.
And I got a ticket that I wouldgo there today, Friday, and
(00:55):
leave Sunday and go up to MexicoCity.
But when I got there the USgovernment hands American three
single-space type written pages.
It says guidelines for UStravel in Guatemala and all
three pages is don't do this,don't go climbing the volcanoes,
blah, blah, blah.
Don't hear go, blah, blah.
And I scratched that up becauseI said I'll never know
(01:17):
Guatemala if I follow this rule.
And I changed guidelines toguidebook and I promised
Guatemala you know in my heartthat I would not leave until I'd
done everything.
On the three pages.
Lea Lane (01:30):
So how long did i t?
It took me six months.
Oh, my goodness.
You did it, you did it .
I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Anyway, my daughter even came down and climbed some
volcano with me and we weregetting so exhausted.
I saw a man with a white horsecollecting wood and I ran up to
him can I borrow your s please,I'm tired?
And he said sure, and he let us.
We both rode off on a whitehorse to the top of the volcano,
oh, that's a beautiful image.
Lea Lane (02:02):
Bruce and Rona, brother and sister, share
memories of Scotland.
On episode 55.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, I just feel really fortunate.
Where I live like I think he'slow the N has so much to offer,
like the beaches.
There's two volcanic plugs youcan climb to the top off.
So there's one that's calledCapri law and there's one that's
called North Berwick law andfor me, just like climbing to
the top of them and lookingacross the Firth of Forth and
being able to look out towardsthe bash rock as well.
(02:29):
It's just really lovely that inthe cheese and just being
active like a love being activelike you can do paddle boarding
at the beach, you can do horseriding on the beach.
There's just so much to do thatI just feel so lucky to have
the opportunity to do thosethings.
Bruce, what about you?
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yeah, I'll go more w.
So one of the things inEdinburgh that we haven't talked
about is the Scott monument,which is to celebrate Walter
Scott.
So this is a kind of weirdshaped spaceship looking
monument that you can climb upin the inside or at least you
could.
I'm assuming you still can.
But anyway, my memory is ofclimbing up that with our
(03:06):
grandmother and you get right tothe top, and when you're right
at the top of them, you'reliterally squashed in this
spiral staircase to get to thetop, and when you get up, you're
right in the center ofEdinburgh, but you're able to
look down and see all the peoplelooking like ants on the bottom
, and then you can see all ofthe views all around.
And it's, I think, because anytime you're in Edinburgh you can
(03:27):
see that monument.
When I think of Edinburgh,that's what I think of, and then
I think of climbing it with mygrandmother as well, and so it's
the Scott monument.
Lea Lane (03:38):
In episode 56, our guest remembers a national art
treasure hidden in theNetherlands in World War II by
her grandfather.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
If I'm thinking about special, I'm thinking about my
grandfather in the war, WorldWar II, yes, and he was a truck
driver.
He had his own truck, so hewould drive around and help
people with whatever moving.
And he was asked to help theNight Watch To (the famous
Rembrandt painting).
Yes, yes, to put it in his carand drive to the dunes here in
(04:09):
Castricum, which is a littletown next to the sea, and in
here we got bunkers and that'swhere the Night Watch was stored
away for the Germans, so itwould be kept for the Dutch.
Lea Lane (04:22):
So he drove the Night Watch to the.
I mean, I have heard about thefact that they had to take it
out and protect it and howfabulous it was when it came
back and what a ceremony and Ican only imagine that's one of
your great treasures of yourcountry.
So, wow, that's quite a memory.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
There is a small bunker here in the dunes and
there is a little plaque statingthere on the side that this was
the bunker that the Night Watchwas stored.
In a way, it's very famousstory.
Lea Lane (04:49):
People are often the keys to a memory, as in this
from episode 57.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
For me, a lot of it boils down to the people.
Sure, the internet is great andI can do my work as a writer
from here, but it's the people.
And my dad was living hereuntil he passed away in 2013.
And you know, I've been tocountries where there's maybe a
little bit more impatience withpeople as they get older rather
than respect, whereas here inPanama, what we encountered a
(05:18):
lot of the time was just reallyrespect or compassion.
Supermarket cashiers wouldremember my dad and he was the
last dinosaur insisting onpaying for things with paper
checks and taking forever inline and people waiting behind
him.
And they remembered him and gotto know him and they would ask
him how he was.
(05:39):
And one day he was out.
I wasn't with him, he was at abank and he got dizzy and passed
out.
You know the people.
They sat with him.
They found my number in hisphone.
They called me.
They stayed with him until theambulance came to take him to
the hospital.
They went to the hospital andwaited until I got there before
(05:59):
leaving.
They kind of just left.
They didn't take anything fromme, didn't want to accept
anything.
Called me the next day to askhow is our Mr Ramesh Wow?
he d ?
That's the kind of person that, and of course, not
everyone's perfect, but that'sjust overwhelmingly what I've
encountered here.
Lea Lane (06:20):
Walking with a sibling by a waterfall in the Pacific
Northwest leads to a movingmoment in episode 58.
Speaker 8 (06:28):
One of my most special memories was when I was
in Portland and I went out tothe falls that I mentioned
earlier Multnomah Falls, wherethere's this stepping down of
the water, and I went down tothe base.
There's this huge area thatnature has eroded away and
there's rocks that have beenworn smooth all over and it's
(06:52):
very dangerous goings.
But I went out with my brotherand we got really close and the
closer we got to the falls, themore the spray and the pressure
off of it.
And we stayed there for a fewminutes and when we took the
trail and got back to our car,we didn't talk the entire time
(07:13):
and when we finally got back tothe car he said how do you feel
right now, how do you feel inthis moment?
And I said if someone said itwas my time to leave here and I
had to go, it would be okay.
I felt so at peace in a waythat I just have never
experienced.
Lea Lane (07:34):
Annabella George has traveled both in luxury and on a
budget.
Here's a vivid memory of thelatter in episode 59.
Speaker 9 (07:42):
I had met these other friends staying in Quito
Ecuador, and we decided to takethis trip on steam trains.
We sat on top and all thesekids joined us and these shoe
shine boys, and we had awonderful time with them and
kind of at the end they were allsleeping on our laps and
(08:03):
cuddling them and even though Iwas wearing tivas, I had them
shine my shoes anyway.
Lea Lane (08:10):
I just think about ducking under the tunnel.
That's the thing that wouldscare me.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
You have to keep it right in the hand.
That was very concerning.
Lea Lane (08:20):
Yep, one especially beautiful beach of the British
Virgin Islands, is remembered inepisode 60.
Speaker 10 (08:28):
You can crawl through these boulders and
there's wonderful seapools andgrottos.
I've heard many stories abouthow the b were formed.
I like to tell people that,just to get an idea of what it
looks like.
E if we had thousand footgiants and the boulders were
legos and they just made caveswith them on the beach, There's
(08:50):
an area that we call thecathedral, and the reason why we
call it the cathedral isbecause the boulders shoot up
hundreds of feet and it has acathedral feel inside of it.
Especially when the sun is up,the sun peeks through the
boulders into the waters.
Lea Lane (09:09):
In episode 61, I remember many train trips that
I've taken throughout the world.
I have some glimpses in my mindof some of the train trips I've
taken.
Some of them are on tiny littletrains, little cogwheel trains.
I went up in the cloud forestin Costa Rica.
I've been up to the Jungfrau inSwitzerland.
I took steam engines along theRhône and France and in Wales
(09:32):
I've gone through the channel.
You know the train that takesyou from London to Paris.
That's an experience.
You have lunch and you're inParis.
It's a wonderful trip.
I've been in the Grand Canyonwhere a train was set up where a
gunfight ensued.
They had the outlaws come ontothe train and it was a lot of
fun.
It was like a story.
I've been on the bullet trainin Japan, where you speed by
(09:57):
Mount Fuji, and I've been on atrain in Shanghai called the
Maglev, where you go 433kilometers an hour.
It's amazing.
It's the fastest train I'veever been on.
You tilt to the side and it'squite exciting.
Sometimes a park can change alife, as we see in episode 63.
Speaker 11 (10:18):
I remember in one park when we were in Tianjin,
the wetland park we spoke withan elderly gentleman about his
experiences and what he thoughtof the park.
And he was talking about how heremembers when it was the
despoiled urban landfill and Isaw and now it's been
transformed into this amazingspace and that he actually takes
(10:38):
a two hour long bus ride justto go to the park weekly.
And it was really like kind oftouching to hear.
And I think in that same visitwe met a grandmother with her
granddaughter who was thrilledwith the park, loved to go see
the wildlife, the geese, and shegrabbed my hand and tried to
drag me to see the geese andthings like this too.
I mean, she was really charming.
Lea Lane (11:01):
She learned surprising things on our podcast In
episode 64.
You'll hear something youdidn't expect about Jamestown,
Virginia.
Speaker 12 (11:10):
I went to Historic Jamestown again after many years
when I took this role on isthat the early times for these
English settlers were reallychallenging.
I mean, at one point more thanhalf of the settlement was doubt
by disease and hunger, and sothis group, out of desperation,
(11:30):
turned to cannibalism.
Lea Lane (11:32):
Really, yes.
You never hear that in thehistory books.
Speaker 12 (11:35):
No, no.
And they found in the course ofdoing these archaeological digs
the remains of a young girl whothey traced back to a certain
area in England based on whatwas found in her bones from
nutrition.
So back then it was well, ifyou were from this area of
England then you ate this kindof diet, and so they're able to
(11:58):
trace that back.
Out of severe desperation, thiswas discovered that this
settlement had at one pointturned to cannibalism just to
survive.
Lea Lane (12:10):
We have two very different memories from two
residents of Madrid in episode65.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
I was here when my family left Cuba in 1967.
Franco was in power at the time, dictator Francisco Franco.
It was a very different cityand yet to me as a small child
coming out of communist Cuba, itseemed wonderful because there
was all kinds of candy and hamand wonderful things to eat and
that we didn't get in Cuba atthe time.
I remember things like thatwere the serenos, which were
(12:39):
these gentlemen who stood on thecorners at night with a big
bunch of keys dangling off theirpant loop and if you came in
after a certain hour, back toyour building, you would have to
clap your hands and they wouldcome and open the door for you.
And these are things that evenyoung Spaniards don't remember,
because what they were doingactually was they were also kind
of keeping an eye on thepopulation.
It was part of being a policestate.
Speaker 14 (13:00):
Right.
Speaker 13 (13:01):
But these were generally like retired police or
whatever.
Who took these jobs to open the?
Doors at night and also toprovide assistance and work
among whatever was done, butit's just a very interesting
memory of a world that no longeris and yet is still in the grid
.
Lea Lane (13:16):
Fabulous memory.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 13 (13:19):
You're welcome.
Lea Lane (13:19):
Okay, David.
Speaker 15 (13:21):
Mine is a lot more recent.
I have a lot of nice memoriesassociated with Madrid, but the
most dramatic perhaps occurredin January of 2021, when the
city was buried under thebiggest snowstorm in a century,
and it was called Filomena --three and a half feet of snow,
(13:41):
and normally Madrid gets a fewflakes here and there.
They don't even stick.
Oh, look a little, you know alittle flurry how exotic.
But this sort of threw everyoneinto a tizzy.
It was fun for the first coupleof days.
People were sledding and skiingdown the streets.
Snowball fights, Snowballfights, Epic snowball fights
(14:02):
across Gran Vía you know betweenthe kids.
And you really had to watch out.
Lea Lane (14:08):
In episode 70, we talked with hotel managers about
their memories.
Here's a good one.
Do people bring cats?
I always wondered.
I never bring a cat and I neverhear about that.
I know they don't like totravel.
Speaker 16 (14:21):
They do.
They do, but they're not asthey're not as popular, and in
our case we did draw a line onthe weight of the pet, whether
it's a dog or a cat and you knowno exotic pets like big parrots
or snakes, things like that.
We don't, we don't accept.
Lea Lane (14:36):
The rest of you as well.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 17 (14:40):
The best are celebrity pets, (oh please tell
us).
Celebrity pets are my favorite.
We had a guest, and dog's namewas Audrey, and when the handler
would call down room service,they would act as if the dog was
the actual guest or a child.
So Audrey will be dining atthree o'clock this afternoon.
(15:00):
She would like organic boiledchicken cubes and she got it,
and she got it, and she got it,served on a room service tray,
and that's how she dined eachday.
Lea Lane (15:11):
In episode 73, master architect Tim Peck describes a
memory in Mozambique, Africa.
Speaker 18 (15:18):
I went out to Bermisi I don't know if you've
been there which is an island innorthern Mozambique.
We arrived there and landed onthis dirt airstrip in the middle
of a l little local village andI was met at the end of the
runway by a few of the localvillagers and obviously we're in
a little plane, you know,eight-seater or 10-seater.
They met us at the end of therunway and, you know, picked up
(15:39):
our suitcases and put them ontheir shoulder and kind of
walked off into the sea.
Oh really, and I thought, ok,this is a little bizarre.
And then just tucked around thecorner, about 25, 30 yards
offshore, was a boat and so wehad to roll up our trousers,
take off our shoes, roll up ourtrousers and walk off into the
sea up to the boat.
And that took us down theisland to this beautiful luxury,
(16:03):
very, very small, very boutiqueresort which we were looking at
to help them redevelop andthings.
So you had the reverseexperience then, where the
people up next to the beach you,the guys shut the suitcase back
on their shoulders, disappearedoff up the beach and you rolled
up your trousers and they didoffer to carry us, but I felt
that Helicopter skiing providesa special memory in episode 74.
Speaker 19 (16:27):
For me.
I alluded to it earlier.
So a couple of years ago I hadthe privilege of being a
Whistler Black home with a groupand one day that surprised us
with a trip in the Heli.
So we took about an hour vanride to find the helicopter.
So it was staged very far fromthe mountain.
It had not snowed in Whistlerin about three weeks but it had
been unusually cold.
(16:48):
So when we got in the Heli wewent up, and the guy decided to
go to a location that wasanother 40 minute flight from
where we found the helicopter,because they hadn't been there
in years.
They had done so much powderskiing recently that they needed
to go a little further out tofind o track snow and they were
hopeful that because it hadbeen so cold for so long that
(17:08):
the snow would be good.
I can tell you eight lift ridesin the helicopter later our day
was done.
They had to change our guideout after six runs because she
could no longer keep up with usand needed to tap out, because
normal day is six helicopterrides.
And to this date the group Iwent with and I look at the
(17:29):
pictures speak of the memoriesand talk about recreating it,
and it's one of those things.
No trip will ever be as good asthat one.
It'll be good in some differentway.
It was my first time doing theheli skiing and I can't wait to
take my kids in a similarexperience before my body gives
out.
Lea Lane (17:47):
Here's a vivid memory from the Caribbean island of
Dominica in episode 77.
Speaker 20 (17:53):
One of my favorites is Middle Ham falls, which is a
waterfall, one of the manywaterfalls on Dominica, and I
normally say to people it'sabout a 45 minute hike up and
back.
And you hike up and to it, youtraverse down amongst the rocks
and you get into the water.
You scream like a little kidbecause it's so cold, but after
a minute you don't want to getout.
(18:13):
And then when you do get outand you walk the 45 minutes back
, you hardly sweat because yourbody has just been cooled down
so wonderfully.
And so I always tell peopleabout that story because it just
amazed me when it happened tome.
I want everybody to experiencethat.
Lea Lane (18:31):
In episode 78, Patricia Schultz, author of the
blockbuster book A ThousandPlaces to See Before you Die,
shows a terrific memory.
Speaker 21 (18:41):
But for my birthday I always do make it a point to
give myself the gift of travel.
And on my big birthdays, on my50th, which already was almost
20 years ago, I decided it wastime to see Machu Picchu,
because it's not an easy trip.
Lea Lane (18:59):
N I've been there and you're right, it is not an easy
trip.
Speaker 21 (19:01):
Oh, and if you do your homework and you make all
the arrangements totally doable,and oh, is it worth every
effort in the book and everypenny.
But I do remember not havingdone quite enough research.
I knew that Cusco, up in theAndes, which is your launch,
your starting point to, at11,000 feet right, then take
(19:26):
that zigzag train down to MachuPicchu, which is a mere 7,000
feet.
But I remember thinking, oh,I've been to Denver, I've got
this altitude thing, I'm goingto be just fine.
But guess what?
I wasn't.
I didn't bring altitude pills,sickness pills, with me which
are very easy to come by.
You just call your doctor andprescription and there you go.
(19:47):
But I was in the lobby of myvery nice hotel in Cusco with an
oxygen tank and a mask, thanksto the very sympathetic manager
of the hotel, and I met thislovely, lovely woman who came
sauntering over.
I guess she felt you know itwas a feeling pity or you know,
compassion for me, I don't know.
It turns out she was American,she was one of the nicest.
(20:09):
I mean, imagine this 20 yearslater and I still remember it
like it was yesterday.
She was totally fine, noproblem at all with the altitude
.
She was there celebrating her90th birthday.
It was her first passport, itwas her first stamp, it was her
70th wedding anniversary oupstairs resting because he too
(20:29):
was having a problem with thealtitude and she went off into
this monologue because I had anoxygen mask.
She told me about how she'dalways just wanted to travel.
She dropped out of school whenshe was 12, she raised five
children.
African American said she wasproud to be a washerwoman.
For all of those years she puther kids through high school,
(20:53):
college, graduate school, andfor her 90th they got together
and sent her any place in theworld that she wanted to go and
they had given her a book and itwas called 1000 Places to See
and she could have any place shewanted.
And I guess they were thinking,oh, you know, like Boca or Las
(21:13):
Vegas, but no, she wanted to goto Machu Picchu.
And she said to me these twothings and they're pearls for me
and I will forever rememberthem.
And she said you know, dear,your knees have expiration dates
.
And she said you have to do thedifficult places first.
Lea Lane (21:31):
Here's a lovely memory of Rome from episode 79.
Speaker 22 (21:35):
My mother was Roman, as I mentioned, and when we
lived there in the mid 60s, oneday she took us to the Vatican
and I found that kind ofdaunting and creepy.
We went down into the crypt andthat's another thing you can do
if you want creepy things, gointo crypts.
They're all over them.
But then she said okay, we'regoing up onto the Giannicole.
(21:59):
The Giannicole is called thegeniculum in English.
So she took us up the back wayfrom the Vatican and said don't
look back, just keep climbing.
And we climbed and climbed andwe got up to the top of the hill
and then she said now turnaround.
And we turned around and therewas this unbelievable view of
Michelangelo's dome, of StPeter's, framed by parasol pines
(22:24):
.
And even as a six or seven yearold, whatever I was, was, I
got the heebie-jeebies.
So that's one thing I like todo when I'm Rome, Rome and I
take friends and when I do leadtours in Rome, I take people up
that way and reveal thisincredible view.
You know, we'll get a betterview of the cupola, of that
(22:45):
amazing, gigantic church.
Lea Lane (22:49):
One of the most thrilling trips of my life was
visiting the mountain gorillasin Rwanda.
In episode 81, our guestdescribes his memory of the
experience.
You know it's a long, long wayfrom anywhere to get to Rwanda.
You've got to change planesusually and there's lots of
things you have to do along theway take tests for health and
all that and you're very happyto finally get to the place.
(23:12):
Well, I got very close to thegorillas at the park, where they
tell you what to do in terms ofhow you act and what to expect,
and they put the groupstogether and I was all excited
and they tell you, before you goto see the gorillas, to go to
the bathroom.
So I went to the bathroom.
Unfortunately, I got locked inthe stall and I couldn't get out
(23:33):
and I thought I came all thisway halfway around the world and
I'm not going to see thosegorillas because we're all timed
very carefully and I thoughtthey're not going to wait for me
.
They don't even know I'm inhere.
Well, luckily somebody came infinally and after that men and
women came in to help me out thedoor and everything.
I finally got out.
But that was a real lesson.
I mean, you can do everythingyou can think of to be ready,
(23:55):
and you never know, but it'sstill worth it.
I still got to see the gorillasand it makes a great story
right.
Speaker 23 (24:02):
They let me out.
For me, my strongest memory Ihave of the gorillas was
actually my very, very firsttime to go and see the gorillas
25 years ago.
When I first walked into theclearing, into the forest, I
came across a group of gorillas.
There was one particularsilverback who was there and he
stopped what he was doing and heturned around and he stared me
(24:22):
straight in the eye And theyalways say you should never look
them in the eye, but I wasalmost hypnotized and he stared
straight at me and he checked meout.
He looked me up and down.
He was really getting themeasure of me in the same way
that you do if you walk into aroom and you see people.
They look at you and it's thefirst time I realized these guys
are intelligent beings.
(24:44):
There was something in thatlook and no other animal I know
will look at you in that way.
It is astounding and I thinkabout that moment every time I
see them.
It's just phenomenal.
Lea Lane (24:56):
Fun memories of Israel in episode 82.
When I was first in Israel inthe 1970s, I remember there were
very few trees that I noticed.
Outside of certain areas therewas lots and lots of desert.
It is a desert area.
So I planted a tree, a littletree and I came back to Israel
(25:16):
many, many years later and thehills were forested.
There were so many trees, so Iplanted another one because I
saw with my own eyes how thatlittle tree must have grown.
I'll never see it, but I knowit was there in the forest.
So it's a wonderful thing.
I think it's an example ofpeople being ahead of their time
in terms of climate change andall of that.
They realize the importance oftrees and greenery.
(25:39):
So it's a beautiful thing tosee today that the area is
filled with beautiful plants itisn't just desert and it shows
you how each little tree canmake a difference.
So I planted two in a span ofmaybe 50 years and I hope my
little tree is growing up.
I planted it about 10 years ago.
It's probably getting there.
What about a memory from you,Dana?
Speaker 24 (25:58):
What strikes me every time I go to Israel is the
juxtaposition of the old andthe new in the streets, whether
they're the streets of Tel Aviv,more so perhaps in the streets
of Jerusalem, the backdrop ofthe old city against the modern
conveniences we all take forgranted now.
My favorite thing to do inJerusalem is to sit on the
(26:21):
terrace of the King David Hoteland look out over the old city,
late afternoon or an evening,and it is the most calming and
wonderful moment that I've hadin the land of Israel, and I
always try to make sure I getthere.
The other thing I love inIsrael are the little
restaurants that are tucked awayon side streets, that look as
(26:45):
if they've been there, and havebeen there not just for decades,
perhaps for centuries, anddiscovering those little out of
the way places Just by wanderingdown a street you might not
have found on a map you mightnot have known about before, and
being adventurous, A travelagent describes flying on the
(27:07):
Concorde Concorde in episode 83.
Speaker 25 (27:11):
We flew from Dulles Airport in Washington to London
on British Airways back in theday.
It took six hours, which itstill does now, but on the
Concorde it only took like threeand a half.
When you take off with it itdoesn't take off gradually like
a 747 does.
It takes up really straight up.
If you've ever saw pictures ofit, it's got a nose that pops up
(27:34):
and down and you actually feelit actually pushes you back into
the seat because of the speed.
And then, when it finally getsto the altitude, which is about
60,000 feet, which is maybetwice the altitude of a normal
aircraft, You can actually seethe curvature of the earth.
The sky isn't blue anymore.
(27:54):
It takes on a purplish tintwhen the astronauts are up in
the space.
The sky is black.
Well, it goes from light blueto darker blue to at 60,000 feet
it's almost purple.
And it flies at Mach two and ahalf, which is two and a half
times the speed of sound.
And they have a little counter,that digital clock up on the
(28:18):
wall.
You could watch it tick offuntil it got to Mach two and a
half.
You were only at that speed forabout an hour.
Lea Lane (28:26):
In episode 84,.
Here are memories of what makesa trip to the Great Barrier
Reef off Australia so special.
Speaker 26 (28:33):
It is enormous the size of Japan or Italy 3,000
different reefs.
There are amazing number offish there.
Still, climate change has beena problem.
There were some major bleachingevents about 10 years ago and
eight years ago and it is anongoing problem.
And if people don't believe inclimate change, you know, come
to Australia because we haveweird weather patterns happening
(28:55):
all the time.
Is the barrier reef ruined?
No, it's not.
Will you see amazing things?
Yes, you will.
Is it full of multi-colored,brilliant coral?
No, it's not, but it's notnecessarily bleached.
I mean healthy coral here.
A lot of the healthy coral isbrown.
When I talk to my guests aboutwhat the best parts of the trip
(29:16):
has been, nearly always they saythe Barrier reef.
There are plenty of fish there;turtles, if you're lucky.
If you go on a cruise, reallynormally out of Cairns or Port
Douglas I prefer Port Douglas.
It's a little bit smaller, abit more friendly.
Cairns is like the gateway tothe reef, but if you go on a
boat that goes to the same placeevery day, the snorkeling won't
(29:36):
be as good as if you gosomewhere a little bit further
out and obviously it justdepends on the day.
But it's extraordinary anddefinitely worth seeing and
still something that's reallyspecial for people.
I had one lady when she was abit nervous about snorkeling.
We have to wear stinger suits,lycra suits, body suits, because
they're poisonous.
jellyfish I mean everything inAustralia can kill you.
You know we're full ofpoisonous animals and snakes and
(29:59):
spiders and things, but Irarely ever see them.
They want to avoid people.
And one lady was sort ofnervous about snorkeling.
She came out just glowing andshe would have been 80.
And she just said I feel youngagain, Jan, I feel young again.
You know, there's so many fish.
Lea Lane (30:15):
In episode 86, National Geographic writer Ann
Williams describes her amazingmoment in Egypt at King Tut's
Tomb.
Speaker 27 (30:24):
It's January 5th 2005.
Wow, and the tomb was not wellguarded during World War II.
The theory is that some peoplegot in and started to pick up
the mummy to get at beads.
There were mummy experts wholooked at these cat scans and
thought that one of King Tut'sknees looked like it had been
(30:46):
broken Not only broken but thenhealed a little bit after the
bone break.
King Tut was doing somethingwriting in battle, writing his
chariot too fast, you know,upended by a hippo, I mean
something and broke his leg.
Perhaps infection set in and ofcourse, back in those days
(31:09):
there was no penicillin and yougot an infection like that and
you died.
And that's the current thing.
Right, it was a thrill to bethere that night, be so close to
King Tut's mummy.
It was always interesting, ofcourse, to work with Dr Hawass,
because I had so much time tostudy up before I wrote that
(31:29):
story.
I became sort of an amateurexpert in all of the stuff in
King Tut's Tomb, and some of thethings in that tomb are so
beautiful I can't even begin toexpress to you what skill it
took to create them.
They are just extraordinary,and it's not only the big
(31:53):
honking gold stuff that we allknow.
It's beautiful cosmetic cases,for instance, that were made in
the shape of geese, and you knowa swimming girl and a
grasshopper Just exquisite,exquisite things from that tomb
and from that time period.
That was the gateway for me.
(32:15):
I got fascinated with all thatstuff, as Ken Garrett, the
photographer, and I say the moreyou know in ancient Egypt, the
more you want to knowarchaeology is.
It's a great jigsaw puzzle, butin ancient Egypt there's so
many pieces to the puzzle and weknow people's names, we know
the names of kings, we knowtheir queens, we know their
(32:36):
viziers, we know their children,and suddenly you start to put
together this great jigsawpuzzle through time, through
space, and it becomesfascinating.
So the dig season runs fromOctober to March, otherwise
Egypt is pretty hot.
Wait for October to roll around.
(32:57):
We're always waiting to seewhat is coming out of the ground
so that we can then take thatpiece and put it in that jigsaw
puzzle that we have going in ourmind.
Fascinating, that's what I doevery fall, and the cat-scanning
of King Tut was the beginningof all of that.
Lea Lane (33:18):
Here's a beautiful moment in Montana on episode 89.
Speaker 14 (33:23):
I took my daughter, who was four my first born
daughter up to the reservationfor a powwow On her birthday the
last year.
I lived in Montana before Icame east and it was a beautiful
day.
I was up there with a friendand her daughter and our kids at
one point were invited out toMarch.
There's someone who said youkids want to come?
(33:44):
And they went out into thelarge circle and just circled it
and circled it and circled it,stamping their feet, and just as
it came to a conclusion and thepeople in the stands were
walking down and joining withthe people who'd been marching,
it began to snow.
It was the 4th of July and itwas warm, but coming off the
(34:06):
missions, coming out of the east, a set of clouds came over and
it just began dropping sparklinglittle snowflakes on us in the
middle of the 4th of July heatit was beautiful, a rain dance,
but a snow dance.
You suddenly felt like you werein some way physically connected
to the tops of those peaks justto the east.
(34:28):
There was this sense of thatIndian idea of being connected
to the world and itscapabilities and its processes.
Lea Lane (34:37):
Beautiful, beautiful memory.
A stunning natural scene isremembered in Costa Rica in
episode 90.
Speaker 28 (34:46):
My memory probably no surprise is the first time I
ever saw an Arribata or the seaturtle phenomenon.
I'm a marine biologist, thoughI had studied turtles and worked
with turtles in North Carolinawhere I went to university, and
we have just maybe a handful,maybe up to 50 turtles that nest
there over an entire nestingseason.
So I had never actually reallyworked that closely with turtles
(35:09):
on the beach while they werenesting.
Our work primarily just waslooking at the beach in the
mornings looking for track signsof turtles.
Having been there, my firstnesting event was very special
because I came all the way toOstunau.
At the time it was a lot harderto get here.
There were fewer bridges, andso after finally arriving in
Ostunau, the whole town was veryanxious because the turtles
(35:33):
were kind of quote unquote latethat month they were.
They hadn't arrived right whenwe expected them, and so
everyone was concerned or theturtles not coming this month,
what's going to happen?
And sure enough, finally theyarrived and I went out onto the
beach at night to help agraduate student who was doing
research, and it's pitch black,and all I remember is that I'm
(35:55):
trying to look down at my feetto follow her and keep up and
we're essentially dodgingturtles, and I can feel and hear
and smell that there's turtlesall around me, but I can't see.
Lea Lane (36:06):
I want to ask that it smells.
Speaker 28 (36:09):
It has very reptilian smell.
Let's put it that way.
We don't use white lights onthe beach because sea turtles
are very sensitive to light, sowe're using a red light and you
cannot see very far orappreciate just how many turtles
are on the beach.
But we arrived to this riverbank where we needed to cross to
continue going down the beach,and so, for safety reasons, he
(36:29):
quickly grabbed her white lightand flashed it across the river
so we could see and it, you know, shown on the entire beach
ahead of us, and it was I can'tthink of another way of saying
it but that it was swarming withturtles.
The same way, if you imaginelooking at a beehive, that's
what the beach looked like andmy jaw just dropped.
I was just astounded and I willnever forget that moment of you
(36:52):
know, even though I was alreadyon the beach.
Just finally seeing all of thatwas just amazing, really,
really special experience towitness so much abundance in
nature, especially being someonewho studies an endangered
species you know we're usuallylucky if we get to see and work
with one turtle A really specialmoment and obviously, something
that changed my life.
I decided to stay here anddedicate myself to protecting
(37:15):
this place.
Lea Lane (37:17):
In episode 91, a flight attendant during the
golden age of travel describes amemorable moment in the air.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
I was leaving London in 1983.
We were loading on to thisgiant bus that they would take
us right underneath the airplaneand I met the cockpit crew and
it was the pilot's last flight,the last flight.
He was retiring, his wholefamily was meeting him in
(37:44):
Chicago and we were going over apolar route.
That was the shortest time.
I said, oh well, this isexciting, I'm taking care of you
upstairs, this will be fun.
And then I got this sinkingfeeling that, or what it I mean,
something's going to happen.
So I just finished.
(38:06):
The service started the movieupstairs this was business
class upstairs, and the doorflew open, the cockpit, which is
quite a ways away from thepassengers, maybe 1520 feet and
they say get in here, kathy, getin here.
So I did.
They said we just got a callfrom the government, the Air
(38:29):
Force, whoever is monitoring theairspace, and they said there
are two Russian MiG jets chasingyour plane.
Now, this was terrifyingbecause a week before, two
Russian MiG jets had shot down aKorean airline 747.
I remember going from, Ibelieve, Seattle to Korea.
(38:55):
Window shades were down.
This was the same situationwith our plane.
Right now everybody's watchingthe movie.
Window shades were down.
He said grab the service managerand go to the back, see if you
can see them.
And I wanted to say don't youhave a rear view mirror?
They, they didn't.
(39:16):
So I run a football field.
Now to get to the back of theplane.
I opened this huge window coveron the 747 door.
We're looking like crazy andwe're on the phone on both sides
of the airplane with the pilot.
Meanwhile our plane is bankingand making a sharp left turn.
(39:38):
The military had told thepilots OK, you're going to go to
X amount south and they have toturn around.
They don't have enough fuel tofollow you and get back to their
base.
So that's what we did.
Nothing was said to thepassengers.
Oh, really, no, no.
Speaker 11 (39:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 7 (39:58):
It wasn't even shared with the rest of the crew until
we landed.
We were two hours late, but hisfamily was there to meet him
and they were very happy he wasfinished.
.
flight, last flight and hiswife said what was the delay?
And he just winked at me.
Lea Lane (40:17):
Noah's his ark in in Kentucky.
Hear this memory in episode 93.
Speaker 29 (40:23):
OK, well, we were in North Carolina, it was raining,
raining, raining and I said,boy, we could use an ark.
And someone said, oh, there isone in Williamtown, Kentucky, so
we went over there.
The ark is two football fieldslong, it is supposedly the
largest timber wood structure inthe world and it is three
(40:47):
floors.
So apparently the other ark wasthree decks.
It is a replica of Noah's Ark.
It has everything that the Arkmight have had: beautiful
baskets, exotic carpets,hammocks.
And they do have the animals,but they're outside the Ark.
Speaker 9 (41:05):
How many?
Speaker 29 (41:05):
animals.
Speaker 9 (41:06):
Well, they had all.
Speaker 29 (41:08):
You know they had kangaroos and just all kinds of
things.
They were not inside.
If they were out, I would saythat Noah would not have
recognized this Ark.
But it was air conditioning, ithad Wi-Fi and a gift shop.
Lea Lane (41:24):
I like this Ark In episode 95, our final special
memory in this Places a IRemember.
special collection author LoriErickson remembers a stunning,
moving natural experience.
Speaker 30 (41:37):
But we haven't talked about this sacred air
chapter and which is again oneof my favorites.
.
.For sacred t air.
It was a bit of a struggle totry to figure out.
Well, how do you talk aboutsacred air?
And then a friend suggested tome that I write about birds, and
when I thought of birds Iimmediately thought Sandhill the
sandhill crane migration incentral Nebraska along the
(41:59):
Platte River every March, duringwhich about a half Sandhill
cranes sandhill cranes are therefor about four weeks on their
way north.
They stop in Nebraska and gainweight and eat a lot the rest of
their epic journey north.
It is amazing bird watching,especially in the morning and in
the evening when great flocksof cranes fly overhead to their
(42:23):
roosting places in the river.
And one experience inparticular Bob and I on our last
morning we got up early youalways have to get up early in
order to see the -- and- - andwe were perched with our
binoculars looking out at theriver and a few birds are
starting to take off, and then afew more.
And then something startled thebirds, not clear what, maybe a
(42:43):
coyote, or maybe a human movingsomewhere, and suddenly it was
probably 200,000 cranes.
Oh, my, sky all at once withinthe space of a minute and the
sound was overwhelming.
It was like a freight traingoing through my mind.
You could just feel the beat oftheir wings and it was this
(43:07):
enormous rush of air a and anelemental power that I mean.
Both Bob and I just had tearsstreaming down our eyes.
It was so powerful.
It lasted only about a minute.
It was a wonderful example, Ithink, of the ways in which
being in nature can be aprofoundly spiritual experience
(43:29):
if you're open to it.
Here's the second of the two sections of our best
memories from Places.
I Remember, Episode 100.
Wow, enjoy.
Sandra Smith, who sailed soloin the Pacific, was adventurous
on land as well as water.
She explains in episode 54.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So I was at the airport I got a reservation to
get up to Mexico to get my boatand these ladies behind me were
talking about this place,Antigua, and Guatemala, and it
sounded so wonderful.
They said no, there's artistseverywhere.
So I quickly ran up to the deskand changed my ticket and flew
to Guatemala City to go to thisAntigua.
And I got a ticket that I wouldgo there today, Friday, and
(00:55):
leave Sunday and go up to MexicoCity.
But when I got there the USgovernment hands American three
single-space type written pages.
It says guidelines for UStravel in Guatemala and all
three pages is don't do this,don't go climbing the volcanoes,
blah, blah, blah.
Don't hear go, blah, blah.
And I scratched that up becauseI said I'll never know
(01:17):
Guatemala if I follow this rule.
And I changed guidelines toguidebook and I promised
Guatemala you know in my heartthat I would not leave until I'd
done everything.
On the three pages.
Lea Lane (01:30):
So how long did i t?
It took me six months.
Oh, my goodness.
You did it, you did it .
I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Anyway, my daughter even came down and climbed some
volcano with me and we weregetting so exhausted.
I saw a man with a white horsecollecting wood and I ran up to
him can I borrow your s please,I'm tired?
And he said sure, and he let us.
We both rode off on a whitehorse to the top of the volcano,
oh, that's a beautiful image.
Lea Lane (02:02):
Bruce and Rona, brother and sister, share
memories of Scotland.
On episode 55.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, I just feel really fortunate.
Where I live like I think he'slow the N has so much to offer,
like the beaches.
There's two volcanic plugs youcan climb to the top off.
So there's one that's calledCapri law and there's one that's
called North Berwick law andfor me, just like climbing to
the top of them and lookingacross the Firth of Forth and
being able to look out towardsthe bash rock as well.
(02:29):
It's just really lovely that inthe cheese and just being
active like a love being activelike you can do paddle boarding
at the beach, you can do horseriding on the beach.
There's just so much to do thatI just feel so lucky to have
the opportunity to do thosethings.
Bruce, what about you?
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yeah, I'll go more w.
So one of the things inEdinburgh that we haven't talked
about is the Scott monument,which is to celebrate Walter
Scott.
So this is a kind of weirdshaped spaceship looking
monument that you can climb upin the inside or at least you
could.
I'm assuming you still can.
But anyway, my memory is ofclimbing up that with our
(03:06):
grandmother and you get right tothe top, and when you're right
at the top of them, you'reliterally squashed in this
spiral staircase to get to thetop, and when you get up, you're
right in the center ofEdinburgh, but you're able to
look down and see all the peoplelooking like ants on the bottom
, and then you can see all ofthe views all around.
And it's, I think, because anytime you're in Edinburgh you can
(03:27):
see that monument.
When I think of Edinburgh,that's what I think of, and then
I think of climbing it with mygrandmother as well, and so it's
the Scott monument.
Lea Lane (03:38):
In episode 56, our guest remembers a national art
treasure hidden in theNetherlands in World War II by
her grandfather.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
If I'm thinking about special, I'm thinking about my
grandfather in the war, WorldWar II, yes, and he was a truck
driver.
He had his own truck, so hewould drive around and help
people with whatever moving.
And he was asked to help theNight Watch To (the famous
Rembrandt painting).
Yes, yes, to put it in his carand drive to the dunes here in
(04:09):
Castricum, which is a littletown next to the sea, and in
here we got bunkers and that'swhere the Night Watch was stored
away for the Germans, so itwould be kept for the Dutch.
Lea Lane (04:22):
So he drove the Night Watch to the.
I mean, I have heard about thefact that they had to take it
out and protect it and howfabulous it was when it came
back and what a ceremony and Ican only imagine that's one of
your great treasures of yourcountry.
So, wow, that's quite a memory.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
There is a small bunker here in the dunes and
there is a little plaque statingthere on the side that this was
the bunker that the Night Watchwas stored.
In a way, it's very famousstory.
Lea Lane (04:49):
People are often the keys to a memory, as in this
from episode 57.
Speaker 6 (04:55):
For me, a lot of it boils down to the people.
Sure, the internet is great andI can do my work as a writer
from here, but it's the people.
And my dad was living hereuntil he passed away in 2013.
And you know, I've been tocountries where there's maybe a
little bit more impatience withpeople as they get older rather
than respect, whereas here inPanama, what we encountered a
(05:18):
lot of the time was just reallyrespect or compassion.
Supermarket cashiers wouldremember my dad and he was the
last dinosaur insisting onpaying for things with paper
checks and taking forever inline and people waiting behind
him.
And they remembered him and gotto know him and they would ask
him how he was.
(05:39):
And one day he was out.
I wasn't with him, he was at abank and he got dizzy and passed
out.
You know the people.
They sat with him.
They found my number in hisphone.
They called me.
They stayed with him until theambulance came to take him to
the hospital.
They went to the hospital andwaited until I got there before
(05:59):
leaving.
They kind of just left.
They didn't take anything fromme, didn't want to accept
anything.
Called me the next day to askhow is our Mr Ramesh Wow?
he d ?
That's the kind of person that, and of course, not
everyone's perfect, but that'sjust overwhelmingly what I've
encountered here.
Lea Lane (06:20):
Walking with a sibling by a waterfall in the Pacific
Northwest leads to a movingmoment in episode 58.
Speaker 8 (06:28):
One of my most special memories was when I was
in Portland and I went out tothe falls that I mentioned
earlier Multnomah Falls, wherethere's this stepping down of
the water, and I went down tothe base.
There's this huge area thatnature has eroded away and
there's rocks that have beenworn smooth all over and it's
(06:52):
very dangerous goings.
But I went out with my brotherand we got really close and the
closer we got to the falls, themore the spray and the pressure
off of it.
And we stayed there for a fewminutes and when we took the
trail and got back to our car,we didn't talk the entire time
(07:13):
and when we finally got back tothe car he said how do you feel
right now, how do you feel inthis moment?
And I said if someone said itwas my time to leave here and I
had to go, it would be okay.
I felt so at peace in a waythat I just have never
experienced.
Lea Lane (07:34):
Annabella George has traveled both in luxury and on a
budget.
Here's a vivid memory of thelatter in episode 59.
Speaker 9 (07:42):
I had met these other friends staying in Quito
Ecuador, and we decided to takethis trip on steam trains.
We sat on top and all thesekids joined us and these shoe
shine boys, and we had awonderful time with them and
kind of at the end they were allsleeping on our laps and
(08:03):
cuddling them and even though Iwas wearing tivas, I had them
shine my shoes anyway.
Lea Lane (08:10):
I just think about ducking under the tunnel.
That's the thing that wouldscare me.
Speaker 9 (08:14):
You have to keep it right in the hand.
That was very concerning.
Lea Lane (08:20):
Yep, one especially beautiful beach of the British
Virgin Islands, is remembered inepisode 60.
Speaker 10 (08:28):
You can crawl through these boulders and
there's wonderful seapools andgrottos.
I've heard many stories abouthow the b were formed.
I like to tell people that,just to get an idea of what it
looks like.
E if we had thousand footgiants and the boulders were
legos and they just made caveswith them on the beach, There's
(08:50):
an area that we call thecathedral, and the reason why we
call it the cathedral isbecause the boulders shoot up
hundreds of feet and it has acathedral feel inside of it.
Especially when the sun is up,the sun peeks through the
boulders into the waters.
Lea Lane (09:09):
In episode 61, I remember many train trips that
I've taken throughout the world.
I have some glimpses in my mindof some of the train trips I've
taken.
Some of them are on tiny littletrains, little cogwheel trains.
I went up in the cloud forestin Costa Rica.
I've been up to the Jungfrau inSwitzerland.
I took steam engines along theRhône and France and in Wales
(09:32):
I've gone through the channel.
You know the train that takesyou from London to Paris.
That's an experience.
You have lunch and you're inParis.
It's a wonderful trip.
I've been in the Grand Canyonwhere a train was set up where a
gunfight ensued.
They had the outlaws come ontothe train and it was a lot of
fun.
It was like a story.
I've been on the bullet trainin Japan, where you speed by
(09:57):
Mount Fuji, and I've been on atrain in Shanghai called the
Maglev, where you go 433kilometers an hour.
It's amazing.
It's the fastest train I'veever been on.
You tilt to the side and it'squite exciting.
Sometimes a park can change alife, as we see in episode 63.
Speaker 11 (10:18):
I remember in one park when we were in Tianjin,
the wetland park we spoke withan elderly gentleman about his
experiences and what he thoughtof the park.
And he was talking about how heremembers when it was the
despoiled urban landfill and Isaw and now it's been
transformed into this amazingspace and that he actually takes
(10:38):
a two hour long bus ride justto go to the park weekly.
And it was really like kind oftouching to hear.
And I think in that same visitwe met a grandmother with her
granddaughter who was thrilledwith the park, loved to go see
the wildlife, the geese, and shegrabbed my hand and tried to
drag me to see the geese andthings like this too.
I mean, she was really charming.
Lea Lane (11:01):
She learned surprising things on our podcast In
episode 64.
You'll hear something youdidn't expect about Jamestown,
Virginia.
Speaker 12 (11:10):
I went to Historic Jamestown again after many years
when I took this role on isthat the early times for these
English settlers were reallychallenging.
I mean, at one point more thanhalf of the settlement was doubt
by disease and hunger, and sothis group, out of desperation,
(11:30):
turned to cannibalism.
Lea Lane (11:32):
Really, yes.
You never hear that in thehistory books.
Speaker 12 (11:35):
No, no.
And they found in the course ofdoing these archaeological digs
the remains of a young girl whothey traced back to a certain
area in England based on whatwas found in her bones from
nutrition.
So back then it was well, ifyou were from this area of
England then you ate this kindof diet, and so they're able to
(11:58):
trace that back.
Out of severe desperation, thiswas discovered that this
settlement had at one pointturned to cannibalism just to
survive.
Lea Lane (12:10):
We have two very different memories from two
residents of Madrid in episode65.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
I was here when my family left Cuba in 1967.
Franco was in power at the time, dictator Francisco Franco.
It was a very different cityand yet to me as a small child
coming out of communist Cuba, itseemed wonderful because there
was all kinds of candy and hamand wonderful things to eat and
that we didn't get in Cuba atthe time.
I remember things like thatwere the serenos, which were
(12:39):
these gentlemen who stood on thecorners at night with a big
bunch of keys dangling off theirpant loop and if you came in
after a certain hour, back toyour building, you would have to
clap your hands and they wouldcome and open the door for you.
And these are things that evenyoung Spaniards don't remember,
because what they were doingactually was they were also kind
of keeping an eye on thepopulation.
It was part of being a policestate.
Speaker 14 (13:00):
Right.
Speaker 13 (13:01):
But these were generally like retired police or
whatever.
Who took these jobs to open the?
Doors at night and also toprovide assistance and work
among whatever was done, butit's just a very interesting
memory of a world that no longeris and yet is still in the grid
.
Lea Lane (13:16):
Fabulous memory.
Thank you for that.
Speaker 13 (13:19):
You're welcome.
Lea Lane (13:19):
Okay, David.
Speaker 15 (13:21):
Mine is a lot more recent.
I have a lot of nice memoriesassociated with Madrid, but the
most dramatic perhaps occurredin January of 2021, when the
city was buried under thebiggest snowstorm in a century,
and it was called Filomena --three and a half feet of snow,
(13:41):
and normally Madrid gets a fewflakes here and there.
They don't even stick.
Oh, look a little, you know alittle flurry how exotic.
But this sort of threw everyoneinto a tizzy.
It was fun for the first coupleof days.
People were sledding and skiingdown the streets.
Snowball fights, Snowballfights, Epic snowball fights
(14:02):
across Gran Vía you know betweenthe kids.
And you really had to watch out.
Lea Lane (14:08):
In episode 70, we talked with hotel managers about
their memories.
Here's a good one.
Do people bring cats?
I always wondered.
I never bring a cat and I neverhear about that.
I know they don't like totravel.
Speaker 16 (14:21):
They do.
They do, but they're not asthey're not as popular, and in
our case we did draw a line onthe weight of the pet, whether
it's a dog or a cat and you knowno exotic pets like big parrots
or snakes, things like that.
We don't, we don't accept.
Lea Lane (14:36):
The rest of you as well.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 17 (14:40):
The best are celebrity pets, (oh please tell
us).
Celebrity pets are my favorite.
We had a guest, and dog's namewas Audrey, and when the handler
would call down room service,they would act as if the dog was
the actual guest or a child.
So Audrey will be dining atthree o'clock this afternoon.
(15:00):
She would like organic boiledchicken cubes and she got it,
and she got it, and she got it,served on a room service tray,
and that's how she dined eachday.
Lea Lane (15:11):
In episode 73, master architect Tim Peck describes a
memory in Mozambique, Africa.
Speaker 18 (15:18):
I went out to Bermisi I don't know if you've
been there which is an island innorthern Mozambique.
We arrived there and landed onthis dirt airstrip in the middle
of a l little local village andI was met at the end of the
runway by a few of the localvillagers and obviously we're in
a little plane, you know,eight-seater or 10-seater.
They met us at the end of therunway and, you know, picked up
(15:39):
our suitcases and put them ontheir shoulder and kind of
walked off into the sea.
Oh really, and I thought, ok,this is a little bizarre.
And then just tucked around thecorner, about 25, 30 yards
offshore, was a boat and so wehad to roll up our trousers,
take off our shoes, roll up ourtrousers and walk off into the
sea up to the boat.
And that took us down theisland to this beautiful luxury,
(16:03):
very, very small, very boutiqueresort which we were looking at
to help them redevelop andthings.
So you had the reverseexperience then, where the
people up next to the beach you,the guys shut the suitcase back
on their shoulders, disappearedoff up the beach and you rolled
up your trousers and they didoffer to carry us, but I felt
that Helicopter skiing providesa special memory in episode 74.
Speaker 19 (16:27):
For me.
I alluded to it earlier.
So a couple of years ago I hadthe privilege of being a
Whistler Black home with a groupand one day that surprised us
with a trip in the Heli.
So we took about an hour vanride to find the helicopter.
So it was staged very far fromthe mountain.
It had not snowed in Whistlerin about three weeks but it had
been unusually cold.
(16:48):
So when we got in the Heli wewent up, and the guy decided to
go to a location that wasanother 40 minute flight from
where we found the helicopter,because they hadn't been there
in years.
They had done so much powderskiing recently that they needed
to go a little further out tofind o track snow and they were
hopeful that because it hadbeen so cold for so long that
(17:08):
the snow would be good.
I can tell you eight lift ridesin the helicopter later our day
was done.
They had to change our guideout after six runs because she
could no longer keep up with usand needed to tap out, because
normal day is six helicopterrides.
And to this date the group Iwent with and I look at the
(17:29):
pictures speak of the memoriesand talk about recreating it,
and it's one of those things.
No trip will ever be as good asthat one.
It'll be good in some differentway.
It was my first time doing theheli skiing and I can't wait to
take my kids in a similarexperience before my body gives
out.
Lea Lane (17:47):
Here's a vivid memory from the Caribbean island of
Dominica in episode 77.
Speaker 20 (17:53):
One of my favorites is Middle Ham falls, which is a
waterfall, one of the manywaterfalls on Dominica, and I
normally say to people it'sabout a 45 minute hike up and
back.
And you hike up and to it, youtraverse down amongst the rocks
and you get into the water.
You scream like a little kidbecause it's so cold, but after
a minute you don't want to getout.
(18:13):
And then when you do get outand you walk the 45 minutes back
, you hardly sweat because yourbody has just been cooled down
so wonderfully.
And so I always tell peopleabout that story because it just
amazed me when it happened tome.
I want everybody to experiencethat.
Lea Lane (18:31):
In episode 78, Patricia Schultz, author of the
blockbuster book A ThousandPlaces to See Before you Die,
shows a terrific memory.
Speaker 21 (18:41):
But for my birthday I always do make it a point to
give myself the gift of travel.
And on my big birthdays, on my50th, which already was almost
20 years ago, I decided it wastime to see Machu Picchu,
because it's not an easy trip.
Lea Lane (18:59):
N I've been there and you're right, it is not an easy
trip.
Speaker 21 (19:01):
Oh, and if you do your homework and you make all
the arrangements totally doable,and oh, is it worth every
effort in the book and everypenny.
But I do remember not havingdone quite enough research.
I knew that Cusco, up in theAndes, which is your launch,
your starting point to, at11,000 feet right, then take
(19:26):
that zigzag train down to MachuPicchu, which is a mere 7,000
feet.
But I remember thinking, oh,I've been to Denver, I've got
this altitude thing, I'm goingto be just fine.
But guess what?
I wasn't.
I didn't bring altitude pills,sickness pills, with me which
are very easy to come by.
You just call your doctor andprescription and there you go.
(19:47):
But I was in the lobby of myvery nice hotel in Cusco with an
oxygen tank and a mask, thanksto the very sympathetic manager
of the hotel, and I met thislovely, lovely woman who came
sauntering over.
I guess she felt you know itwas a feeling pity or you know,
compassion for me, I don't know.
It turns out she was American,she was one of the nicest.
(20:09):
I mean, imagine this 20 yearslater and I still remember it
like it was yesterday.
She was totally fine, noproblem at all with the altitude
.
She was there celebrating her90th birthday.
It was her first passport, itwas her first stamp, it was her
70th wedding anniversary oupstairs resting because he too
(20:29):
was having a problem with thealtitude and she went off into
this monologue because I had anoxygen mask.
She told me about how she'dalways just wanted to travel.
She dropped out of school whenshe was 12, she raised five
children.
African American said she wasproud to be a washerwoman.
For all of those years she puther kids through high school,
(20:53):
college, graduate school, andfor her 90th they got together
and sent her any place in theworld that she wanted to go and
they had given her a book and itwas called 1000 Places to See
and she could have any place shewanted.
And I guess they were thinking,oh, you know, like Boca or Las
(21:13):
Vegas, but no, she wanted to goto Machu Picchu.
And she said to me these twothings and they're pearls for me
and I will forever rememberthem.
And she said you know, dear,your knees have expiration dates
.
And she said you have to do thedifficult places first.
Lea Lane (21:31):
Here's a lovely memory of Rome from episode 79.
Speaker 22 (21:35):
My mother was Roman, as I mentioned, and when we
lived there in the mid 60s, oneday she took us to the Vatican
and I found that kind ofdaunting and creepy.
We went down into the crypt andthat's another thing you can do
if you want creepy things, gointo crypts.
They're all over them.
But then she said okay, we'regoing up onto the Giannicole.
(21:59):
The Giannicole is called thegeniculum in English.
So she took us up the back wayfrom the Vatican and said don't
look back, just keep climbing.
And we climbed and climbed andwe got up to the top of the hill
and then she said now turnaround.
And we turned around and therewas this unbelievable view of
Michelangelo's dome, of StPeter's, framed by parasol pines
(22:24):
.
And even as a six or seven yearold, whatever I was, was, I
got the heebie-jeebies.
So that's one thing I like todo when I'm Rome, Rome and I
take friends and when I do leadtours in Rome, I take people up
that way and reveal thisincredible view.
You know, we'll get a betterview of the cupola, of that
(22:45):
amazing, gigantic church.
Lea Lane (22:49):
One of the most thrilling trips of my life was
visiting the mountain gorillasin Rwanda.
In episode 81, our guestdescribes his memory of the
experience.
You know it's a long, long wayfrom anywhere to get to Rwanda.
You've got to change planesusually and there's lots of
things you have to do along theway take tests for health and
all that and you're very happyto finally get to the place.
(23:12):
Well, I got very close to thegorillas at the park, where they
tell you what to do in terms ofhow you act and what to expect,
and they put the groupstogether and I was all excited
and they tell you, before you goto see the gorillas, to go to
the bathroom.
So I went to the bathroom.
Unfortunately, I got locked inthe stall and I couldn't get out
(23:33):
and I thought I came all thisway halfway around the world and
I'm not going to see thosegorillas because we're all timed
very carefully and I thoughtthey're not going to wait for me
.
They don't even know I'm inhere.
Well, luckily somebody came infinally and after that men and
women came in to help me out thedoor and everything.
I finally got out.
But that was a real lesson.
I mean, you can do everythingyou can think of to be ready,
(23:55):
and you never know, but it'sstill worth it.
I still got to see the gorillasand it makes a great story
right.
Speaker 23 (24:02):
They let me out.
For me, my strongest memory Ihave of the gorillas was
actually my very, very firsttime to go and see the gorillas
25 years ago.
When I first walked into theclearing, into the forest, I
came across a group of gorillas.
There was one particularsilverback who was there and he
stopped what he was doing and heturned around and he stared me
(24:22):
straight in the eye And theyalways say you should never look
them in the eye, but I wasalmost hypnotized and he stared
straight at me and he checked meout.
He looked me up and down.
He was really getting themeasure of me in the same way
that you do if you walk into aroom and you see people.
They look at you and it's thefirst time I realized these guys
are intelligent beings.
(24:44):
There was something in thatlook and no other animal I know
will look at you in that way.
It is astounding and I thinkabout that moment every time I
see them.
It's just phenomenal.
Lea Lane (24:56):
Fun memories of Israel in episode 82.
When I was first in Israel inthe 1970s, I remember there were
very few trees that I noticed.
Outside of certain areas therewas lots and lots of desert.
It is a desert area.
So I planted a tree, a littletree and I came back to Israel
(25:16):
many, many years later and thehills were forested.
There were so many trees, so Iplanted another one because I
saw with my own eyes how thatlittle tree must have grown.
I'll never see it, but I knowit was there in the forest.
So it's a wonderful thing.
I think it's an example ofpeople being ahead of their time
in terms of climate change andall of that.
They realize the importance oftrees and greenery.
(25:39):
So it's a beautiful thing tosee today that the area is
filled with beautiful plants itisn't just desert and it shows
you how each little tree canmake a difference.
So I planted two in a span ofmaybe 50 years and I hope my
little tree is growing up.
I planted it about 10 years ago.
It's probably getting there.
What about a memory from you,Dana?
Speaker 24 (25:58):
What strikes me every time I go to Israel is the
juxtaposition of the old andthe new in the streets, whether
they're the streets of Tel Aviv,more so perhaps in the streets
of Jerusalem, the backdrop ofthe old city against the modern
conveniences we all take forgranted now.
My favorite thing to do inJerusalem is to sit on the
(26:21):
terrace of the King David Hoteland look out over the old city,
late afternoon or an evening,and it is the most calming and
wonderful moment that I've hadin the land of Israel, and I
always try to make sure I getthere.
The other thing I love inIsrael are the little
restaurants that are tucked awayon side streets, that look as
(26:45):
if they've been there, and havebeen there not just for decades,
perhaps for centuries, anddiscovering those little out of
the way places Just by wanderingdown a street you might not
have found on a map you mightnot have known about before, and
being adventurous, A travelagent describes flying on the
(27:07):
Concorde Concorde in episode 83.
Speaker 25 (27:11):
We flew from Dulles Airport in Washington to London
on British Airways back in theday.
It took six hours, which itstill does now, but on the
Concorde it only took like threeand a half.
When you take off with it itdoesn't take off gradually like
a 747 does.
It takes up really straight up.
If you've ever saw pictures ofit, it's got a nose that pops up
(27:34):
and down and you actually feelit actually pushes you back into
the seat because of the speed.
And then, when it finally getsto the altitude, which is about
60,000 feet, which is maybetwice the altitude of a normal
aircraft, You can actually seethe curvature of the earth.
The sky isn't blue anymore.
(27:54):
It takes on a purplish tintwhen the astronauts are up in
the space.
The sky is black.
Well, it goes from light blueto darker blue to at 60,000 feet
it's almost purple.
And it flies at Mach two and ahalf, which is two and a half
times the speed of sound.
And they have a little counter,that digital clock up on the
(28:18):
wall.
You could watch it tick offuntil it got to Mach two and a
half.
You were only at that speed forabout an hour.
Lea Lane (28:26):
In episode 84,.
Here are memories of what makesa trip to the Great Barrier
Reef off Australia so special.
Speaker 26 (28:33):
It is enormous the size of Japan or Italy 3,000
different reefs.
There are amazing number offish there.
Still, climate change has beena problem.
There were some major bleachingevents about 10 years ago and
eight years ago and it is anongoing problem.
And if people don't believe inclimate change, you know, come
to Australia because we haveweird weather patterns happening
(28:55):
all the time.
Is the barrier reef ruined?
No, it's not.
Will you see amazing things?
Yes, you will.
Is it full of multi-colored,brilliant coral?
No, it's not, but it's notnecessarily bleached.
I mean healthy coral here.
A lot of the healthy coral isbrown.
When I talk to my guests aboutwhat the best parts of the trip
(29:16):
has been, nearly always they saythe Barrier reef.
There are plenty of fish there;turtles, if you're lucky.
If you go on a cruise, reallynormally out of Cairns or Port
Douglas I prefer Port Douglas.
It's a little bit smaller, abit more friendly.
Cairns is like the gateway tothe reef, but if you go on a
boat that goes to the same placeevery day, the snorkeling won't
(29:36):
be as good as if you gosomewhere a little bit further
out and obviously it justdepends on the day.
But it's extraordinary anddefinitely worth seeing and
still something that's reallyspecial for people.
I had one lady when she was abit nervous about snorkeling.
We have to wear stinger suits,lycra suits, body suits, because
they're poisonous.
jellyfish I mean everything inAustralia can kill you.
You know we're full ofpoisonous animals and snakes and
(29:59):
spiders and things, but Irarely ever see them.
They want to avoid people.
And one lady was sort ofnervous about snorkeling.
She came out just glowing andshe would have been 80.
And she just said I feel youngagain, Jan, I feel young again.
You know, there's so many fish.
Lea Lane (30:15):
In episode 86, National Geographic writer Ann
Williams describes her amazingmoment in Egypt at King Tut's
Tomb.
Speaker 27 (30:24):
It's January 5th 2005.
Wow, and the tomb was not wellguarded during World War II.
The theory is that some peoplegot in and started to pick up
the mummy to get at beads.
There were mummy experts wholooked at these cat scans and
thought that one of King Tut'sknees looked like it had been
(30:46):
broken Not only broken but thenhealed a little bit after the
bone break.
King Tut was doing somethingwriting in battle, writing his
chariot too fast, you know,upended by a hippo, I mean
something and broke his leg.
Perhaps infection set in and ofcourse, back in those days
(31:09):
there was no penicillin and yougot an infection like that and
you died.
And that's the current thing.
Right, it was a thrill to bethere that night, be so close to
King Tut's mummy.
It was always interesting, ofcourse, to work with Dr Hawass,
because I had so much time tostudy up before I wrote that
(31:29):
story.
I became sort of an amateurexpert in all of the stuff in
King Tut's Tomb, and some of thethings in that tomb are so
beautiful I can't even begin toexpress to you what skill it
took to create them.
They are just extraordinary,and it's not only the big
(31:53):
honking gold stuff that we allknow.
It's beautiful cosmetic cases,for instance, that were made in
the shape of geese, and you knowa swimming girl and a
grasshopper Just exquisite,exquisite things from that tomb
and from that time period.
That was the gateway for me.
(32:15):
I got fascinated with all thatstuff, as Ken Garrett, the
photographer, and I say the moreyou know in ancient Egypt, the
more you want to knowarchaeology is.
It's a great jigsaw puzzle, butin ancient Egypt there's so
many pieces to the puzzle and weknow people's names, we know
the names of kings, we knowtheir queens, we know their
(32:36):
viziers, we know their children,and suddenly you start to put
together this great jigsawpuzzle through time, through
space, and it becomesfascinating.
So the dig season runs fromOctober to March, otherwise
Egypt is pretty hot.
Wait for October to roll around.
(32:57):
We're always waiting to seewhat is coming out of the ground
so that we can then take thatpiece and put it in that jigsaw
puzzle that we have going in ourmind.
Fascinating, that's what I doevery fall, and the cat-scanning
of King Tut was the beginningof all of that.
Lea Lane (33:18):
Here's a beautiful moment in Montana on episode 89.
Speaker 14 (33:23):
I took my daughter, who was four my first born
daughter up to the reservationfor a powwow On her birthday the
last year.
I lived in Montana before Icame east and it was a beautiful
day.
I was up there with a friendand her daughter and our kids at
one point were invited out toMarch.
There's someone who said youkids want to come?
(33:44):
And they went out into thelarge circle and just circled it
and circled it and circled it,stamping their feet, and just as
it came to a conclusion and thepeople in the stands were
walking down and joining withthe people who'd been marching,
it began to snow.
It was the 4th of July and itwas warm, but coming off the
(34:06):
missions, coming out of the east, a set of clouds came over and
it just began dropping sparklinglittle snowflakes on us in the
middle of the 4th of July heatit was beautiful, a rain dance,
but a snow dance.
You suddenly felt like you werein some way physically connected
to the tops of those peaks justto the east.
(34:28):
There was this sense of thatIndian idea of being connected
to the world and itscapabilities and its processes.
Lea Lane (34:37):
Beautiful, beautiful memory.
A stunning natural scene isremembered in Costa Rica in
episode 90.
Speaker 28 (34:46):
My memory probably no surprise is the first time I
ever saw an Arribata or the seaturtle phenomenon.
I'm a marine biologist, thoughI had studied turtles and worked
with turtles in North Carolinawhere I went to university, and
we have just maybe a handful,maybe up to 50 turtles that nest
there over an entire nestingseason.
So I had never actually reallyworked that closely with turtles
(35:09):
on the beach while they werenesting.
Our work primarily just waslooking at the beach in the
mornings looking for track signsof turtles.
Having been there, my firstnesting event was very special
because I came all the way toOstunau.
At the time it was a lot harderto get here.
There were fewer bridges, andso after finally arriving in
Ostunau, the whole town was veryanxious because the turtles
(35:33):
were kind of quote unquote latethat month they were.
They hadn't arrived right whenwe expected them, and so
everyone was concerned or theturtles not coming this month,
what's going to happen?
And sure enough, finally theyarrived and I went out onto the
beach at night to help agraduate student who was doing
research, and it's pitch black,and all I remember is that I'm
(35:55):
trying to look down at my feetto follow her and keep up and
we're essentially dodgingturtles, and I can feel and hear
and smell that there's turtlesall around me, but I can't see.
Lea Lane (36:06):
I want to ask that it smells.
Speaker 28 (36:09):
It has very reptilian smell.
Let's put it that way.
We don't use white lights onthe beach because sea turtles
are very sensitive to light, sowe're using a red light and you
cannot see very far orappreciate just how many turtles
are on the beach.
But we arrived to this riverbank where we needed to cross to
continue going down the beach,and so, for safety reasons, he
(36:29):
quickly grabbed her white lightand flashed it across the river
so we could see and it, you know, shown on the entire beach
ahead of us, and it was I can'tthink of another way of saying
it but that it was swarming withturtles.
The same way, if you imaginelooking at a beehive, that's
what the beach looked like andmy jaw just dropped.
I was just astounded and I willnever forget that moment of you
(36:52):
know, even though I was alreadyon the beach.
Just finally seeing all of thatwas just amazing, really,
really special experience towitness so much abundance in
nature, especially being someonewho studies an endangered
species you know we're usuallylucky if we get to see and work
with one turtle A really specialmoment and obviously, something
that changed my life.
I decided to stay here anddedicate myself to protecting
(37:15):
this place.
Lea Lane (37:17):
In episode 91, a flight attendant during the
golden age of travel describes amemorable moment in the air.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
I was leaving London in 1983.
We were loading on to thisgiant bus that they would take
us right underneath the airplaneand I met the cockpit crew and
it was the pilot's last flight,the last flight.
He was retiring, his wholefamily was meeting him in
(37:44):
Chicago and we were going over apolar route.
That was the shortest time.
I said, oh well, this isexciting, I'm taking care of you
upstairs, this will be fun.
And then I got this sinkingfeeling that, or what it I mean,
something's going to happen.
So I just finished.
(38:06):
The service started the movieupstairs this was business
class upstairs, and the doorflew open, the cockpit, which is
quite a ways away from thepassengers, maybe 1520 feet and
they say get in here, kathy, getin here.
So I did.
They said we just got a callfrom the government, the Air
(38:29):
Force, whoever is monitoring theairspace, and they said there
are two Russian MiG jets chasingyour plane.
Now, this was terrifyingbecause a week before, two
Russian MiG jets had shot down aKorean airline 747.
I remember going from, Ibelieve, Seattle to Korea.
(38:55):
Window shades were down.
This was the same situationwith our plane.
Right now everybody's watchingthe movie.
Window shades were down.
He said grab the service managerand go to the back, see if you
can see them.
And I wanted to say don't youhave a rear view mirror?
They, they didn't.
(39:16):
So I run a football field.
Now to get to the back of theplane.
I opened this huge window coveron the 747 door.
We're looking like crazy andwe're on the phone on both sides
of the airplane with the pilot.
Meanwhile our plane is bankingand making a sharp left turn.
(39:38):
The military had told thepilots OK, you're going to go to
X amount south and they have toturn around.
They don't have enough fuel tofollow you and get back to their
base.
So that's what we did.
Nothing was said to thepassengers.
Oh, really, no, no.
Speaker 11 (39:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 7 (39:58):
It wasn't even shared with the rest of the crew until
we landed.
We were two hours late, but hisfamily was there to meet him
and they were very happy he wasfinished.
.
flight, last flight and hiswife said what was the delay?
And he just winked at me.
Lea Lane (40:17):
Noah's his ark in in Kentucky.
Hear this memory in episode 93.
Speaker 29 (40:23):
OK, well, we were in North Carolina, it was raining,
raining, raining and I said,boy, we could use an ark.
And someone said, oh, there isone in Williamtown, Kentucky, so
we went over there.
The ark is two football fieldslong, it is supposedly the
largest timber wood structure inthe world and it is three
(40:47):
floors.
So apparently the other ark wasthree decks.
It is a replica of Noah's Ark.
It has everything that the Arkmight have had: beautiful
baskets, exotic carpets,hammocks.
And they do have the animals,but they're outside the Ark.
Speaker 9 (41:05):
How many?
Speaker 29 (41:05):
animals.
Speaker 9 (41:06):
Well, they had all.
Speaker 29 (41:08):
You know they had kangaroos and just all kinds of
things.
They were not inside.
If they were out, I would saythat Noah would not have
recognized this Ark.
But it was air conditioning, ithad Wi-Fi and a gift shop.
Lea Lane (41:24):
I like this Ark In episode 95, our final special
memory in this Places a IRemember.
special collection author LoriErickson remembers a stunning,
moving natural experience.
Speaker 30 (41:37):
But we haven't talked about this sacred air
chapter and which is again oneof my favorites.
.
.For sacred t air.
It was a bit of a struggle totry to figure out.
Well, how do you talk aboutsacred air?
And then a friend suggested tome that I write about birds, and
when I thought of birds Iimmediately thought Sandhill the
sandhill crane migration incentral Nebraska along the
(41:59):
Platte River every March, duringwhich about a half Sandhill
cranes sandhill cranes are therefor about four weeks on their
way north.
They stop in Nebraska and gainweight and eat a lot the rest of
their epic journey north.
It is amazing bird watching,especially in the morning and in
the evening when great flocksof cranes fly overhead to their
(42:23):
roosting places in the river.
And one experience inparticular Bob and I on our last
morning we got up early youalways have to get up early in
order to see the -- and- - andwe were perched with our
binoculars looking out at theriver and a few birds are
starting to take off, and then afew more.
And then something startled thebirds, not clear what, maybe a
(42:43):
coyote, or maybe a human movingsomewhere, and suddenly it was
probably 200,000 cranes.
Oh, my, sky all at once withinthe space of a minute and the
sound was overwhelming.
It was like a freight traingoing through my mind.
You could just feel the beat oftheir wings and it was this
(43:07):
enormous rush of air a and anelemental power that I mean.
Both Bob and I just had tearsstreaming down our eyes.
It was so powerful.
It lasted only about a minute.
It was a wonderful example, Ithink, of the ways in which
being in nature can be aprofoundly spiritual experience
(43:29):
if you're open to it.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com