THE ADVENTURE GENE

These are my parents. My mother scaling a cliff using a rope tied to our VW. My father on one of his solo backpacking trips in the Southern California mountains. 

These two didn't grow up on ranches or farms. They came of age in the Southern California suburbs. There must be an adventure gene.

Back in the 1950's they would drive the family out to the Southern California deserts to camp. Can you imagine sleeping beneath these boulders? Notice the green tent back in the boulders, as well as the two little girls. 

And there was that little family drive over the Rockies. It really was summer.

How about camping along a remote coastal sand dune in Baja Mexico, arrived at by many, many miles of bad unpaved roads, and with the only translating being done by a teenage daughter equipped with high school Spanish speaking skills.

My one true wilderness adventure: backpacking for a week in the Sierra outback with my dad when I was 18. No roads, no phones. He proved to be a very capable guide. 

After we kids were grown, my parents, who were in their 70's at the time, leased a lovely sailboat and cruised the Virgin Islands for two weeks, all by themselves. I worried the whole time that they would be accosted by pirate types, but they returned and said it was like heaven.

I salute the adventurers of the world. I am for the most part not one of them, except when I was in tow by my parents. In hind site it was a valuable gift that they gave us three kids.
Of course the arts like to honor adventurers, especially in film, but painters too try to capture the beauty and dynamics of world adventures.

Illustration of Sir Francis Drake's exploration of the Pacific coast, 1579

Mountain climber depicted by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) of Germany

Ascent of the Lower Sinai Range by David Roberts (1796-1864) of Scotland

Shooting the Rapids by Robert Hughes Perrizo of Minnesota

Arctic scene (painting) by Cory Trepanier of Canada

Canyon Hikers by Judy Rider of North Carolina

Divers by Allison Moore

Flooded Forest, Rio Negro, Amazon, by Michael Rothman of Connecticut

The Lewis & Clark expedition, by Gary R. Lucy of Missouri

Road Trip to Taos, by Elizabeth Jose of New Mexico

Climbers on Third Cathedral by Michael E. Vermette of Maine

Kayaks, Morro Bay, by Cynthia Meyer of Central California

to all the sky lovers

to all the ground lovers         by Winslow Homer, 1869

to all the water lovers          by Nina Squire of the U.K.

Cheers to the spirit of exploring our fascinating planet.