February 13, 2026
As you read this, we will be winging our way across the Pacific to California (stop and see family before Florida), after three weeks in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Australia was the only continent Michael and I had not yet visited, and in addition to checking that box, I was keen to see what I call The End of the World…the southernmost tip of Tasmania. Next stop…Antarctica.
The land closest to Antarctica is actually the tip of South America, and she and I have both made the Drake Passage to Antarctica. But it is Christchurch in New Zealand that is the jumping off point for the various research stations in Antarctica and Tasmania is the Southern reach of that journey.
If you wonder what it looks like, here it is on a cold and blustery day:
For whatever reason, it was an emotional moment for me. To know that I’ve been able to live long enough to see it, to know that I’ve been blessed with both the health and check book to go see it, and to be there with my love to share it together.
I feel I can now say that I’ve been to the ends of the earth, above the Arctic Circle and into the pristine depths of Antarctica. And around world, roughly 82 countries as my best count. I can’t begin to chronicle all that I’ve seen. Just a few highlights…
The ancient city of Petra in Jordan, climbing in the Himalaya, diving into the Blue Hole of Belize, climbing Mont St. Michele, wondering at the glory of the Sistine Chapel, watching the sun rise over the New World from the top of Pico de Orizaba after the 18,701 foot climb, Christ’s birthplace in Nazareth, standing at Charles Dickens desk in Doughty Street in London, the thunder of Niagara Falls, watching divers hand feed whales at the Osaka aquarium, dinner in the Eiffel Tower, standing at Trollope’s Memorial in Westminster Abbey, seeing my grandfather’s name on the Ellis Island Immigrant Memorial, drinking prosecco as we cruised the Amalfi Coast, diving with hammerheads off Cocos Island, Stonehenge, the Great Smoky Mountains on a smoky morning, the Grand Canyon, suddenly jerked out of bed crossing the Drake Passage, sailing the open ocean near the BVI, standing at the End of the World, the ancient site of the Olympics in Greece, passage through the Panama Canal, gawking at Shanghai from the top of the 2,073 foot Shanghai Tower, feeding giant tortoises on the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, the Transatlantic cruise crossing, flying in a small plane above the Arctic Circle, the fjords in Iceland, the Great Lakes.
One has to feel extremely privileged to have seen all of that and more, a list that only begins to scratch the surface. It is so trite to say this, but the planet is really a wonderful and remarkable place. The diversity of land and sea, the diversity of people and nature and weather can’t be gathered in one thought…mind boggling, literally.
Of course, travel teaches, and travel everywhere can teach most everything. There are some basics that I think you no doubt feel from the trips you’ve had.
First, you develop an ever-increasing level of tolerance for other societies and races and people. Because at heart, all people are striving for the same things, no matter what their origin. They want to be safe, they want to raise families, have a dignified existence which begins with dignified work…the ability to take care of themselves and their families. They value honesty, and good will, and are exceedingly polite (with only a very few exceptions). Everyone is just trying to get along, get through the day. It is good to remember this, always.
Global travel puts you in your proper place. Each of us is nothing, even as all of us are everything. I remember when Michael and I were in an ancient church in Turkey, and all around the nave, above our heads, were the carved busts of each of the Popes with their names and years of papacy. There were over 250 of them. So, we stared at them, nearly everyone a cipher to us. Gelasius the First means nothing to you and me. But for a time in the 5th century, as Pope, he was the most powerful man in the world. Thus, to dust and forgotten. I think all our politicians should go to that church and get a lesson into how unimportant they really are. Might help.
Humility is the result and it is oddly comforting.
Perhaps above all else, you learn. You learn so many things it is a wonder the brain can retain all of it. The most trivial to the most profound. I think it has to make life more interesting. It certainly makes it easier to relate to people and to converse.
For example, Filipinos are known worldwide for their skills as servers…bartenders, waiters, maître d’, housekeepers, house managers. They are the most desired employees across the globe. As a result, they are everywhere. And we always chat up our servers, so when we ask where someone is from, and he says, the Philippines, we say, “Oh! We were there a couple of years ago!” And we’re off and running into a rapid friendship, discussing the traffic in Manila.
But in the end, and this will sound hokey, we find there is really no place like home. We can’t wait to get there, just to be in the one place in the world where we truly do belong. After you’ve seen the world, you realize that nowhere do people have it as well as Americans. No country as great, not even close. And in that, I don’t care if someone disagrees. I believe it.
So, I encourage you to travel. As much as you can. You can make almost any budget work. No matter how fancy or not your hotel, when everyone is standing at the Louve, the experience is the same.
But as I am fond of saying, it is much better to make memories than regrets. We’re running out of places, but the Balkans, a Rhine River cruise and a Galapagos expedition are in the works. We keep on keeping on.
And don’t be afraid. After 60 years of travel, I can say that I’ve never been robbed, never been accosted, don’t recall being sick on bad food or water, and rarely if ever been in fear for my life. And when I was, I had consciously put myself in that position…up a mountain, into the ocean.
Despite what we may believe, fed a constant diet of news (most of which is bad because it sells), I have found the world to be a remarkably interesting, safe and welcoming place.
That alone makes travel worth the price of admission.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
