China, Tibet, and the Yangtze River
October 25 - November 12, 2007
Captain's Log:
"The trip through Washington and Lee had the announced intention of deepening our understanding of a vastly different nation. In this, no doubt, the trip had succeeded. But perhaps its greatest reward would be found in the many new friendships it helped us to achieve, not only with our traveling companions but with the Chinese as well."

Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Mekong Delta
September 16 - October 2, 2007
Captain's Log:
"We were captivated by the sheer thickness of life visible on the streets and along the sidewalks of the Old Quarter. With the intense color, variety of activity, fragrance, and commotion at such proximity, it was as if we could now behold the broad tableau of Hanoi's daily life. It was a life of staggering intensity lived shoulder to shoulder by an urban populace utterly different from any we had ever known."

Historic Cities of the Sea
September 1-13, 2006
Captain's Log:
"We wandered for the better part of an hour through the rest of the Basilica, astonished by many things beautiful and many things impossible to conceive as having been made by man. In the end, surfeited by grandeur, we had a longing to return to simple things, to the chaos of the city, a piece of bread, and a ride to the sea."

Family Adventure in the Galapagos Islands
July 29 - August 8, 2005
Captain's Log:
"The vantage point is a grassy bluff on a long run of cliffs fronting the sea and the winds that drive the surf roaring over the rocky shoreline below. For as far as one can see in either direction, the mounting combers roll in one after the other in grand explosions of turquoise and foaming white."

Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition
August 14-21, 2004
Captain's Log:
"You do feel rather small in such places. But, in another way, you feel connected to the vastness of time. A Grand Canyon raft trip is a profoundly useful withdrawal from the routines of the ordinary world. The relaxation during the day is palpable, even with the intermittent thrills of whitewater rafting."

Italian Walks: Tuscany to Cinque Terre
October 10 – 20, 2004
Captain's Log
"Here and there clusters of small houses, built of pale limestone, each with a rusticated tile roof, remind us that, with all its bucolic delicacy, Tuscany is a long civilized place, one that for centuries has been thoroughly managed by people whose wealth comes from the earth."

Antarctica and the Falkland Islands
January 12-27, 2003
Captain's Log:
"It is a world at peace at this hour, at this latitude, a harbinger, perhaps, of a land content with its distance from the rest of the world, a place without 'settlement,' without any of the nearly inescapable traffic of our lives, save our own droning movement through it toward our dreams of wildness and of Antarctica."

Venice and the Dalmatian Coast
October 21 -31, 2003
Captain's Log:
"W&L's tour of Venice and the Dalmatian Coast left behind the familiar rhythms of autumn for a variety of political, economic, and meteorological uncertainties."