Chase Sanctuary VIP tour

Posted on by Ian C.

Yesterday afternoon we visited Chase Sanctuary to enjoy a VIP tour that they offer – it’s expensive but the two hours we spent with lemurs, anteaters, sloths and other animals, was a fabulous time!

We began with a presentation of what Chase Sanctuary does, then walked past red ruffed lemurs and some monkeys, into a caged area where we were allowed to interact with and feed the ring tailed lemurs – they seemed very interested in us too!

Next we saw some kangaroos, and “birthday girl” Margaret was allowed to feed one:

There were some black and white ruffed lemurs that we met and fed, in the same area where we fed sloths (see the later video for sloths):

We finished our day with anteaters, including Margaret feeding one of them again:

I also took a lot of video, so here it is:

Alaska Cruise day 6 – Ketchikan and Bears

Posted on by Ian C.

Approaching Ketchikan today had us looking at the busy port areas but also at the low fog on the hills surrounding …

We had a planned sea-plane excursion today, flying us out to watch bears catching salmon – but the low fog canceled that flight! Luckily we found an alternative way to hopefully see bears, in a wildlife preserve walk about a half hour coach ride from the docks.

About 20 minutes in to the walk someone spotted a bear – exciting! But we could not imagine what happened next, which was spotting a mother bear and two cubs coming out of the forest to feed at the river (there were many [mostly dead!] salmon in the water, offering easy pickings for the bears). While we watched these bears, a big male appeared, then another mother bear with cubs, and yet more … at least 10 in total! Our walk turned into a “stand” as we spent an hour or more just watching and photographing all the bears …

I also took a lot of video of the bears, and I’ve compiled it here:

Independence Day Fireworks 2025

Posted on by Ian C.

Last night we walked down to Winter Garden Newton Park to catch their annual fireworks display “rain or shine” and it did rain on us but the show was amazing and worth getting wet! Some photos:

I also did some video, very unusual for me vertical because fireworks work much better that way! But editing gave me some challenges – sorry!