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Holiday Card Photos
December 6-31, 2008
The Big Trip > Holiday Card Photos
These photos are on our 2008 Holiday Card, but can be viewed here in large format with captions.
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Elizabeth and Sterling in one of our favorite places on the trip -- Ajabgarh Valley in India.


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Ted and Gibson doing their best to ride a camel in Ajabgarh Valley, India.


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Ted in Antarctica, one of our very favorite places on the trip.


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Sterling sand-boarding on the dunes in the Atacama Valley, in Chile. The Atacama is the world's driest desert, and a place we loved.


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Sterling after a sand-boarding fall.


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Standing in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The square itself is fairly non-descript, but the history is anything but.


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About to explore Beijing.


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Gibson catching a ball against the Great Wall of China. If he had missed this ball, it had a long way to roll! Maybe Mongolia.


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The Great Wall just has this kind of impact on me!


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The headmaster of a great school in Thimpu, Bhutan. We played baseball there, and visited the school, and it was a great example of high-quality education.


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About to go white-water rafting in Punakha, Bhutan.


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Prayer flags on the bridge to our hotel in Punakha, Bhutan.


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With the bushmen at Jack's Camp in Botswana. We had a great day exploring and learning with them.


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Our kids with meerkats (absolutely real meerkats) in Botswana.


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On the Makgadikgadi Pan Game salt pans in Botswana, one of our favorite places in the world.


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Elizabeth and Sterling navigating some brambly hiking path in Bostswana. Who got the better of this deal?


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In a nice little park in Brussels.


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Gibson, from the USA, checking out this shop in Brussels, Belgium.


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Loaded down with camera stuff and binoculars in the Galapagos.


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Riding elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a trip highlight.


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These elephants were so much fun, even getting soaked.


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A nice find on a nature hike in Thailand. This fish trap didn't make it home, despite Sterling's real interest in carrying it along for the rest of the trip.


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On the Yangtze River en route to the Three Gorges Dam. The level of the river is rising by a large amount, causing massive relocations.


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On a little punt boat exploring the Yangtze and a tributary.


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A somewhat cheesy photo op on the Yangtze River.


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On the beach near Cairns, Australia. We loved every minute in Australia, and had a great time in the Daintree National Reserve here.


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We crushed up berries and made warpaint while in Daintree. Looking fierce!


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Run, don't walk, from these three.


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One of our favorite Australian animals was the wombat, and our kids picked up two new friends there.


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A real koala bear in Sydney's zoo.


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Our chance encounter with the Dalai Lama in Delhi. Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours (one of two delays), and we ended up over-lapping and meeting him.


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We had a great time at the camel festival in Pushkar, India, where thousands of natives come from 100's of kilometers to trade camels.


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One of the many and mysterious moias in Easter Island, off of Chile.


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Another moia on Easter Island. These things are huge and inspiring.


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Never far from our minds was "Barrack." Here we're in the Falklands Islands off of Argentina, which was gorgeous. I'm sure I raised some money for Barack there, too.


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Meeting one of the amazing land tortoises in the Galapagos.


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Galapagos Fur Seals on the beach of one of the islands of the Galapagos.


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We ended up buying two of these vases in Vietnam. We loved Vietnam and would return in a heartbeat.


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An interesting village in Hoi An, Vietnam.


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Not from our trip, but our first time meeting our new President. We were in Columbia, South Carolina, for his first major rally in South Carolina. We hosted an event in April, 2007, in Charleston, SC.


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We started our trip in Disneyland, and really did get a preview of how small a world it is.


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A breakfast guest in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Giraffe Manor House, a great place to stay.


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One of the most amazing sites of our trip, Machu Picchu, in Peru. We were there on two great days with low-hanging clouds that gave it a spiritual feel.


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Machu Picchu with the sun coming through.


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Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, was our kids' favorite country. Here Gibson makes friends with a chameleon.


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Sterling in Madagascar with a clutch of lemurs.


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Gibson on the dunes of Namibia. Namibia was a terrific place, and we'd return there in a heartbeat.


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We had a great night in August at Fenway, where they recognized what we did on our trip for the cause of baseball. Sterling on the big screen . . .


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and Gibson throwing out the first pitch. And a perfect strike, no less, to a cheering crowd just minutes before the game started.


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Crocodile petting in the Pantanal of Brazil. We loved being in the countryside of Brazil.


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On a walkway bridge at Giverny, where Monet did so much of his painting.


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Halloween was a challenge for us. We were in Phuket, Thailand, where they had no idea what Halloween was all about. We ended up approaching strangers and giving them candy.


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One foot in the northern hemisphere, one foot in the southern. We're on the equator in Ecuador.


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Gibson in the Galapagos with a couple of marine iguanas in the background.


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Gibson bird-watching in Sacred Valley, Peru.


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Sterling with an Asian Elephant in Siem Reap, Cambodia.


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And Gibson taking an elephant out for a ride. Next thing you know, he'll have his Learner's Permit.


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In front of the fascinating Angkor Wat ruins in Siem Reap, Cambodia.


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A quick exploration of a town in Malaysia.


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The magnificent South Georgia Island off the coast of Antarctica, one of the most spectacular places in the world.


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Sterling holds a Petrel in front of the King Penguins on South Georgia Island.


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Literally hundreds of thousands of King Penguins.


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A modest mountain covered in prayer flags in Tibet.


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One of the Buddhist monks we met in Tibet.


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A Mammoth Sloth statue from a cave and archeological site near Torres del Paine National Park in the south end of Chile. A great spot.


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In the park of Torres del Paine, which is every bit as spectacular as this photo suggests.


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A day-break hike at Uluru/Ayer's Rock in the middle of nowhere in Australia. This was a magical spot.


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In Ushuaia, Argentina, the world's southern-most city. The entire Tierra del Fuego area was so fabulous.


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On a sail boat off the North Island of New Zealand.


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On the volcanic, remote White Island off of New Zealand's North Island. This place was surreal, but a highlight of our trip.


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Departure Day from Boston, with all of our worldly possessions (at least for ten months) in eight suitcases.


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The breath-taking Sydney Opera House, which was as beautiful as any building we saw on the trip.


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The unbelievable Atacam Desert landscape.


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On the salt flats in Botswana. Notice how much higher everyone jumps that Dad does.


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The Bent Pyramid just outside of Cairo, Egypt.


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Holding up a pyramid in Egypt was hard work. After several hours like this, we gave up and the pyramid collapsed just as we got away :-).


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The great Pyramid of Giza just minutes from downtown Cairo.


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A Leopard we came across in South Africa.


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The hippos we encountered in South Africa.


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An elusive Cheetah that we managed to catch up with in the Mala Mala game reserve in South Africa (a great place to see wildlife).


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Speaking of wild animals, our loyal dog Scallop, who stayed for ten months with Elizabeth's cousin, Julie Yandow, and her great family in Needham, MA.


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One of the great nature scenes we encountered in Tanzania not far from Ngorogoro Crater.


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The kids on a lizard hunt in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Jordan was one of our favorite countries on the entire trip and a marvelous place.


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More lizard hunting in Jordan.