Shark Book & Glacier Bay
Ivy and I love reading the same book right after each other. It gives us lots to discuss and allows us to basically share the same experience. I finished the very good "The Devils Teeth" a few days ago (about a month after Ivy read it) and I highly recommend it.
The author is a very smart, adventurous and funny journalist who was fascinated with the largest concentration of great white sharks in the world. She spent a number of weeks living out on the Farallon Islands (just about 30 miles west of San Francisco) along with several biologists, bird experts and shark researchers. It was incredible hearing about the size of these creatures (the females get to be over 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 6 feet deep--almost like huge SUVs in the water). They are highly efficient killers--no surprise--and have been around for 400 million years. I think she described them as the heavyweight champions of evolution because apparently they've been in existence longer than trees...
Her descriptions of being out on the water with these huge and very scary creatures reminded me of the best trip Ivy and I have ever taken together: kayaking in Glacier Bay in Alaska. We went up there as part of a REI Adventures group and had an incredible week kayaking each day amidst all kinds of exotic animals. When we went up there we thought the best part would be the glaciers and amazing views of the mountains, but hands down the animals stole the show: seals, moose, humpback whales and several bears. In fact, I'm going to paste in a great picture I took that shows how close the whales get to you. If you like animals and wildlife, you will love Glacier Bay.
