ken zirkel

On our last day of the extended (two-week!) holiday break, Son and I spent some time on the couch together watching five episodes (two and a half hours) of the PBS show Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe. It’s a documentary/travel show which follows renowned landscape and nature photographer Art Wolfe to exotic locations across the globe, as he photographs them.

It’s a great program for us to watch together, because it touches on both of our obsessions. Of course, my singular obsession is with photography, and it’s interesting to watch Wolfe carry his equipment to the far reaches of the globe, and to watch him as he interacts with people, wildlife, and the world around him.

Above: Art Wolfe travels to The Edge

Son is obsessed with geography. He sits in front of a wall map of the world and notices interesting facts (“Did you know there is a river called Ob?” It’s in Russia). He spends hours playing an online geography game. He asks us to name a country, so that he can reply with the continent it’s on. He asks us all kinds of obscure geography questions that we have no idea the answer to (“What country has no islands? What continent has the most countries?”). He writes lists of countries with their capitals … for fun.