April, 2003.  On my 21^st expedition to 90 North, the geographic North Pole, I took my son Jackson. He was nine, but handled it like a trooper. And no wonder – it was his third time!  The first was when he was just six, following his brother Brandon whom I had taken to the Pole back in 1990.

We landed our ski-equipped Twin Otter on the sea ice – and as it’s featureless with the ice slowly moving on the Arctic Ocean surface, nothing stays there for long.  So if you want a physical candy-stripe North Pole, you have to bring your own!  It is so indescribable to actually be on the very top of our planet that it has to be experienced to be understood.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #95 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is my wife Rebel relaxing with a native of Antarctica while on a visit to the Palmer Science Station there.  Getting up close and personal with Antarctic wildlife is so easy as they have no fear of us at all, be they seals, elephant seals, or penguins.

Better not get too close to male elephant seals in domination combat, however, as they can weigh up to 7,000 pounds.  And steer clear of full grown leopard seals, which are apex predators weighing over 1,000 pounds.  No worries, though, for Rebel with this young fellow.  Experiencing Antarctica is always a memorable adventure. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #94 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

You know the adage about the “800-pound gorilla” going wherever he wants to – such as five feet from you in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda.  It is one of the world’s great thrills to be this close to these giants and feel at ease doing so.  They are “habituated” to small groups of people whom they ignore.  You of course are very quiet and do nothing to alarm them, just observing the little ones playing, mothers nursing, young ones climbing trees, huge male silverbacks watching over their families.

Gorillas are vegetarians, males eating up to 75 pounds of vegetation a day – thus they spend most of their waking hours chewing!  The biggest silverbacks never get anywhere near 800 pounds by the way – 450 to 500 pounds at most (like the fellow in the photo).  Big enough, believe me.

Rwanda is one of the best-run countries in all Africa.  President Paul Kagame deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for healing his nation after the genocidal horrors of the 1990s.  That’s far in the past now in this beautiful, peaceful land.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #93 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

And his father too.  I started taking my son Brandon on expeditions with me at age five.  Here we are in the Serengeti during the Great Migration.  He saw three lion kills happen yards away, a baby born in a Masai hut – he’s never forgotten his first great adventure to this day, over 30 years later.

I encourage you in every way to take your children, grandchildren, nephews or nieces on an exploration of one of our planet’s many wondrous places when they are young.  It will be formational for them, a founding experience of awe for what a magically extraordinary world they are privileged to live in.  And your seeing it through their eyes will be a shot of youth elixir in your veins.  It will be a life-memorable bonding experience for you both. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #92 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Photo taken at an altitude of 22,000 feet (6,700 meters) in a AS 350 B3 ultra-high altitude Eurocopter on our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition.  We are looking into the Western Cwm (valley), West Shoulder of Everest in the left forefront, entire Southwest Face of Everest summit (29,029 ft-8,848m) to base on the left, Lhotse (4^th highest on earth at 27,949ft-8,516m) straight ahead, the flank of Nuptse on the right.

The climbing route is from Base Camp to Camp I past the top of the Khumbu Ice Fall (bottom of photo), up the Cwm to Camp II at the foot of the Lhotse wall, scale via fixed ropes to Camp III perched on the wall, then up to the notch between Everest and Lhotse (on the horizon in the photo) that is the South Col and Camp IV.  The summit is reached from there via the Southeast Ridge on the other side of the photo.

We’ll be here again in late April-early May next year.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #91 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)