I reread my journals now and then. I still find typos occasionally, or things that aren't displaying properly. A couple years ago, I had to recode everything with an accent mark of any kind, as HTML standards had changed. Once in a while, I make a correction of fact, or add a clarification for something I've learned more about, or rewrite an awkward sentence or an unclear paragraph. I cringe sometimes at my writing style fifteen or twenty years ago...to be honest, I don't know if it's any better now. Mostly, I let things stand, documents not only of what I've seen and done, but also of how I interpreted them at the time.

One thing that strikes me in review is how often I mention whether I think a place I've visited is worth a return. I have an odd attitude about this, maybe; often I'm thinking about another visit while I'm still there. I rarely feel been-there-done-that, one-and-done, unless I'm really unimpressed. It happens in some places that a second visit a year later is enough, while some favorites feel especially comfortable and get visited again and again. But looking back through the journals, I find a lot of places that I promise to revisit, and never do. That's just how it goes--there isn't enough time and money for all of them.

Just last fall, I said this about Grand Manan: "Would I return? I can't think of a really good reason, but maybe I don't need one. Just being there would be enough." I really thought it unlikely that I would visit again. But a couple months ago, as I was finishing up the journal, I found myself thinking a lot about the boat trip to Machias Seal Island, to view nesting puffins. I've been in a lot of places where puffins and other seabirds can be seen, but I'm always out of season. The late-lingering gannet colony on Île Bonaventure, near Percé on the Gaspé Peninsula, is the only one I've experienced. I decided to book a return to Grand Manan for late June, the earliest the Machias Seal trip runs. I also booked four nights in St Andrews, another place where just being there is enough. It would be a relaxing ten-day trip. I intended to book another trip for May, two or three weeks, and thought a lot about where that could go. Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, the Magdalen Islands, called to me. It made no sense to go in the same direction twice, a month apart, so I added it to the June trip. I've been there twice before, in 1994 and 2012. "There will be a next visit, and it won't be eighteen years from now, if I can help it," I wrote after the latter visit. Promise kept, for once: it's only been fourteen.

Wednesday 3 June 2026--