As we travel, whether to cities or to museums, Ralph and I often ask ourselves whether we can learn or enjoy ourselves as much if we act as our own guides rather than joining a tour. Before we arrive at our destination, we usually have a full list of must-see highlights we’ve tracked down during Internet exploration or from personal recommendations. On our most recent trip, we felt the power of well-informed, humorous, or charismatic guides, including Barbara at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, “K-Girl” for the Underground Tour in Seattle, and curator Paul Hayes Tucker via acoustiguide at the Experience Music Project art exhibit Double Take, and it’s hard to imagine that we could have come away with so much understanding of the various topics without them. Donna, the naturalist who took us by ferry to Newcastle Island, one of the scores of islands that dot the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound between Vancouver and Seattle, was a particularly talented teacher, with all sorts of interactive games and visual aids to keep us interested. Ralph and I had tromped through a forest on our own a few days before and had remarked that except for the very tall and straight cedars and moss on branches instead of lichen, it looked a lot like our temperate rain forests of the Northeast. Uh, guess again. Without Donna, we would have trudged right past the hill of 20,000 thatching ants, a beautiful but shockingly invasive plant, tree stumps whose bark keeps growing right over the top to form something out of The Hobbit, and salal, leathery greenery so plentiful that First Nation members harvest it by the railroad car-load for the florist industry. My advice for now is Always Take the Tour.