"Its eyeballs were wide," she said.

Thompson's eyes were wide, too, in amazement.

That fleeting moment, while snorkeling at a whale sanctuary in the Dominican Republic, is an experience that Thompson treasures.

It is one of the high points in a schedule of itinerant travel in the last 10 years that has taken her to places like Tanzania, the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica.

Not only has Thompson, an engineer who lives in San Jose, snorkeled with whales in the Dominican Republic, she has also socialized with penguins in Antarctica.

There is one common thread running through her adventures-- the Cheeseman family of Saratoga.

The Cheesemans organize ecological wildlife safaris, package tours with an adventurous bent. In the last 30 years or so, they have led countless expeditions to the most remote corners of the planet.

Doug Cheeseman, a former zoology professor at De Anza College, started the tours as a way to fill his time during the summer months.

He started with trips to Morro Bay and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But what started as a hobby was soon to become a business.

People were beginning to ask for his help and guidance when they planned travel to unfamiliar and exotic destinations.

His wife, Gail, a naturalist and birder, was a natural choice as a business partner.

Their son was an infant then. Three decades later, Ted Cheeseman is a full-time member of that team.

Joining the family business was an easy decision for Ted, a conservation biologist.

"My father was a zoology teacher. I was exposed to a lot of wildlife when I was a kid," he says. "It was obvious that if my parents were going to Africa, I was going to join them."

Ted enjoys the luxury of being self-employed. "If I am really taken by a place, I can just set up a trip to go there."

All three now lead individual trips to distant corners of the earth.

Sometimes they are gone for four to five months during the year.

"If you do the same trip repeatedly, you burn out," Doug says. So the Cheesemans like to mix it up a little bit. A safari to Africa might be followed by a tour of New Zealand.

They talk of traveling to various countries like others might talk about going to different cities in the South Bay.

"We are going to Madagascar in August. Other trips to the Dominican Republic, Botswana and Zambia have also been planned," Ted says.

Doug and Gail have just come back from a trip to Africa.

But they are already on the phone working out the logistics for safaris that are one to two years away.

There is a lot of planning involved, from chartering ships to hiring locals who know the lay of the land.

In recent years, Antarctica is one part of the world that the Cheesemans have concentrated their energies on. A 12-member staff including Doug and Ted lead the expedition to Antarctica. Other people on the staff include a historian, a geologist and a doctor.

In an ironic fallout of a post­9/11 world, Antarctica is now perceived as a safer place than other tourist destinations because of its remoteness.

"It is no longer the extreme destination that it used to be," Ted says.

The Antarctica expeditions tend to fill up quickly, sometimes more than a year or two in advance. "Most of the business we get is by word of mouth. We also get a lot of repeat customers," adds Doug.

The Cheesemans say that their trips are wildlife expeditions, not cultural or social trips. They try to ensure that those on the expedition get to spend a lot of the time in the field, studying the wildlife of the area they are visiting.

Thompson, who got to know the Cheesemans through the Santa Clara Audubon Society, an environmental group, says that traveling with the family is interesting because the maximum amount of time is set aside for exploring. "It is not about going to a hotel and sitting around," she says. "It is a real learning experience."

During a safari, slide shows and lectures are organized frequently.

"There are photographers and geologists who go for these trips. They are around if someone has a question," Thompson says. "The Cheesemans are like parents; they make you feel at home."

Doug said that he is making an effort to help more people come in contact with fragile ecosystems like Antarctica. "The more they know, the more they will try to preserve the environment," he says.

Gail and Doug indicate that they are active in nearly 70 environmental and conservation groups.

They have often spoken at local colleges and meetings organized by community organizations in an effort to raise awareness about the various threats to the environment.

"If we can work with enough people, we can make a difference," Doug says.

It has been 20 years since Doug and Gail first set foot in Antarctica. It has changed quite a bit in those years.

"You can see the effect of global warming there," Gail says.

"Any more of this and islands will start disappearing. Even a country like Bangladesh might be in jeopardy," adds Doug.

The Cheesemans like what they are doing. It is a business but it is also a calling for them.

But Doug admits that at 67, it is getting a bit tiring for him. "Maybe the expeditions keep us younger," he says.

The Cheesemans have had to deal with a changing world, a world where Americans might not be the most popular of visitors.

In the months following 9-11, Ted led trips to Tanzania and Kenya, countries with big Muslim populations.

"There was an outpouring of sympathy and friendliness," he says.

"Not a whole lot of people were traveling in those months. We had the entire place to ourselves."

Things are a bit different now.

"They are not as friendly. There is no animosity on an individual level but there is a bitterness," Ted says.

But the safaris have not stopped. There are still enough people who want to experience the magic of nature, be it a penguin, an albatross or a sea lion.

Wildlife photographers are regular travelers on the Cheeseman safaris. So are marine biologists, geologists and bird watchers.

"These are people who are inspired and want to go," Ted says.

Over the years, the safaris have attracted some eccentrics, too.

"One time in Africa, a male elephant raised his trunk and walked through a herd of lions. A lady travelling with us disapproved of the elephant's behavior. 'That's not right; the elephants are supposed to bow to the lions,' she said. She was serious about what she was saying. That was the scary part," recalls Doug.

Some weeks later, the same person saw a cheetah kill a gazelle in the wild and remarked that food should be distributed to the cheetahs so that they did not kill other wildlife.

Traveling to foreign countries, especially remote and unfamiliar ones, always has an element of danger.

There have been incidents where Masai tribesmen in Africa have surrounded groups being led by the Cheeseman family. But these are small irritants. Years of travelling have given the Cheesemans the confidence and the knowledge they need.

"We are learning constantly," Doug says.

Ted Cheeseman said that the most dangerous part of any of their expeditions is not in the jungles of Africa or the frozen mass of ice in Antarctica.

"It is always the drive up to San Francisco airport on Highway 101," he says.

For more information about the Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, visit www.cheesemans.com.