We headed to Boulder, Colorado, after Telluride. It was a rather long, but stunningly beautiful ride. We met the family and animals for our next house and pet sit in a charming neighborhood a short distance from the city center. We’ve spent the better part of the week simply being in the home, working, caring… Read More Rocky Mountain NP and Rocky the Tortoise
Utah seems impossible. Otherworldly. Utah is like no place else on earth. At least no place that I’ve seen. It’s a geological wonderland and an exercise in trying to grasp the concept of millions of years in the past. Our time here this year was brief, but absolutely packed with incredible sights. In a week’s… Read More One week in Utah
Larry and I intended to go to Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversary, but thanks to Covid (and honestly how cost prohibitive it is when coming from the east coast) we postponed it until now. Leaving from San Francisco and using credit card points made it possible to enjoy this short vacation packed with luxurious… Read More Maui
The first time I stood at Tunnel View, Yosemite brought me to tears. Again, on the valley floor, I cried in gratitude, craning my neck to look at the wild and dramatic waterfalls and the immortal, towering El Capitan. Never have I felt so small and insignificant and fleeting and been so joyful to feel… Read More Yosemite
We did not originally have Pinnacles on our bingo card for this year of nomading. But when the circumstances of our stay in Salinas changed (see the Salinas post for those details) we pivoted. We camped at a super interesting and beautiful ranch within striking range of the park. We woke at 6am and drove… Read More Pinnacles National Park side quest
Palm Springs lives up to the hype. As an east coast person, I had only really learned about the famous Palm Springs through TV and movies. Glamorous, wealthy, fabulous. Perfect weather. Perfect tans. Perfect teeth. Everywhere perfect. That can’t be real. Surely. Nope. It’s real. Palm Springs is all that. Sure, it has some flaws… Read More Twelve days in a desert paradise
It was a hard choice, but we opted to leave our Palm Springs lodging to take a weekend in Joshua Tree National Park. This park was absolutely worth the trip over. There was so much to see and so many great hikes through two distinct deserts, the Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert. We saw… Read More Side quest to Joshua Tree
We continued our march across the country and chose to stay a week in Tuscon, Arizona, in a rental home that abuts the Saguaro National Park. In fact, to get to the home we needed to drive through a winding portion of the park itself before getting onto a rutted dirt road for the last… Read More A week in Tucson and a night in Yuma
This past weekend’s travels and explorations practically defy description. I’ve been mulling it over, trying to figure out how best to convey what I experienced. I’m certain neither word nor image will do it justice. But as I am committed to try and capture our wanderings and ponderings here, I’ll give it a go. Part… Read More A dichotomy of nature
No one accidentally ends up at Big Bend, despite it being so large it sounds impossible to miss. At over 800,000 acres (1200 square miles) on the Texas/Mexico Border, you would think it would be readily accessible from all directions, but the vastness of our country is shockingly apparent when you realize how long and… Read More A weekend in Big Bend National Park
Empty Nest Wanderings 