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
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
Our first week-long stop was Austin, Texas. We arrived after an overnight in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on a Sunday, and we are now departing on Friday. We managed to squeeze a lot into our short time here. We got to catch up with friends from Salem and friends from Virginia. We got to eat excellent… Read More Austin deserves more
I’ve not been great at keeping the socials current with our activities. But just because we are stationary at home for a few months, doesn’t mean we haven’t been exploring. We’ve been trying to enjoy our home state as much as possible this winter. And anytime we can combine Louie with playing tourist I am… Read More Florida Explorations
This weekend we headed three hours west to Crystal River, where the spring-fed waters are a magnet for chilly manatees. Five or so companies have licenses to bring a limited number of people out to passively swim with the manatees in their wild habitat. It was an absolute dream come true for me to snorkel… Read More Birthday dreams come true
We squeezed a lot of living into our last two weeks in NYC. We had some incredible sights, sounds, food, drink, and experiences. We traveled several neighborhoods and sought out some of the remaining bucket list items of Peak Experiences. This final NYC post will probably have more detail than normal, but it feels right… Read More Late Post: Last two weeks in NYC
It’s crazy to feel that we are already half way through this trip. We’ve already done so much, seen so much, consumed so much. But we also have a whole lot to look forward to between now and when we head south (first to Philly; then to Florida). We have some of our favorite people… Read More Half way through NYC
We almost didn’t make this trip. Again. This was the third time we were attempting this trip. It was supposed to be for our 25th wedding anniversary, but covid had us cancel it the first time. Then, once things started opening up again, we tried to rebook it, but Japan was maintaining strict covid measures… Read More Japan, at last
We left the Badlands and made the long drive through farmlands to Chicago. We stayed in the Wicker Park neighborhood for a week, and became quite smitten with the city. The first time we were in Chicago was almost a decade ago, and then it was only for a long weekend. The city has only… Read More One Week in Chicago
