I didn’t actually take these pics. My son did on his solo hike, but they’re so beautiful. He had multiple bear sightings, too.
Lake Mowich
#Mt.Rainier #PNW #WashingtonState #Seattle
Summer on Mt. Rainier
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Tag Archives: Travel
Famous (Almost)
So…sitting right behind me is a SEMI famous local personality who has a cooking show on community television. Somebody else recognized him and said hi or I wouldn’t have even noticed.
I really really want to tell him to include more vegan dishes, that there’s a huge demographic out there that would love him if he included cruelty-free recipes, but he’s totally self absorbed and constantly texting on his phone. Additionally, he’s not THAT famous or he wouldn’t be sitting in the cheap seats, right?
His style of cooking isn’t my cup of tea, but I support his “I’m just a regular guy” niche of encouraging everyone to cook with the ingredients already on hand in the pantry.
So far I haven’t annoyed him, but I’m not at all a shy, timid forest creature. I have zero problem approaching anyone. For any reason. No matter who they are.
On the other side of me is a young man wearing a Stanford Medical School sweatshirt. He’s starting med school in the fall. (I asked.) How awesome is that! I told him I was proud of him. I’m sure you might think…who am I to share unwanted praise, right? But I did. Bright children who follow their academic/life dreams need our support and encouragement. It takes a village, yes it does, and it only takes a minute to utter a few positive words.
I was trying to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm but for some reason I couldn’t get my phone to enlarge to full screen, so a kind stranger directly to my right (an obvious techie) took my phone and messed around with it until he figured out what the problem was.
As terrible as the stories are on the news, in spite of the violence and Covid variants and all the rest, there are still kind and helpful people in this world.
Not a bad way to spend 2 1/2 hours. Not bad at all, especially when I arrive to THIS:
And this:
Moose in Grand Tetons
What a beautiful boy! He was almost completely camouflaged, resting in the cool grass, enjoying a late afternoon snack. Those antlers are magnificent, aren’t they?
I could have stayed there for hours, watching him in silence, but I had to go. He didn’t seem too concerned and kept eating and eating.
Great Basin National Park
For #throwbackthursday, this is one of my most favorite places to camp and hike.
Great Basin National Park is in Nevada. At 10,000 ft., Wheeler Peak is one of the tallest peaks in the country. It’s full of bristlecone pines and turkeys and solitude and serenity.
Here’s a beautiful alpine lake:
In The Snow-Covered Hills
It has come to the attention of my brain that I seem to write a lot about weather.
Sun, heat, rain, hail, snow, clouds, fog…I wonder if that’s because there’s really so little weather here in SoCal. For a majority of the time, it’s sunny and warm. Or sunny and hot. Or sunny with drought-like conditions. This isn’t me being critical of our weather; I’ve simply reflected upon how much of a weather watcher I am.
From the monsoonal–like deluge
that transformed a dry river bed into a not-so-dry river bed
to a beautiful sunset.
I was driving on a favorite street — do you have a favorite street? Mine is one that offers a breath-taking view of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, mountains to the north of me. They received several feet of new snow during the same winter storm.
This sight is so beyond magnificent, it literally took away my breath for several seconds.
Hand to heart, as I was snapping a few photos of the snow covered mountains, one of my most special songs came on the radio, Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, with the iconic lyrics, “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills –‘Til the landslide brought me down.”
A mindful moment of perfection.
I love Stevie Nick’s live performances.
Memories of Joshua Tree
#ThrowbackThursday
One of my favorite places to camp and hike.
Love the rocks #JoshuaTree
Hiking Mount San Jacinto
There are amazing all-season hikes to the top of Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs high above Coachella Valley.
San Jacinto Peak is 10,834 ft. and was known to Cahuilla Indians as I a kitch (or Aya Kaich), meaning “smooth cliffs”.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway hike is the less strenuous option. My son and his friend climbed all the way up and it’s not easy, but taking the tram (which is SUPER SUPER scary) is a perfect way to enjoy what John Muir referred to as “The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!”
We see beauty all around.
I especially love the contrast of these stark white branches against the blue sky.
Big Sur Magic
One of my favorite places on earth, and yes, the water really is that beautiful turquoise color.
McWay Falls is an 80-foot-tall waterfall on the coast of Big Sur in central California that flows year-round into the Pacific Ocean from McWay Creek in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, about thirty-seven miles south of Carmel.
During high tide, it’s a tidefall, a waterfall that empties directly into the ocean.
The waterfall poured directly into the ocean until a massive fire, landslide, and highway reconstruction project near the area in 1983-84 filled the cove with enough material to form a sandy beach several dozen feet out.
The falls, creek, and canyon are named after Christopher McWay, an early settler and farmer from New York state who arrived in the area with his son Christopher Jr. around 1874.
The park itself is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns (1868-1928), a local and legendary early pioneer and resident who impressed Helen Brown and had run a ranch in McWay canyon with her husband, John B. Burns.
#WordlessWednesday
Corgi Heaven in San Francisco
Son, daughter-in-law, and Theo are in San Fran for the summer, so I flew up to spend a week basking in the joy of a three-month-old baby boy.
Today we took Theo on his first beach outing at Ocean Beach to attend the Nor Cal Corgi Con 2016 Summer Event. DIL is from the UK and her love for corgis is to be expected since Queen Elizabeth is a Corgi mum.
Personally, I’m more of a Border Collie girl, but all dogs are wonderful, so I knew it would be fun.
It was untypically hot and sunny; the sand was a BIT too hot for the poor dogs’ paws I thought, but all in all, it was a fun outing!
Disabled Corgi with a dedicated mom!
GoPro Corgi!
I can’t really believe they bred a Border Collie with a Corgi but here’s the proof…a Borgi??
Rescue Corgi
Heaven on Earth: Camping and Hiking in the Laguna Mountains
The Laguna Mountains are only about an hour away east from the ocean in San Diego.
Most people go there when we have snow — at 6000 feet, it’s the highest point in the county.
It’s possible to surf in the morning, cross-country ski (or hike) in the afternoon, and drop down into the shimmering desert to experience the best of everything SoCal has to offer.
Late May to mid-June is the time of year when color explodes in the mountains and it’s not too hot to enjoy a strenuous hike while the air cools down comfortably at night.
It’s easy to get here: east on Highway 8 to Sunrise Highway.
We went mid-week before schools were out for summer vacation and we had the mountain pretty much entirely to ourselves.
Fragrant pines, Engelmenn oaks, wildflowers; deep blue sky with a few white puffy clouds.
Amazing…gorgeous…magnificent…breathtaking…
There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the spectacular views.
We hiked Desert View Trail and Big Laguna Trail, about ten miles or so.
It was truly heaven on earth, one of those experiences where whispering was the only way to communicate-we didn’t want to mar the ultimate reverence for nature.
These are only a sampling of the hundred-plus pics I snapped and none of them do justice to this paradise.
Enchanted Seashells by Princess Rosebud 