Our trek at Henry Coe State Park on Monday wasn't just about mountains, summits, lakes, and (very noisy) bullfrogs. We enjoyed the wildflowers, too. It wasn't a riotous bloom of flowers like we get at peak bloom season, but one special thing was we saw a type of flower we've never spotted before, the Mariposa Lily. And we spotted two different ( Read more... )

Australia Travelog #8
Royal Botanical Garden, Sydney - Mon, 25 Dec 2023, 11am

Our main goal for sightseeing on foot in Sydney today was to visit Macquarie Point and the Royal Botanical Garden. On the way we were beset by minotaurs, giant spiders, and stirges but we were steadfast. We made it ( Read more... )

North Cascades Travelog #8
Mazama, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 1pm.

What do you do when the trails you wanted to hike are on fire? You find somewhere safer to hike! Fortunately we'd already made a list of several trails we wanted to hike in the area, so after crossing off the top few there were still 3-4 left. Tops on this list is the Cedar Creek Trail ( Read more... )

Four weeks ago I wrote In My Mind It's Summer, about my choice to start taking advantage of the outdoors as if it's summer even though it's not. Now 4 weeks later it is technically summer ...Technically, because while summer started on the calendar a day or two ago, the actual weather is saying more "Late March" or "Early April". Daily high ( Read more... )

Grand Cayman Travelog #11
Back at the Westin, Grand Cayman - Wed, 17 May 2023, 1pm

We're back from our sightseeing tour now and I'm about to fall asleep. No, it's not the fault of the second place we visited, the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. It's the fault of having been awake most of the night. The QE2 park was nice. It was also hot, much ( Read more... )

On Friday Hawk and I went for a lunchtime walk around the neighborhood, inspired by a house a few blocks away with a hard full of California poppies. We didn't just go there and back, though. We figured as long as we're out, let's make more of a walk of it. We used to walk the neighborhood frequently but have fallen out of the habit. "Let's loop ( Read more... )

I've mentioned a few times now that we wanted to head to Antelope Valley to see this year's superbloom. It's not as crazy-good as 2019's epic superbloom (if you like wildflowers you'll definitely want to click that that link and the pages it links to to see pics and video) but apparently it's still reasonable. Except the two times we had an ( Read more... )

Last weekend we went walking in Byxbee Park. It's along the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto. We've been there numerous times before. One reason we like it is that it has a slight hill. Of course, that hill is man-made- it covers an old dump. Yes, sadly, for many decades Bay Areans were like, "Let's take all our trash and just pile it up ( Read more... )

Last weekend we had plans to travel for the superbloom in California's Antelope Valley. Had, because we canceled those plans two days beforehand. We were tired from traveling, and the weather was not great- meaning the flowers might barely even be blooming, let alone super-blooming. Well, the weather at home wasn't great, either, but I have seen a ( Read more... )

Our trek to Carson Falls near Mt. Tam last Sunday was the second of three great hikes we did in one day. Our choice to stay at a hotel somewhat nearby in Mill Valley the night before really paid off ( Read more... )