On Sunday this weekend we started off taking it easy. We were pretty wrecked- but in a good way- from our epic hike at Zim Zim Falls a day earlier. We spent the morning taking it easy, went out for lunch and to run a bunch of shopping errands, then came back home before deciding what to do next. "Spend the afternoon laying around the pool" was ( Read more... )

New Zealand Travelog #36
Hamilton, NZ - Fri, 19 Apr 2024, 5pm

We're back to our cozy apartment in Hamilton atfer another day of adventure. Today's adventure was a stitching together of a few paid tours plus a few completely self-guided things:

• We visited the Ruakuri Cave (vendor link) with a guided tour. On the trip we heard about a few of the ( Read more... )

New Zealand Travelog #34
Hamilton, NZ - Thu, 18 Apr 2024, 8pm

After we finished up at Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland- and yes, there was a lot more to it than just the tourist-trappy Lady Knox Geyser; I'll catch up on that later- we headed back to Rotorua for lunch and some souvenir shopping. It turned us off that the souvenirs fell into two ( Read more... )

After our treks at Susan Creek Falls and Fall Creek Falls Monday morning, plus over 100 miles of driving, it was getting to be time for lunch. We found a little gas station convenience store perfectly located in Steamboat, about a dozen miles before Toketee Falls, our next hiking spot. While there I learned that I was pronouncing Toketee wrong. It' ( Read more... )

Phoenix Getaway Travelog #9
Back at the hotel - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 10:30pm

After we finished our hike up-up-up and back down-down-down Camelback Peak this afternoon it was time for lunch. We ate at a small Navajo-Mex restaurant. It's "-Mex" because the styles of food are (northern) Mexican, with tacos and tostadas and burritos. But it's Navajo ( Read more... )

5 Days in the Desert travelog #14
Cima, CA - Sun, 25 Dec 2022, 4pm

This past Sunday afternoon- Christmas Day, for those still keeping track amid this prolific series of blog posts about our "5 Days in the Desert" trip- we visited the lava tubes in Mojave National Preserve. This was our third adventure of the day, after hiking the 650' tall sand ( Read more... )

Today (October 10) is Columbus Day in the US. Don't feel bad if you didn't know; it's not widely celebrated anymore. It seems like the only people with the day off are the government, banks, and some schools. I only knew about it because late last night Siri popped up a reminder on my phone asking me if I wanted to turn off my 6:45am alarm since ( Read more... )

Several months ago I started watching a new streaming series, Reservation Dogs. It's a slice-of-life comedy/drama about Native American teens living in, and trying to leave, a tribal town in rural Oklahoma. The name of the show is a play on the name of Quentin Tarrantino's bloody debut movie, Reservoir Dogs.


( Read more... )

Pacific Northwest September Travelog #12
Stevenson, WA - Mon, 5 Sep 2022, 9am

The other day I asked, "What's in a name?" as I wrote about Gifford Pinchot and the local political candidate whose slogan is Stinky 4 PUD. This morning brought another "Names that make you go huh" moments, though for the opposite reason. We drove across The Bridge of ( Read more... )

Sedona Travelog #12
Mescal Mountain, Sedona, AZ - Mon, 30 May 2022, 10:30am

After visiting the Birthing Cave (previous blog in this series) we discussed where to go next. Despite our epic 9-mile, almost 2,000' ascent hike yesterday we were feeling somewhat spry this morning. Like, not 100%, but also not, "Enh, let's sit around the pool deck all ( Read more... )