New year and time for some new races. I loved doing this race in early 2020 before everything locked down. At the time I learned how great Arizona weather is during the winter. It is also a convenient 5-hour road trip from home. We drove out on Friday and picked up our race packets. The goal was to walk the 5k on Saturday as a team and then for me to do the Half...
Since it was so close to Zion, we decided to make a day trip to Bryce Canyon. My first impression is that this felt like visiting 1/2 of the Grand Canyon; however, still a very beautiful place to see. This location is known for having the largest concentration of Hoodoos on the planet. A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall...
I have wanted to visit Zion for more than 10 years when it was recommended to me by a co-worker. I got close in 2015 but bypassed and went to Moab and then Arizona. We spent the night at a hotel in Park City, Utah. The drive to this National Park took about 90 minutes. The parking was quite challenging, even for a weekday. We parked about 3 miles into the town, paid...
We took a nice road trip up the coast so I could run yet another half marathon. I visited San Jose for the first time back in 2015. Along the way, we stopped at Paso Robles and Monterey Bay. For this race, I was not as enthusiastic as I have been for other events. Initially, I planned to just hike the distance. The starting line excitement got the better of me and I...
This month I invited my mother to come to visit our new home. As part of the multi-week visit, we took her to Las Vegas for the first time. Since pool season is in full swing, we decided to stay at Mandalay Bay where one of the largest aquatic features exists. Pool season begins in March and ends around October with the daily hours typically being 9 a.m. to 6 p.m...
Our first time staying at the Bellagio Resort...
A Road Trip South – USA Pacific Coast – 2019 I’ve done part of the West Coast drive of the USA, typically between San Francisco and San Diego, however, I have longed to go as far as Washington and back. My guess is that there is some really good stuff to experience in Oregon too. Since this post has too much to talk about I’ll let my YouTube...
Greetings from Sugar Pine Point State Park on the California side of Lake Tahoe. Dee and I are on our way to the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington to see the Above and Beyond Group Therapy Weekender camping/music event. From Southern California, this is about 19 hours of driving. In order to break up the trip into more manageable chunks, we are stopping at a few...
Waking up early, we packed up our camp and headed to Temecula for some breakfast. Before heading down to Lake Elsinore we enjoyed one more view of the mountains. I didn’t really have much of a plan for the day. I figured we would pay a visit to Palomar mountain and the 200ft observatory there and then figure out the next step from that point. The initial view...
This year I kind of skipped out on the 4th of July. I’d already gotten my firework fix back in may at EDC. Something I have been wanting to do more frequently is to go Car Camping. It is a halfway point between backpacking and full-on RV camping. I still prefer to camp in a tent or hammock but I love the convenience of having a car to carry heavier gear and a...