A Life, Lived

Travel Tuesdays - Thanksgiving in Sonoma

In 2014 Mom, my sister Rose, Paul and I travelled to Sonoma for a week around Thanksgiving. We flew into San Franscisco and after spending a few days there we drove north to the Russian River valley area. We rented a house in Guerneville and spent the week travelling around Sonoma. We visited an art preserve, wineries, wandered historic Sonoma, checked out the historic towns of the Russian River Valley and Fort Ross the old Russian Fort on the coast. We recreated a pic we took on our last evening in the area in 2004 on our final night - dinner at the famous Rivers End restaurant.

Travel Tuesdays - Muir Woods

When Paul and I were first in San Francisco years ago we made the trek across the Bay to hike in Muir woods. We have wonderfully happy memories of that. A few years later when I was hear with a colleague we attempted a similar visit but were thwarted by a land slide. On Paul's birthday trip in California we were determined to make it happen.

The park website warned that parking was a nightmare and people were known to take to parking on the side of the road next to the creek only to experience the horror of their car tumbling into the creek and harming the natural ecosystem (although to be honest the ecosystem would be way down on my list of concerns if my rental were to tumble into a gorge). In order to deal with the onslaught of visitors a shuttle bus has been put in place.

TAKE THE SHUTTLE!!!

We decided to drive and hoped we might find a spot on a Monday morning. HA HA HA HA

I dropped the gang off and ended up parked about two miles away on the side of the road (happily in an area with a huge, wide shoulder).

Here are some pics from that visit 6 years ago.

 

Travel Tuesdays - San Francisco

A few years ago we were in San Francisco having breakfast. I received a call from a colleague - apparently I hadn't rearranged by work schedule properly and I was expected to be working on that day. She offered to help me out and take over.

Thank goodness for helpful colleagues.

After things got sorted Paul and I hopped on transit and headed to the museum area of the Golden Gate Park. Later in the day we went to the Slanted Door for dinner.

Travel Tuesdays - Los Alamos

The Super Bowl has me thinking of the 'anti Super Bowl' parties that our friend Shannon used to arrange for our SlowTravel group. People from across north America would fly to California for a long weekend of wine, food, and plenty of fun. Because Paul and I were traveling to far we'd often tack some time on either end to make it a week visit.

These pics are from 2012. We gathered at the Skyview Inn outside of Los Alamos. On Saturday we visited area wineries during the day and at night we gathered in the party room of the Inn for a pizza feast that had been organized for us.

Slow Travel Memories

This picture popped up in my Facebook memory stream yesterday.

It was one of the last pictures taken on our last trip to California. We had flown out for a 10 day visit to Carmel, Paso Robles and a weekend of wine and food with our travel friends in Lompoc.

We said we wouldn't be back while Donald Trump was President.

Now we can't go back because of COVID.

This picture is jarring to me after a year of COVID restrictions. Imagine hugging, laughing, and carrying on with friends again?

We keep in touch electronically by email, social media, and zoom but it just isn't the same.

Let's figure out how to get people vaccinated sow e can enjoy moments like these again.

 

Travel Tuesdays - COVID19 Edition

Since we can't really travel anywhere right now one of the popular social media activities right now is for people to post pics of places that have made them happy. You know the pics, the ones you look at and you get that feeling of calm and happiness inside. I've decided to do that for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays.

This is the 21sr edition from my self isolation of sorts . . .

Travel Tuesdays - COVID19 Edition

One of the popular social media activities right now is for people to post pics of places that have made them happy. You know the pics, the ones you look at and you get that feeling of calm and happiness inside. I've decided to do that for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays.

This is the 7th edition from my self isolation.

Travel Tuesdays - COVID19 Edition

One of the popular social media activities right now is for people to post pics of places that have made them happy. You know the pics, the ones you look at and you get that feeling of calm and happiness inside. I've decided to do that for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays.

This is the 7th edition from my self isolation.

Travel Tuesdays - COVID19 Edition

One of the popular social media activities right now is for people to post pics of places that have made them happy. You know the pics, the ones you look at and you get that feeling of calm and happiness inside. I've decided to do that for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays.

This is the sixth edition from my self isolation.

Travel Tuesdays - COVID19 Edition

One of the popular social media activities right now is for people to post pics of places that have made them happy. You know the pics, the ones you look at and you get that feeling of calm and happiness inside. I've decided to do that for this week's edition of Travel Tuesdays.

This is the third edition from my self isolation.