Seaside or Cannon Beach, Which Place is Best for You?

I mentioned in my previous blog post that my wife’s parents once owned a home in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and we visited them frequently. We became pretty familiar with Cannon Beach over the years. Once they sold their home, we went down less frequently. Now, however, when we do go down, we stay in Seaside which is about ten minutes north of Cannon Beach. Despite the fact that the towns are fairly close to each other, they are different in…

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Astoria, Gateway to the Oregon Coast

At one time my wife’s parents owned a home in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Our children were in elementary school then, and we would go down to visit two or three times a year. Of course to get there we had to pass through the town of Astoria, and that’s what we did, we passed right on by. Occasionally we would drive up to wander through some antique stores, but for the most part we were unimpressed. It had been a…

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Impressions of More US National Parks

Last week I shared about five National Parks I had visited before I started my blog. I didn’t feel I remembered enough to give a lot of detail, but thought I would share some thoughts and experiences about these parks. Today I want to share about five more parks. While last week’s list included parks from Maine to Hawaii, this week the parks are all in the southwestern section of the United States. Yosemite National Park is a well known…

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My Impressions of Five US National Parks

There are 63 National Parks in the United States with the newest one in West Virginia added in just the last few years. How many can you name? Don’t feel bad, I can’t name that many either. However, I have been to 19 of them over the years. Some of them I have visited recently and have shared about my visits in this blog. You can peruse those articles in the index under National Parks. I have not shared about…

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Discovering the Gardens of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara sits along the California coast north of Los Angeles. Many people think of it as a posh beach town. However, its Mediterranean climate makes it a unique place to garden. While it is fairly warm year round, it is also somewhat dry. This makes it suitable for a wide variety of plants. There are three gardens that I have enjoyed while visiting Santa Barbara. The first is the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in the foothills above the Santa…

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Exciting Sights at Channel Islands National Park

Over Thanksgiving week my daughter and I had the opportunity to visit Channel Islands National park off the coast of California. Our family traveled to Santa Barbara to be with my wife’s family for Thanksgiving. We went down there two years ago, but a fire forced us to evacuate. It was time to try again. My daughter, Andrea, lived in Santa Barbara for five years for school. She graduated from Cal. State Channel Islands. I have been down to Santa…

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2021: Travel Adventures in a COVID world

The saying is that, “Timing is everything.” I started my blog shortly after retirement from teaching in 2019. I was looking forward to sharing some of my past experiences initially and then moving on to new adventures. While my wife is still working, she has generous vacation days so I expected we would travel a lot. However, about seven months later the world shut down as COVID took over the world. How was I going to write a travel blog…

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Climate Pledge Arena: Seattle’s Newest Wonder

On a recent newscast in the Seattle area, the newscaster referred to the newly opened Climate Pledge Arena as Seattle’s newest wonder. While I don’t normally think of sports arenas as wonders, I thought it was an interesting comment on this renewed arena. Seattle has had a football field, a baseball field, and now is excited to have a hockey and basketball arena. The opening of Climate Pledge Arena has been a big deal for the city of Seattle. For…

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Olympic Peninsula: Seabrook, Beaches, and Sunset Clamming

Our last day on the Olympic Peninsula was originally supposed to be a trip back north to explore Ruby Beach and other beaches in that area. However, on our way down the coast on Wednesday, we realized how long that trip was. After such a busy week, we just didn’t have the energy to drive back. We decided instead to just hang out along the coast near our hotel. It turned out to be a decent and interesting day in…

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Olympic Peninsula: Quinault, More than just a Lodge

Early in our marriage my wife and I spent a night at the Quinault Lodge. What I remember most about our time was dinner. During dinner we were suddenly told that we needed to evacuate the dining room because of a fire in the kitchen. We all went out onto the back lawn standing around until the staff finally instructed us to return to our tables. Now over 40 years later we would return to the area to see what…

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