With the cameras in phone becoming so powerful, the number of pictures taken on a regular basis around the world has increased to an amazing number. In April the WordStream Blog reported that 95 million photos and videos were shared on Instagram per day. That just boggles the imagination. So what are these photos about? Anyone interested in traveling has likely taken numerous pictures, but what do our pictures say about us and our understanding about the world? In recent…
Two Interesting Day Trips Beyond Las Vegas, Nevada
Most people go to Las Vegas, Nevada for gambling, drinking and partying. However, if you grow tired of these activities or are just not into that sort of thing, it doesn’t mean you have to sit in your hotel room. Here are two options of things you can easily do in a day or even in an afternoon. However, they are on opposite sides of the city so it is probably not the best to try to do them on…
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Autumn in Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles National Park is a newer national park. It only became a national park in 2013. Perhaps because it is newer explains the reason why many people aren’t even aware of it. While it is located just 80 miles south of San Jose, it is the 13th least visited national park in the United States. Only a little over 233 thousand people visit in a year. Compare that to the 4 million who visit the popular Yosemite National Park just…
The First Christmas Journey
The tag line for this blog is Life’s a journey. Travel often. Learn much. In our day and age travel is fairly convenient. We may fuss about the crowded planes, uncomfortable hotel rooms, or expensive meals, but truly we have it so much better than those who came before us. Consider Mary and Joseph. They went on a journey, but not one they chose. They were commanded to go to their ancestral home for a census, and the timing couldn’t…
Writing a Helpful Hotel Review
Do you have plans to travel this coming Christmas or New Years? If you do travel and book a hotel through one of the travel websites, you will probably receive an email following your trip asking you to review the hotel or activities. Writing a hotel review can be helpful to other travelers, but writing a review can be a challenge. That is why many reviewers write a one or two sentence review which is not very helpful. However reviews…
Exploring Angel Island
While visiting my daughter in San Jose, she decided we needed to explore Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. She and a friend had ridden bikes around the island and enjoyed it. She thought it would be fun for my wife and me to explore it as well. To get to the island was a journey in itself. We had to drive about a half hour north to catch the BART light rail system. After a half hour ride, we…
Nativities Around the World
It’s Christmas season once more. The signs are everywhere. A visit to a store or mall and all the decor will tell you that the Christmas season is here. Christmas themes of late seem to revolve mostly around snow and winter scenes. Snowmen and Christmas trees along with Santa have come to dominate the holiday decor. However, it is important not to ignore the reason there’s a Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. One way to celebrate that is to…
Thanksgiving Through Fire
In 2019 we were invited to go to my wife’s sister’s home in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. Since I am retired, our schedule was more flexible. On Saturday we planned to fly to San Jose where my daughter lives, drive down to Santa Barbara on Monday, and return to San Jose on Saturday. My wife’s sister Sylvia and her husband Jonathan live in a home up in the hills of Santa Barbara. They built it a number of years ago…
Discovering Australia’s Animals at Taronga Zoo
It was our final full day in Sydney, and we decided to go to Taronga Zoo. We had originally planned to take a train up into the Blue Mountains and do some hiking in this well-known region. However, age had caught up with me. After all the walking we had done, especially the Bondi to Coogee walk, my wife convinced me that hiking was probably more than we could handle at this point. She didn’t get much argument from me.…
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Discovering Australia: Bondi to Coogee Walk
When we researched our trip to Australia, one of the experiences that popped up was the Bondi to Coogee walk. We are big walkers, and a lot of our vacations are spent walking around various cities we visit. We had heard of the famous Bondi Beach, and this walk was a top priority for us to do. Yesterday we had walked in the city. Today we would walk the coast. Fortunately we had a beautiful day for our walk. The…
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