South of San Francisco in the town of Woodside, one can step back in time to an earlier era of refinement and luxury. Filoli Gardens is a place where one can imagine life of a bygone era. Visitors can explore a large mansion built in 1917 in which only two families have lived. They can also explore the beautiful gardens around the home. Of course none of this comes free, but if one is willing to pay the price, they…
Continue Reading “Exploring the Filoli Gardens and Half Moon Bay Cliffs”
Traveling to Africa from the Seattle area is never direct. I was going to Africa for the third time, and the journey would be long and tiring. The first time I went to Africa I connected through London. The second time I traveled through New York. This time I though I would try a different approach and headed to Doha in the Middle East. While Seattle is my home airport, I was traveling with a new-to-me airline, Qatar, so I…
Continue Reading “One Trip, Four Airports: Seattle, Doha, Nairobi, and Lilongwe”
The weather forecast for Wednesday had predicted gloomy weather, but much to our surprise we woke up to mostly clear skies and a sunny outlook. After eating breakfast at our hotel, we were readyfor the day. We would travel back south, but be in more of the central part of the island ending up in Coupeville. Our first destination was South Whidbey State Park. While this park is on the water’s edge, the focus of the park is more hiking…
Continue Reading “From a Park, a Garden, and a Farm to Coupeville”
As the world started to fall apart in February 2020, I was all but certain it would not impact our trip to Belgium and The Netherlands. April was a couple of months away, and there was plenty of time for things to settle down. As we all know now, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Two years later we decided to try again. This time, however, there was a little more apprehension. Would we have to quarantine upon arrival? Where…
Continue Reading “Andrea’s Thoughts: Better Late than Never to The Netherlands”
After our long hike to Dripping Springs and La Cueva in the morning, a cool siesta back at our Las Cruces hotel seemed quite appropriate. Later in the afternoon we headed out to visit the village of La Mesilla. We might not have known about it, but our neighbors had recently visited the area. When they heard we were coming to Las Cruces, they suggested we visit La Mesilla. It turned out to be a good recommendation. Coincidentally La Mesilla…
Continue Reading “From Las Cruces Back to El Paso: Journey’s End”
Thursday we were ready to travel north again to Hanalei. After being thwarted on Tuesday, we now knew when the highway would be open. We had everything timed out, and we were ready to go. Our first stop of the day was the Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens (Lands by the Sea). Like many gardens, this one began as a private garden. Joyce and Ed Doty moved to Kauai in the late 1970’s and began to create a garden. As…
Continue Reading “Enjoying a Garden, a Lighthouse, and Hanalei Beach”
If you are in need of a quiet place in the midst of our chaotic world today, visit a garden. In a previous post I suggested three gardens to visit. Today I am suggesting just one, The Bloedel Reserve which USA Today recently named one of the 10 best botanical gardens in the U.S. The Bloedel Reserve is located at the northern end of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. This 150 acre garden and forest area was originally the home…
The state of Washington’s nickname is the Evergreen State. Many people think it rains here all the time. That’s not really true. We don’t have a lot of heavy rains, but many gray days with a light rain. Summers, however, can be quite beautiful and warm. In fact this is a perfect climate to grow many wonderful plants, and gardening is a popular activity in the Puget Sound region. Garden enthusiasts can find a number of gardens in the Seattle…
