Our main reason for coming to Canada was to spend time with my brother and his wife in Whistler. After a few days in North Vancouver we were ready to head farther north. Sadly Tuesday dawned cold and dreary again. While it didn’t rain much, the clouds hung low in the sky. The first part of the drive to Whistler is along Howe Sound which later changes to Squamish Harbor. I had hoped to take some photos along the way,…
Continue Reading “The Road to Whistler Through Squamish: Both Ways”
Monday morning dawned cold. I think it was colder in Las Cruces than it was back home in Seattle that day. However the sun was out, and it looked to be a beautiful day. After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we drove out to Dripping Springs Natural Area for a hike. Dripping Springs is in the Organ Mountains. The mountains are part of the Desert Peaks National Monument. President Obama established the monument in 2014 which includes five mountain…
Continue Reading “Dripping Springs: Discovering Stories of the Past”
If you are visiting the Olympic Peninsula, the Olympic National Park will probably be at the top of your list. Of course going up to Hurricane Ridge is one of those must-do activities in the park. We have been to Hurricane Ridge a few times over the years, but it was time for another visit. I had looked at the weather forecast and decided that Sunday would be a good day to travel up to Hurricane Ridge. (My daughter thinks…
Continue Reading “Olympic Peninsula: Above the Clouds at Hurricane Ridge”
My daughter Andrea has been an avid traveler for some time. I have referred to her on numerous occasions. She has traveled with my wife and me to Spain & Portugal, Ireland, New England, Taiwan, Hawaii, and most recently Alaska. She is a second grade teacher living near San Jose so her summers have given her the opportunity to travel. I tell you this because this series is about our first father/daughter trip that we have taken. Last spring the…
Continue Reading “Iceland Interlude: Amazing Geologic Wonders”
The sun was shining brightly as we got up Sunday morning. We had not anticipated that as the previous day had been quite cloudy. The blue skies seemed a good omen for our day on the water. Today we would take a six hour boat ride through the fjords out of Seward and see parts of the Kenai Fjords National Park. In this post be prepared for lots of photos as I took nearly 500 photos on our tour. There…
Continue Reading “Alaska Sojourn: A Great Day Sailing the Alaskan Fjords”
Saturday was a transition day. We would be leaving the interior of Alaska and traveling south to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. This would be another long day of driving for us. After packing up our stuff and getting it all in the car, we left for the first stop on our journey south, the tourist town of Talkeetna. The town is actual quite close to where we were staying as the crow flies. Unfortunately the Susitna River separates the…
Continue Reading “Alaska Sojourn: The Snow Clad Mountains to Seward”
Thursday dawned early in Fairbanks, but we were not awake to take note. When we were finally up and ready to go, we needed to pack our car as today we would be traveling south. It turns out I made an unfortunate error when I booked our hotel for our Denali visit. The place is actually two hours south of the Denali entrance. My daughter discovered this the day before we left so not much we could do about it.…
Continue Reading “Alaska Sojourn: Unique Ice Sculpting to Grand Landscapes”
I have wanted to go to Alaska for some time, but it never happened. This spring my daughter suggested we go there for a summer vacation. When airline prices came up that were a great deal, we made the call. We would finally visit the huge state of Alaska. Our sojourn would begin in Fairbanks and end in Anchorage. Our flight arrived in Fairbanks about 9:00 PM the day after the summer solstice. The sun would set at about 12:45am…
Continue Reading “Alaska Sojourn: Hiking Success Near the Chena River”
As we are nearing the end of the Lenten season, I thought it would be appropriate to share about one of the more interesting religious sites that we have visited. When we visit major cities, we often look for opportunities to take day trips out into the surrounding area. When we visited Barcelona, we took a trip out to a well known monastery, Montserrat. The Montserrat Mountains near Barcelona give their name to the monastery built into its side. The…
Continue Reading “A Monastery in the Sky, Montserrat, Spain”
A fellow blogger Mike in his blog Mikes Thoughts often talks about the value of just wandering in a city with no particular plan. This was about to happen to us. After realizing we were not going to go up in the Palm Springs Tram, we cast about for a way to spend out final day in Palm Springs. We ended up wandering through the nearby mountains traveling what is known as the Palms to Pines scenic byway. It had…
