We took the advice of friends and approached Sedona from Prescott traveling East over the pass by Mingus Mountain then down through Jerome into the Verde Valley. We stayed for a few days at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood and made day trips to Sedona. Jerome The Route 89A Pass over the mountains and down …
The Day of the Dead We met Paul and Catherine Pickering by chance on Vancouver Island back in September, when we discovered surreal coincidences between our lives. They invited us to visit them in Mesa, AZ when we passed by on our way East and fortuitously, this coincided with an annual party they host, …
The Arizona Desert We had a couple of friends we wanted to visit and in searching for a place to stay, we happened upon a wonderful desert park in the foothills west of Phoenix, White Tank Mountain Regional Park. The park was maintained immaculately, the graveled sites were ‘Zen-raked’ and roomy, and the desert scenery …
We couldn’t continue our journey to Arizona without stopping for a day or two in ‘Sin City’. We picked Lake Mead National Recreation area as our home for a couple of days and found a site with a wonderful view over the lake and mountains at Las Vegas Bay. Our site was on the …
Still in search of some warm weather, we headed South to Death Valley, one of the hottest places in the world. Our stop at Bishop was rewarded with some wonderful pastries at Schat’s bakery. Further on in Independence, stocking up for our journey, we stopped at a market and were engaged in the parking …
We traveled South past Reno and Carson City with the Sierras to the west. Past the peaks around Lake Tahoe and at the foot of Tioga Pass from Yosemite we found Mono Lake. The lake has no outflow being surrounded by mountains and so the salinity level grows as more and more water evaporates. …
Time to head South and find somewhere dry and warm. Death Valley sounded good to us so we planned our route to Mono Lake, down the Eastern side of the Sierras. However, Mono Lake looked a bit far for a day’s journey so we decided to have one last look at the Cascades and …
Oregon’s Gorgeous Coastline Since our first trip up the Oregon coastline was beautiful but too foggy for many photographs, we thought we would try a few more days to see if we could find some clear weather on the coast West of Eugene. After we eliminated Carl Washburne State Park as a campsite due to …
About M&M My brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Maggie Tauber (M&M), are true Los Angeles kids. Growing up in North Hollywood and Burbank, these urbanites have been living in the greater L.A. area for most of their lives. Their house in Manhattan Beach is near all three of their grown up boys as well as their …
This was our second visit to Bend, Oregon, but on this trip, it was to visit two childhood friends whom I hadn’t been in touch with for over 50 years. The Cooper girls were raised with our family, our fathers and mothers, inseparable. Daily visits, weekends, all holidays, and vacations in Marietta Hot Springs were all …
We couldn’t travel South through Washington and Oregon without visiting the Columbia Gorge. Known to Colin as one of the best windsurfing locations in the world, he was hoping for some action shots at Hood River. However, the weather didn’t cooperate for the three days we were there, very rainy and windless, so our …
We visited both ends of the Nisqually River in Washington State, of which the source is a glacier high up on Mount Rainier. The river runs into the Puget Sound at the newly created Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Most estuaries on the Puget Sound have been filled, dredged or developed …
Bellingham, Washington. We contacted the Pacific North West Northumbrian Smallpipes (NSPs) Group (yes there really is one, and a very active one) to see if we could attend their monthly meeting near Tacoma, WA. We received a return email from one of their members living in Bellingham, Peter Dyson, who no longer makes the long …
Seattle Cityscape Showing us a beautiful blue sky from the Space Needle, Seattle was magnificent from 500 ft. up in the air. We followed this with a street level tour and found many fun places to go and observe. Pike Place Market (see below) was truly candy for the eye, and we spent a fun time at the Experience Music …