Category: Travel: The Americas

  • Samuel P Taylor State Park

    A quick camping trip is always welcome! Happily there are many beautiful and varied options around the San Francisco Bay Area to head over to see.

    Just north of the city, the redwood forests are still standing from the gold rush days of the 1800’s. Some are younger, but there’s a stretch at the beginning of the Pioneer Tree trail where there’s a bunch of old growth redwoods and beautiful streams to hike along.

    The park is named for Samuel Penfield Taylor, who found gold during the California Gold Rush and used some of his money to buy a parcel of land along Lagunitas Creek.[3] In 1856, Taylor built the Pioneer Paper Mill, the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast.[4] In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built between Cazadero and a pier in Sausalito where passengers could transfer to a ferry to San Francisco. The railroad passed near Taylor’s mill, and, ever the entrepreneur, he built the “Camp Taylor Resort” alongside the tracks. A destination for city-weary San Franciscans, the resort offered both a hotel and tent camping, as well as swimming, boating, fishing, and a dance pavilion.[5][6]
    Wikipedia

    We also took advantage of all the yummy food in the area. To be honest I didn’t totally feel like it was a legit camping trip since we ate fancy cheese at Cowgirl Creamery (I recommend the Red Hawk and the Mount Tam), had oysters on the half shell in Olema and pretty much nibbled yummy food continuously around the area. But we did have all of the campfires with s’mores experimentation. Substituting chocolate chip cookies for graham crackers was my favorite.

    It was great 🙂

    [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”14″ gal_title=”Samuel P Taylor”]

  • Disney Pixarfest!

    Alien and I will be trekking down to SoCal to visit the other aliens in the house of mouse sometime this year… yes, of course I will be dressed up ridiculously.

    I think my primary accessory (other than my alien who has been all over the world with me) will be this backpack (Venture Pal Ultralight Lightweight Packable Foldable Travel Camping Hiking Outdoor Sports Backpack Daypack (Blue)). I’m adding a Pizza Planet patch to it and will have a few things in there for the day. Alien headband, sunscreen, water bottles, various snacks etc. Must leave room for purchases.

    I also have a short sleeve shirt with the aliens on it that I’ll probably wear most of the day, but long sleeves is always necessary at some point.

    If you hear lots of squeeing, it’s ok, just me losing my mind over all the alien stuff.

  • MAXimum Portland – Travel Portland

    “Almost all Portland journeys start at PDX. Go to the Departures area and follow signs for the MAX. Sit down, relax, and commiserate with other people whose friends wouldn’t pick them up.”

    LOL

    https://issuu.com/travelportland

  • The kinda sorta ‘no bag challenge’

    This is more or less what I’ll be trying when I go to visit family for thanksgiving this year 🙂

  • Mini honeymoon: cute and practical outfit

    Not as worried about sun today (traipsing about Carmel, Ca) but it is super muggy and atypically warm.

    So I went with my Columbia pants, because comfy, my Solomon sneaks (colorful and comfy) and the Jarritos sugar skull shirt from tarzhay (it’s been commented on all day…so fun) with a purple Columbia shirt on top when it gets cooler.

    img_3541img_3542

    …and my day pack.

    img_3543
    I can be seen from space!

  • Mini honeymoon: practical outfit (though still kinda cute) #2

    I am so pale I fluoresce. So I love the Columbia shirts that are quick dry and SPF50 or so. Columbia quick dry pants (though not convertible) and faithful Merrell ventilators that also accompanied me on part of the Appalachian trail.


    Figured it would do me well wandering around with craggy rocks and beaches with wimpy ankles.


    Collar was up to protect my neck, but I didn’t need to wear my Tilley hat today even though I had it in my daypack.

  • mini honeymoon:  Cute Outfit 1

    I packed in outfits instead of several matching/neutral multiples… We drove and it’s my honeymoon so I just having fun with it 🙂

    img_3209

    img_3210

    And here’s the view from my cute outfit:

    img_3194
    I bet there’s a great white shark out there!!