WINDY WINTER CONDITIONS: Multnomah Falls & Columbia River Gorge
So, I went to Portland for a couple of days with Curtis for a brief trip & guess what happened? SNOW! Now it is chilly up here, but we have been assured that this is not a very common occurrence. Which is obvious by the fact that a that a few inches can cause a 30+ car pile-up closing I-5 on the day we planed to go home. Guess we…
The Royal Newton Riblet Estate (Tourist Wine Trap!)
When I first arrived at the Arbor Crest estate tasting room in Spokane, Washington I had the mis-impression that this was going to be your typical wine tasting. “Oh yes, blackberry notes with a full body. Wait isn’t this a white wine?” Nope. This was not a trip about the wine – this was a trip about the Arbor Crest Estate, an estate owned by one Royal Newton Riblet. According to…
Quinn’s Hot Springs – Relaxing and Hiking
This year was a pretty intense year for Christmas time traveling for me – up to Eastern Washington, then over to Seattle, back to Spokane, over to Montana for Quinn’s hot springs, to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, back to the airport and finally home again in again with Basil and Herman. In the next few days I hope to get up at least another blog about the trip – but…
Kiwanis Monument – Oscoda, Michigan
I am back in California now, but before I return to blogging about life in the Sierra I wanted to share this Kiwanis monument located by Oscoda, MI. I have visited this monument previously with my family, but probably not since before college. In college I became a member of the Kiwanis, specifically the Circle K. Through Kiwanis and Circle K I met some amazing people, built some sweet snow…
Northwest for a wedding
Curtis and I adventured this labor day weekend to the Oakland California airport through 5:30 am bay area traffic, across the state of Oregon, and many mountains Curtis told me the name of, to Spokane Washington, then Flathead Lake Montana, for the wedding of Two or Curtis’s friends from college, Rick and Adair. The mountains in the northwest seem very different than the Sierra Nevada by us, and it was a really great time meeting…
Lovelock, NV to Groveland, CA: The Finale of Our Roadtrip!
The finale is a bit of an overstatement. It was more like a great pleasure to get out of California Lake Tahoe Memorial Day traffic and find our hotel that basil took an instant liking to. Meaning he wanted to chew all the antique furniture, of course (We bunny proofed!). Leaving Lovelock, NV we put our lovers lock on the chain in the town that replicates an ancient Chinese tradition of people putting…
Twin Falls, ID to Lovelock, NV: Day 4 of trip to CA
After leaving Twin falls it was a jaunt down to the state of Nevada where Jackpot the first town across the border, in the middle of nowhere. It has a giant casino, of course. Our drive through Nevada was interesting, meaning flat roads with large snow capped mountains surrounding you. Two stops of note are listed sequentially below The town of Elko, NV which claims itself to the biggest small town in…
Butte, MT to Twin Falls, ID: Day 3 of Trip to California
After two days of driving until you want to die, the fun-er and less strenuous portion of the journey came next. This ensured that I would be able to check out more of the sights and attractions that Curtis would pretend to not like, but secretly enjoy. So before we left butte would check out three classic “Only in Montana” tourist attractions, and force Josh to drive the three (Basil…
Bismark, ND to Butte, MT: Day 2 of road trip to CA
Basil was so upset to get back on the road again today, although he was probably most upset because we made him sleep in the motel 6 bathroom, and nobody would like that. We continued onward anyhow into the rainy gray day that continued though all of North Dakota and Montana. It wasn’t a good day for photos, although the herd of vacationers at the Theodore Roosevelt national park rest…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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