“What would you like to do for Mother’s Day?” my LA-based son was asking over the phone last week. Our entire family had been together in San Diego in April, which was the best Mother’s Day I could have asked for – never mind that it wasn’t the exact date to celebrate. This chance to … Read More
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Exploring LA’s Huntington Gardens: Art Museum, Rare Books & World-Themed Botanical Gardens
“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” ~Victor Hugo It’s a sun-filled Saturday morning in San Diego, and the sky is the color of a peaceful cerulean sea. The relentless rains of winter have finally … Read More
Notes from Home: On Travel, Our Brains & A 350-Pound Penguin
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” ~Pat Conroy One morning last week, I was having breakfast at our kitchen table when a New York Times story about discovering the fossilized remains of … Read More
The Salton Sea: A Ghost of Former Glory in the California Desert
The Salton Sea. It’s a poetic name for a place that is neither poetic nor a sea. The landlocked body of water in the California desert is actually the state’s largest lake, a saline-filled depression in the earth with a higher salt level than the Pacific Ocean and a story that reads more like science … Read More
Notes from Home: Lessons, Love & Looking Back
Seven years ago today, I set out on an adventure that I had no way of knowing would still be going strong. On January 2, 2016, after months of exploring an idea that had stubbornly planted itself inside my entire being, I pressed publish and began sharing a deeply important part of my life with … Read More
Notes from Home: Grounded and Grateful
“This, too, will pass.” ~Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth A couple of weeks ago, Herb and I returned from an always-wonderful visit with our Bay Area grandchildren, topped off with an overnight stay in a lighthouse to celebrate anniversary #43 and fulfill one of my little travel dreams. We’d only been home a day or … Read More
Spending the Night in a Lighthouse: Sweet Dreams Over San Francisco Bay
“I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.” ~George Bernard Shaw The narrow road to Point San Pablo Harbor winds its way through a small forest of gnarled trees, the fallen brown leaves of late October scattered along the drive. We pass … Read More
Stopping by Pyramid Lake: In Praise of Getting Off the Beaten Path
We must have driven this route more than a dozen times these past two years. Interstate Highway 5…the main artery between Northern and Southern California, and the delicate thread of a lifeline that winds its way to our two little grandsons, one born during the throes of the pandemic; the other making his appearance just … Read More
Notes from Home: Postcards from the Future
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden It’s about a five-minute drive from our home in San Diego to the post office where our mail is delivered. With the local NPR station … Read More
Touring the Salinas Valley: California’s “Salad Bowl of the World”
“It’s the state vegetable of California,” Evan Oakes says proudly as he hands me a flowery green stem. “In fact, 90 percent of all artichokes in North America come from Monterey County.” I’m standing at the edge of an artichoke field at Pezzini Farms, the first stop on Evan’s Ag Ventures tour of the Salinas … Read More