How do you follow up an exhilarating week of hiking through southern Utah? Well, yes… there was a bit of laundry to catch up on -and some of our socks are permanently tinted “Iron Oxide Red” (if it’s not yet a “Crayola” color, it should be). Utah’s red soil proved to be both endearing and enduring.But after the dryer stops spinning… then what?
Lucky me. After returning from July’s hiking vacation with the kids, I hopped on another west-bound plane for a long weekend in California. A little spontaneous? Not really. I’m always aimed towards travel, similar to a dangling leaf waiting for the next decent breeze (but with carry-on luggage and a camera). It’s usually just a matter of working out the occasionally innumerable details. And I did.I was caught up on voice jobs, knew I’d get decent writing time and was more than slightly enticed by the photographic opportunities. The Hilton Pleasanton at the Club was (surprise!) in Pleasanton, southeast of San Francisco and worked well, on almost every level (review to follow).
My California days included: Mount Diablo, a drive up the California coast to Bodega Bay, Muir Woods, and Pebble Beach. I’ll be writing about each of these and more; next…
Still to come, Playa del Carmen, Mexico and Ohio’s great outdoors!
I like your slightly adjusted template, Heather.
Thanks Graham! I can only take credit for the smile, but I like the update too!
I love that “Iron Oxide Red” color. It somehow reminds me of being in Hawaii. One of our mutually favorite places. I’m looking forward to reading your upcoming posts. By the way, today is “One Day.” Some of your readers won’t get this but you will: Just the other day I was making coffee in my cuisinart. You know, the add fresh water, coffee beans, press start process? Just as the beans were grinding, I remembered that I hadn’t done step one: 1) Make sure the coffee maker has been completely cleaned. (I usually do this first). I quickly envisioned the basket over filling with ground coffee and then the coffee overflowing on the counter. I brilliantly decided to check by opening the door during the process. As I opened the door, I thought… this machine is going to shoot ground coffee all over the kitchen and then dump hot coffee water all over the counter. Fortunately, none of the bad thoughts happened. The pot is smarter than I am – and it was clean. I think it interrupted the process when I opened the door. Or maybe it was between cycles of grinding and brewing. Either way, I was happy there was no mess to clean up. And I enjoyed a fine cup of java! Sorry for the anti-climatic story….
Hugs!
Intrepid,
It’s good to hear a coffee mishap end well! Every time I’ve had the “uh oh”, it’s been the big mess for me.
Hoping, hoping, hoping that this might be a Hawaii year for me… It’s been a few years since I did the island hop.
Where are you off to next?
I can’t wait to read the Ohio story. Just got back from Cinncinatti over the holidays. I love that part of the country..especially heading up towards Indiana, Illinois.
Maybe Bryce Red or Zion Red. Much of inland Australia is built from that same red dirt which gets in everywhere and is tricky to remove.
Thanks Brad. I’ll be posting some more bike trails and hikes from some warmer fall days here in Ohio.
I enjoyed your New Year’s post!
Hi Mark,
If I had the red dirt constantly seeping into my home, I might have a different view of it, but I kind of like our red-stained socks from Utah as reminders of the great hikes we enjoyed there!
I guess that traveling is your main resource of inspiration