Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
My cousins meet in Las Vegas a couple of times a year. Last year, Melody and I spent several days at Death Valley National Park beforehand. This year, we decided to spend time in Zion National Park before meeting with the cousins.
During the pre-pandemic days, Kellen and Brady left Seattle to live in Germany for what ended up being about a year and a half before they moved back. In a few days, Tynor and Mallory are moving to North Carolina. The move that has been in the back of their minds for quite a while, and last year they set things in motion.
Melody's sister Celeste usually comes out every year from New York, and this year we made a larger road trip than in the past. We spent time in each of Spokane, Boise, and Yakima.
On our last full day of the trip, we drove back south a bit to hike the Trail of Ten Falls. We knew that the water flow in the summer would be low, but it still seemed worthwhile for most of the waterfalls.
This was a travel day for us, going from Ashland to Portland. When we arrived, we dropped by to see the troll at Nordic Northwest, then went to a few places we frequent in Portland.
For our last full day in Ashland, we walked around more of Lithia Park and went to the Japanese garden. For dinner, we went to Medford to visit high school friends of mine.
We did a hike where we got a view of Mt. Shasta, then spent the afternoon in Downtown Ashland.
A short drive north got us into Oregon and our destination, Ashland. We walked around the town a bit and saw a musical at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
We did a short hike from one lake to another, and got great views of Mt. Shasta. We then spent the afternoon in town.
Our first full day around Mt. Shasta had us doing two hikes. One gave us a very close view of the mountain, and the other went between three waterfalls.
Another travel day. We met a friend I worked with at a previous job for brunch, then we drove to Mt. Shasta.
This was a quiet day for us, the first one of the trip. We walked along the Los Gatos Creek in the morning, met some friends for lunch, and hung out at a café in the afternoon.
We spent the day in San Francisco, going to SF MOMA and walking from Chinatown through North Beach and to the Embarcadero.
We headed out to the coast of the San Francisco Peninsula for the day, doing a walk along Half Moon Bay and looking at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.
This was another travel day, but before going to San Jose, we went up Lassen Peak.
We did a shorter hike with the group and joined them for lunch by a lake. We then spent the afternoon in Shingletown.
The itinerary for this day was very fluid, and we ended up about half an hour behind everyone else. We went to Bumpass Hell, which is sort of like many features of Yellowstone in one area. We also did a driving tour of some of the other highlights in the park.
Our first full day at Lassen Volcanic National Park ended up being a piecemeal day, rather than the organized outings in Redwood National Forest. Things worked out, though, and we went up a cinder cone and hung out a bit with the group for lunch.
This was a travel day, but before heading inland, we did a short trail to a waterfall. On the way, temperatures went up about 50° then down about 15° when we got to our destination.
Another day with a longer single hike. This time we went to a fern-lined canyon, which was even more interesting than it sounds.
