Nineteen days of heat and smoke from the Ferguson Fire had me looking for another short escape and adventure. Mom said she was was up for an adventure, so we headed to a place were she had spent some time but it was a long while back. It had been over 70 years since she spent a summer babysitting in ...

Adventures come in every shape and size and sometimes they are not really planned. My plan was to head up to Saddlebag Lake to do some camping but the Ferguson Fire blocked my easy route there. After living in heat and smoke for 6 days and glued to the fire updates, I needed to escape and came up with the ...

“I think I was ten and a half. I wasn’t yet eleven because Pearl Harbor hit when I was eleven. I had had bad tonsils all my life but when my parents told me I needed them taken out I would cry, and that was the end of it. “One day I visited my neighbor who was warm and friendly. ...

It was so worth the challenging hike up to Dana Plateau. Those beautifully colored and delicate columbine blooms don’t stick around and they were at their prime. Tons of wildflowers, all different colors and sizes, bloomed for us throughout our entire hike and at all elevations. Where: Ansel Adams Wilderness Area, Inyo National Forest Distance: 6.9 Miles (5.69 miles to ...

The next morning we drove to Orvieto, a small hill town in Umbria that had been recommended by a number of people. It sits up on a volcanic hill that has been inhabited for at least three thousand years. It retains all of its medieval character due to an unusual agreement between the German and English armies in World War II. ...

The next day we took a train to Siena to see the sights. We were a bit disappointed because we learned — with both Siena and Florence — that the cities are okay, they have a number of pretty spectacular churches, but the real things to see are the items in the museums and they take far longer than we ...

I love to hike up the Mono Pass Trail. There is something about those views of Mono Pass, up Parker Pass and Kuna Crest that make me feel like I am on top of the world. But clouds make it extra special, casting shadows on those multi-colored mountains, changing the colors with every cloud. Where: Yosemite National Park Distance: 10.22 ...

I love to hike up to the glacial fed Conness Lakes above Saddlebag Lake. I don’t know how the colors of the lake’s waters magically change from green to turquoise to deep blue before my eyes, so magic is the best explanation I can come up with. Where: Harvey Monroe Hall Research Natural Area, Hoover Wilderness, Inyo National Forest Distance: ...

We encourage you locals to get out and enjoy your backyard, the Sierra National Forest. One of our favorite day trips is a drive up to Whisky Falls, just less than an hour from North Fork. We recently made two trips up to the Falls. First was to take my cousin Bev from Kansas and the second some friends of ...

Wine tasting in Tuscany has been a decades-long goal of Karen’s and mine, so when we finally got to Tuscany we knew we’d be spending some time in a winery. The interesting part is that, in Tuscany, Chianti reigns supreme. But in our little corner of heaven — San Gimignano — a curious wine grape called Vernaccia is the queen (it ...