This is one of my favorite times of the year. However, that is not the case for everyone. The holiday season can be fraught with expectations unfulfilled, family drama, and often a bit of mayhem. The new year can be a time of great anticipation for new experiences or it can be a time of uncomfortable uncertainty. This year, I felt the need among the hustle and bustle to just stop and take a deep breath. I can think of…
What a crazy, fun filled few days I had with my daughter in Big Sur. We were celebrating her birthday but needed no excuse to explore this amazing part of our country. Most often we stay two nights at my brother-in-laws ranch, and with such limited time we tend to stay close by. With 385 acres to wander, we are never bored. But with the gift of four nights, we expanded our horizons to some new places, and of course a few of…
Big Sur has been the subject of many books and movies, as well as countless poems expounding on its beauty. To me it’s a place like no other. It’s a deeply personal and spiritual experience. It is nature at its most glorious and no matter how many times I go back, it takes my breath away as if seeing it for the first time. Big Sur is impossible to describe. The most incredible photograph can’t capture how small I feel…
I’m going to be honest here. Before moving to Santa Barbara six years ago, I had never hiked a day in my life. Oh, I had taken long walks in my neighborhood or along the beach, but never an actual HIKE. In my mind, hiking was something healthy, young, outdoorsy people did… the kind of people who like to go camping or backpacking. It was not for a 40-something year old whose idea of camping requires a bed and a bathroom…and…
30 years ago, when I was fresh out of college and my sister had just graduated high school, we embarked on a month long, 11 country tour of Europe, with a group of about 40 other young explorers. It seems cliche to say that it was the trip of a lifetime- but it truly was! From London, Paris, Italy, Greece and points in between, there was so much to see, learn, and absorb. As magical as the trip was, it…