As I was doing some New Years purging of my desk, I came across the real estate brochure from our previous home in Westport, Connecticut. I hadn’t looked at it in some time and so with fresh eyes I studied the pictures of the home that we had lived in for twenty years. I only wish I had some of the before photos- they are probably buried somewhere in the garage in our old photo albums.…
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…
I grew up in a family of six. We took yearly vacations from our home in New Jersey, usually to Florida. We always drove and would often leave in the middle of the night and drive straight through. I still remember the excitement of laying out our new vacation outfits and waiting to be woken up to start our adventure. We would pile into the station wagon and sleep for the first part of the trip. Then there would be short…