I am less than a year old in my first passport photo. You can see a parent's hands holding me up. I was on my fifth passport by the time I was twenty-three. Needless to say, I've been a frequent flyer for a long time. While I won't say that I'm the ultimate flight expert, I have picked up a number of tricks along the way to make a long flight go smoother. Here are my strategies that have helped me endure many a 14-16 hr flight.
Read moreBackpacking Mt. Rainier
This weekend, instead of grilling corn and watching fireworks for Fourth of July, we headed to Mt. Rainier National Park to backpack. We were originally going to explore Glacier National Park but I had a bit of a fit when I read that berries were peaking along the best backpacking loops leading to near daily grizzly sightings. Don't get me wrong - I don't want any animals to go extinct - but I was happy to read that it is believed that there are no longer any grizzly bears in the Mt. Rainier region. When it comes to bears and cougars I'm very faint of heart. In our usual style we arrived in the park at 2:00 AM and slept for a few hours in a parking lot. Around 6:00 AM we began our "sit in front of the ranger station hoping to score a walk in trailhead permit" vigil.
Read moreNicaragua: A Splash, A Dash and A Crash
A few years back I was privileged to be able to spend three and a half months in Nicaragua. I was there with a group of friends doing community development projects and running medical clinics in different villages in the Northeast region of the country. While that time was very rewarding and full of adventures what I'm going to cover here are the few weeks of vacationing we did during our trip.
Read moreHow to Plan an International Trip
If you've never traveled outside your country of residence, planning an international trip can be incredibly daunting. How do you choose a location? Find plane tickets? Lodging that isn't sketchy? Sort out visas? I may have grown up traveling, but at some point all of these questions shifted from my parents to me as I left home and started adventuring on my own. It's definitely been a learning process, so I want to share my discoveries with you so that hopefully you will feel empowered to plan your own international trip in the near future.
Read moreBackpacking Yosemite
Shortly after we moved to California for Justin to attend medical school, we found ourselves on the cusp of a highly coveted long weekend with no plans. As we sat on the bed discussing what a crime it would be to waste the weekend without having any adventure, a plan began to emerge. We would go to Yosemite to backpack. That night. It was already evening and the drive would be six hours so there was no time to hesitate.
Read moreDriving Up Big Sur
McWay Falls
When we moved to California a few years ago our first local trip was a five day drive up Big Sur - a sparsely populated coastal region of central California. The decision was spontaneous and we left with a full tank of gas and no plans except that we wanted to camp. Still driving at 3:00 am the first day with no place to camp in site made us wonder if we'd been a little foolish.
Read moreA Day in Zion
We have two days off... where should we go? Zion National Park is only six hours away. Sweet, we should go there. We can drive for half a day and then have a full afternoon and morning of adventure. Okay, let's start packing. And that's how we ended up on a short but exhilarating trip to Zion last fall. How we convinced two friends to accompany us for twelve hours of driving for a day of fun I don't now, but we did. I guess we have some pretty cool friends.
Read moreTips for Visiting Joshua Tree
We've been fortunate enough to live just an hour from Joshua Tree National Park for the last three years. Even if you're not into the desert the draw of Joshua Tree is magnetic with its bizarre rock formations that form a million passageways and nooks to scramble up, over, and through. And of course if you climb then it's rather legendary.
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