Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” Walt Whitman Slowly we party again Birthdays and Holidays Although we saw a spike in COVID after the holidays, we kicked of 2022 celebrating several belated birthdays: we had a great party at Domenico winery in January for Eilish and a fun…
The Best Picnics ever! A beautiful August evening in Redwood City, California. Hundreds of people, all dressed in white, gather in the parking lot of Canada College for a yearly tradition: le diner en blanc. This one is called "Picnic en blanc". But it is the same thing, a worldwide event, that started in Paris…
Visit Glacier National Park Before It's Gone During last year's glamping trip to Sequoia National Park, we agree we want to make glamping a yearly event. So for this year's destination, we decide to go to Glacier National Park. As the predictions are that by 2030, there won't be any Glaciers, only mountain lakes, now…
The Wicklow Way During one of our regular hikes in California, we realize that several of us will be in Europe this summer. One of the hikes that we had on our list, was the Wicklow Way in Ireland. Spontaneously, we decide to try to do it while we are all in Europe and we…
I am visiting New York in July. It is hot and humid. On the first day, we brave the heat and walk in Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge to DUMBO. However, on Sunday, Andrea suggest we go to Governors Island to escape the heat of New York City. Fun Ways To Keep Cool …
A Hike To Remember I am in The Netherlands in May, when my friend Vanessa sends me a text. Do I have June 20 off? I tell her I don't but I can take it off. She has a credit for airline tickets and wants to go somewhere for the Juneteenth weekend. Am I interested…
Sunshine And Fun The Snyman's graciously invited me to spend the 4th of July with them at Rhona's brother Noel and sister-in-law Helena's house at Orange Lake, upstate New York. So on the morning of July 4, I board the train at Grand Central Station, destination Beacon. It is a beautiful 1 1/2 hour train…
Can You Imagine Happy Life Of Not Having Children? Not having children can be a quiet sadness that is always there in the background. Because it is so much bigger than becoming or being a mother. It hits in different phases of life. When your friends have children, or grandchildren, when their children graduate or…
The Marin headlands are just a little north of the metropolitan city of San Francisco, but once you pass the Richmond bridge and drive on the narrow winding roads of Marin Headlands, you enter a totally different world of sleepy country side, rolling hills covered in wild flowers, cows, goats and horses. It is our…
How The Road To EBC Began Patagonia and Mount Kilimanjaro had been on my bucket list for years. On the contrary, Everest Base Camp was not something I had ever aspired to. And here I am, signed up with Ian Taylor Trekking. We will be trekking to the base camp of the highest Mountain in…