Viewing entries in
travelogue

Fall Wrap-Up

6 Comments

Fall Wrap-Up

Hello Everyone!! It’s been entirely too long since I last posted on this blog and for that I am genuinely sorry. As my tour season progressed, it got busier and busier and I got more and more worn down. I didn’t have much free time at all in September or October and what little I did have was spent trying to catch up on some sleep and rest up for the next tour. I ran 15 tours this season spanning the country from Seattle to New Orleans and Los Angeles to Glacier National Park. Most were at least a week long and each presented its own joys and challenges. In summary, it was another amazing summer guiding tours of the United States, but I’m thrilled to see it in my rearview mirror as I look ahead to what is to come this winter.

After I last wrote in September, I headed north to Seattle where I ran a two week trip through the U.S. Rocky Mountains to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It was late in the season to be camping that deep in the mountains, and we woke up with ice on our tents more than once. That trip ended up in Salt Lake City, where I turned around and started back towards Seattle the following day on the same trip in reverse (but this time thankfully in hotels instead of tents). While both of those trips were late in the season and many things had already closed down for the winter, the crowds were thin and we did some amazing hikes. We also spotted plenty of wildlife including a handful of moose, a couple of bears and two different wolf packs in Yellowstone. I was able to get out on my own and hike up to Grinnell Glacier, one of my favorite hikes in the country, and ended up in about five inches of snow near the top. The days were short and cold, but we had a really good time out there on both trips.

After the long drive down from Seattle, I set off on another two week trip. That one started in San Francisco, took us out through Yosemite National Park and then brought us down into the desert where we visited Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and also Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation.

6 Comments

August on the Road

2 Comments

August on the Road

Hello Everyone! I apologize for how long it’s been since I last wrote, but it’s been a hectic and crazy month out here on the road. Until this past weekend, I had not had a day off in over a month and I’ve covered a lot of ground during that time. I guided four trips in a row which took a lot out of me, but I had great passengers with me and we saw some amazing and beautiful places. I have another solid month of guiding beginning in just a day or two, but I wanted to drop you all a quick ‘hello’ and share some of my favorite photos from this last month on the road.

I started with an old favorite – a six day hiking tour in Yosemite for Intrepid Travel. While I’ve done this trip several times including twice earlier this summer, it’s still nice to spend so much time on the trail and to show people one of my favorite National Parks. The waterfalls were still going strong for August and it was the first time I’d been able to get up to hike Cathedral Lakes in the high country this year. These hikes left everyone pretty tired, but I know every one of those passengers had a great and memorable trip and will remember Yosemite fondly for the rest of their lives.

After bringing that group back to San Francisco, I left the following day for Seattle where I started a six day trip to Portland via Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. It had been 20 years since I was last in Olympic and it was really nice to be back in this beautiful and often overlooked park. We did a whale watching tour, explored the Hoh Rainforest and walked by the Pacific Ocean looking out at the beautiful sea stacks of Second Beach. While I used to spend a lot of time at Mount Rainier, that’s another park I haven’t been to since before the pandemic. On our first day there we got some fantastic clear views of the mountain and I’m glad we took advantage of them because our second day was almost entirely shrouded in fog. We still had a nice hike and then headed on to Portland where we visited the International Rose Test Garden (it is the City of Roses after all) and then had a quiet dinner in the park before calling it a trip.

Half of that group stayed on with me for the next six days and a lovely Swedish couple joined us as well. That week brought us from Portland all the way back to San Francisco. We visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, ate smoked salmon with a lovely couple who run an indigenous salmon business on the Warm Springs Reservation, Kayaked in a volcanic crater near Bend, Gazed out over Crater Lake National Park and cruised the California Coast feasting on some fresh oysters. We finished with a walk through Muir Woods and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I got a day to wind down and wind back up again and the very next day I picked up my last group of that run for a fast and furious 15 day tromp through some of America’s best National Parks. We started off with a few days in Yosemite and then had to duck around Death Valley due to the rains from Hurricane Hillary, staying in Tonopah instead. After a quick trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park, we went on to Zion and then had two great days at the North Rim of Grand Canyon. You may remember that the last (and only) time I was at the North Rim, I was recovering from Covid so I didn’t push myself too hard out there. This time I headed deep into the Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail and it was really nice to see the Canyon from a different angle. We headed from there to Monument Valley to spend some time with the Navajo and then had two great nights in Moab visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Then we were off to Salt Lake City to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the Mormon missionaries at Temple Square. Finally we spent three days in the splendor of Yellowstone before winding up our journey in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

It was a long but quiet ride back to San Francisco from there, but I did get a few days to catch up on some sleep and a few other things before turning north again to Seattle where I am writing to you from today. Tomorrow I will meet another group and we will be headed east from here to Glacier National Park, my favorite place in the whole world. Then we’ll have some nice days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before winding up in Salt Lake City. I’ll get a day to myself there and then turn around and do the same trip in reverse bringing me back to Seattle in the first week of October. It’s going to be cold in the Rockies by then, but it should be quiet and beautiful as well and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t think I’m going to get much of a chance to do anything here on my blog over the next month, but I’ll check back in with you when these two trips are done in October. The summer sure flew by this year, but time flies when you’re having fun. I hope you’ve all had a great summer out there, wherever you are and that you’re looking forward to cooler days ahead. Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this little sampling of photos of some of the spectacular places I’ve been this summer.

-Mike

(Click the link to see my favorite photos from this month)

2 Comments

July on the Road

Comment

July on the Road

Hello Everyone,

I’m coming into the busiest part of my summer tour season, but wanted to drop a quick hello to let you all know that I haven’t forgotten you. I’ve just finished a hot couple of weeks out in the Desert Southwest, but it was also a really good tour. I’ve had a few days here in San Francisco since that trip ended, but I’ve been busily preparing for the next month which won’t have any days off for me at all. I’m ready for it and I’m looking forward to it, but it hasn’t left much time for anything else. But before I depart on my next trip tomorrow morning, I thought I’d send you all a quick update and a few photos from my last trip.

I wrote to you last from L.A. as I was getting ready to pick up the trip I just finished. I met 6 wonderful people the following day, all of whom were really excited to be out on tour. The trip was exclusively for passengers under 30, so you can imagine that I probably wasn’t who they expected walking through the door. Nevertheless, they gave me a chance and I know that by the end they had all had such a wonderful experience and were very grateful for the work I put into it. They thanked me a lot which may or may not surprise you is a rarity in my line of work. I know that my passengers feel thankful but they aren’t always the best at expressing it.

Our trip left L.A. bright and early the following morning and took us out to Joshua Tree National Park where we had lunch in the shade in the back corner of Hidden Valley. We did the one mile Hidden Valley Loop Trail which was probably enough hiking in the midday sun at 118°. We made a few other photo stops and spent some time at Skull Rock before beating feat out to Lake Havasu City which was just as hot. After a quick stop at the London Bridge, we went down to the lake for a swim and a barbecue dinner as the sun set in the desert heat. It had been a really good day and we were all thankful to be in a hotel instead of a tent that night.

The following day took us out to Grand Canyon with a stop along Route 66 in Seligman. We spent some time at the Canyon during the day and returned later for sunset which was fantastic as always. The sun wasn’t gone for long though and we were up to see it return the following morning at 5am. My group split in two for the day as half of them went towards Plateau Point on the Bright Angel Trail and the other half headed for Skeleton Point on the South Kaibab Trail. Everyone enjoyed their hike and they were all grateful for the early start.

Comment

These Weeks on the Road - June 25th - July 12th

2 Comments

These Weeks on the Road - June 25th - July 12th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a busy two weeks in Yosemite National Park, but a really good two weeks as well. Since I last wrote, I ran back-to-back 6 day hiking tours in the park with only a day in between, but both groups were really good and I definitely enjoyed my time with them. The weather was actually pretty cool for the first week but heated up considerably for the second. Of course the 4th of July has also come and gone and I can think of few better places to celebrate America than in our beautiful National Park System. There were no fireworks in the park or in the entire county since it’s mostly very dry forest, but we made up for that with stunning views from the newly reopened Glacier Point Road. I’ve been back in San Francisco for a few days of relaxing and planning and now I’m off to L.A. to run a 10 day trip which will take us to Joshua Tree National Park, Lake Havasu, Grand Canyon, Vegas and Yosemite, dropping us back in S.F. at the end of the month.

I’m always quite fascinated that I can run the exact same tour back-to-back and it is an entirely different trip. Different groups with different abilities and interests coupled with openings and closings in the park and a holiday weekend thrown in to boot and these last two trips only loosely resembled one another. Both were great though and I’m really happy I had the opportunity to run them both especially since one was a last second switch in my schedule. I had tweaked my knee a little bit on my last trip to the desert and have been really careful with it on these hiking-focused trips but I’m happy that it is healing well and will hopefully be back to 100% soon.

We set out on the first of the two trips on June 25th. After a nice lunch at the Iron Door Saloon in Groveland (California’s oldest saloon), we had a nice hike in the Tuolomne Grove of Giant Sequoias just inside the park entrance. These beautiful trees are the largest things by volume that have ever lived on the face of the earth. They start out as a tiny seed inside an egg-sized pine cone and can live for over 3,000 years under the right conditions. They are immense and majestic and always a sight to see. From there we dropped down into Yosemite Valley, made a photo stop up at magnificent Tunnel View, hiked to the base of Bridal Veil Falls and then made our way out to our hotel in El Portal, just outside of the park for the night.

We were up early the next morning to hike the Mist Trail past beautiful Vernal and Nevada Falls. A relatively cool June has kept the snow from melting too fast in the mountains so all of the waterfalls in the park are still going strong which is great for both the park and the state of California. As the name implies, the Mist Trail can get quite misty and it definitely was while we were out there. The trail takes you up a number of granite steps and past Vernal Falls for incredible views and a sizable soaking. We spent some time drying out on the top of the falls and then most of the group continued up to the top of beautiful Nevada Falls for lunch. After a nice long break we took our time coming back down from the waterfalls and stopped for a well-earned ice cream break at the bottom.

2 Comments

Gone Hiking

Comment

Gone Hiking

Hello Everyone!

As I mentioned last week, I’m out guiding a hiking tour in Yosemite all week. The hotel we are staying at is nice, but doesn’t have any Wi-Fi so I couldn’t get a This Week on the Road post up this week. I did get a few photo posts published this week from the Indian Canyons and Joshua Tree National Park so I hope you enjoy those. When this trip ends, I’ll have 36 hours to turn around and go out on the same trip again, so I’m not sure if I’ll have anything for you next week or not. It’s busy out here, but I’m thinking about you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll get back with you as soon as I can. Take care and thank you for reading.

-Mike

Comment

Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

2 Comments

Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a great couple of weeks out here on the road. I spent two weeks guiding a tour for Austin College, a small university based in Sherman, Texas (far from Austin, Texas – the school is named for Texas hero Stephen Austin). The tour was for a class on environmental concerns in our National Parks, a topic quite near and dear to my heart. It consisted of 10 students and their professor and took us from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the desert. I really enjoyed these young people and I got along really well with the professor, Dr. Baker, as well.

I met the group two weeks ago on a Tuesday night here in San Francisco. They invited me to join them for dinner at House of Nanking in Chinatown which is a pretty cool place to eat as a group and we all enjoyed quite a feast. It was interesting to hear what the students were studying and what their specific area of interest was for this particular class. Their topics ranged from birds to flash floods to water conservation and all of them were really important to our western parks.

We spent the next three nights in Yosemite, hiking and meeting with the rangers to discuss the park’s key issues. There was still a lot of water in the valley and it was great to see everything so wet and green. On our first full day we hiked up the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and there was a ton of water coming over those waterfalls. Everyone got absolutely soaked, but thankfully it was a sunny day and we dried out quickly. The last time I did that hike was last November when those waterfalls were barely a trickle and the trail was completely dry. The next day we went out and hiked to the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park and it’s always awesome to see these massive 2-3,000 year old giants. In our meetings with the rangers and staff, we discussed fire management and bear conservation and the conversation was quite interesting. Leaving the park we headed south and around the mountains and ended up in Barstow for the night. We did some serious grocery shopping and then enjoyed a nice dinner at Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner just outside of town. That night we had our first group discussion and I really enjoyed hearing the student’s opinions about Yosemite and what they had seen and heard over the previous few days.

We left Barstow early the next day as we had a pretty long drive to Grand Canyon that day. We stopped in Seligman to get our kicks on Route 66 and then headed on to the South Rim…

2 Comments

This Week on the Road - May 17th-23rd

2 Comments

This Week on the Road - May 17th-23rd

Hello Everyone,

I am officially back to work and my first tour of the season is behind me. This is my 16th tour season and my second working for Incredible Adventures here in San Francisco. I had a great summer working for Incredible last year, one of the best I’ve had in my career in fact, and I’m looking forward to another great season to come. I will still be running tours for Exodus and Intrepid, two of the brands I have guided for many years now, and will continue to run short Incredible Adventures tours as well.

The start of the summer tour season is always exciting. It is full of possibilities and just thinking about the places I will visit and the people I will meet puts a smile on my face. I know it will be exhausting and things won’t always work out as planned or as hoped, but I also know I am up for the challenge. Over the winter I visited an old friend of mine, Brett, at his home in western Wales. Brett came on tour with me many years ago and he asked me while I was there if my guiding personality is the same as my real personality. I told him that the only way to be truly happy and successful in this job is to be yourself. The more you try and be like someone else or act in a way that isn’t reflective of your own personality, the more people will see through you and it will always backfire in the end. That being said, I also told him that while when I am guiding it is absolutely me that people are seeing, I also believe that it is the very best version of me that there is. It’s the version of me who is outgoing and confident and an absolute expert in my field. I think three steps ahead and change my plans based on each individual group I take out. There are a lot of unknowns in this game from traffic to the weather to the individual personalities and expectations of my passengers and being able to think on the fly and make things run smoothly is a real skill. Being a good guide doesn’t just happen overnight. Like any other profession it takes years to hone your skills, but it’s so worth the effort when you do. I’ve been turning people’s dreams into memories for the better part of two decades, and I’m thrilled that this is the skill I have to offer the world.

After I left you last week, I had one more day in the office which I will spare you the details of. I had to go grocery shopping to feed 12 hungry people for the weekend which is always a challenge. Thankfully I got all of that finished at a reasonable time and was able to take a nice long walk around downtown San Francisco and then tuck into a good book to refresh my knowledge of Yosemite and still get a good night’s sleep. I was up early on Friday as I had to get to the office, hook up my trailer to my van, load my coolers and get back downtown before 8am. I picked up my group on time and we headed out to Yosemite for the weekend.

Yosemite is pretty wild right now with all of the snow melting into the rivers and pouring over the edge of the cliffs and into the valley below. The waterfalls are crazy and there are even waterfalls flowing that I’ve never seen before. The river has overflowed its banks and the meadows have turned into lakes…

2 Comments

This Week on the Road - May 10th-17th

Comment

This Week on the Road - May 10th-17th

Hello Everyone! Well, it’s definitely been a weird and challenging week out here. Nothing went as planned, but everything has worked out okay, at least for now. I had already left Lake Tahoe when I wrote this post last week, but when the master cylinder went on my van I headed back to the lake and spent the week with friends while I waited for it to be fixed. I got it back on Monday and then had to make a beeline for the Bay Area to get to the office in time to start my season. And I did make it, so that’s a good thing, and I will take out my first trip of the year this Friday. It wasn’t the week I had hoped for, but sometimes that’s what happens out here on the road.

After I finished this post last week, I went and had a nice lunch at the Truckee Airport with an old guiding friend of mine, Mike. I met Mike when I first started my guiding job back in 2000 and we worked for the same company for many years. He currently owns Tahoe-Sierra Transport Company which shuttles clients around the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas. We had some interesting Mexican/Indian fusion tacos and caught up for a little over an hour and it was really nice to see him. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Truckee and taking photos. It’s a really cool little town with some great old buildings and everyone seemed pretty friendly. In the evening I went to a place called RMU which is a bar in a nice old house on the edge of downtown. I enjoyed some live music and a couple of beers and chatted with some of the locals. Truckee doesn’t allow overnight parking in the winter, but since it was after April 30th, I stayed in one of the downtown lots overnight with no problems.

On Thursday morning I got up early and had a nice breakfast at a little family-owned coffee shop on the main drag. I took some more photos and then headed just outside of town to Donner Memorial State Park. This is the site where the Donner party spent the winter of 1846-47. I think most of us know this story, at least to some extent, because of the cannibalism that took place as the winter wore on, but I didn’t know much beyond that. It seems like they made some bad decisions along the way, none of which seemed particularly hard to understand in context. The Donners and several other families headed west in the spring of 1846, hoping to make it to California before the winter. Traveling with covered wagons along rough trails was slow going and they only averaged 2 miles an hour on their journey. At one point they decided to take a “shortcut” from the accepted route and this seems to have been their fatal mistake. They got to the valley where Reno is now and could have safely stayed there until spring, but chose to push forward and try and get through the mountains before the snows came. They were only a couple of weeks’ walk from their destination in the central valley and were desperate to start their new lives. The snows came early that winter and didn’t let up for months, stranding them just a week’s walk from safety in either direction. They dug in and did their best and rescue parties eventually came to get them out. It wasn’t until after the first groups had been rescued that they came to the decision to eat their dead comrades. 87 people walked into the mountains with the Donners that winter and only 48 came out alive. The whole story is obviously a sad one, but it is interesting to learn about.  

As I was leaving the park on my way up into the mountains, I stepped on the brakes and my foot went down to the floor with the ABS and Parking Brake lights coming on at the same time. Brakes are obviously not to be messed with, especially when I had mountains to cross. I immediately texted my friend Mike who I had met with the day before and he called his local mechanic shop and connected me with them. I headed over there and they said they could get to it the next day. Then I called my friend J.D. who I had been staying with in Tahoe City and he came up immediately and picked me up and brought me back to his place…

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 25th - May 3rd

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 25th - May 3rd

Hello Everyone!

Greetings from Gardnerville, Nevada! I have popped out of California for a few minutes on my way through the Carson Valley and am overjoyed to see gas prices that start with a 3 instead of a 4 or 5 which is the hardest part about traveling in California. It’s a bit gloomy out today and the temperature is hovering just above freezing, so it’s a perfect day to hunker down and get this post written. It’s been a wonderful week out here on the road, slowly making my way up California 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I’ve driven this road dozens of times between Yosemite and Las Vegas or Death Valley, but I have usually had to make it all the way between the two in a day which doesn’t leave much time for exploring. Being able to stop off and see the sights and do some hiking and take my time is what this trip is all about and I’ve definitely enjoyed doing just that this week. In the beginning of the week, it was pretty hot out during the day, but the nights were cool and pleasant and seeing snowy mountains out my driver’s side window was been amazing. Towards the end of the week I made my way into those mountains and even saw some snow.

I left you last week in Ridgecrest, a nice little military support community near the China Lake Naval Weapons Center. After I finished this post, I ran across the street to the little Maturango Museum which had a small but wonderful collection of local artifacts. They highlighted the plentiful petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings) in the area as well as the natural history of the local desert environment. The museum had some wonderful photos on display, both recent ones from a National Geographic bird photography competition and some great old ones from the area which had been taken by naval photographers practicing for their official duties in the local community. Perhaps best of all, the museum also served as the local visitor’s center and the ladies there gave me some wonderful ideas for my trip north. When they closed up for the day I went across the street to a very nice park where I cooked up some dinner and read my book before calling it an early night.

Wednesday morning I was up and off nice and early and made my first stop at Fossil Falls. This small recreational site is in the shadow of an ancient cinder cone and there is plentiful evidence of the area’s volcanic past. During the last ice age, the snowmelt fed into a river and that river ran over Fossil Falls. There hasn’t been any water there in a very long time, but you can still see where the water flowed over the rock on its downhill trajectory. From Fossil Falls I headed on to Lone Pine and stopped in at the Museum of Western Film History on the edge of town. The nearby Alabama Hills have served as the setting for over a hundred movies in the last hundred years, with their wonderfully textured western landscape and the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While most of these films were made before my time, names like The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were certainly familiar to me. In more modern times Tremors and Django Unchained were filmed in the area…

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 19th-25th

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 19th-25th

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a busy week out here on the road in Southern California. This week has taken me from the desert to the mountains to the city and back again. I got some skiing in, went to a local fair, drove down Route 66 and went to the original Renaissance Festival in Irwindale. As the week is ending, I’m making my way up the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and enjoying seeing all the snowy peaks out my driver’s side window. I’m getting closer and closer to starting my tour season and trying to get as much in before I do as I can.

After I finished writing this post last week, it was late in the day so I spent the night there in Twentynine Palms. I went out for a surprisingly excellent salad at the Cactus Grill and then headed out to the Tortoise Rock Casino for the night. This casino is run by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians and they were incredibly welcoming of overnighters so long as you checked in with security. I enjoyed a little blackjack and walked out $10 up which is definitely a win.

I was up and out early on Thursday as I needed to grab some groceries and a few other things in the morning before I got started with my day’s travels. Once I was all stocked up, I headed out to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve just off Highway 62 in the Morongo Valley and I’m really glad that I did. This preserve is located in Sand to Snow National Monument and is run jointly by San Bernardino County and the Bureau of Land Management. It’s not a huge place, but it offers several miles of trails and boardwalks in very different environments. The wildflowers were in full bloom and there were plenty of birds out there to keep me company (and apparently a few rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any). It was a wonderful place to spend the morning, get some fresh air and stretch my legs. From there, I jumped on Route 38 in Yucaipa and started making my way up into the San Bernardino Mountains. The road was pretty steep and we struggled a bit with the heat as I didn’t know we would travel up to almost 9000’ on our way to Big Bear Lake. Thankfully it got considerably cooler the higher we went and right when I thought we were going to have to pull over to avoid overheating, we crested the pass and started dropping down the other side. I got to Big Bear Lake with enough time to wander around the beautiful namesake mountain lake for a bit before the sun went down. From the north side of the lake I could see Snow Summit Ski Resort and was impressed by how much snow was on the mountain. The Village at Big Bear Lake is a cute little mountain town which I would really enjoy for the next two nights.

I was up early the next morning and stopped in to a shop called GetBoards right there in town to rent my ski equipment for the day. The people working there were great and my equipment was considerably cheaper than it would have been at the resort. Once I was all outfitted I went up and hit the slopes for the first time since I was in Western North Carolina five years ago. The snow was remarkably good and most of the lifts and slopes were open. I loved the west side of the mountain which is full of long, easy trails for “skill development”…

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 12th-19th

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 12th-19th

Hello Everyone!

This week has definitely brought a dramatic change in scenery as I have transitioned from the coast to the desert. It was nice to spend as long as I did cruising down the California coast, but there isn’t a whole lot of the country left south of San Diego so after one last walk on the beach I turned my headlights east. I enjoyed a few days in the Palm Springs area and finished my week in incredible Joshua Tree National Park. It’s been a really good week and I’ve been looking forward to telling you all about it.

Last Thursday I said goodbye to my friend Molly, and headed out to Old Town San Diego. I had been to Old Town before but it’s been a while so I thought maybe I could stop in and take a few photos. When I arrived I realized that my memory wasn’t as clear as I thought it was. There was a lot to see there and I ended up staying for a good chunk of the day. Old Town has a stretch of commercial street which ends at Old Town State Park and the State Park has a ton of historic buildings and plenty of shops as well. There was a woman singing and playing her guitar at the entrance to the State Park and it was beautiful music with a wonderful message of peace and love and I enjoyed sitting and listening to her play for a while. Then I made my way down into the parj, poking my head into places and taking some photos. I think my favorite spot was the old tobacco store which looks amazing inside right down to the proprietor who was dressed in period clothes. In his younger days he had been stationed at Quantico for a few years so we chatted about the East Coast a little bit and he let me take a photo of him which I really like. Breaking a bit from the spirit of Old Town I had a fantastic Nepalese lunch at a place called Bhojan Griha a couple of blocks up from the park and it was the most flavorful meal I’ve had in a long time. After lunch I meandered a bit more and took a few more photos. The only bad part about my afternoon was that the sky was so grey. I learned that the locals call the coming time of year the “May Grey” which is followed by the “June Gloom” and that grey skies are not at all uncommon, but it was still a shame that I couldn’t get the photos I wanted with blue skies behind them.

In the late afternoon I headed down to the San Diego waterfront to pay a quick visit to the Maritime Museum there. I had been to this museum a few times, but wanted to revisit one of my favorite ships there, the Star of India. My attention was first called to this ship during my very first season as a tour guide when my two passengers from the Isle of Man (both of whom I saw this past January) told me that this ship had been built on their island. It was built on the Isle of Man in 1863, has circumnavigated the globe 21 times and is considered the world’s oldest active sailing ship. After visiting the Isle of Man this winter, I thought it was appropriate to stop and have another quick look at this beautiful tall ship. From there, I made my way over the amazingly high bridge to Coronado, right across from downtown San Diego but considered a whole different city. I wanted to go and see the Hotel Coronado, the area’s most famous hotel and certainly a San Diego area landmark. Built in 1888, it was the largest wooden structure in the United States until 1944 and it is a stunning building. The general public is more than welcome to visit the lobby, shops, bars, restaurants and beach and I may have taken a quick peak upstairs as well. I enjoyed a quick beer at the old mahogany bar and a lovely stroll along the beach as the sun went down. From there I wandered a few blocks down to the Village Theater and caught the last showing of Air of the day. This is an entertaining movie about the origins of Nike’s Air Jordans and I would have never guessed that a movie about a shoe could be so good. The theater itself was adorable with lit murals on the walls depicting the grand hotel up the street and reasonably priced popcorn to boot. I enjoyed the show and settled in nearby for the night…

Comment

This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

4 Comments

This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

Hello Everyone!

I’m writing to you this week from grey and chilly San Diego. I began this week with a trip to Catalina Island and have spent the rest of it moving down the coast and catching up with friends along the way. It’s been great to see so many familiar faces and catch up on what they’ve been up to, but I haven’t gotten any photos edited or published this week as a result. I do have some great photo posts lined up though and I will definitely get to a few of them this week. I’ve had some fun adventures this week but it’s also been fairly quiet.

I was up early on Wednesday and off to Catalina Island from Long Beach. Parking at the terminal wasn’t cheap, but it was quick and easy and very convenient to the boat. The Catalina Express is huge and very comfortable and stable. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I nabbed a seat on the top deck and got a little bit of sun on the way out to the island. When we arrived in Avalon (the main town on Catalina), I was a bit overwhelmed with how crowded it was. There was a cruise ship in that day so there were hundreds of people going here and there and everywhere but the crowds would die down as the day progressed. I had a room booked at the Catalina Island Inn, so I popped in to see if I could leave my bag there for the day. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating and even took my number so they could call me when my room was ready. I left my bag, took my camera and headed out into the day.

I very quickly started to feel the charms of Avalon despite the hustle and bustle of a busy day. Catalina is known for its glazed clay tiles and they adorned buildings, benches and fountains in colorful mosaics. I wandered down the waterfront and past the Tuna Club and the Yacht Club, both open to members only but both housed in beautiful old buildings that I enjoyed looking at. Then I came to the Casino which towers above the town of Avalon like the Coliseum in Ancient Rome, visible from almost everywhere you go. Built almost a hundred years ago, the Casino has never been a place for gambling, but rather takes its name from an old Italian word for a small house, but which generally meant a place to socialize and dance. I took a tour of the Casino which, while it cost more than my visit to the Hearst Castle, was excellent. Downstairs is home to a grand theater which was the first theater in the country built specifically to show “talkies” or movies with sound. It’s still used as a theater today, showing movies on Friday and Saturday nights. My tour also included the dressing rooms and the incredible upstairs ballroom – the largest circular, free standing ballroom in the world which has a 180 foot diameter dancefloor and can accommodate 3,000 dancers (which it does on New Year’s Eve and other special occasions).

The Casino was built by William Wrigley Jr. who had purchased almost all of Catalina Island back in 1919 with money made from his chewing gum empire. Wrigley was responsible for most of what we see on Catalina today, including the 85% of the island controlled by the Catalina Conservancy which will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs who played (and still play) at Wrigley Field and for many years they had their Spring Training on Catalina Island…

4 Comments