Winter 2016 – photo by Reagen M.
Hello all! It is about time that I started a travel blog; I should have started this years ago. I’ll try to update this on a regular basis when I travel. For now, feel free to contact me or ask any questions about any of the photos or destinations. I hope you enjoy the blog!
So, I am way behind keeping up with this blog as we have been all over the place this fall and early winter. I haven’t had much motivation to update the site lately, but I’ll take this quiet time after Christmas to provide some updates. As usual, my memories of the early fall trips are already fading a bit, but I’ll try my best.
The fall and early winter included two trips to California and another trip to Maine. In early October, we went on a trip to California with Stephanie, her sister Mary and her sister’s husband, Jon. The seven-day itinerary for the trip was a bit ambitious and covered the Russian River Valley wine area, with wine tasting at several vineyards, then onto Yosemite National Park where we hiked the Four Mile Trail, back to the San Francisco area where Jon’s aunt had a fantastic Airbnb she let us stay. The trip also included a trip to Monterey with a 20-mile e-bike of the area and dinner at Pebble Beach and a trip into San Francisco where we had a great walking food tour of several areas.
I’m sure I am leaving a lot out, but I believe we drove close to two thousand miles in the week we were there (or was it one thousand…regardless it was a lot).
Here are some pics from the week:
In between that trip and my second trip to California was our winter trip to Maine. Stephanie and I were scouting locations for a summer wedding and it’s still a bit too early to tell if we had any luck. Regardless, we had a great time with good food (twice) at the Winnegance Restaurant and Bakery in Bath, Maine, Leeward (Portland) and Lil Chippy in Portland (some say the best fish and chips on the planet).
The trip also included a trip up to The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, ME where Stephanie got to meet Erin French. The final night we drove to Boothbay Harbor to the Botanical Gardens to see the Gardens Aglow light show they have every year around the Christmas holiday. Some pics from that trip:
Lastly, my second trip back to California. This seems to be becoming an annual trip as I accompany my friend, Tony, on his cross-country road trip to visit his wife’s family for Christmas. As usual his wife Tamaron takes the easy way out by taking a flight while we drive make our way across the country–this time in a Hyundai. Still, the weather during the entire trip was glorious with sun and temps in the 50’s and 60’s almost every day. The trip included stopovers in Columbia, MO, Denver, CO, Grand Junction, CO and Salt Lake City, UT.
We added a day to our typical itinerary this time around and it allowed us to visit two National Parks–Colorado National Monument and Arches in Utah. Both spectacular in the sun and great weather.
As far as food, shout outs to Bin 707 Food Bar in Grand Junction where we had great food and conversation with a local couple, Rioja in Denver which had great pasta, Red Rock Brewing in Salt Lake City where they have much better food than your typical beer establishment. Side note, this was my second trip to SLC this year as I did volunteer work out there for a former employer in July–and my second home was Red Rock Brewing. Lastly, props to the Ogi Deli in Elko, NV for their Basque inspired food and the super-friendly service. We had the Basque tri tip sandwich, and the owner gave us two fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies for the road. The best cookies I ever had.
We arrived in Lafayette, CA on Dec 23rd, where I only had a few hours before I had to catch a flight back home. Still, I had time to have dinner with Tony, his wife Tamaron and Tamron’s mother. We ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant, but I was much too exhausted to remember the name. I am sure that Tamaron will chime in when she reads this post.
This was one of our better cross-country trips and definitely bested last year’s. Except that we somehow managed to go to the same worst rest area bathroom in the entire US that we visited a couple of years back. Hopefully, the memory is now burned into our noses and lungs, so we don’t make a third visit.
I think Tony and I also lost our adult selves this time around and reverted to the 14-year-old versions of ourselves (Beavis and Butthead) –but I won’t go into that. Just say, when you are in a car for that long, your sense of humor starts to devolve.
Some pics from the recent trip:
After Spain, I spent a little time back home in KY and then headed back to Maine for a solo camping trip and to spend time with friends. On my way to Acadia National Park, I visited The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine. We’ve been trying to win The Lost Kitchen dinner reservation lottery for several years but it’s next to impossible to get in. Erin French has turned this into a really nice business. The property has a great retail store and small cafe that attracted many more folks than I anticipated.
Acadia National Park was much more crowded than I expected after Labor Day, so I cut my trip there from three days to two days and spend the remainder of my time in the Portland area–mostly watching football and golfing. I had an OK time at Acadia’s Blackwoods Campground, with the highlight being just relaxing and cooking a couple of gourmet campground meals (see pic above).
Still, the weather was magnificent—mid 70s the entire time I was there. I definitely miss this time of year in Maine and will continue to make Maine my primary destination for most future trips. While I was up there, my friends and I were trying to determine our next foreign or domestic traveling destination–still undecided. However, Stephanie and I already have plans to travel to California later this month–so keep an eye out for a post or two on that trip. Some pics from my recent trip to Maine:
I didn’t want to exclude the rest of our Spain trip which occurred as soon as we were done with the Camino. Unfortunately, my sister Joann and nephew Troy were only able to stay with us two days in Madrid and then headed back to the States. Jim, Ruth, Stephanie and I continued on, via train, to Seville, Granada and Cordoba. Stephanie and I had already been to these towns several years before as part of a wedding trip for one of my friends. We had a great time, but we continued to do as much walking as we did on a typical day on the Camino. Lots of good food, continued drinking and nice weather. Some pics from our Southern Spain adventure.
I was finally able to go through all of the GoPro video that Jim filmed during our recent 34 day Camino Frances walk and stitch together a start to finish video of our walk. I don’t expect anyone to watch the entire 80 minutes, but feel free to watch as much as you like.
We also visited Madrid, Seville, Granada and Cordoba after our Camino, and I hope to find some time to post those pics soon.
This was the last day of our Camino. For me, Ruth and Jim, it was the 35th day of our journey, and over 500 miles of walking. I think our bodies were ready for this day to arrive, but it was still a bit bittersweet to come to the end of our Camino. We left our apartment at 6am to beat the crowd into Santiago. We walked the first hour in darkness. This was the first time we walked in the dark and needed our phone flashlights in places. There weren’t many people out, which was nice. There were more hills than expected, but it turned out to be a nice quiet walk into Santiago. I had some emotional moments along the way, thinking about many things and the scope of what we had done in the last five weeks.
We reached Santiago and had a small celebration. We also encountered several friends we had made along the way, including Robin, a minister from northern England. He is as nice of a person as you could ever meet.
So, how do you celebrate walking 500 miles across Spain? Answer: with one of the best Italian lunches I’ve ever had, including more beer and wine than anyone should have in the middle of the day.
This is certainly one of life’s grand moments. I am very grateful to have both the health and means to do it.
I hope I remember how to drive a car.
Some pics from today:
