It’s been difficult to look at, but the scorched southeast end of Santa Rosa Island is now in restoration mode. After the human-caused wildfire began on the afternoon of May 15, 2026, and was fully contained on June 4, 2026, it will require all hands-on deck to return a natural balance to the windswept isle. […]
It’s difficult enough to try and navigate travel in Japan on one’s own, and while doing so offers an ongoing element of surprise – both good and not so great – I finally cried “Uncle!” After weeks of planning, booking, worrying, I’d just about given up on planning our Japan travel itinerary, when MacKenzie McNeill […]
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There were two things I longed to experience during my two-week Japanese sojourn; one was to visit Kyoto, where my father was stationed in the US Army during “Occupied Japan,” and my other wish was to first rest and recover from the overseas flight and time change at an onsen-ryokan in the countryside. These are […]
Once in a while, you’ve got to get out of your hometown. You need a dose of big-city culture – but not in L.A., where people drive like heat-seeking missiles and never slow down. You want a place that feels human and down to earth, somewhere to spend a few relaxed days with pleasant people, […]
Charles Salas led me down into a recently restored ephemeral creek on his 1700-acre Estrellita Ranch tucked away in the rolling green hills of Paso Robles in Central CA. The creek was lush with fragrant arroyo lupine, purple sage thistle, and vibrant California poppies, and low-growing goldfields, a far cry from what it was when […]
After making my way through Japanese customs, I was thrilled to be greeted at the airport by Yoshi, who announced with great enthusiasm, “The first cherry blossom has bloomed!” How auspicious, I thought, to arrive on the day of the first official bloom. At first, I imagined there was only one cherry blossom somewhere in […]
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb that speaks to the value of community for long journeys. “If you want to go at all… and get there, make sure your flight leaves on time.” – me After decades of solo globe-trotting – first […]
It felt like lying on gritty sandpaper. A broad, wide-open, sandstone plateau surrounded in a deep gorge choked in dense chaparral, was a hot spot for spotting endangered California condors in the mid-1990s. Lion Canyon is an impressive, stratified canyon deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains, a “condorminium” in the middle of the Los Padres […]
The incoming tide and building westerly swell were sweeping across a broad, gritty sandspit at the mouth of Drakes Estero at Point Reyes National Seashore. As I steadied my kayak inside a counterclockwise eddy, it was the only spot that was relatively calm among a surging rip tide and cresting waves. The sea conditions forced […]
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There is nothing better than a happy accident – not a car accident, but a missed turn-off that reveals an eye-popping, jaw-dropping view which is what happened on my backroads drive from Petaluma, in Sonoma County to Lagunitas, in Marin County. After whizzing past The Marin Cheese Company, without enough time to pull over (next […]
Happy New Year, a bit belated, armchair travelers and road warriors alike! A new year offers a clean slate for travel this year. I’ve made plans for Japan, Hawai’i and Europe, that hopefully won’t get delayed by illness, a lost passport, a death in the family or other unknown factors which wreaked havoc on my […]
If you have ever traveled to sub-Sahara Africa or cruised the Peruvian Amazon River (as I have) or other parts South America, chances are you consulted – or should have consulted – Dr. Mary-Louise Scully at the clinic formerly known as Sansum (now part of Sutter Health). I first met Dr. Scully prior to one […]
Before we left for Southern Patagonia, our South American travel agent insisted, “The most important thing to remember is you must go with a driver and a guide. The roads are terrible, and each hotel is isolated. There are no gas stations between hotels, and no place to stay if you cannot reach the next […]
It might only happen once every several years. A steelhead trout Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus leaves its ocean realm, forges an aquatic path up a river mouth, navigates a flood plain, and eventually swims up a boulder-choked creek to lay its eggs in a pool of loose, sandy soil – the gentle ebb and flow of […]
