We saw Everest for the first time from our Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu.  After departing Bangkok, we traveled northwest along the cost of Myanmar and began going overland as soon as we reached the northern-most part of the Bay of Bengal, which touches Myanmar, Bangladesh and India.  Our trajectory took us over […]

We planned to spend the day in Belle-Île, but an invitation to have dinner at Jeanne’s brother’s home that evening made us rethink going north along the Brittany Coast .  Instead we planned a trip to Vendée, an area just south of Saint Nazaire and the mouth of the Loire River, closer to his home.  Vendée isn’t part of Brittany […]

Originally submitted at REI The Garmin 62s GPS does exactly what we bought it for. We were looking for a device that would last longer than our cell phones and would work in the many places we go that don’t have cell coverage. We wanted waterproof and rugged and were wiling to give up some […]

We made a last minute decision to rent a cabin near Lake Isabella, CA for Christmas 2010. This area is very popular in the summer for whitewater rafting on the Kern River and for boating on Lake Isabella. The mountains aren’t quite as high as the Sierra Nevadas to the North but are close enough […]

Switchfoot puts on an amazing show, and Maui was no different. Not only is the music excellent, but the crowd knows the words to nearly every song and stands for the entire show. Not our first Switchfoot show, but it was the best venue and our seats (third row center) were fantastic. It was great […]

Originally submitted at REI What do you get when you cross a lightweight titanium spoon with a lightweight titanium fork? The ultimate eating utensil! Snow Peak Titanium Spork Indispensable By MaximumAdventure dot net from Pasadena, CA on 12/25/2011 5out of 5 Pros: Durable, Lightweight, Compact, Easy To Clean Best Uses: Car Camping, High Altitude, Backpacking, […]

We’ve adopted two brittanys that for different reasons, haven’t become gun dogs. We were delighted, though, when we were invited to the American Brittany Club’s Fall Field Trials held in early October 2010 at the “El Rancho Espanol de Cuyama”, AKA Spanish Ranch in gorgeous Santa Ynez, California. We were eager to go partly because Mitch’s mother, […]

It was odd that we hadn’t hiked up Mt Baldy in all our years in Pasadena.  “Baldy” is the highest peak surrounding the Los Angeles Basin at 3069m. (10,068 ft.).  Officially Mt San Antonio, it is a pyramid-shaped mountain that has no trees and few features near the top, thus the name. Baldy has a […]

Neil Armstrong had one of the most unique experiences anyone could hope to have. Everyone knows he walked on the moon, but few people realize they can do something similar much closer to home, albeit with the normal expectations for gravity and oxygen. The Hawaiian island of Maui is home to one of the most […]

Following a tradition of doing non-traditional things during holidays, we decided to hike Yosemite Point for Christmas 2009. Our decision was influenced by the storm that swept through just before Christmas, and a forecast that called for sunny weather on Christmas Day. The conditions sounded perfect. We reserved the well-recommended Yosemite View Lodge  just outside […]