Quite unexpectedly, we were able to take a short, local flight this morning from the El Monte Airport, about a half hour from our home in Pasadena . For an hour or so, we flew in and around the mountains that we love to hike. To have such a bird’s eye perspective and to pass […]

We flew through Tokyo on our way back from our latest trek to Mera Peak, Nepal. At the very last minute we realized that we had no specific plans for the next day in Los Angeles, our hometown, so there was no reason why not to spend our first day together in Tokyo. Tokyo Step […]

This is a continuation of Friday night in Amsterdam, Netherlands. After an interesting Friday night of mostly the Red Light District, we were tucked in early and also up very early to have a full Saturday of exploring Amsterdam. The weather forecast was perfect and our plan was to spend as much of the day outside as we […]

Our first time together in Amsterdam and of course we had to check out the Red Light District, locally called De Wallen. From Dutch coworkers to the concierge at our 5-star hotel, we were told to make that one of our first stops. It wasn’t hard to find as we could follow the significant number of […]

Our rescued brittanys love hiking with us and have even ridden on kayaks, but I think their favorite thing to do is go to the beach (just like us). We knew that our friends visiting from France could enjoy Huntington Beach Dog Beach as much as the dogs, so it was an easy choice for […]

We spent ‘The Fourth’ visiting our friends who live on the Peninsula at Newport Beach, California, and as always, took Gwenn and Mitch, our rescued French and American brittanys along. Rather than leave them back at the house when it was time to kayak, we decided to let them come along just to see how […]

Flying We arrive having slept somewhere between four and seven hours of the eleven hour flight. The challenge isn’t just going to sleep, but deciding how many movies to catch and in what order. More often than not, we end up seeing the same thirty minutes of the same movie several times, leaving us with […]

There are few events like it in the world…a month of cycling races around one of the acknowledged most-beautiful countries in the World.  Even without the racing, it is a gorgeous month-long history lesson. Getting specific…why do we like it so much? Here are four very good reasons: Participation The common man participates, even the […]

Getting ready for our trek in Nepal meant having some great practice hikes in the local Los Angeles area. We chose Ice House Canyon, just south of Mount Baldy, only an hour from Pasadena.  Ice House Canyon is a very popular hike in this area, but is typically a late Spring or Fall hike, when […]

Even if you’re not a fan of cycling, the Tour de France is a fascinating, grueling three-week, 3600 km. (2237 miles) long cycling event that takes in most of the country as it passes through both cities and countryside.  This year, Stage 3 of ‘Le Tour’ becomes personal as it passes only 3 km. (1.8 […]