Mom and I drove to my sister Michelle’s new place in the hills above Placerville. She and her husband, Tim, have 10 tree-filled acres with absolutely gorgeous views of the mountains. Without traffic they are about 2 1/4 hours from mom‘s house. Even though we left mid morning we still hit traffic because there are…

I did enjoy looking after the animals at Kieran and Kourtney’s last weekend. I got to catch up on Our Flag Means Death on Max, then met a friend for dinner in Davis. I got there early so went for a walk in the neighborhood and saw some sweet little cottages lit up with holiday…

This week has mainly been working and starting NaNoWriMo. I saw some beautiful moon views and sunrises on my morning walks.  We only had one group of trick or treaters for Halloween, not surprising as there aren’t many houses on the block and two streets over is a much denser, easier to walk neighborhood where…

I spent most of the weekend in San Francisco house and pet sitting. It was an opportunity to have a couple of lazy mornings on Saturday and Sunday – I still got up pretty early but enjoyed the time to journal and read. I had picked up some pumpkin pancake mix at Trader Joe’s so…

Got out for a hike up to Miwok Trail, it was a foggy morning, obscuring the views at the top. The views on the hike were awesome- gorgeous trees, several banana slugs and a Seek rock. Later I had lunch with my friend Isabel at a yummy Japanese restaurant. We got caught up on our…

Highlights of the last few days: Thursday  Walking to the Mill Valley public library along back streets. Lots of hills/stairs so it was a good workout. Seeing adorable front gardens. Friday Attending a friend (and former CCCBA BOD member)’s judicial investiture. So wonderful to see her being honored for all her hard work and accomplishments…

Every time I come back home after a trip away, especially my last couple of big trips away that have been far from an ocean, I head out to Tennessee Valley beach, one of the beaches of my childhood. Muir beach and Stinson were also prominent settings for my childhood and teenage ventures to the…

I haven’t posted anything since I got back from Canada. It’s taking me some time to adjust to being back in the Bay Area, though I haven’t ventured too far from home. Friday I spent the day doing laundry, going through mail, running errands, basically doing all those returning-home type chores. One of the things…

When we went to sleep on Wednesday night we were expecting to wake up in Vancouver as our train was running slightly ahead of schedule. But, when I woke up at 6:30 and saw that we were stopped in a canyon of evergreens I knew that we definitely were not in Vancouver. Turns out there…

I woke up as we were pulling into Jasper and had a couple of hours to walk around. Not much was open, though there was a fantastic coffee shop where I got a large latte that was absolutely enormous! I walked around town and took pictures of the surrounding mountains, totem pole and chatted with…