In search of the continuous road trip
After camping two nights next to the Salton Sea and enduring the horrific smell and the 24-hour freight train traffic past the park, we were ready for a new spot. As always, there were options. Circle the Salton Sea looking for a new campground. Stop …
In New Mexico, people either lived in a ramshackle shanty or a modern(ish) trailer (located next to a bombed-out older model melting into the ground); in Bisbee, Arizona, you could stay in a vintage Airstream; in Apache Junction, entire neighborhoods were made up of trailers …
It’s always a little awe-inspiring to come across a place where the conditions align perfectly to support a specific kind of plant. It’s a great example of the sensitivity and specificity of life on earth. One of these places is the Cholla Cactus Garden in …
I love ruins. I like to imagine how people lived, once upon a time. So I was really excited to go to the Salton Sea after reading an intriguing National Geographic article a few years ago. But I found the Salton Sea utterly depressing…the ruin all …
Many of Joshua Tree National Park’s hiking trails are currently off-limits because the Cottonwood Springs area suffered significant flood damage in mid-September. The north end of the park really caters to rock climbers (grudgingly) — the southern area is much more hiker-friendly … when it’s …
Joshua Tree National Park is filled with rocks. Big ones, small ones, gigantic ones. Rocks, rocks, rocks. But it’s also the inhospitable desert where water is scarce and trees and shrubs struggle to survive. Intense winds spin and twist plants into the oddest shapes. Here …
First of all, Joshua trees are cool. A Joshua tree is not a tree, per se, it’s a yucca. Unlike the Joshua trees we’ve seen elsewhere, the Joshua trees we saw in and around Joshua Tree National Park were of tree size – they were …
In Temecula, we learned the difference between a winery and a tasting room. Temecula is filled with tasting rooms, but we couldn’t find a single winery even though people were making wine everywhere. Let me explain. Temecula is one of California’s B-list wine regions. It’s …
Full full full. We’re full of good food thanks to LA. Loved eating here. I think the food sold us on this town. Me at least. I could live here. We get LA. The farmers’ market in January with multiple varieties of avocado? Yum. The fresh …
Was I prepared to hate LA, or what? Smog, driving everywhere, parking garages, sprawl, fake people. I imagined a city dominated by the things I hate. But here I am, sitting on the beach just north of Santa Monica. The waves are rolling in, one …
Our friend, Ellen, has a theory: $5 bottles of wine can be very good. Spend more, and you may get a good bottle, but it’s certainly not guaranteed. But failing at $5, that’s no big deal (that’s NBD, for the young’uns). And at $5 a …
One of the things I really wanted to do in LA, as cliché as it sounds, was hike up to the Hollywood sign. I didn’t realize that you don’t hike up to the sign so much as you hike up the hill that the sign …