This trip was for “healing” because I was getting over the death of my grandmother who had passed just a month earlier. With Julie’s Mom and My Mom taking turns watching over our daughter, Julie and I did this badly needed trip, which turned out to be the first international trip for the entire year!

This trip was the second part of a longer 2.5-week itinerary combining a road trip over parts of Washington State and an Alaskan Cruise. Each part of this trip could be done as separate itineraries, which is why I split them up in this manner…

This trip was the first part of a longer 2.5-week itinerary combining a road trip over parts of Washington State and an Alaskan Cruise. Each part of this trip could be done as separate itineraries, which is why I split them up in this manner.

This was a weekend backpacking trip that began and ended at Lake Sabrina. The ultimate main goal of this physical challenge was to get as far as the Hungry Packer Lake, which was one of several lakes of glacial origin in the area. The Eastern Sierra was full of these kinds…

With our daughter not quite 5 months old, we did this trip as another test of what we can and can’t do with a baby. We also brought Julie’s Mom along since we figured that this would be a pretty easy trip as far as the amount of sightseeing and hiking that we were doing…

This itinerary covers how we managed to experience the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park in Montana. It was a trip where we had to rearrange plans to avoid the brunt of a freak early Winter snow storm that took place in September!

This itinerary was the result of a failed backpacking trip where the senior trip leader and organizer had to back out. There were other participants that also had to back out of this trip at the last minute. So it was pretty much my good buddy Ed and I who were left…

For Julie and I, this was our first European trip together. And like most people who visit Europe for the first time, we visited multiple countries. In this case, we visited Greece, Croatia, and Switzerland. This itinerary was the last part of the three-part 30-day journey….

For Julie and I, this was our first European trip together. And like most people who visit Europe for the first time, we visited multiple countries. In this case, we visited Greece, Croatia, and Switzerland. This itinerary was the second part of the three-part 30-day journey…

For Julie and I, this was our first European trip together. And like most people who visit Europe for the first time, we visited multiple countries. In this case, we visited Greece, Croatia, and Switzerland. This itinerary was the first part of the three-part…

This itinerary covered a return trip to Point Reyes as well as introducing us to the waterfalls at Mt Tamalpais (both north of the city of San Francisco). We also went south and visited the Big Basin Redwoods State Park (southwest of Silicon Valley)…

This itinerary covered a return trip to Big Sur for the first time in about six years. Part of what motivated us to make this return visit was that this Winter was one of the wetter Winters that we’ve had in recent memory. So we knew the waterfalls…

This itinerary was the Cook Islands leg of our 31-day trip to New Zealand and the Cook Islands. It was basically an unwinding of the more active trip we did of both islands in New Zealand…

This itinerary was the first part of our month-long end-of-the-year (and end-of-the-decade for that matter) trip to both New Zealand and the Cook Islands. This first part focuses only on the New Zealand leg of the trip…

This itinerary was the second part of a longer 23-day trip to both India and the Maldives. In a way, this Maldives leg of the trip was kind of the vacation away from the vacation largely because of how intense our visit to India had been…

This itinerary was the first part of our 3.5-week trip that encompassed both Indian and the Maldives. That first leg of the trip focused on India. This trip was definitely way out of our comfort zone, but I would also argue that we probably learned…

This itinerary was a follow-up to the Oregon trip that we had done about 5-6 months prior. Back then, Mother Nature threw a wrench into our plans with snow in the mountains. So we had to make last-minute cancellations and retreat to the coast…

This itinerary covered a backpacking trip to Big Pine Creek and its many glacial lakes. I accompanied an organized group that included a good friend from High School as well as folks from the law firm that he worked at…

This itinerary was actually the latter half of a two-country, nearly two-month trip encompassing China and Japan. In this itinerary write-up, we’re only focusing on Japan since this leg of the trip could easily stand out on its own Japan separate from China…

This itinerary was actually the latter half of a two-country, nearly two-month trip encompassing China and Japan. In this itinerary write-up, we’re only focusing on Japan since this leg of the trip could easily stand out on its own Japan separate from China…