At the beginning of a new year, I find myself noting a lot of firsts for the year. When I made a green juice for breakfast yesterday morning, I was all, "This is my first meal of 2014, and it's so healthy. Go me!" I didn't wait long to accomplish my first exercise session of 2014. I figured what better way to ring in a new year than to go on a hiking adventure with my hubby and puppy on a nice day? Early afternoon we headed over to Uvas Canyon County Park, a 1,133-acre park in our current town of Morgan Hill that we had never been to before. The things that really intrigued me into visiting the park were: 1.) The fact that you have to drive through a private Swedish settlement called Sveadal to get into the park 2.) Waterfalls! Even though 2013 was the driest year on record ... [Read More]
hiking
A Look Back at My Favorite Posts of 2013
Merry Christmas everyone!! My holiday was awesome - full of lots of quality family time with my father-in-law and his side of the family on Christmas Eve, and my family today. I can't believe that Christmas is already over, but even though the holiday is technically done, we still have one more holiday celebration with my hubby's mom coming up. Lots of fun times! More on that to come... but tonight, I thought it'd be nice to take a look back at some of my favorite blog posts of 2013 as the year comes to a close. It seemed like a fun way for me to reminisce, and for you all to check out any blog posts you missed that you're interested in! :) So here we go: Adventure & Life Happenings -- Lessons I Have Learned as a USMC Wife Venice: City of Dreams The World’s Largest Ice ... [Read More]
Stile Ranch Trail in Santa Teresa County Park, San Jose
With the sun shining, a nice breeze drifting through the air, and temperatures hanging in the mid-70's today, I knew it was a perfect day for a weekend afternoon hike. I felt like doing a hike I'd never done before, so my little family and I headed to a park in San Jose called Santa Teresa County Park for the first time. We chose Stile Ranch Trail, which was described by other hikers on the Web as a moderate 1-3 hour hike. The park is located in pretty countryside. One thing I really like about hiking in the South Bay area is that it is never really crowded anywhere that I've been thus far. In San Diego, if you go for a hike on the weekend, sometimes you're practically being herded up the mountain with a crowd full of people. Here, that's not the case. We saw just a few mountain ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Spice Pancakes with a Cinnamon Pecan Topping
Happy Friday!! Before I get to this deliciousness, my first pumpkin recipe of the fall... ...I have a few things to chat about. One, after much time and frustration I HAVE FIXED MY ANNOYING BLOG ISSUE! I thought that something was funky a couple weeks ago while I was in Europe, but I thought it had more to do with my traveling and using random Internet networks than anything else. When I came home, it seemed to get even worse, but then I had to get ready for my Seattle trip. Long story short, yesterday was the first time I had the hours & energy to figure out what the heck was happening. The first person I spoke to at Bluehost (my server) was very little help and sent me into a tizzy trying to figure out what all of this technical stuff was that could have been the culprit. ... [Read More]
The World’s Largest Ice Cave: Austria’s Eisriesenwelt
One of the few things I had planned on doing ahead of time while we were in Austria was seeing Eisriesenwelt - which translates to "World of Giants Ices" in German - the largest ice cave in the whole world. The cave is 26 miles long, so you can nearly run a marathon in the cave if it weren't for, ya know, all of the slippery ice and freezing temperatures in there. (source of images) The ice cave is located in Werfen, a town not a far distance from where we were staying in St. Johann, but it was quite the trip getting there (which is half the fun might I add!) that went as follows: Walking from our hotel to the train station --> train ride --> walked to a bus stop, but not before walking completely into town to figure out what we were doing --> hiking --> cable car --> ... [Read More]
A Natural Wonder: Austria’s Liechtenstein Gorge
Hi friends! After many hours of travel, I arrived back in the good ole USA last night. My trip was amazing, and as usual when I go on trips, I’ve caught the travel bug and am plotting my next 5 excursions! ;-) Here’s a look at the route we took once in Europe: Last year my hubby and I bought a timeshare. Since we've experienced some buyers’ remorse from the moment we bought it, and since we’ve been paying it without seeing anything up front, we wanted to be sure to use it for the first time during this vacation. I checked out my timeshare options with only about 6 weeks notice, and this is how Austria became a big part of our vacation. To be honest, I didn’t know too much about Austria until planning this trip, but once I started to learn more about the country, I knew it’d be an ... [Read More]