"Life is short and the world is wide." I adore traveling, and I'm obsessed with my dog.... but rarely do I combine the two. Typically when I travel, my pup goes off to play at the "pet resort" with her friends. Considering my dog gets anxious in new environments and isn't great in the car, I find that it's usually easier to leave her at her normal kennel spot (and I've got the pet resort bills to prove that I do this often!). However, when my husband and I moved 3,000 miles from California to the northeast in August/September, we elected to send all of our stuff in a pod and drive my car cross-country - our pup in tow. I was a bit nervous for our sanity with having our dog in the car with us for 45 hours, but we survived! Harley also became a much better passenger during the ... [Read More]
road trips
Weekend Escape to Big Bear Lake
"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny space you occupy in the world." - Gustave Flaubert With my hubby and I both home last weekend with nothing on the agenda, we decided to take a road trip to a place we'd never visited before: Big Bear Lake. Located in the San Bernardino Mountains about 2 1/2 hours away from our house in San Diego's North County, Big Bear Lake is a popular destination known for its winter ski slopes as well as summertime water sports. My hubby had brought up the idea of camping in the area mid-last week. However, all of the campsites at the lakeside campground I wanted to stay at were already reserved. Plus fires aren't currently allowed there because of the extremely dry conditions and high fire danger, and that's kind of my favorite part of camping, ... [Read More]
Solvang: California’s Taste of Denmark
One of the things that I love about living in California is that there are so many cool areas to go on road trips to, both within the state and in neighboring ones. I've been itching to go on a weekend getaway, and so at the end of last week, my husband and I journeyed to the Santa Barbara area for a few days of wine tasting, hiking, and exploring the Danish capital of America - a town called Solvang. I like traveling to unique little places, and Solvang is definitely just that. It's a quaint, Danish-styled town in the Santa Ynez Valley that was founded a little over 100 years ago, and is home to a population of just 5,000+ people. Solvang is about a 4-hour drive from where I live in northern San Diego County. Pretty much the whole drive, you're traveling right up the Pacific Coast ... [Read More]
Thanksgiving in San Diego
Hi friends! I hope that all of you in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving! I got back from San Diego late last night and had an awesome trip. I took a hiatus from my computer pretty much the whole time I was there, which was a nice change since I'm on my computer so much between work, blogging and personal use. But I missed you all! Let's recap my Thanksgiving weekend highlights and how it all reminded me of how blessed I am: There was a big hair change.... I chopped it off the first night I was in SoCal! My hair had gotten too long and I wanted to get a cut, so I decided that I mine as well really cut it and donate it to a good cause. I chopped it off a few years ago and donated it, and my hair tends to grow back quickly -- I thank all of the fruits and veggies I eat for ... [Read More]