Our plans, decisions, and adventures
From Palm Springs, we headed toward the west coast of California. Our main goal was Highway 1 between Santa Barbara and Monterey, a route we had tried to drive many years ago when the road was closed due to flooding. After that, we were going to ease on up the Oregon Coast, taking several days at each stop.
Continue reading “Artie: Hibernation”
I never thought I’d visit Palm Springs. I imagined it to be too hot and, well, too cliché. And the campground offered by our Thousand Trails camping membership we knew to be a large-rig parking lot—an environment in which we struggle to be comfortable.
We weren’t quite ready for long-term four- or six-wheeled travel, but medical appointments impacted our schedule and we found ourselves with a free 6-week period—too short to fly somewhere and roam, but a perfect length of time to take Artie on his first road trip. We thought it would be a good opportunity to make sure we knew Artie well and to work out the kinks.
Artie has joined our family part-time (we share custody).
As we designed our Life: Phase Next, we planned part of it as land-based (vs. flying hither and yon) so we could spend time re-exploring our beautiful country (Canada) and meandering through many parts of the US that we had yet to experience. Continue reading “Meet Artie”
Wine. If you enjoy it, then Oliver in late September/early October is a great place to be. Tourist season has slowed and temperatures have cooled, but the wineries, for the most part, are still open. It is also time for the fall Okanagan Wine Festival, a collection of wine-related events throughout the Okanagan Valley from wine-paired gourmet dinners to grape-stomping family festivals. Continue reading “Oliver and the Okanagan: Land of plenty”
We are in the middle of a repeat house sit in Oliver, British Columbia. Vineyards and orchards cover the hills and valleys here, and accompanying wineries (and now cideries and distilleries) are abundant. The Kettle Valley Rail (KVR) trail offers easy cycling along the Okanagan River, but there is one section of this trail that we have been wanting to cycle since we learned about it many years ago. Finally, we have ridden the Myra Trestles (and tunnels) section of the KVR. Continue reading “Trestles and Tunnels”
It’s odd to think of people who are living nomadically taking a vacation. Despite the title of this post, we don’t think of it that way ourselves. But when we return to the familiar–our hometowns replete with family and friends–it feels a bit like a vacation. Though we posted about our comings and goings in Canada over the summer last year, many of this year’s locations and meet-ups were similar, so writing about them might have seemed repetitive. However, since we don’t have a home of our own anymore, even in familiar places, we have to find ways to accommodate ourselves. Here’s how and where we lived over the last 3 months. Continue reading “How we spent our summer vacation”
Oliver is a small town in the British Columbia Okanagan region, famous for hundreds of wineries in and between its towns (Oliver, Osoyoos, Kelowna, Penticton, Naramata, and Keremeos, among others). For 10 days in August, we lived in Oliver, taking care of two very friendly cats, Boots and Molly, and their tidy little bungalow.
We managed to fit in a final trip to Calgary before heading overseas in September. It’s about a 12-hour drive each way between Vancouver and Calgary, but we couldn’t resist the opportunity for a few more grandson hugs.
What a summer we have had, and continue to have. We are still living nomadically, even though we are meandering in places that are somewhat familiar to us. In many cases, we’re staying in communities or areas longer than we have before, which gives us the opportunity to explore them in new ways. Adventures we’ve already written about:
Here are a few highlights of other places and activities that haven’t made it into their own post. Continue reading “West Coast: The first time, again”
We were very fortunate to be be chosen as house and pet sitters for a home in the Highlands area of Greater Victoria. All around us are public and private lakes and thick, West Coast forest full of walking trails and many surprises along the way. Large Douglas Firs, Arbutus, and Cedars create a canopy for the salal, ferns, moss and ground cover plants that are ubiquitous in this part of the world. Continue reading “Victoria: A Boxer and a Poodle”
Just left: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Now: Malacca, Malaysia
Up next: Singapore
