Tag: Hike

  • Inland Northwest, Day 5 (University Loop)

    This was another early morning start although not as early as some of the others. We wouldn’t need to drive very far anymore now that we’d settled into our temporary home in Lewiston, Idaho for four nights in a row. The Washington Race Sunrise came quickly and we soon found ourselves running another half-marathon. Thankfully…

  • England, Day 2 (Jurassic Coast)

    We were firmly based in Swanage after the long day of travel and ready to explore our new surroundings. However, we were still pretty tired so we stuck close to home and made it an easy day. Swanage sits near the eastern end of the 96 mile (154 km) Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage…

  • Costa Rica, Part 2 (In the Shadow of the Volcano)

    We landed at Juan Santamaría airport in San José on a Friday afternoon, clearing Immigration and Customs nearly effortlessly. Then we got a taste of rush hour traffic riding on the shuttle to retrieve our rental car. Driving conditions became a lot more difficult later in the trip although I didn’t know it at the…

  • Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 6 (Mackinaw City)

    We drew ever closer to our ultimate target. Only a fifteen minute ferry ride separated us from Mackinac Island today, a place we could see quite clearly from the mainland shore. However, we focused on Mackinaw City and its immediate surroundings so the island had to wait. Mackinaw City is nothing like Mackinac Island despite…

  • Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 4 (Petoskey)

    One day we decided to explore Emmet County, at the northwestern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Prior to that, my only exposure to this place happened along a brief segment of I-75 barely clipping the county line before crossing the Straights of Mackinac. My entire elapsed time in Emmet lasted mere seconds. However I’d completely…

  • Southern Hills, Day 5 (Summits)

    The final race in the series ended but the vacation kept going strong. We still had a couple of days reserved for some special places and additional exploration within the Appalachians. Much of this concentrated on an area I hadn’t explored before, a rugged place where three states joined. Day 5 focused on one portion…

  • Bogue Banks Bound, Part 5 (Critters)

    I’ve covered some pretty comprehensive topics in the last several installments. So let’s get a little more lighthearted with the content and shift gears. Everybody loves animals, right? I sure do, and we saw a bunch of them on Bogue Banks. Whether captive or in the wild there was something here for everyone. North Carolina…

  • Carolina Wetlands, Part 3 (The Great Outdoors)

    I bypassed all sorts of interesting and historical places because I wanted to avoid indoor spaces during the pandemic. So I searched for outdoor attractions to keep us busy. Typically we do a lot of this on our trips anyway, but we really took it over the top this time. A whole lot of walking,…

  • Crossing Rhineland-Palatinate

    Germany (August 1999) Many years ago we got an opportunity to drive from Belgium to Luxembourg to Germany. The Germany portion cut through the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, from the Luxembourg border to the Rhine River. The Marktplatz at Bernkastel-Kues We drove up from Trier along the spectacular Moselweinstraße (Mosel River wine road). The route crossed…

  • Noosa National Park

    Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia (1997) We drove 160 km north of Brisbane to Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast. This town served as a gateway to the spectacular Noosa National Park with its rugged shoreline and abundant native Australian wildlife (map). Hastings Street provided access to the popular Headlands section of the park. We found…