California

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Death Valley sunset

How a Year of Solo Travel Transforms a Life

When I started traveling alone on a long road trip, it would be for three months. It ended up being almost two years. I didn’t intend to transform. Now, I know that experiencing and learning so many new things about myself and the world makes it unavoidable. Inevitable. My solo travels have taken me through many states in the US, parts of Mexico and Canada. With time alone in ways that we are otherwise never alone, I dove deep. It...

Death Valley

One Day and Night Alone in Death Valley

On my way to Death Valley were palm trees and Joshua Trees. After that, there was nothing except desert sage covered in dust, making everything a monotone beige. Then there wasn’t even that. One can’t help but think of the famous Christian biblical passage when driving into Death Valley, “…into the valley of the shadow of death….” Or is that just me? My drive into Death Valley National Park was about five hours long through the Mohave Desert, so the...

Blue tiles on a wall at the Spanish Village of Arts with people walking

Balboa Park Is More Than the San Diego Zoo

I was looking for a place to walk for a few hours and I found Balboa Park. All I knew about it was it is where you enter the famed San Diego Zoo, but what I found was so much more intriguing. The park has 17 museums, multiple performing arts venues, various themed gardens, shopping, restaurants, street vendors, and historical and cultural attractions. It is easily worth spending an entire day exploring it all. If you’re not from the area,...

Old Town, San Diego

Things to Do in Old Town, San Diego

I stumbled upon Old Town San Diego accidentally while looking for a “Saturday Market.” It ended up being one of those delightful days filled with fun and interesting things to see and do. The best part is that I didn’t know it existed until I was there. The reason I went to Old Town San Diego was because I read they had a street market on Harney Street, so I arrived and saw an entire busy district and a park...

Inside the sea cave

Kayaking into the La Jolla Sea Caves in an Underwater Park

The La Jolla sea caves In California, are part of an underwater park with a kelp forest and breeding ground for all sorts of sea creatures. They’re accessible to anyone from water, but a few can be reached by land too. Along the Pacific California coast, there is a different little beach town every 25 miles. Each is unique, but perhaps none more remarkable than La Jolla. In La Jolla (Hoy ya), there’s an underwater park made up of 6,000...

Steinbeck house exterior

What You’ll See in Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley

I read “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck in middle school, and the story of Lenny and George never left me. I wondered a lot about Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley. Later, I read the “Grapes of Wrath,” “East of Eden,” and others. Because of these books, I felt I knew the place, though I’d never been there. That was about to change. As a nomad, I’d traveled throughout the United States for some time when I took the Pacific Coast...

Rene looks scared of the bees

Learning About Bees: Caring For Our Fellow Travelers

Bees and travelers both venture many miles looking for beauty and care about Earth, so when I was across the country from my home and saw a beekeeping class, I was abuzz. It was about time I learned more about caring for the fellow traveling creatures responsible for so much life on our planet. As a traveler, it’s important to me to take care of our planet and offset any damaging impact I might have on it. Taking care of...

Rene next to a felled Redwood tree

Absorbing the Energy of the Immortal Redwood Trees

Redwoods are the closest thing to immortal that we have on this Earth. On my road trip from Oregon and along the California Coast, I made frequent stops to hike along the many redwood groves and absorb the energy these immortal trees give off. I’d heard of Redwood National Park and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, but somehow it didn’t occur to me that these magnificent trees would grow elsewhere, but they do. Many remain in small groves all...