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Colorado 2025

Colorado is an amazing place.

Once again I continued the tradition of going to Colorado to go hiking. This year was a bit different: I did multiple hikes, I hiked earlier in the year so I saw more mountain flowers, and, I went to bu-cee’s!

This year I hiked: to the top of the Flat Irons from Realization Point, around Panorama Point in Golden Gate State Park, and, hiked Mohawk Lakes. All-in-all, it was an amazing experience and hiking the Mohawk Lakes was one of the better hikes I’ve done – ever.

We had perfect weather from when I landed to when I left. My flight to Denver arrived a bit earlier than usual so much of Friday was open. It was decided we’d visit Bu-cee’s in Fort Collins and then hike to the back of the Flat Irons from Panorama Point. Bu-cee’s was amazing, like usual. Truly, it makes sense, Bu-cee’s is the Costco of gas stations and everything there is curated for a wonderful experience.

Driving to Realization Point and finding a parking spot was pretty straight forward. A lot of places in Colorado are overrun with people but a mid-day hike on a Friday proved to be a pretty good time to go. There was a brand new trail built by the City of Boulder to go from Realization Point to the back of the Flat Irons, Alltrails didn’t even have the trail on their app. Fortunately, Colorado state has an amazing hiking app called COTREX and the trail was on their. The hike was super easy and was mostly flat. We arrived to the Flat Irons to see multiple people hiking up from the bottom and even saw one dude hiking up the actual Flat Iron rock – without ropes, helmets, or any gear. It was insane. It was wild looking east from the Flat Irons; the incredible drop made for a fantastic view to the plains of Colorado.

Panorama Point and the hike around the area was stunningly beautiful. There were tons, absolutely tons, of flowers. It was a special treat to see so many flowers and hike in quiet solitude. We even saw some screwball pollinators I’ve never seen before. Golden Gate State Park is super close to Denver but doesn’t have any of the super tall peaks in the park. It does have some beautiful views of the mountains and is a very green, very lush, place.

Mohawk lakes hike was one of the better hikes I’ve ever done. We arrived right before sunrise and had a fantastic walk to a wonderful view of the sunrise. The first part of the hike was super hard; the hike started at 11,000ft so it was a bit difficult for this flatlander to get going. Unfortunately, the photos don’t do the area justice – the Mohawk Lakes and the hike up the valley was one of the more stunning hikes I’ve ever done; the mix between forest, alpine, lakes, flowers, mountain peaks, and, grasslands was just right. We started so early that we saw very few people until we started the return hike. The shear number of flowers on the hike was incredible, there were areas where tiny little purple flowers blanketed the grasslands, and, giant clumps of paintbrush flowers and sometimes even lupine. Like all other years, we hiked some donuts up and enjoyed a delicious treat in a tranquil area. All in all, it was a 10/10.

Like all other trips to Colorado, this trip was amazing. I can’t wait for next year 😊.

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San Francisco 2025

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What a trip. What a fabulous time. What an incredible area to explore!

I visited the San Francisco area about four / five months ago. I went back because I loved the first visit and wanted to spend more time in the area. Long ago, I went there and we just ‘visited the area wrong’ and left with a fairly poor impression of the area. My visit in fall 2024 made me think we traveled the area incorrectly long ago and this recent trip confirmed it. I also had the unique privilege of being confused as a homeless person, or, at the very least casting doubt on whether I was a productive member of society which was a hilarious experience.

I really wanted to spend time around the big trees. There are redwood groves all around San Francisco, to the north, south, west, and some to the east, all within 30min to two hour drive from downtown. Last time I went north to Armstrong State Park so this time I went south this time into the Felton to visit Henry Cowell State Park, Big Basin State Park, immediately after landing in San Francisco and found myself largely alone in redwood forests – it was incredible.

I was treated to a pretty big surprise – the area had some horrible fires and hiking around the burned forests and slightly recovered forests was amazing. It was wild seeing how redwoods recovered from such horrible fires and I was able to see my very first wild azalea in Big Basin State Park! The non-burned areas were amazing too, I loved my time in Henry Cowell State Park and greatly enjoyed meandering on the trail along a babbling creek as the winds rocked the towering redwoods wayyyy above back and forth. It was truly a treat.

The trip just got better. I’m an early riser so I found myself alone on the highway in the early morning the next day on the way to Santa Cruz. Normally this doesn’t matter but I was surrounded by MASSIVE redwoods so I dropped the convertible top down and putz slowly thru the forest. I visited the pier in Santa Cruz and then headed north along Highway 1. Last time I drove Highway 1 between LA and Monterrey Bay it kind of sucked – lots of cars, pretty drab, lots of winding roads, repetitive scenery for hours. This time was different because all the parks / areas I visited were flowering and super colorful, no one was really on the road since it’s not tourist season, and, it’s a rather short drive between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. This was a far better Highway 1 experience!

The state parks and stopping points I visited along the way to San Francisco had very few people. I found myself a long for quite a few of the visits in Natural Bridge State Park, Wilder Ranch State Park, Butano State Park, and, the numerous stops along the way. It’s strawberry season out there so I stopped by a farm stand and bought some freshly picked strawberries to eat in Butano. I had quite the surprise when I was the only person in Butano and had a chance to eat the the strawberries in solitude while sitting on a fallen redwood straddling a creek in an old growth area of Butano.

I think state parks are where it’s at. National parks are over run by people and my trips to state parks over the last couple years have been nothing but wonderful – far fewer people, decent enough facilities, reasonable admission fees. No one goes to visit state parks in areas with national parks!

San Francisco was a ton of fun too. Once again, I had perfect weather – sunny and 60-70 degrees every day, it was fabulous. The rest of the activities were fun:

Walking from Sausalito to Chinatown along the Golden Gate Bridge and Prominade was a cool experience – I had a lot of fun watching other people over the super long journey, and, it was nice to get the ocean breeze nearly the entire way.
Early morning walking in Nob Hill, Chinatown, Coit Tower, and, the pier areas of San Francisco was great. Eating a freshly made donut in a park in Chinatown during sunrise was 10/10. Seeing the sun rise through the buildings was fantastic and catching the Transamerican Pyramid shadow was super cool. I have a litmus test for whether I am in a safe area and it was clear the Nob Hill and Coit Tower area were safe.
I had a chance to walk some of the stairs and see the parrots! The parrots are LOUD. I heard them long before I saw them!
The cable car was made a lot more fun because I struck up a conversation with the car operator. She answered a ton of my questions about the cable car and life in San Francisco. She even asked me, “So, are you going to move here?”
It was a surprising amount of fun to take an autonomous Waymo and get a ride to the Golden Gate Bridge, there’s something a bit odd about being a passenger in a moving vehicle with no driver.
Overall, I walked ~15.3 miles in the Nob Hill – Chinatown – Pier 33 – Golden Gate – Promenade – Lombard – Chinatown walk only taking a waymo to get from Pier 33 to Golden Gate and a cable car from Chinatown to my hotel in the afternoon. I put an image of the journey in the album.
I also found out, quite hilariously, if a person is wearing hiking shoes, a big floppy sun hat, a sunshirt, long pants, and, wearing a backpack filled with extra layers of clothes and water (San Francisco has some wild temperature differences and there are very few public fountains), then, one can be confused for a local homeless person.

I found a few activities I’d never do again: Alcatraz wasn’t that great, and, the gardens in Golden Gate Park are nice but really small. Overall, the trip was a 10/10 and I walked around 45 miles over three days. On flat ground, that’s not too much but San Francisco and the surrounding mountains in state parks definitely aren’t flat but I would happily do it again 😊.

I have added a bunch of photos below including a lot of wild flowers. I cannot believe the shear amount of flowers I saw during my travels. It was absolutely fantastic.

Enjoy!

Chris W.

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Brno, Czechia 2025

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I was in this area was a little under 10 years ago during our world trip but I don’t recall learning about Brno and I don’t recall meeting anyone who has traveled to Brno. I think it’s because Brno is centrally located between Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and, Bratislava. It’s unsurprising Brno is overlooked given that line up. I had a wonderful time playing tourist and I want to bring Jac and Miriam to the area sometime soon.

Brno has all the quintessential ‘Old European City’ features like: a castle, a river, at least one cathedral with many churches, and, at least one public square. I’m glad I was mailed here because the city was neat, the countryside was beautiful, and, the tourist activities were quite a bit of fun. I often found myself alone or one of a few people at the different tourist activities. Despite the solitude, I was told repeatedly ‘a lot of tourists come to Brno’.

Just like my trip to China a bit over a year ago, I was surprised with how much things have changed in the decade since I’ve visited the area:

Traveling was easier. I did zero planning due to my season of life and the short notice for this trip. The ratings feature Google maps, ‘open hours’ feature, and, step by step walking / driving directions in parts of rural areas simply didn’t exist last time. The younger American coworker I was traveling with was dumbfounded Jac and I somehow managed to travel AND have a good time without knowing exactly where things were located, what their hours were, or how much fun the activity / site may be.
There are wayyyyy more American brands around beyond McDonalds and Starbucks. I was surprised to see Popeyes in the Brno old city center and even stopped at a food truck selling “South Carolina Beef” which was neither beef nor tasted like anything I have had in South Carolina.
I was able to buy tickets online for the various tourist activities so I don’t have to wait or be surprised with which tour I purchased due a lack of translated tour information.
Cellular data and my mobile phones worked seamlessly. Setting up an esim took two seconds and was super easy.
I was mistaken for German more often than not and quite a few people seemed surprised I was an American. I wondered if it’s because Brno isn’t a common destination for Americans or if it’s because I’m quite a few pounds lighter than the last time I was in this part of the world and look more European-ish.

A handful of items remained the same:

People are still people despite the cultural differences. Americans can be a lot warmer / kinder to random people on the street than most places in the world but everyone everywhere is helpful to those in need (for directions, suggestions, chit-chat, whatever) and are warm / kind to strangers once an actual conversation starts.
Germanic orderliness is still present – I was in a hurry and tried to order my dessert with my meal in Vienna only to be told “no, you will order dessert after you eat your meal” by the waiter. I thought nothing of the comment but my younger American coworker was surprised since we’d never hear something like that in the US. Even crossing crosswalks out of turn is still quite the faux pas.
I, just like last time when I was a tourist, still did things that do not happen in other parts of the developed world, like, manually ring a 15,000lb bell in a cathedral tower for all the citizens of Brno to hear during a tour at 1:27pm, or, touch bats in a cave while on a tour in the Moravian Karsts. I’m not sure if ringing cathedral bells or touching bats are common tour activities, I just asked the guides and they said “sure”. These ‘extras’ make being a tourist in places like the Czech Republic even more fun.
The food was great and the costs were lower than the US. I was introduced to an amazing dessert called venecek which is sorta like a donut sliced like a bagel with a light whipped frosting between the top and bottom. I was very happy to see the Czech Republic is still a good deal.
Most processes are still hot garbage – getting rental cars, checking into / out of hotels, going through airports are still needlessly complex and time consuming. The various big companies in USA have streamlined sooooo much of those processes which makes traveling / checkin / check out / checking of luggage / rental cars 1,000% easier. We are spoiled in the US.

Overall, it was a great trip and I was happy I was mailed to Brno even though it was on fairly short notice. It was amazing to experience the differences and see what’s the same. I am excited to go back but this time with my family 🙂.

Enjoy the photos!

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Phoenix / San Francisco 2024

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I managed to engineer another break in my jobs and decided it would be a good time to make a solo trip to Phoenix and San Francisco.

Why? A few reasons:

To hike!
To get somewhere warm; San Francisco is warm even in the ‘winter’.
I have a boatload of American Airlines points and wanted to travel somewhere, anywhere, for free. Phoenix and San Francisco required very few points.
To get a decent bowl of ramen and other delicious, hard to get in the twin cities, Asian foods. This means heading west is best.

Phoenix:

I decided I wanted to hike Camelback in Phoenix which broke my rule: don’t do hikes where people die. I’m not the smartest person on the planet, and, I’m rather “accidenty” so I feel like I have an above average likelihood of injuring / dying while hiking dangerous hikes. Regardless, I’ve been told by numerous individuals that Camelback “isn’t that bad” so I decided to go for it.

Overall, it was a neat-ish hike. I started before sunrise and reached the top three minutes before sunrise. I was mostly alone on the hike and was surprised that I, a flatlander fresh off the plane a day earlier, was able to keep pace with a younger couple who hike the mountain multiple times per week. I found myself mostly alone on the top after sunrise and it was neat to sit and take in the sights / watch the color change even if the Phoenix metro area is a bit fugly. I finished the hike and fully understand why so many people need rescue. That hike was not easy, it felt like it was straight up, and, the danger is ever present.

The rest of my time in Phoenix was quite fun! There were lots of plants flowering and the air had a sweetness smell to it! I had a chance to hike around the Phoenix Preserve, one of my favorite hiking areas, visited the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum, had the most delicious donburi meal at H-Mart, and, went out to the reservation to eat some delicious flat bread tacos and dessert from a literal shack called “The Stand” that very much matched the types of places we bought meals in third world nations.

San Francisco:

I picked San Francisco because I wanted to go hang out with the redwoods outside of San Francisco, and, I wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It just so happened that the weather was near perfect and all the clouds / fog moved on the morning I arrived. Walking across the Golden Gate to Wagner Battery in the Marin Headlands was a wonderful experience. I was surprised by the shear number of people walking / biking / running across the Golden Gate on a Wednesday mid-day. The number of bicyclists hauling ass without regard for pedestrians was shocking. That said, there is something quite nice about the fresh smelling sea air on the bridge and the same smells mixed with the smell of the lush grasses and forest on the Sausalito side.

I originally planned to drive to Muir Woods National Monument but had a former coworker tell me about Armstrong Redwoods State Park. The state park was bit further drive but was absolutely worth it. I showed up well before sunrise only to find out the park doesn’t open until sunrise. While figuring out what to do, I encountered a park employee and asked him; when I asked him what I should do his reply was hilarious: “I don’t know, no one shows up this early.” I decided to go find a cup of coffee and wait for sunrise. Once I started hiking I found I was one of the few people in the park on an early Thursday morning. It was incredibly cathartic to walk amongst the towering trees on a foggy and calm morning. The smells were incredible, the sounds were incredible. It was wonderful to be in the forest by myself.

One very kind person recommended I head to the ocean since it was a 14 mile drive from Armstrong Redwoods State Park. I’m glad I did, I had the beach to myself and the sun was just right to make rainbows in the mist from the wave – I’ve never seen anything like it!

My hotel was in Chinatown and I spent the rest of the time in San Francisco walking around Chinatown, walking to Coit Tower, and, the very famous pier. The weather was fabulous. Finding a decent dim sum restaurant and ramen place was quite the treat. I didn’t realize San Francisco was so small, in many ways the walkability reminded me of Boston or Portland.

On the flight back I happened to sit next to some other travelers and we had a wonderful chat. One person asked me for recommendations on solo traveling and I was a bit surprised. I’ve never thought about solo travel being its own category of travel, and, since I’m a dude, the number of precautions I need to take is very different than a woman traveling by herself. It was a tough question to answer! After some thought, the only thing I could come back with is: “do you enjoy your own company?” I greatly enjoy and appreciate time alone and time spent in quiet areas. I don’t need to see people, I don’t need to interact with people. Pondering it further, it makes sense that solo travel is pretty easy for someone like myself 😊.

Overall: 10/10 trip. It was awesome.

Enjoy the photos!
Chris W.

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Colorado 2024

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We went on two hikes this year! The beautiful Loch Lomond trail and the extremely busy Aspen Alley Trail in Breckenridge.

The weather was perfect – absolutely still and sunny. We reached the lakes around Loch Lomond in the early morning and we had a fabulous time watching the alpen-glow reflections off the lakes. Colorado is the only place I’ve been where I can consistently take reflection photos and turn the image upside down while still having photos make sense – there is such a lack of wind and creatures that the water is completely still.

We had the Loch Lomond trail to ourselves, we were so very fortunate. We left Denver early in the morning and reached the trailhead quite a bit before sunrise. We had a chance to take some beautiful photos of the night sky with our iphones before astronomical dawn ended and the world started to brighten. The trail itself was pretty OK and had a ‘make your own adventure’ aspect once we reached the lakes above Lake Lomond. It was fun to traipse around and enjoy the sunrise & see the last of the summer flowers.

I felt very, very, very lucky that my visit corresponded to near peak fall colors in the Breckenridge area. The scenery was absolutely stunning and the hiking trail below the aspens was incredible. The Aspen Alley trail was very nice and we had a pleasant time even though we were joined by about 1,000 fellow hikers soaking in the scenery.

That night a large weather system hit the areas we hiked and dumped a bunch of snow. The hikes we did wouldn’t have been possible one day later than we had originally planned. We were very, very, very lucky!

All in all, this was another 10/10 trip to Colorado!

Enjoy the photos!

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Summer-ish 2024

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Summer is winding down in Minnesota and Minnesota’s fever seems to have broken. We’re finally starting to get some cooler weather and it’s become rather enjoyable to be in this state again.

We had a great year for flowers and pollinators including some new pollinators I’ve never seen before like the onion moth – a species adapted to pollinate chive flowers. It was cool! I have a lot of photos of pollinators. I thank them because we were able to make about 12 jars of raspberry jam from raspberries we grew, and, we have boatloads of peaches!

I snuck in some photos from early-ish summer / late spring showing the apple blossoms. It’s such a neat time of year, the entire twin cities area smells a bit sweet with all the blossoms around the area. We have some favorite spots we visit to see the blooming trees. Unfortunately, we missed the cherry blossoms at Como Park this year :/.

We’ve had some neat weatherish experiences: we were able to see aurora borealis from our driveway in early summer, and, saw a super cool electrical storm from the exact same location in late summer.

We managed to make it to waterski shows this summer. We had hoped for more but life got in the way. It was a lot of fun to see the extremely talented individuals doing amazing human tricks.

The last group of photos are of my travels two, from, and, in Sioux Falls, SD. Work commitments brought me to Sioux Falls quite a bit this summer. Even though I grew up in South Dakota I never really visited Sioux Falls. It was neat to have downtime to wander around and check out the sites. I would say Sioux Falls is a wonderful place to visit so long as the wind direction is right. There is a MASSIVE slaughter house in downtown Sioux Falls and if the wind direction is just wrong then the smell in the beautiful downtown area is unbearable. Besides the smell of death, Sioux Fall is a 10/10.

It’s actually hard to pick the headline image for this post. The aurora, Hennepin bridge with apple petals, and, the lightening are all beautiful photos and were awesome to see. All in all, that’s it. It’s been a good summer. I’m sad to see it go :/

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Sabbatical 2024

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We went on sabbatical again!

Our sabbatical was just under four and a half weeks and we covered a lot of different places! Trip breaks up into five sections:

The Carolinas from Charlston to Charlotte
Southern Appalachia from Ashville to West Virginia
Upland South from Louisville to Nashville
Texas from Houston to San Antonio to El Paso
San Diego

The reasons for the hap-hazard-ish route were pretty simple: I’ve visited the Carolinas, Upland South, and parts of Texas numerous times over the last 10 years for work and wanted everyone else to experience the semi-interesting things I have seen for a decade, and, some of the places are in the middle of nowhere. As examples:
– Congaree National Park in South Carolina is a National Park but it is largely a swamp. It’s a very nice swamp, nicest I’ve visited, but it’s still a swamp.
– Big Bend National Park in West Texas is near nothing. It’s a nearly seven hour drive from the nearest big airport. No way I’d spend that much time traveling to and from a destination on a week long vacation.
– West Virginia is West Virginia.

Our timing seemed very good, we traveled the Carolinas and a good chunk of Southern Appalachia during the peak of shoulder season so no one was around; there were a few activities and places we visited where we were the only people. Everything combined over a good chunk of time at a lackadaisical pace makes for a pretty remarkable trip and wonderful experience. We don’t know anyone who travels these areas for vacation unless it’s to go to the beach in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico. So this meant the trip was geared toward the things I had experienced plus whatever else we could find along the way. It turned out great!

It rained on us nearly every day wherever we were and we drove through a storm which killed multiple people. We became pretty good at working around the rain. About a week and a half into the trip we figured out we weren’t going to be able to travel like what we had originally planned so we restructured the trip in the middle of the trip. I spent a couple of hours in rural West Virgina redoing all of our reservations like adding Nashville and taking time away from Texas since Texas was stupid hot and suffering from severe storms.

The major highlights:
– North Carolina is a stunningly beautiful state and the western part reminded me a lot of the Smoky Mountains.
– South Carolina was wonderful to visit. Congaree National Park, a swamp, was surprisingly popular with everyone.
– West Virginia was beautiful, surprisingly so. The dilapidation and destitution next to beautiful homes surrounded by gorgeous scenery was discombobulating.
– Nashville was a lot of fun for all of us. I didn’t realize music would start so early in the morning and so many families would be out and about watching the various bands and musicians.
– Big Bend National Park is one of the few places I’ve been where I felt isolated from humanity. BBNP is not below a flight path and there were no signs of humanity other than the road or trail I was on. It was weird.
– We visited 10 caves. Jac’s favorite geographical feature is a cave. Caves in Texas are hot (70F+) and humid (95%). Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico was absolutely stunning followed by Natural Bridge Caverns. Mammoth Cave NP was surprisingly uninteresting.
– This trip allowed me to visit all 50 states in the union, my last state to visit was West Virginia!
– We went to so many children’s museums we became sick of going to children’s museums.
– We ate so much BBQ we became sick of eating BBQ. Best ribs were found at Skinny’s in El Paso, Texas. Very close second was at Mission BBQ in Louisville, Kentucky. Best pulled pork was found at Bu-cee’s Truck Stops in Texas (not joking). Best BBQ dessert was the banana pudding at Luella’s in Ashville, NC. Best brisket was at Noble Smoke in Charlotte, NC.
– Tex-Mex food is amazing. Best Tex-Mex was a tossup between the food we found in the tiny little town of Ozona Texas in someone’s house and Moreliana’s in Houston, Texas; a place that serves home made Tex-Mex of every type plus home made ice cream and other home made horchata.

I’ll write about five segments later. The album below shows the highlights from the overall trip. Enjoy!

Chris W.

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Sabbatical – Appalachia 2024

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We were surrounded by beauty during our time in Appalachia. Central-ish southern-ish Appalachia was remarkably beautiful and there were a surprising amount of fun things to do. We were super lucky to hike in areas where wild rhododendrons, azaleas, and other beautiful flowers were in bloom; what a neat experience! We also seemed to have found where Christmas trees come from? Despite being rained on pretty much every day we found ways to be outdoors and found enough indoor activities to do.

I always forget how neon green the scenery is in the Carolinas and Virginias. Minnesota is green but the Carolinas and Virginias are green. There is also a sweet smell to the air with the various trees and bushes in bloom. We stayed a few days near Sugar Top Mountain, NC, and it was fun to watch all the clouds go above and below us – it was easy to lose track of time watching the clouds. The place we picked is a huge building made in brutalist architecture built on top of a mountain which screamed: “I don’t care about nature or neighbors and WTF is a ‘zoning?'” but gave us a wonderful view and some fabulous sunsets and sunrises.

We drove a lot of country roads in the rural areas of the Carolina’s and Virginia’s. From what we could see, the locals are split between a lot of have nots, a handful of have somes, and, a tiny amount of have very much lots. There were many have nots and Miriam would call out “there’s another burned down house” while we traveled through the beautiful scenery and small communities of Appalachia. The dilapidation and destitution was remarkable and shocking. I had looked at real estate in West Virginia prior to our visit and I wondered how a four bedroom home on two acres could sell for $150k but it became immediately obvious once I visited. I’ve been to a lot of places and a lot of West Virginia reminded me of the reservations in South Dakota and other profoundly underdeveloped places we’ve visited around the world.

The small communities reminded me of where I grew up and what I’ve seen on the iron range in Minnesota – these places used to be something but whats left are the abandoned and shuttered buildings, Dollar Tree / Family Dollar / Dollar General, a small amount of folks supporting tourism, a small number of those who don’t need to leave for one reason or another, and, people who are vacationing. I was surprised with the similarities between the run down towns of South Dakota / Minnesota’s Iron Range and rural Appalachia, it felt like someone copy-pasted the communities.

New River Gorge National Park was interesting. I’m glad we didn’t make a special trip to see it, it’s terribly small and is kind of surprising it’s a national park considering there isn’t much to do or see. Around this area is were we started encountering park rangers who took the JR Ranger program very seriously and we spent a considerable amount of time completing the Jr Ranger home work to earn a badge. JR Ranger: very serious business, I guess.

The Blue Ridge Parkway ending up being a ton of fun. I’m not sure if it’s because we were visiting during peak shoulder season but it was very easy to get around and the views were fantastic. I grew up all around windy mountain roads and it usually takes about 10 seconds to get stuck behind someone going 15-20mph below the speedlimit; this didn’t really happen all that much on the Blue Ridge. Maybe it’s because commerical vehicles are prohibited too? The small taste we had makes me want to drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway now!

Overall, I’m happy we took the effort to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway and spend time exploring rural Appalachia. We didn’t know what to expect since we don’t know anyone who travels to this portion of America for vacation – we want to go back!

Enjoy the photos!
Chris W.

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Sabbatical – Carolinas 2024

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The Carolinas were a treat!

We flew into Charleston and our path was through the center-ish of South Carolina before we ultimately ran into Charlotte, North Carolina. After Charlotte we headed to Appalachia. So, ultimately, we didn’t actually see that much of the Carolinas. The parts we did see were quite wonderful and we’re all excited to go back and see more.

Our time started in Charleston, South Carolina. I think the only way I can describe the actual downtown tourist area of Charleston is “weird”. It’s like higher end art shops, clothing shops, and, other similar type shops. People just kind of walk around. It’s these narrow-ish colonial streets with colonial buildings but higher end shops. It was just strange probably because we don’t really shop. The permanent city market was pretty interesting but was geared toward tourists.

The beaches outside of Charleston, Sulliavan Beach and Folly Beach, were fantastic and we had a fabulous time. Of all the beaches we went to on the sabbatical, these two beach areas were the best. They were clean, warm, and, the prettiest.

From Charleston we headed toward Charlotte, NC stopping at Congaree National Park along the way. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to walk the entire path in Conagree because of flooding but we were able to get a substantially different view than the last time I was there since the flooding on and around the boardwalk made for some very beautiful scenery. Once again, this area was neon green just like the rest of the Carolinas and Appalachia.

Charlotte was so much fun. It’s a biggish city with lots of amenities but it’s super easy to get around. There were an immense amount of things to do for the family. I loved bringing my family to the places I’ve been: Noble Smoke, Latta Nature Preserve, Tony’s Pizza and others while experiencing new places like the UNC Botanical Garden, Mint Museum, and, Daniel Stowe Museum.

We visited Chimney Rock which is a bit outside Charlotte. When thinking about categories, I’m not sure if it’s a ‘Carolinas’ or ‘Appalachia’ category since it’s the foothills. Either way, it was a lot of fun to visit and had a lot of things to do – like hike, activities, and, animal viewing. I deeply appreciated the elevator that brought us from the parking lot up to the top of the mountain. America :).

Enjoy the photos!
Chris W.

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Sabbatical – Texas 2024

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We flew into Houston and flew out of El Paso so we drove across all of Texas and saw a bit of New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and, White Sands National Park. We learned an important lesson: Texas is not very close to Texas, and, a lot of Texans driving lifted trucks seemed to want to drive over us. During our travels through Texas we had four-ish surprises:

– Caves in Texas can be warm and very humid which makes being in the caves quite hot and sweaty.
– During a long day of driving toward Big Bend National Park we needed to eat and picked a highly rated restaurant in the tiny town of Ozona only to find out the “restaurant” was in a house in a neighborhood. Food was 10/10, it was 100% worth the stop.
– Buc-ee’s is amazing. The merchandise, the foods, the size, and, everything else made it absolutely awesome. We visited as many Buc-ee’s as possible. The best pulled pork we had on the trip was from Buc-ee’s hands down.
– The biggest surprise by far was when we visited Big Bend National Park and I quickly realized there were no other signs of humanity other than the trail / road we used to get to where we were – no buildings, no signs, no power poles, no fences, and the big one that is everywhere, no planes or contrails overhead. I don’t know if we have ever experienced anything similar.

It was awesome to see NASA and visit the Gulf of Mexico near Houston. Seeing the Saturn V in person was AMAZING, so cool to see the loudest thing humans have ever created. The Houston area is also the first time everyone was able to visit a Buc-ee’s – an absolutely amazing place to visit with wonderful products. I think we settled on describing Buc-ee’s as the Costco of gas stations, absolutely a 10/10 experience. In the Houston area is where we came across a Tex-Mex place that also made all their own ice cream and horchata which was another wonderful surprise. Even though we have a large latin diaspora in Minnesota it is impossible to get Tex-Mex or anything similar to what we had in Texas.

After Houston we visited San Antonio. I was surprised the shortness of the riverwalk. A person can walk the entire riverwalk in like 30-40 minutes! The riverwalk was pretty. I appreciated the buildings, the water, and lighting. I walked the riverwalk in the evenings and in the early morning. Walking in the early morning was really neat because the lights were still on yet no one was around. The caves outside of San Antonio were beautiful, probably the most beautiful we had visited other than Carlsbad Caverns.

I’ve wanted to visit Big Bend National Park for some time but it’s in the middle of nowhere and takes forever to get to. Only because of something like the sabbatical did it make sense to take the time to visit the park. The park was pretty OK. It was hotter than blazes and the mountains were fairly pretty. Missing signs of humanity was pretty wild. Even in desolate places in the lower 48 and Alaska there were always planes or contrails overhead – pretty much everywhere in the lower 48 and Alaska is a flight path. I think the little part of Texas that is surrounded by Mexico on three sides makes it a bit more to be a flight path since nearby airspace is in a different country. All that said, if I were ever to go back it would probably be in the middle of winter when it was a bit less than 110F out.

After Big Bend National Park we headed toward Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We drove through West Texas oil country and it was surprising. Pop up cities, restaurants / groceries in the middle of nowhere, and oil fields as far as we could see in every direction.

Carlsbad National Caverns is probably one of the more incredible places I’ve ever been in my entire life. Just like Mammoth, we were able to have a self guided tour so we could take our time going through the incredible formations and massive rooms. I don’t think there is anything similar I’ve ever visited in my entire life, it was well worth the visit. Nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park was interesting. Miriam picked up a random rock that had a fossil and shell imprint – she thought it was sooooo cool.

Before leaving Texas, we decided to add in White Sands National Park since we had enough time the morning before we flew out of El Paso. What a super neat area! It was crazy bright, I couldn’t actually see my screen on my phone because it was so bright out. It was hot. Oddly, we could dig an inch or two down into the sand and the sand was cold. After about 30min playing around in the dunes I noticed Miriam was laid out and Jac said she needed to rest. We decided to leave and it was clear both Miriam and Jac were affected by the heat. We later learned the sand reflects 90% of the heat energy, which explained why the underside of my widebrimmed hat felt so hot, and that the dunes are so dry it is easy to forget that it was like 115F on the dunes.

Overall, we’re glad we went to Texas. The sites were good, the Tex-Mex was amazing, the best BBQ ribs on the trip were found in El Paso, and, Buc-ee’s never disappoints. But, we’re happy we left and we’re happy we significantly shortened our time in Texas. I’m not sure we’d go back since there are other places we can visit that require less driving.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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