Kathy and I recently returned from a two-week trip hop-scotching down the coast of Oregon, into the redwoods of northern California. From there, we drove to Hood River, Oregon to admire the Columbia River Gorge, before we landed in Portland for our last two nights. I anticipated writing a post about the dramatic scenery, the statuesque redwoods, and the 620 foot waterfall near the river. Oh sure, the coastline was as pretty as the travel magazines promised, the weather was better than we’d Continue Reading
The highs and lows of visiting Sequoia National Park
A visit to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park which sits adjacent to it, is an experience you won’t find elsewhere in the United States. Some of these trees are estimated to be more than 3000 years old, and at maturity, they are approx. 250 feet tall, roughly, the height of a twenty-five-story building, or 83 yards on a football field. Their circumference can measure 113 feet. It’s tempting to compare sequoias with redwoods as they grow taller, but it’s the sequoia’s girth that Continue Reading
Another aging milestone
If you were to list the milestones of this journey called aging, what would you include? Do you remember when they started? My list would look like this: Gray hair in my thirties. Reading glasses in my forties. A colonoscopy in my fifties. Recently, I added something new to the list that really threw me for a jolt. I’d been ignoring a nagging pain in my hip since last summer. It had gotten progressively worse, and I finally relented and made a doctor’s appointment. As the Continue Reading
If a picture is worth a thousand words …
Is a picture worth a thousand words? If so, I have enough to create my own personal set of encyclopedias. Anyone else share this dilemma with me? When I was packing to make the move to Arizona, I unearthed a forgotten box of photos on a shelf in the basement. I’ll sort these later, I told myself. Well, later was this past month. With all my clubs and activities still shut down, and my favorite college basketball teams at a standstill, I decided to open the box and free up some closet space Continue Reading