2023

To ring in the New Year, I explored the coast from Tofino down to Ucluelet and back.

Long, long day on the road today, but the rewards were so worth it!

After a few long days on the road, I mostly took a rest today. I drove a relatively short route to Port Alice just to see what it was about and otherwise laid low and kept to myself today.

Today I drove as far as you can to the north of Vancouver Island. I’m staying tonight and tomorrow night in Port Hardy, a small tourist and fishing village at the end of British Columbia’s Highway 19.

Today I did a variation on the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which is to say that I explored the part of Vancouver Island that is mostly west of Victoria and Nanaimo.

I’ve been to Victoria, British Columbia, many times, but I haven’t seen much of Vancouver Island beyond the capitol city. Over the next several days, I’ll be “fixing” that – by exploring the rest of the island.

I went to California this week for a major event for my team at work.

The plan was … OK, the hope was that there would be a day with fog and low tides while we were in South Carolina so I could come back to Botany Bay and make some of the ethereal photos that this location is famous for.

We came back from Savannah this morning to spend a bit of time with our friends and also to see a few favorite places near Charleston. We’re staying for the next couple nights in an AirBNB in Johns Island. The highlight for today was the rare opportunity to tour some of the historic plantation homes near Edisto Island.

We’re mostly in South Carolina visiting friends in Edisto Beach, but we’re taking some time to explore a bit on our own as well. We’ve returned for a couple of days to Savannah, Georgia.

Keeping it simple today; took the day off from work (as did the most of Adobe) and also from doing much with the camera.

Ever get curious to see where a road goes for no good reason whatsoever?

Lisa and I are back for a fall work-cation visiting friends in South Carolina. I scored a window seat and got treated to some wonderful skyscapes on the way today.

This week I’ve been attending Internet Identity Workshop (warning: that link is mostly deeply geeky).

This week I’ve been attending Internet Identity Workshop (warning: that link is mostly deeply geeky). This event is held twice a year at the lovely Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, which recounts the formative years of our tech industry.

This afternoon, I was in Olympia and in search of a short, new hike for a bit of exercise. The trail guides pointed me to the Bob Bammert Grove trail and it was just perfect for the occasion.

My fiancé and I took a short trip to San Francisco this weekend. This was partly so I could have a couple of work-related meetings and partly just for fun.

Lisa and I bumped into some friends of ours in Olympia on Wednesday night. They happened to have their boat nearby and invited us aboard. We got a nice view of the Lady Washington as she sailed Budd Inlet near us.

My daughter and I are on one last road trip before our summer vacation comes to an end. We both spent some time in the San Juan Islands over the last few days. (See 146 Parks for some details of my explorations.) Since then, we’ve headed north into parts of British Columbia neither of us have seen before.

The plan was to spend a couple of days on the California coast and then work our way up through Crater Lake and Bend, Oregon, before heading home.

Yesterday, we drove from Reno to Half Moon Bay, California, by way of the south side of Lake Tahoe. Today, we drove back into San Francisco for some shopping and a big-city experience.

Our time in Salt Lake City has come to an end and we’re making our home by way of the California coast.

I took a not-quite-direct route from Boise to Salt Lake City. Not a lot of time for photos today, but I did get to explore some parts of Idaho I had not seen before.

I’m on my way to Salt Lake City for an important family occasion this weekend. Today’s travels took me to Boise by way of a part of Idaho I had not seen before.

One of my favorite things about working at Adobe is the periodic invitation to disconnect from the day-to-day for weeks at a time and recharge. When I first joined, that five-year mark seemed ages away. Tonight I began my fifth sabbatical.

After 43 days on the road, I am happy to be back home. Today’s travels took me from San Jose, California, over the Cascades, and to my partner’s home in the south Sound.

I’m in San Jose, California, for some meetings with my incredible team. Few pictures, as much of our time was in conference rooms, but we did take a day for a fun excursion to the Roaring Camp Railroad in the redwoods near Santa Cruz.

I spent the rest of the weekend in Mendocino and headed back to the Bay Area for a few days of meetings with the rest of my team.

Continuing on from my month-long trip through the Southeastern US, I spent most of this week representing my team and project at Internet Identity Workshop. IIW is a fabulous torrent of information and connections. Having attended before and had that same experience then, I made plans to have this weekend away and to myself.

Today marks the end our delightful time together in the Southeast. Today, I drove six hours back to Atlanta and flew another five hours to California. I’ll be there for the next several days for some work-related events and a bit of personal travel over the weekend.

Today is our last full day together on the Southeast. We were expecting clouds and rain but instead got a beautiful sunny day. We decided to visit one more plantation – the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, located on the Ashley River just outside of Charleston.

The AirBNB where we’re staying includes the use of kayaks, so I took one out just before sunset tonight.

We’ve spent this week in and around Charleston, first in Isle of Palms and more recently in another AirBNB on Bohicket Creek on Johns Island.

We spent a while walking the grounds of Bonaventure Cemetery before heading back to South Carolina to spend Easter weekend with some friends in Edisto Island.

This afternoon, we took a short trip to Wormsloe State Historic Site, the site of the home of one of the first British settlers in what would later become Georgia.

We’ve been spending this week in the already-sultry heat of Savannah, Georgia. It’s been around 30°C / 85°F most of the week, which – for those of us acclimated to Pacific Northwest climate – is quite enough, thank you.

From yesterday’s farm stay on the coast near Townsend, I drove down to Jekyll Island.

I found a last-minute AirBNB room on a farm in rural Georgia with goats and sheep and chickens and maybe an alligator in the river.

We left Charleston for points farther south along the coast. We’re spending a couple of nights in Hilton Head Island, before embarking on some separate journeys for a little while.

No big adventures for us today as it was a work day for me, but we did get out for a walk at sunset tonight. After a gray and blustery day, it was nice to see some color in the sky!

Some local friends suggested that we visit the Caw Caw Interpretive Center, a county-maintained wildlife preserve just outside of Charleston. We did and enjoyed a walk through a cypress swamp and former rice plantation.

It’s only March and already it is getting hot and sultry around here. This afternoon, we went out for a small adventure near Charleston: seeing the state park that commemorates the original Charles Town settlement from 1670.

Today, I left Wilmington and headed down to Charleston where I connected with Lisa. We’ll be in Charleston for the next several days. In both cities, I enjoyed the historic architecture.

Today was mostly a work day, but I did get the chance to explore a little bit around downtown while getting lunch and coffee.

Fortunately, I was able to get back on track and resume the trip as planned today.

Not the weasel. This isn’t an upbeat nursery rhyme.

Here goes a great new adventure! I flew today to Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a grand exploration of the southeastern United States.

I was in Utah for a long weekend. This was mostly a family visit, but I did get a chance to get out and enjoy the snowy mountain landscapes east of Salt Lake City a bit.

Once again, I was in for a real treat on my morning commute.

A short drive south of Olympia, Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve presents a most unusual landscape. Hundreds of small mounds of dirt, some as tall as a person make an oddly undulating grassland. Scientists have studied this landscape for nearly two centuries and have yet to agree on a convincing theory for how or why they were formed.

On a recent walk around Capitol Lake in Olympia, I spotted these ducks hanging out on a log.

Sometimes the commute is mundane. Sometimes it is spectacular.

A random photo grab while I was driving near Shelton recently …

Lisa and I went for a hike in Woodard Bay Conservation Area recently.

Had a night to myself last night so I looked on AirBNB for last-minute getaways and found a steampunk caboose! Couldn’t pass that up, so I booked it and drove up there straight away.