Category Nature
Las Vegas – Red Rock Canyon
If at first you think it’s gonna kill you, do it again (because it won’t) and then go home and check your stats (because they’ll tell you why it felt so hard). That’s the take-away from today’s ride through Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock Canyon is on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and it’s famous for its eponymous […]
Frankenstorm update
First, some background: Midnight 4:30 a.m. 8:30 a.m. Noon Now this local weather report: The non-Elijah fish waiting out the storm Elevator notice from the Management(with helpful proofreading marks from my fellow tenants)
Storms-a-cummin!
Hurricane Sandy is on her way — apparently she has a play-date with a nor’easter in our backyard. Virginia and Maryland have both declared states of emergency; DC’s in a state of blind panic. The radio stations are all reporting about “the upcoming power outages,” having long ago realized that with utilities like Pepco in the region, there’s no need to include […]
Fall colors on Old Rag mountain
Old Rag is a mountain in the Shenandoah National Park that is famous for its unobstructed 360-degree vistas. At this time of year, with the colors peaking and the weather literally perfect, crowds of hikers flock from cities, villages and farmland alike to soak up the natural beauty of autumnal Virginia. Amy, Julie and I set out early on […]
Boise Wedding – Shoshone Falls
As you might have guessed from its name, the town of Twin Falls sits on a bluff above the Snake River very near a number of falls. Some of my relatives said they wanted to stop by Shoshone Falls on the way back to Boise, so I decided to join them. Unfortunately due to the dry […]
Boise Wedding – Guns before girls
Suppose you’ve got a few hours to kill before meeting up with your bride and the photographer for wedding photos. What do you do? If you said “shoot guns!” then you’d fit right in with my family (probably better than I do). When Ammon and I pulled up at Jordan’s parents’ house in Twin Falls […]
Vampire Jammies
So, if you get bitten by a hot vampire, then you turn into a hot vampire too, right? Isn’t that the moral of all those Twilight stories? Pretty sure that’s right. (Unless, of course, you just die — but let’s focus on the positive here.) But what happens if the vampire that bites you is more “warm and cozy” […]
Rivers and Plantations
For the last day of Heather’s visit to DC, we decided to leave the museums and monuments behind (even if we’d tried, we wouldn’t have been able to see them all) and get out of the city for a while. We started the day with a drive up the Potomac River to see the Great Falls. From […]
Hiking the Piney Branch Trail
After a week of too much work, with an equally demanding week ahead of me, I needed a break. So I met up with Amy and her sister Julie for a hike in the Shenandoah National Park. We did a twelve mile loop through lush green forest. Part of time we were on a fire […]
Water Hyacinth
I looked out the window, and what did I see? A sprig of purple flowers emerging from my water hyacinth! I’m so pleased. Everyone I spoke to (and all the books I read) while preparing this summer’s water garden cautioned me about buying flowering plants: Apparently they need something like a gazillion hours of direct sunlight before […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 