Travel & Adventure
On the Road Again: Rogue River, Zion Canyon & Family
Three weeks ago, my family was nearing two months of sheltering-in-place in our Baja home. We had been adhering to strict physical distancing guidelines. The kids hadn’t played with another child, and we weren’t socializing with friends in person. What had initially been a unique and precious incubation started to feel suffocating and lonely, even…
Read MoreTransforming our Creepy Crawly Home
At the end of September 2019, we moved into a little house on the beach in Southern Baja. We arrived to find the walls crawling with albino geckos – hundreds of them. The bedroom wreaked of cigarette smoke even after I laundered the bedding and curtains and left the mattresses out in the sun. At…
Read MoreThe Miracle of Community
With each COVID-related blow to our sense of normalcy, I contract. First, it was the acknowledgement that Dave might be away working at the hospital indefinitely; then the school closings; then the news of the California shelter-in-place; then our own shelter-in-place here in Baja. Today, the men who are building our house next door arrive…
Read MoreA Day of Death and Life at the Beach
“How about we go to Palm Beach today?” Dave asks as I hand him a glass of the dark purple, nutrient-dense smoothie I’ve just prepared. “Sure,” I answer. An hour later, we are packing up the car, and he asks if I want my fins. “No, thanks; I’m not swimming in that water,” I reply,…
Read MoreA Baja-Style “Welcome Home”
We are back in Baja, where we lived for 9 months through June of last year. I am walking out to the beach for the first time since our arrival. My daughter, who I am pushing in a BOB stroller along the dirt road, drifts into her midday nap. As we arrive at the sand,…
Read MoreOctober Update!
Since October of last year, I have lived in two different towns in Southern Baja and two here in the US with my husband, now two-year-old-daughter, trusty Labrador and baby-on-the-way (yes, baby boy Russell is coming this holiday season!). We have also traversed the nation – from the tip of Baja to Vancouver Island, throughout…
Read MoreBlessed is this Life: Thoughts on the Eve of 39
Tomorrow I turn 39, and I approach this birthday with a full heart. Life looks different than it once did. Mostly, I have finally come home to myself. Being in my skin is comfortable, relaxing even. And all that I do – the many roles I fill as wife, mother, coach, friend, and more –…
Read MoreHeadwinds
A gray mist envelops us in a damp hug that leaves its cold sweat on exposed skin. The condensation is warmer than the biting winds that sweep through the canyon with seeming mockery as they push directly at us from ahead. We are three-quarters of the way into our three-week private rafting trip through the Grand…
Read MoreWhen Things Fall Apart
Day 1. On the first leg of my travel from Cabo to Nashville, I write this blog on the ways leaving my daughter for the first time since her birth is touching my heart. After boarding the second leg in Houston, we deplane before takeoff due to a mechanical issue. The gate attendant says there…
Read MoreOn Living Near Our Food Sources
On my regular route home to our beachfront respite for the season, I turn left off the main highway onto the 5km dirt road that winds through farmland, passed our favorite farm-to-table restaurant and the stable where we take our daughter to feed apples to horses. Landing in El Pescadero somewhat by chance, we felt…
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