Fish ladder & wave sculpture at Seattle’s Ballard Locks
August 28, 2011 During our family vacation in Seattle last month, we took the bus out to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, locally known as the Ballard Locks, to watch boats of all kinds moving through the locks from the freshwater of Lake Union and Lake Washington to the saltwater ...
Majestic Mount Rainier National Park
August 27, 2011 During our vacation in Seattle at the end of July, we rented a car and drove to Mount Rainier National Park, about 2-1/2 hours southeast of the city. Snowcapped even in summer, Mt. Rainier is the highest peak in the Cascade Range at 14,410 feet. The day ...
Seattle Japanese Garden, a tranquil oasis in the city
August 25, 2011 In late July, after the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling ended, my family joined me for sightseeing in the Emerald City and beyond. I convinced them to see one more garden with me, the Seattle Japanese Garden in the Washington Park Arboretum. At 3-1/2 acres, the garden is ...
Nature, only better: The transcendent Bloedel Reserve
August 18, 2011 The Bloedel Reserve is a place of utter beauty and almost spiritual peacefulness. Rain drips quietly from mossy branches, and the color green wraps you in a soft embrace. I explored the grounds for two-and-a-half hours—not nearly enough time to see all 150 acres, but enough to ...
Outdoors at North Carolina’s Chimney Rock, Sliding Rock & Lake Lure
June 30, 2011 Ever since my Carolina childhood, the mountains of western North Carolina have been one of my favorite weekend destinations. During a recent vacation I had the pleasure of introducing my children to some fun hikes and nature outings in the Asheville area. Pictured above is a view ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: Stratford Drive garden
May 09, 2011 Imagine a steep, overgrown hillside of invasive nandina, bamboo, and ligustrum. That’s what the homeowners on Stratford Drive looked out on after building a contemporary, 5-star green home (as rated by the Austin Energy Green Building program) in the Rollingwood neighborhood of west Austin. According to the ...
Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: Healing “the sorriest piece of land”
February 27, 2011 Chaperone duty during my kids’ school field trips over the years has taken me to some interesting places. But last Monday it got me in on a private tour of the esteemed Selah, Bamberger Ranch, a privately owned nature preserve of 5,500 acres in the Texas Hill ...
Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: Healing "the sorriest piece of land"
February 27, 2011 Chaperone duty during my kids’ school field trips over the years has taken me to some interesting places. But last Monday it got me in on a private tour of the esteemed Selah, Bamberger Ranch, a privately owned nature preserve of 5,500 acres in the Texas Hill ...
Winter beauty along Hamilton Creek
December 30, 2010 Last week, when the balmy weather included a high of 80 degrees, we went for a hike at Hamilton Pool, a beautiful collapsed grotto (click for a previous visit). After skipping a few stones in the pool, we took the trail along cypress-lined Hamilton Creek, following it ...
On top of Austin at the Austonian
June 06, 2010 I enjoyed a bird’s-eye view of Austin last Wednesday from the top of the Austonian, Austin’s newest, tallest, and surely most luxurious condominium tower. My friend Terry Mitchell, a member of the marketing and public relations team, and his wife kindly offered me and my husband and ...
Everglades National Park: A beautiful, mysterious waterworld
March 23, 2010 Anhingas and flowering bromeliads in the Everglades, Florida On telling friends that we were planning to visit Everglades National Park, my husband and I found that raised eyebrows and wrinkled noses were the most common responses. Why visit a bug-infested swamp, they asked. We have a thing ...
Mule skinning in the Grand Canyon
October 11, 2009 The mule doesn’t want to die either. That’s what I keep telling myself as I ride Buttermilk down Bright Angel Trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet and 5-1/2 hours below. Her sides are broader than the trail itself, so when I lift my ...
Visit to Hamilton Pool
May 06, 2009 Drive just 30 miles southwest of Austin to find one of the most beautiful natural areas in central Texas: Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve. Last Saturday we drove out for a hike, arriving about an hour after it opened, and found something we’d never experienced there before: no ...
A visit to Chanticleer: Asian Woods & Stream Garden
July 22, 2008 During our tour of Chanticleer in early July, the mistiness of early afternoon gave way to bright sunshine as we dipped into the Asian Woods garden below the main house. Tall trees, their lower trunks wrapped in wire trellises for climbing vines, create a serene wood and ...
Magical history tour
July 16, 2008 View Larger Map 4,650 miles. 20 days. One car. Two kids. A ton of luggage. We just returned from a three-week road trip—an early-U.S. history tour, you could say. We wanted our kids to learn about the colonial era, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, and ...
Hill Country scenery
June 09, 2008 Despite those crazy pink bluebonnets still blooming in my garden, Texas wildflowers in summertime favor orange, yellow, and red, with a few white prickly poppies and yucca blooms thrown in for good measure. Yesterday we drove our son to summer camp in the Hill Country west of ...
