U.S.

A NorCal Beach Along Highway 1

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“Nine, ten, eleven. . .” We counted the dark ticks clinging to the pale grasses along the path. We stepped carefully as we walked to the beach near Costanoa, an eco resort along Highway 1 in Northern California.

Beach Path

Over and down the hill, we dropped our towels and nestled behind a large rock, seeking refuge from the cool wind.

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A seal (or sea lion?) ventured close, his head bobbing in the surf, his curiosity bringing him closer and closer as the kids did cartwheels along the shore.

Seal at Costanoa

Cartwheels

After a couple of hours in the sun and wind, we headed back to the car, avoiding the tall grasses and hopefully, any unwelcome hitchhikers on our way.

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Trip taken August 2012.

Camping Without the Hassle

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What do you do when you want the camping experience without all the gear and hassle? If you’re in Northern California, you can stay at Costanoa, a campground and resort located near Pescadero, about an hour south of San Francisco. After a week of backpacking last summer, my daughter and I decided we’d had enough real camping and decided to do just that.

Ignoring the spa resort accommodations at this ecofriendly lodge, we chose to “camp” with her cousins in family tent bungalows where two adjacent tent cabins share a fire pit and a picnic table.

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The kids unrolled their sleeping bags on the bunks in their sparse cabin while the adults slept in sheets in a queen size bed with pillows, a lamp, and bedside table in the cabin right next door. With waterproof canvas walls and a wooden floor, both bungalows were heated and included electricity, sliding windows, and a locking door.

After a simple supper cooked on our own camp stove, we chatted with our next door neighbors, another family from Boston, and played games and roasted marshmallows in one of the resort’s many communal outdoor fireplaces. We brushed our teeth in a “comfort station,” just a short walk from our cabin, where the toilets flushed, the concrete floors were heated and the hot sauna inviting.

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The morning’s dense coastal fog demanded a trip to the lodge’s restaurant for hot chocolate and coffee in front of a warm fire.

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Behind the lodge, the kids climbed a tree and other visitors played chess on a life size chess board. The kids pet the local cat while the adults checked out the store full of gourmet camping supplies and local art.

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We walked along the beach in the sunny afternoon, rode horses with a Costanoa guide, and picked strawberries at a nearby farm.

If you’d prefer a slightly more luxurious experience, you can stay in the lodge or in one of the cabins where you’ll be able to enjoy the resort’s outdoor hot tub.

Roller Coaster by the Sea

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Arms up, we lurched and creaked, climbing to the top of the hill, bracing ourselves for the fall. We were on one of the oldest roller coasters still in operation, not just in the U.S., but in the world. We were on the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California.

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Giant Dipper

Since May 1924 when the public paid 15 cents to ride the red and white roller coaster, the Giant Dipper has excited over 60 million roller coaster enthusiasts who now must spend $6 for its thrills.

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Riding the Giant Dipper is only one of several things to do on the Boardwalk. With kids aged 8 to 14, my friend and I spent an afternoon exploring a few of the options. We were splashed on Logger’s Revenge, lost our stomach on the Giant Dipper as well as on the Hurricane, and enjoyed the view from the Sky Glider.

View

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100_3967We tried our luck at one of the games, sampled ice cream but avoided the deep fried Twinkies and Oreos.

Fried Twinkies

Before our last ride, we left the Boardwalk and tested the Pacific’s temperature with our toes.

Sky Glider

Trip taken August 2012.

 

Visiting Colleges in Beantown

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You’ve heard that Boston is a college town. You know that there are several colleges in Boston. Did you know there are 31 colleges in Boston proper? And over 50 colleges in the Boston area? With all those colleges, it’s not surprising that there are over 240,000 students living in the Boston area.

We visited only four of those colleges in February: Boston University, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and Boston College. We listened to admission counselors give hints on how to write the impending essay and watched our tour guides walk backward. Here’s what we learned.

Boston University, located near Kenmore Square, Fenway Park, and the Citgo sign, is very much an urban campus with its old and new buildings scattered along Commonwealth Avenue, just a block from the Charles River. The campus is long and linear, its 33,000 students melding with other pedestrians as they run from class to class. The school offers more than 250 programs of study, and many of BU’s 18,000 undergraduate students graduate with a dual degree. The university ranks ninth in the nation for its large contingency of international students from more than 140 countries.

Only a few blocks away, Northeastern University is in the museum district, just down the street from the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. Another urban college, Northeastern’s strategically placed buildings hide the city around it, creating more of a campus feel. Northeastern focuses on “global experiential learning,” where its 16,000 undergraduate students participate in two to three co-ops or internships in the U.S. or abroad to gain real world experience before they graduate.

Brick buildings comprise the hilltop Tufts University (founded in 1852) in Medford where you can see the Boston skyline without actually being in it. Cambridge is just a few minutes walk down the road; hop on the subway, and in less than half an hour, you’re walking along the Freedom Trail. We learned that Tuft’s 5200 undergraduate students are engaged in the search for knowledge, that they are leaders and take action in the world around them.

The million dollar steps at Boston College help keep this college’s student body in shape as they climb the hill to attend classes in the old stone buildings. BC is located in Newton, another short subway ride from Boston. At BC, students hold doors open for each other, community is important, and most of the 9100 undergraduate students go to the sports events. According to the students we spoke to, service is so important to BC students that participating in a service project can be very competitive.

Next stop, more colleges on the East Coast.

Trip taken February 2013.

All photos used under Creative Commons.

How to Survive a New England Winter

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No matter how long I have lived in New England, I will always be a California girl. Born and raised in the San Francisco area, my body much prefers temperate climates. So, after living in New England for the last several years where the winters are cold and long, instead of hibernating, I embrace the cold.

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I ski, cross country ski, snow shoe, and ice skate. The result is a much happier me. When it snows, I am excited. I put on my appropriate gear and out the door I go.

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The unbearable cold becomes exhilarating; it flushes my cheeks and encourages me to move.

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And when I’m tired, I retreat inside where I warm my fingers in front of the fire.

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In March, when the temperatures soar to above 45, the snow and the ice melt, and the air feels balmy, it is only then that I become impatient for spring.

Adventure in an Armchair

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My heart raced and my fingers tingled as I cross country skied across Antartica, white water kayaked in New Zealand, and rock climbed up Yosemite’s El Capitan with and without all four limbs last week at the Somerville Theater in Massachusetts.

Chunky Monkey Productions brings the best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival to the Boston area every February, which also happens to be school vacation week. For that reason alone, I have not gone every year. But this February, when we decided to stay local, I knew what I wanted to do: travel in an armchair (or movie theater seat) and vicariously experience a few adventures around the world.

The best films from the Banff Mountain Film Festival, held annually in Banff, Canada, are chosen for the World Tour where they are viewed in 32 countries and across the U.S. Local organizers choose which films to screen in their home town. In Somerville, 19 films were shown over three nights. On Thursday night, February 21, I watched nine of those films, including “Industrial Revolutions,” the “Gimp Monkeys” and “Crossing the Ice,” for a total of 131 wilderness inspiring and adrenaline rushing minutes.

Chunky Monkey Productions describes the variety of the films on its website: “Rocks and Rockers, Boards and Boulders, Bikes, Boyz, and the Last Great Unknown. Afghans, Brits, Australians, Norwegians, Canadians, Switzerlanders, Frenchlanders, and American Flatlanders leavin’ the urbs for that nourishing taste of up high. Skiers, Paragliders, Paraclimbers, Highliners, Steep Water, Fast Water, Huckers, Flyers, Mountains, Highways, Canyons, Big Crazy Adventure, the Moon, and Lily. . .”

Though the film festival has already left New England, it will be screened in other states in March and April. Check out the festival’s website to watch video clips and to see when and where it’s playing and be sure to sign up for an email reminder so you can experience the films next year.

Hiking to St. Mary’s Glacier

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Have you ever hiked on a glacier? Or even seen one? You don’t have to travel to Alaska or even Glacier National Park, but if you live on the East Coast, you do have to travel west. In the Lower 48, there are over 340 glaciers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming. A few years ago, we hiked on one of the more accessible glaciers, St. Mary’s Glacier, located north of Idaho Springs, Colorado.

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After parking in one of the two small parking lots, our group found the trailhead and began hiking on a sunny, clear, but cold February afternoon. At over 10,000 feet at the trailhead, the air was thin for flatlanders like us.

We huffed and puffed with children in tow (ages 4, 6, 10, and 12), climbing only 420 feet during the ¾ mile hike past St. Mary’s Lake to a snowfield.

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At the glacier, we took photos, the kids rolled, and we watched people glacading before we headed back on the trail.

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St. Mary’s Glacier is located in the Clear Creek Ranger District of the Arapaho National Forest, about an hour’s drive from downtown Denver.  The trailhead is located 9.2 miles north of I-70 on SR 275 (Fall River Road). For more information, check out www.protrails.com or call the Clear Creek Ranger District at 303-567-3000.

Trip taken February 2009.

Hiking to Boston Mine Camp

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When is Boston not a city and not in Massachusetts? Answer: When it’s a mine in Colorado. When you’re tired of and/or exhausted from skiing in Colorado and or just looking for a change of pace, but still want to be outside, try snowshoeing or hiking into an old gold mining camp, the Boston mine camp.

On a winter break in Colorado, we took a break from skiing at Copper Mountain and ventured on a trail nearby. The sun was warm, and the snow was packed enough that snow shoes weren’t an absolute.

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With the kids pulling sleds and stopping periodically to throw a snowball, we hiked the 1.8 miles from the trail head to the former Boston mine camp where just an old log boardinghouse and log cabin remain from the days of gold mining activity in the early 1900s.

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We hung out in the Mayflower amphitheater, watching cross country skiers, exploring the old cabins, sledding, and enjoying the views, before heading back to the car.

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For those more adventurous, you can hike the full Mayflower to Clinton Gulch loop as described in Mary Ellen Gilliand’s book, “The New Summit Hiker” and in an article published in The Summit Daily.

Directions to the trail head: Drive Highway 91 south 6.2 miles from the exit 195 off of Interstate 70 at Copper Mountain. The trail head will be on your left.

Trip taken February 2009.

Walking Along the Brigham Pike

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If you’re in Boston, when is the Pike not the Mass Pike, the section of Interstate 90 which travels across Massachusetts?

When my husband and I entered Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for preoperative surgery meetings, we were directed to the “Pike,” a long corridor on the second floor of the hospital. “Take exit 6 off the Pike,” the woman at the information desk said. Curious, we followed her directions to the second floor and onto the Pike where signs direct the traveler to various departments (neurology, phlebotomy) and to bridges connecting the hospital to other area hospitals via above ground passageways. You can shop on the Pike, access the cafeteria, and pick up your prescriptions at the pharmacy.

As my husband prepared, endured, and recovered from hip replacement surgery, we traveled from rural suburbia into the city of Boston’s medical maze, where several big name hospitals care for patients while teaching future doctors in what is called the Longwood Medical Area.  Beth Israel Deaconess, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center, New England Baptist, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are all within a few blocks, not too far from Fenway Park, Simmons College, and the Museum of Fine Arts.

Two weeks later, I was back at the Brigham, this time, avoiding the Pike. After leaving my husband at 7:30 a.m. in the preoperative staging area, I checked in at the Robert and Ronnie Bretholtz Center for Patients and Families (Bretholtz Center) where I was given a buzzer (just like the ones restaurants give you while you wait for a table). I found a cozy chair in an unoccupied alcove and waited while the doctors worked, reading a book by Dennis Lehane. Complete with a library, computers and printers, knitting, games, and TVs, I found the Bretholtz Center a comfortable and comforting place to wait. I was told when surgery was complete and soon received a phone call from the doctor to hear the details. All went well.

I was back at the hospital the next day, just for a visit I thought, but 2 hours later, we were driving home, my husband, his new hip, and me.

Shopping Around the World

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Where did you go this holiday season? I stayed near home the month of December but went shopping around the world and bought several gifts handmade by women and children in places like Sri Lanka, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Thailand. Each item made me pause and smile, and I have no doubt, they made the recipient feel good, too.

I oohed and awed at jewelry made in the Philippines and in India from genuine pearls. Pearls with Purpose was created to instill self-sustainability and hope in women throughout the world.

I smelled the candles and admired the containers at Prosperity Candle, a company whose mission is to “empower women to rebuild their lives through candle making, one gift at a time.” After training women as candle making entrepreneurs in Baghdad, the company began working with Burmese and Bhutanese women refugees living in Massachusetts. If you buy a candle, you can email its creator through the organization’s website.

I bought recycled bead bracelets made in Uganda from BeadforLife. Bead for Life teaches women the art of bead making as well as entrepreneurial and business skills so that they may successfully run their own sustainable business once they graduate.

I bought bracelets for gifts and a necklace for myself from Emerge Global, an organization which supports teenage girls in Sri Lanka, ages 10-18,  who have survived abuse and helps them develop business and life skills needed for self-sufficiency.

IMG_0814I gave animal shaped ornaments made from soapstone to my family to hang on our tree. Venture Imports sells these ornaments and other carvings which are cut with machetes by Kenyans as part of the Tabaka project. Tabaka was established to eradicate suffering throughout the Kisii area of Kenya and provide an opportunity for a better quality of life by providing fair wages and the ability to market products outside of Kenya.

And I don’t know about you, but when I’m shopping, I sometimes buy gifts for myself. So, what did I buy?

I bought a string of lights and flowers made from real leaves of the rubber tree and the bodhi tree by Burmese women. Money from the sale of “flowers from real leaves” supports local women and other projects at Whispering Seed, “a village-based sustainable living and learning center and home for children who have been orphaned, abused and neglected along the Thai-Burmese border.”

I bought a bracelet for myself from the Mmofra Trom Bead Project whose motto is “Give the gift of education, one bracelet at a time.” Children in Ghana string beads made from recycled glass to help fund their high school and college education. The beads are made by local Ghana artisans.

In the past, I’ve given shares of animals as gifts through Heifer International and bought jewelry and art from Ugandan artists through Project Have Hope, an organization that empowers women in the Acholi region of Uganda. What unique and handmade gifts did you discover as you traveled around the planet this past holiday season?