thankful

For me the best travels include family and loved ones. Thanksgiving is good for that. My family is pretty close and its a huge blessing. So this 4 day weekend will spent with lovely people, lots of laughing and ridiculous amounts of food. Because the other thing my family is good at is eating!

Thanksgiving also means celebrating 6 birthdays, including my own on Sunday, so there's lots of desserts and gift exchanging. The boy also has some little surprises planned (his birthday is saturday), so there may be some related post next week. :D

Have a lovely (american) Thanksgiving and remember what you have to be thankful for!

ooh la la!

i've written about paris a couple times. and how much i desire to go back and maybe do things differently. but thanks to one new blog, i might not have to even leave my zip code to take part in the french way of life.

YSL has launched a new fragrance called "Parisienne". In a creative marketing strategy, they hired 5 established bloggers to travel to 5 different U.S. cities and write a travel diary entitled "Experience PARISIENNE". The goal is to seek out little bits of Paris in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco. Whether it be restaurants, boutiques or well-dressed people, each lady presents unique insight and a keen eye for what it means to live like the french. (coolest job assignment EVER! so jealous!)

*This post, written by the lovely miss joanna goddard is about trying a french cheese that is served best with champagne. How incredibly elegant, and so french! must try.


(photos by max wanger)


I'm super excited to check out some fabulous french neighborhoods and eateries in Los Angeles, and add sites from the other locations to my travel wish list.

I want a tree named after me.

Over Labor Day weekend, back in September, I visited Sequoia National Park with some family. While I was raised in the foothills of Northern California, a few years in orange county for college have made me lose touch with my camping/hiking past. Everyone knows that even a couple days in the pristine wilderness will eliminate all stress and bring us back to our roots. Sequoia is breathtaking, home to caverns, mountains and the largest treesin the world. Seriously, some have been around for over 2500, they're older than Jesus! Wandering around, having to take 3 different photos of one tree because it's too tall, it was so very humbling. Such a reminder of how small we really are.




National Parks in the U.S. are in some dire straits. Due to the budget crisis in California, about 220 state parks are closing if they haven't already. Although tourists would no longer be admitted, the National Park Service still must maintain the wilderness lands. With attendance down already, and no money coming in from state parks there will be layoffs resulting in less forest rangers but more land to watch over. In an LA Times article: "Tim Gibbs, NPCA senior program manager, testified recently in Sacramento: "These cuts are so devastating that it would be the equivalent of the president and Congress dismantling the national park system. It would be like our national leaders sacrificing treasures such as Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks."" Oh dear.

While I knew this was going on, I certainly couldn't tell while I was there. For the best experience, I would advise not visiting on a holiday weekend, it was jam packed with people from all over the WORLD. Which in itself was cool, but it also meant long lines and no parking. Yes there are lines and parking to go to trails to visit trees. Sequoia offers an outdoor experience at all levels, from campsites, RV sites, cabins and up to the lodge where you can "camp" in style with en suite bathrooms and full hot breakfast in the morning. It really is perfect for a short getaway, there is time to relax and depending on how intense of a hiker you are, you can accomplish the big sights with plenty of time to spare. Just beware of bears, there was one wandering through the parking lot in broad daylight! (of course I was the only one in the car who didn't see it!)

An experience that musn't be missed is a good old fashioned campfire. They have one hosted by the Park Rangers each night. There are songs (don't worry, they usually only put the little ones on stage), s'mores and presentations about the history of national parks and park rangers. Park Rangers are actually quite fascinating, all are extremely enthusiastic and love their job. We had a presentation about the history of women park rangers, and there are some pretty powerful ladies who made great strides to put women where they are today. They just wanted to take care of the land that is our heritage and teach others about it.


Sequoia has a boy scout camp that has been around since 1939. My uncle worked there for a few summers back in the 70s and was itching to visit. My cousin and I kind of rolled our eyes as he drove us out there and then hopped the locked fence. As luck would have it there were a few people closing up camp for the summer and a couple of them had actually worked with my uncle in 1975! They were still involved in running the camp. The base camp was basically the same too. This tiny old cabin still had the names of summer staff members, written in sharpie, dating back decades. We found my uncle's name in there, partially painted over!

The most "intense" thing we did was climb moro rock. it's really more of climbing stairs than scaling rocks. Though there are 400 steps, mostly carved into the rock, which take you up to an elevation increase of 245 ft to a total elevation of 6725 feet. The views are breathtaking. We went up right before sunset and ate sandwiches at the top. Perfection. My uncle told us about climbing over the rails and hanging out during his summers there. And that other than the location of the railing at Moro rock, not much has changed in the park since 75.



(all photos by me)

So far in my life I've visited Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, Devil's Postpile, Golden Gate, Joshua Tree, and Redwood. My parents love camping and did a decent job of getting us kids on vacation in national parks over the years. But now I realize it's not nearly enough. I desire to visit as many of these parks as I can (it's really quite inexpensive) before the end of my life...and before they get shut down.

P.S. Thanks for the shoutout Hail Mary, you're amazing!

for what it's worth

Umm...hi. did you miss me?
There was a general lack of travel in my life for the past 6 months though still plenty of dreaming.

While I spent my summer sitting in front of a computer as a volunteer for my church, I DID help other people travel! As an admin intern for global outreach, I had the opportunity to help organize and coordinate house build mission trips to New Orleans. If it weren't for summer school I would have been out there in that sticky humid heat hanging drywall along with the rest of them. But instead I settled for hearing the stories of over 100 people over 7 different trips that took 5 days out of their summer/off of work to travel to the New Orleans area and rebuild people's homes that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The most surprising things to hear is that even though it has been four years, the community is still ravaged and very much in need. We worked with a non-profit called St. Bernard's Project. The amazing thing about St. Bernard's is that these families' homes are being rebuilt on their actual property in their same neighborhoods, at their same addresses. Our church got involved in disaster relief immediately, then moving on to tear down of homes that were destroyed, having to get rid of the the moldy and mildewed structures down to the foundation. Now finally we have been able to assist in the hopeful rebuilding process. As of August, St. Bernard had completed building 230 homes, each fully finished and painted for about $12,000 each thanks to donations and support. The lowest cost for a quality home when compared with Harry Connick Jr's work with Habitat for Humanity in that area or Brad Pitt's homes (only nine have been finished, they cost $250,000 each and do not fit with the aesthetics of new orleans architecturally).

Those New Orleans trips touched every single person who went in immeasurable ways. We have a few people who are actually moving to New Orleans to work in the community full time. Volunteering with St. Bernard project is on my life to-do list, they accept individual volunteers anytime and you are responsible for only paying for your transportation/lodging/food while there!

P.S. even Obama has something to say about St. Bernard Project! "The St. Bernard Project has drawn together volunteers to rebuild hundreds of homes, where people can live with dignity and security," :D