Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Nature (page 14 of 19)

A Week of Sightseeing with Visitors – Sonoma, Marin and San Francisco Counties

April 12, 2017 / / 50 Comments

On March 24th, Mark, Lola and I picked up my cousin Griet and her husband at SFO, the airport of San Francisco. While visiting us many times on Irie, in the Caribbean and the South Pacific (they also helped us transit the Panama Canal in January 2013), it was the first time they came to the United States. Customs and Immigration procedures took a while, as expected, but once we found each other, their 10-day vacation could start…

The heavy rains paused for about an hour and a half, in which we brought them to a viewpoint over San Francisco and to Fort Funston, an awesome off-leash dog park. Lola had been very patient in the car during the two-hour drive in rain and traffic and the one hour wait at the airport. She loved her reward in nature, our guests enjoyed their first impressions of the city and Mark and I appreciated stretching our legs during a break in the rain.

Rainy day to pick up our guests in the city – wet drive over the Golden Gate Bridge
First stop
The view over the city was better than we expected
San Francisco
Fort Funston
Funny sign at the viewpoint

On Saturday, we revisited Armstrong Redwoods, still as impressive as the first time we came with Lola. Continue reading

Weekend Adventures in the Area – Sonoma County

March 30, 2017 / / 40 Comments

Mark and I never go on vacations. We do travel a lot between places with our car, but the last time we had a real holiday together, as in taking a plane to a destination solely for sightseeing or vacationing, was back in… never actually. For me, it must have been when I was still living in Belgium, working as a teacher, before 2003. If you don’t count the city trip I did with my mom to St. Petersburg, Russia a year and a half ago. Yes, we do fly to the East Coast or Belgium once in a while to visit friends and family and we went on a five-day camping trip in 2015, but it is not the same. I hear some of you scoff, when silently mumbling something like “How about those eight years you were sailing in the Caribbean and the South Pacific?” or “What about that yearlong of gallivanting by RV in Central America?” Again: not the same. Leading a certain lifestyle, when working many hours a day at our computers does not equal vacation. 🙂

There are three reasons we never buy a plane ticket to go have fun in a new country. Continue reading

Weekend Fun – A Letter from Lola

March 20, 2017 / / 45 Comments

While this past weekend the weather was not as enjoyable as the previous one, Mark, Lola and I still had a nice time together. At least that’s what she told her loved ones in Mexico with the following letter. I couldn’t have phrased it better myself! 🙂

California Redwoods

“Hi mom and dad,

I hope you are having a good time in Mexico. While I miss you a lot, I am happy to have remained in my own comfy house. I can lay in my favorite spots, play with my favorite toys, stroll in my favorite yard, bark at my favorite deer, and each time we come back from a car ride or a walk, I am so happy to be home. Sometimes, I don’t even want to leave, because I like it here so much. Last week, when it was so warm, I lagged behind on walks and panted a lot. I can’t believe that these two drag me out into the hills every day! Well, it is kind of nice, but sometimes, I just want to nap.

Grabbing balls at the dog park

Continue reading

WW – Spring is in the Air

March 15, 2017 / / 37 Comments

It has been a while since I created a Wordless Wednesday post. Spring is arriving at our current two-month house sit in Sebastopol, Northern California and I am loving it. The blue sky, the warmer temperatures, the sweet blossoms and the colorful flowers… I never realized I loved the visual appearance of spring this much. Must be because we lived in the tropics, void of seasons, for a decade and, really, are not too fond of winter. Which is why we “moved” to California this fall. Compared to last year, when I posted a similar blog  in June and left for Belgium to experience spring, we have no complaints about the change of seasons this year! 🙂

Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Magnolia tree in the front yard
Lola smelling the flowers
Pinnacle Gulch Trail
Wildflowers along the trail

Has spring sprung yet where you live?

Discoveries around Costa Mesa, CA – 10 Things to See and Do

February 17, 2017 / / 27 Comments

For three weeks, Mark and I took care of a cute 7-month-old dog named Jaxx and a small apartment in Costa Mesa, California. I report on that sit here. We had never visited this area before and gladly drove the eight hours down from Northern California for some warmer, and hopefully sunnier, weather. Well, the weather was wishy-washy, but on the weekends and some late afternoons, we did our best to explore a few sites with our “happy go lucky” temporary pet. And, three times, the sun gloriously accompanied us with 70-degree weather (21°C). Here are the discoveries we made…

My personal discovery of one of Southern California’s missions

Continue reading

Fairfax, CA: January 14th – January 21st, 2017

January 27, 2017 / / 23 Comments

Since this was a short house sit, I am writing our experiences as a “Completed House Sit” post.

A couple of months ago, Mark and I came across this one-week house sit in Fairfax while living in Rocklin, CA. While the assignment was much shorter than we prefer, Fairfax is an attractive, up-scale town about an hour north of San Francisco, there were a cute dog and chickens involved and the owners happily selected us as their sitters. Then, about a month later, we received the devastating news that 10-year-old dog Xander had unexpectedly passed away (from the same symptoms as our dog Darwin in 2010). We were shocked about the sad event, but considered the impact and how we would feel if this had happened on our watch. It is the nightmare of every pet sitter! The owners still preferred our involvement, to take care of their seven chickens and have a presence in the house. We obliged.

These chickens are pretty and soft!

Continue reading

WW – Ambiance

January 18, 2017 / / 18 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “ambiance“.

I relate ambiance with a feeling of contentment and joy. Many times a wonderful ambiance is created when hanging out with friends, something we finally get to do more often these days. The first thing that came to my mind when discovering this week’s photo theme was a campfire. The crackling sound, the woodsy smell, the intense warmth, the constantly changing shape of the flames all create an ambiance I can wallow in for hours.

Check out Terri’s post about this topic on Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. You might recognize some of the characters… 🙂

What does ambiance mean to you?

Wordless Wednesday – Path

December 28, 2016 / / 27 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “path“.

This theme is very appropriate, because it is thanks to the paths we take that we are where we are today, physically and mentally. We live our lives and arrive at intersections. We stop. We think. We contemplate. Sometimes, there are multiple roads to pick from. Where do we go? Which direction do we choose? Which path do we take? Will we get lost?

Continue reading

Then and Now – Sunset

December 16, 2016 / / 27 Comments

I am sticking with my Friday “Then and Now” theme for a few more weeks, since I am having fun with it. I wonder whether these amazing and interesting skies would fit into Cee’s Odd Ball category for photography? While sunsets are beautiful, they do create some odd shapes and colors into the sky. 🙂

When you live on the water for eight years, there are numerous sunsets to enjoy. The best of them occur when there is a clear view of the horizon, in my opinion. In October, I posted one of my favorite sunset photos and here is another small selection of the – yes, you can believe it – hundreds of sunset photos I took or witnessed over the years.

Grenada, Caribbean – 2009-2011

Martinique, Caribbean  – 2010 Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – Magic

November 23, 2016 / / 17 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

I have archived thousands of photos over the years and can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “magic“.

During all the years we lived and sailed on our boat, Mark and I have experienced a lot of magical moments. Amazing sunsets, wildlife encounters and residing in blissful pieces of paradise are part of those. But, since I have been posting quite a few photographs of those topics in the past, I figured I’d share another magical part of nature: rainbows.

I have a hard time capturing a full, end-to-end rainbow in one photo, so here you have two sets of one of those magical paintings in the sky.

Full rainbow in the Caribbean Islands Continue reading

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