Day 3 of my Solo Oregon Adventure

Today I drove 3 hours from Coos Bay, Oregon to Crescent City, California where my Airbnb is located for this evening.  My stops included Bandon Beach, Port Orford (I hiked 1.2 mi), Arch Rock State Park, Secret beach (hiked 1 … Continue reading

Day 2 of my Solo Oregon Adventure

Today, I drove 4 hours from Lincoln City, Oregon to Coos Bay, where my Airbnb is for this evening.  My stops included Depot Bay, Devil’s Punchbowl, Seal Rock, Cape Perpetua, Thor’s Well, Heceta lighthouse, Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, and Shore … Continue reading

Best shoes for seniors with feet problems

I’m officially a senior at 65 years old. If you’re like me, you probably have foot pain. The other day I had an MRI of my left foot because there’s a knot in the arch, it could be plantar fasciitis. … Continue reading

Biking, hiking, and Salsa dancing

A friend and I decided to take our e-bikes to the Little Miami bike trail on Wednesday. The weather was perfect! We rode 18 miles total. Our turnaround point was Loveland, Ohio where we celebrated his birthday. We each had … Continue reading

Hawk’s Nest Rail trail in Hawks Nest State Park, West Virginia

On our final day of the road trip, we hiked almost 4 mi on the Hawk’s Nest rail trail. It was a lovely mostly flat trail alongside a creek that had lots of waterfalls. At the turnaround point there was … Continue reading

Grandview National Park, Babcock State Park, and New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia

On Wednesday we drove two and a half hours from Westfield, North Carolina to Grandview National Park in West Virginia. We hiked the 1 mi Castle Rock loop trail. The views were outstanding! Next, we made a stop at Babcock … Continue reading

Airbnb Experience: Sights, smells and tastes of Puebla on two wheels

Yesterday’s Airbnb experience: Sights, smells and tastes of Puebla on two wheels was okay. There were four other people on the tour, grandparents with a 12 and 9-year-old. The bicycles were a bit wobbly, with no gears, and initially there was a lot of time spent adjusting the seats for the children and also myself. My seat wasn’t able to be adjusted high enough. The two tour leaders were very accommodating and sweet. The pedal came off of one of the participant’s bicycle, photo below.

We made a number of food/drink stops. I wasn’t feeling well, Montezuma’s revenge, ugh, so I ate part of each meal. I forgot to take photos of the last two food stops, one of which was churros. I had them make it “to go” for me and had it for dinner.

A few of the sites we saw…

The walk back to my Airbnb, after the tour ended, was only 7 minutes. I took a 3 hour nap. I’m feeling about the same today, I have some Cipro at the Airbnb in Mexico City so I will take it when I get back today.

Museum Day at Bosque de Chapultepec

Bosque de Chapultepec is a 1700 acre park that contains nine museums, a castle, amusement parks, winding paths, commemorative sculptures, lakes and fountains. It’s considered the first and most important of Mexico City’s “lungs”, with trees that replenish oxygen to the Valley of Mexico.

The weather turned cooler and cloudy today so I thought it would be a great day to go to three of the museums in the park. I walked almost 2 miles to Museo de Arte Moderno. I really enjoyed exploring this museum.

Next I walked 5 minutes to the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo. Luckily it was free for seniors, since there wasn’t that much to see and it was just okay.

My sentiments about the museum… taken inside 🙂

The Museo Nacional de Antropologia was another 5-minute walk. This place is amazing, it’s on par with the museums in Washington D.C. and it’s only $5.

After walking my legs off, I stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch/ early dinner. All together I walked over 7 mi. There’s still more for me to see at the Bosque de Chapultepec.

Solo trip to Mexico City for a month

I’ll be visiting this amazing place called Tolantongo

I’m sitting in the JFK airport waiting for my flight to Mexico City. My original flight was to connect in Dallas and I would have arrived at 4:00 p.m. to Mexico City but it was canceled right before leaving for the airport because of ice storms in Dallas. I booked this flight that has a 5-hour layover and arrives at 12:15 a.m. My Airbnb is located in one of the nicest areas of the city, Condesa.

I’ll have 27 days to explore the largest city in the western hemisphere. I prepared an itinerary with places I will visit, listed below.

Bosque de Chapultepec

Museo Soumaya…America’s Park…Polanco… Parque Lincoln

Basílica de Guadalupe

Parque de la Bombilla…Plaza del Carmen…Casa del Obispo Galeria de Arte Popular…Parroquia San Jacinto…Atrio de la Parroquia San Jacinto…Bazaar Saturday

Alameda Central Park…The House of Tiles…Mirador Torre Latino…Museo de Arte…Palacio de Bellas Artes

Murales de la Secretaria de Educacion Publica…Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico…Zocalo

Parque Mexico…Plaza Luis Cabrera…Parque Espana

Fuente de Cibeles…Plaza Rio de Janeiro…Museum of the Object… Juarez neighborhood

I’m signed up to do a couple of Airbnb experiences: Waters of Tolantongo, and a 5-hour bike riding tour. There’s also a hiking experience and a canal boat experience that I most likely will purchase. I’m also hoping to spend a couple of nights in the beautiful town of San Miguel de Allente.

I joined a couple of meetup.com groups, so I plan on meeting some locals. It should be an amazing trip!

Pure Michigan Road Trip and Sleeping Bear Dunes

The morning of August 31, 2022, I left home (Northern Kentucky) and drove 7 and 1/2 hours to an Airbnb in Traverse City. I had three days to explore Traverse City and the surrounding areas. I stayed with a couple who have a beautiful view of Michigan Lake from their deck. They were very helpful giving me tips to tweak my itinerary. One of my followers Phil (and I follow his beautiful blog https://philperkins.photography/ ) was very helpful with ideas of where to visit on my Michigan trip.

The following day I left early, drove to Suttons Bay, and took a few photos.

The weather was perfect.

Then I drove to Good Harbor Bay Beach.

My next stop was Glen Arbor, where I had breakfast before driving to Empire Bluff Trail.

The trail is two miles round-trip and there’s a gorgeous view of Lake Michigan and Sleeping Bear Dunes.

My next stop was Mission Point Lighthouse.

On the way back to my lodging I stopped at Mari Vineyards for a glass of wine. There are lots of wineries to choose from. I drove a little over three hours total. There wasn’t much traffic and the scenery was beautiful.

I was surprised by how pretty Michigan is and how Caribbean blue the water is.