A COVID Day Trip to Renton WA

This weekend, as we have several other weekends, in one of our more frequent COVID activities we headed to a community we had not visited yet, Renton WA.  Renton is a bit of a drive from Seattle, perhaps 25 min south on I5.

What brought us down this weekend was to visit the gravesite and memorial of Jimi Hendrix. An interesting spot to walk around on this rainy weekend afternoon.

The cemetery where Jimi is buried has some elements that we have not seen before, including a large section that is heavily Asian design influenced. This made sense when we learned that Renton has over 25% of the population who identify as Asian/ Pacific Islander. 

Taking advantage of the cultural influence we had Sushi Rolls for lunch (Take out that we ate in our car parked in a slightly wooded parking area).

We drove around the commercial areas for a bit, spotted a sonic, and stoped in for some happy hour drinks before heading home.

In terms of COVID safety, the adventure was a success, We had only brief (less than 3 min) encounters with people while getting our food & sonic.

It was good to get out of our apartment and neighborhood and enjoyed the chance to see some Washington history & learn a bit more about our neighboring city of Renton.

Wonder filled Washington walk in West Seattle

 With COVID continuing to be part of our lives and looking to discover new parts of the new home we ventured to West Seattle to wander, walk and discover.

While we have heard about the beach town vibe and fun by Aliki beach we opted for something that we hoped would give us more social distancing.

The first stop was a Mexican food truck to get to-go for lunch. Taquito Feliz was excellent. Good outdoor ordering, with social distancing, ample hand sanitizer, and the staff was all wearing masks. The food was on point, I had a quesadilla and my partner had a combination taco plate.

We found parking just a block away from the taco truck (co-located with the 76 gas station) and were quickly able to jump on the Lincoln Park trail system heading down a large number of earthen stairs to arrive at the waterfront.

The waterfront has a good number of benches and picnic tables, we were easily able to secure a bench overlooking the beach to enjoy our lunch. The bonus was that the park has many trash cans that we could put our trash in when we were done!

We easily sat and enjoyed the sounds of the waves, birds, and people walking their dogs for over an hour before we continued our journey, walking along the waterfront and taking a more gradual path back up the hill to our car.

Self wellness has been a focus of mine since May 2020. Over the past few months, I have been trying to determine if we could get a massage and still mind COVID safety. After a few google searches, I was able to find a spa that was offering patio (outdoor), masks on, chair massages. I booked those for our weekend west Seattle day. After we left Lincoln park we drove about 10min over to the Seaview neighborhood.

The 30min chair massage was relaxing, I felt COVID safe being outdoors and enjoyed the unique experience of relaxing while hearing the sounds of the city, with a combination of essential oils and that light drizzle Seattle smell rounding out my senses. 

After my 30min chair massage, it was my partner's turn. I explored the neighborhood around the spa, starting with a chai latte from the coffee shop down the street, window shopped the local bookseller, and did a few blocks of neighborhood walking, bringing me back to the patio of the spa to round out my 30min.

Verdict: West Seattle is a great place to explore while keeping COVID safety in mind. I fully expect that we will venture back to check out other communities across this large portion of the city.

Exploring Seattle Neighborhoods - Ballard

While COVID continues to redefine my world I took an opportunity to explore the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.

Ballard has a nice downtown area with restaurants, shops, and bars. None of those met my vision of a COVID safe exploration. 

Looking at the health streets map, I discovered that 17th street is closed starting just a few blocks north of Marke Street.

Walking north on 17th I made my way up to 70th where I took a right and went 3 blocks (West) to Salmon Bay Park.

You could easily spend a few hours in this park playing on the playground, picnicking on blankets, or enjoying some outdoor Yoga.

From the park I headed down 21st street back towards Market street, winding my way over to the health street to finish my loop.

It was an effervescent afternoon exploring a new part of  Seattle, safely outdoors, masked and distant from others.

Adventure to suburban parks

Urban living is wonderful for so many reasons. As we are three months into COVID19 I have found myself interested in a slice of suburban life.

Today I had the chance to spend a very pleasant hour and a half exploring the William Ives Trail and Meridian Neighborhood Park.



This slice of nature set between suburban neighborhoods has the suburban quiet, a steady set of walkers, well-behaved dogs, and youth on bicycles roaming along the unpaved paths.

Its a journey from Seattle (45min + one way) but the change in pace is a nice variety to days in the city.

In addition to the walking trails, the park has a nice playground area(not accessible), a large field, and a pavilion with picnic tables to round out your park visit.

Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery

In 2019 I had a chance to visit Anahuac NWR. With COVID-19 driving many of us to seek out activities that can be done safely with social distancing during the COVID pandemic. 

The Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery part of Anahuac NWR is a bit odd, its tucked many miles from the main visitor infrastructure but it has some great short trails to get you into the lowlands where the gulf of Mexico and the State of Texas blend together.

The first parking area will put you at the live oak trailhead. The area is well paved, easy for my sedan to navigate. Its buggy, I suggest you bring your bug spray. The total length of the trail is less than 1/2 a mile and you will move across a diverse set of landscapes ending at a waterway where you can feel far away from everything.

The second parking area you will come across puts you at the Rookery trial head. This trail is better developed (Fewer bugs), longer perhaps 1- mile with an equally diverse set of landscapes, ending at a large field that is half marsh, half solid land. This trail is a birding dreamscape. We saw a couple out looking for a few feathered friends who were on their trips back north.

I think that I most enjoyed was the water crossing at the very start of the trail, so many fish, birds, and turtles to be seen. We easily lingered for 30 min spotting these animals as they enjoyed the warm sun and cooler water.

We coupled our trip to this part of the refuge with an afternoon on Bolivar flying kits and enjoying the gulf.

The total trip from downtown Houston and back was 9 hours. A great chance to get out of the city for the day.

Fort Boggy State Park Cabins

Cabin 1

Cabin 5

Cabin 4

Cabin 3

Cabin 2

Had the chance to introduce my brother and sister - in - law to the joys of staying at Texas State Parks. As they are not big outdoors people the cabins at Fort Boggy State Park were the perfect location.

The park has recently redone the cabins and the information that I could find online was limited. But after an awesome weekend of fishing, campfires and board games on the screened-in porches I would say that the best to least best for the cabins are 4, 3, 5, 1, 2.

The park itself is fairly limited, not many hiking trails, the lake is small and the bathroom options are clean but limited.

The cabins are incredible with AC, fridge, beds, screened and unscreened porches with ceiling fans and each has a picnic table and fire pit. Really ideal if you want to relax and enjoy slowing down & being in the forest.

Weekend in Lubbock Texas

We have been living in Lubbock Texas just shy of a year now and sometime folks say they would like to come visit us. I have been brainstorming on what I would suggest as the best weekend itinerary for a visitor.

Travel Time: Really anytime during the year with the exception of July and August when its unbearably hot.

the weekend that includes the First Friday of the month

Arrive on Friday: Preston Smith International Airport is incredibly easy to fly into. You will need to  rent a car.

Where to stay: Many great choices, a few that I suggest is the Overton by Texas Tech, The MCM Elegante and the Arbor hotel.

Evening Activity and Dinner: The first Friday of every month LHUCA offers an art trail. Starts at 6pm with a free trolly to all the activities.  Check out all the galleries around the LHUCA building than hop the trolly over to Giorgios Pizza for a slice, a salad and of course a sweet tea before jumping back on the trolly for another round of galleries. The event last until 9pm. The art scene in Lubbock is young, exciting and well priced. I would plan on brining home a few new pieces for your collection.

Saturday: Start your morning off right with a coffee at JB's coffee and than head over to Montolongos for breakfast. After breakfast I suggest a stroll around Texas Tech. The university is really the heart of our community and visitors should see it. Lunch at Freshii followed by some custard at Sheridan. For some it might be nap time, others might want to check out Hesters Used Books, visit the silent wings museum, play a round of golf or go jumping at our altitude trampoline park. Your evening plans are to head to Stars and Stripes Drive in for a movie. They have a full kitchen, this is a drive in like you have not seen since 1970.

Sunday: up early, swing by a stripes for some breakfast tacos and hit the road for a two hour drive to Paulo Duro Canyon. You will want to spend several hours hiking and exploring this park, so plan to fly out of Lubbock in the evening.

Come check out the friendliest city in america. We love visitors.

Weekend Trip to Chicago - Christmas Time

Christmas Time in Chicago is lots of fun. It is also lots of cold. Indoor activities are really spectacular. While living in Longview TX, I traveled to Chicago for a long weekend to spend some quality time with some extended family.

An uncle of mine is was excited to visit the Driehaus Museum, and it being cold and me being interested in being indoors went along to see what the house had to offer.

Just stunning. Not something that is a top place to visit on any travel site but the home was perfect in every detail from the holiday decorations,

to the woodwork within the home 

and of course the highlight of the Tiffany glass every where you turned.

Port Aransas - Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is not close to Longview/ Kilgore. In fact you would have approximately a 6 hour drive. But as a Minnesotan its much closer than I was as a child. This past Easter I went down and spent a long weekend exploring Mustang Island State Park at Port Aransas.

White sand and blue water made the gray skies fade from observation.  The city has things to offer but I would suggest that you plan to spend the vast majority of your time on the beach. A state park, national seashore and local parks give you lots of choice of where you can spend your days.

From Longview you can drive down on a Friday and get there with time to see the gulf before finding dinner. Saturday and Sunday can be spent enjoying the sand, dips in the gulf and adventures in the dunes. Monday you drive back and have time to unpack and do laundry before bed. Back to work by Tuesday with a lightness that only comes from the ocean.