• Alaska,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places

    Denali By Bus: Part II

    Eventually the bus climbed around a pass and we came to a second stop, Polychrome Overlook. We had about 15 minutes to walk a short trail and take in the very scenic views. Several braided rivers were in the distance and all I wanted to do was get five days of food on my back and head off into the wilderness to explore! Honestly, the photos speak for themselves. Eliana looking a bit wistful. After our short foray at Polychrome we boarded the bus once again and it wasn’t long before we saw more bears!

  • Alaska,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places

    Denali By Bus: Part I

    To explore Denali beyond the Savage River you need to access the park system’s bus services. There are several options designed for various experiences, including guided tours and buses that just get to a destination. They are also various lengths as some buses only go to certain locations and turn around. The longest bus ride would be to the end of the Denali park road at Kantishna, some 90 miles down the road. We opted for a transit bus which its sole goal is to deliver visitors to certain destinations along the way. You can also get out at any location along the way as off-trail hiking is encouraged within…

  • Thoughts

    Life Lately | Late July 2020

    Thinking: Covid as per usual. And we’re 100 days from the election. All I’ve got to say is that I hope the aftermath isn’t a shitshow, either in that he’s out of office and doesn’t go off the rails for the few months until inauguration, or in that he doesn’t win. No winning. No winning. No winning. Because we are well and truly screwed if he does. I’m not really in the mood for a comprehensive write-out of what I think but here are a few items of note: AOC’s speech to Rep. Yoho the other day. The Poison of Male Incivility – RE: AOC and Yoho To Be a…

  • Outdoors

    Escape to the Beach

    Double rainbow over Galveston Bay A few weeks ago we talked ourselves out of going to the beach the Friday before my birthday. Not knowing what crowds would look like, it just made us nervous. That said, the beach was still calling. We decided to take a Wednesday off and go very early in the morning so we left the house at 6:30 and arrived at about 8:45. These last few years we’ve usually picked one of the public entrances on either side of Galveston Island State Park. I enjoy walking down the state park beach because it is a lot more wild and less maintained. Also, beach side entrance…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    San Bernard NWR Wrap-Up

    I thought I had enough photos for at least two more posts from our trip to San Bernard NWR but it looks like I only have a smattering of photos that don’t really congeal into a write-up about a specific trail. The rest of our time at SBNWR was spent popping in and out of an assortment of trails near the wildlife drive. These Swamp Rose Mallows, Hibiscus moscheutos were seen on the main road into the refuge as we crossed Cocklebur Slough. Climbing hempvine, Mikania scandens We ducked into the Bobcat Woods Trail as we waited for another family to leave the Wolfweed Wetlands area. A swampy view of…

  • Outdoors

    A Glimpse of Comet Neowise C/2020 F3

    Like many folks, we attempted to go and see Comet Neowise on its once every 6700 year fly by of Earth. Last Friday evening we drove out towards Waller and Hempstead and parked ourselves on the side of a narrow road adjacent to some cattle pastures. As dusk set in we listened to the coyotes come out as the cows mooed in the distance. It was a rather clear evening with some haze on the horizon to the west but most of the clouds dissipated as time went on. We stared at the sky from the back of the truck and saw nothing but stars. The Big Dipper came out…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    These Are The Days

    Back in March when the pandemic got going here Forest and I would have lunch in his treehouse. It was cooler then and much more doable. We’d eat lunch inside and then move to the back balcony to have a treat in our “treat spot” while we watched the turtles on the downed log in the pond. I honestly thought by May that we’d have transitioned him back to daycare and Chris and I would both be in the office full time. Oh, how naive we were! We haven’t had lunch in the treehouse in months, mostly because we’ve moved onto other things we do at lunch but it also…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Wildflowers

    Catchfly Prairie Gentian (Eustoma exaltatum)

    I initially wrote the title of this post as calling this particular species as Texas bluebell. But upon further digging my lumping of all Eustoma sp. together as a Texas bluebell seems to be the wrong way to go. There are three primary species in the US, Catchfly Prairie Gentian Eustoma exaltatum, Texas Bluebell Eustoma grandiflorum, and Showy Prairie Gentian Eustoma russellianum. But then you dig a little further and depending on which site you read, some of these turn into a subspecies of E. exaltatum and other people will use the common name Texas bluebells for them all—and well, maybe it doesn’t actually matter, because common names are common…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Wildflowers

    The Beauty of Asclepias linearis (Slim milkweed)

    This milkweed species has been on my radar to find since last year when I saw several folks post theirs for the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge. It is a more coastal species relegated to particular prairie habitats and of course, we had to seek those habitats out. When we went to San Bernard NWR last month I knew there was a great chance of seeing them there because there were several logged sightings on iNat. If all else failed and we couldn’t find a plant or two I would pull up the app and see if we could find one using that method. We lucked out by finding them in…

  • Thoughts

    Goodbye to my 30s…

    Last day of 29… Lady day of 39… My 30s were a ride. The first four years went smoothly enough but the next several were a rollercoaster. Having a kid and changing your life will do that, I suppose. I know that when I turned 30 everything seemed wide open for the decade. After having a rather adventurous 20s, from graduating college and moving to Florida and spending most of that time soaking in everything the state had to offer, my 30s were about winding all of that down and settling into life. I have spent plenty of this decade wistful for those years of my 20s. The mid and…