Tweet Think Bamboo ~ and what comes to your mind?  For me,  it’s peace and tranquility.   The sound of bamboo wind chimes outside my home office window soothes my spirit on any given breezy day.   A lush bamboo forest we had visited while on vacation in the island of Oahu was filled with
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The holiday rush is on and sometimes, year end activities can find us all in some sort of frenzy, or two. Welcome to my life which I wouldn’t have any other way. In times like these, my body has a preferred way to tell me when to inhale and take a deep breath. Hello singular zit-sensation-right-smack-by-my-nose-that-lasts-two-weeks! Ugh.

The morning was over and we had conquered our fear of heights. Now, we were going on a sightseeing tour of the island. There was nothing to fear about. We shall find out!

The East End Tour began at the Tour Plaza where we boarded our open, canopy-covered vehicle, good for 12 people. The open Hummer that we were expecting to ride was out on maintenance service.

Tweet Years ago, a trip to the Hunter Valley meant a couple of hours drive north of Sydney, some wine tastings in a few vineyards, lunch, then another 2 hours drive back home with one, two or three cases of Shiraz in your car. These days, there is more to the Hunter Valley than just
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We had been preparing for this day – with two adventurous activities scheduled, we were psyching ourselves that we could do these. The first on the agenda was the Zipline Eco Tour. My friend – Jaye, and I, both have a fear of heights. But, I was daring myself to do this and I had to encourage Jaye to join me to do it, too.

Tweet Editor’s note:  Our guest poster is traveling the world on an indefinite sabbatical and fulfilling a dream.  He graciously agreed to share some of his jaunts with us.  ”He” adds a fresh look at the world, from the eyes of someone discovering nooks and crannies of the globe, with a camera and a journal.
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After all these years of being a California resident, I was finally going to visit Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, which is just 22 miles away from the Los Angeles and Orange County coast line. Also referred to as Catalina Island, it is a rocky-mountain island located south west of Los Angeles. It is part of the Channel Islands of California, one of eight, that falls under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County. With a population of close to 4000, it is administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy. It remains to be privately owned by the Wrigley family.

It is amazing how certain songs, smells, sounds, and places can transport you to a place you may or may not have been in before. One such place is the Strand Arcade, Sydney. I imagine myself getting ready to go shopping in the newest city mall. Choosing to dress in my Sunday best – hat included, I catch a tram into town to see what all the hype is about and to see for myself the electric lights – one of the first malls in Sydney to be lit by electricity – in this much-talked about modern, four-storey shoppers’ paradise. The year – 1892.

Tweet Perched atop San Francisco’s beautiful Nob Hill, the Huntington Hotel overlooks charming Huntington Park, stately Grace Cathedral and the city skyline, as San Francisco’s iconic cable cars glide past the front of the hotel. San Fransicso’s Nob Hill has always been home to the rich and famous.  As the city grew and changed throughout
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The Rosewood Sand Hill is located off a lovely drive on Highway 280 in Menlo Park.  If you come here and check yourself in on Facebook Places, you’ll quickly notice one thing.  There are about a dozen venture capital companies in close proximity.  From that, I surmised that this property is a default location  for brilliant minds to ‘get away from the grind’.  And why not, it’s tranquil here,