The Best of the Best!

The pictures I picked for the home page are some of my favorites from special places along my travels. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The first one is from the Valley of Fire State Park in Arizona. My sister and I were driving from Vegas to Zion National Park for a half marathon. I was in charge of the directions, which means we were in for some good detours. In researching I found the Valley of Fire State Park.

As soon as I saw the pictures, I knew we had to find a way to stop. This was one of the last pictures we took that day before heading to Zion. I saw plenty of red rocks on that trip, but these caught us both off guard!

The picture of Half Dome was taken in 2017 on my solo hiking trip in Yosemite. I decided to climb to Clouds Rest. It was higher but looked like it would play to my fear of heights better than the cables on Half Dome. I was mostly right. The last 50 feet were on the edge, but it was worth it! This was the first time I had climbed to any point. Specifically my first “it has to be around the corner” experience- that went on for hours.

I made it! And was rewarded with the greatest view. If you look in the distance of the picture you can see smoke from the wildfires that were in the area that summer.

In the summer of 2019 I took a trip to the East Coast to practice some solo traveling. I had hiking planned at the beginning and the end of the trip. In the middle I parked the car and took the ferry into New York City. I was the only tourist headed in from New Jersey that afternoon. I read the schedule wrong and expected an afternoon ferry that only ran on Friday. That didn’t help me on a Monday… The only option was to take a ferry 2 hours later.

I don’t schedule much when I travel, but that night I had a ticket to see Serena Williams kick off the US Open. I needed to jump on the ferry, get to Penn Station, take the train to Queens, check into the hotel and then jump on the subway to Flushing. I would have liked the 2 extra hours.

In the rush of all that, it was hard to overlook the amazing view from the ferry. You can see the reflection from the window in the picture, which for me, represents the speed of the day.

The last picture I picked is one of my favorite places. For years my Mom and I would travel to New Jersey in the summer to visit family and spend a week at the beach in Manasquan. This beach is almost always quiet, but particularly in the morning. I can feel the sun and hear the waves just by looking at the picture because there is something amazing about sitting next to the ocean. I’m happy to have this little part of it!