Jalama Beach and Point Conception, California

This area feels like the edge of a map. The hike from Jalama Beach to Point Conception exposes this area as a true wilderness of empty bluffs and big surf. You know you are walking a section of coastline very few people reach. Point Conception, known as the Cape Horn of the Pacific Coast, is where the California coastline abruptly turns from north-south to east-west. This creates colliding wind patterns, strong upwelling and rough seas that have wrecked ships for centuries. This is the area where the Pacific's cold northern waters meet the warm southern waters. To the Chumash, Point Conception is Humqaq, the “Western Gate”. It is believed to be the departure point where souls leave this world and a boundary between physical and spiritual realms.

 

The sun washed, culinary city of Oaxaca, Mexico

Oaxaca City is a walkable, sun‑washed colonial city where Indigenous traditions and contemporary creativity meet in everyday life. Its historic center—anchored by the Santo Domingo complex and streets paved in green cantera stone—buzzes with markets, mezcalerías, galleries, and street food stalls serving memelas, tamales, and moles that define the region’s cuisine. The city is both relaxed and intensely alive: artisans selling textiles and pottery, musicians in the zócalo, and festivals that seem to erupt without warning. Surrounded by mountains and close to archaeological sites like Monte Albán, Oaxaca City feels intimate yet culturally immense, a place where history and craft are woven into the rhythm of daily life.

Mexico City Architecture and Arts

 

Mexico City’s architecture and arts are inseparable, creating a city where every block feels like a dialogue between eras. Pre‑Hispanic foundations sit beside colonial cathedrals, while modernist landmarks like the Museo de Antropología and the Torre Latinoamericana push the city’s identity forward. Artistic expression is built directly into the landscape, from the Art Nouveau–Art Deco fusion of the Palacio de Bellas Artes to the intimate, purpose‑designed murals and paintings of Rivera and Kahlo. Contemporary spaces such as Museo Jumex and the city’s vibrant design make Mexico City a living gallery shaped by centuries of creative experimentation. We based our stay in the Roma Norte neighborhood and averaged walking 10 miles/day to get to know the city. 

Teotihuacán and the Path along the Avenue of the Dead

The Pyramids of the Sun, Moon, and Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl) at Teotihuacán were built by the Teotihuacanos between roughly 100 and 450 CE, forming the ceremonial heart of one of the largest ancient cities in the Americas. Standing among them today feels expansive and atmospheric. The wide valley, steady wind, and massive stone structures create a sense of awe, mystery, and connection to the people who engineered this landscape nearly two millennia ago. Linking the monuments is the Avenue of the Dead with and its steep volcanic‑stone terraces. The high‑altitude light is sharp and clear, and the site feels vast and intentional. Standing high on the Pyramid of the Moon, you sense the precision and ambition of the ancient city’s builders, and the atmosphere blends awe, mystery, and a quiet connection to the people who shaped this landscape.

Devils Tower and my search for aliens

I believe I may have finally found those elusive aliens after circling Devils Tower in the dark of night. Beneath the Milky Way and those glorious night stars, I happened to catch the glimpse of lights emanating from the tower walls. Could it have been aliens? Maybe, and I have lived to tell the tale just like Richard Dryfus. To the Native Americans, Devils Tower is known as Bear Lodge and has long been a sacred place for over 20 American Indian tribes. The trees around Devils Tower are filled with hanging prayer bundles, and with each knot tightened, prayers are released into the wind.

We have strayed from the values of the men carved on this mountain

Visiting Mount Rushmore should have been an uplifting recital of the values our greatest presidents carved on this mountain believed in. Rather, it was a sober acknowledgement of how far this country has strayed from that which we should hold dear. Thomas Jefferson: “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Abraham Lincoln: “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.” Theodore Roosevelt: “We here in America, hold in our hands the hopes of the world, the fate of the coming years…”. George Washington: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people”. We are losing our history as the government now distorts or erases it. We are losing our right to free speech as the government crushes it. We are losing our right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the government crushes everything that is non-Christian, non-white, and non-heterosexual. We are losing our rights to freedom of choice. We are losing separation of church and state. We are losing trust in our government through the pounding of conspiracy theories and lies.

Wind Cave National Park and boxwork formation

 

Beneath the prairie in SW South Dakota, is one of the world’s most complex cave systems. Much of the cave system remains unmapped. The cave holds what is estimated to be 95% of all boxwork crystal formation found in caves around the world. The cave system is sacred to the Lakota Sioux, as they believe this is from where the bison emerged to roam the plains.