We spent two days on the Beara Pennisula. It rained a lot. However, we did have a couple of wonderful hikes where the sun would break through and everything would sparkle. In search of standing rocks/stone circles we went on a couple of walks, one that included three stone circles and a wonderful view of the ocean past the last circle and a great mossy forest at the beginning of the trail. On the second day, we finally gave up and hiked up the side of a mountain along the coastal road. The way down included slipping and landed on a [View Full Entry]

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Our trip to Ireland was timed for a wedding to two friends of Fran's, however two days before the wedding date it was canceled. We took the non-bride to her home on Achill Island and took a day to explore this beautiful place. It rained the whole way there, however we had good conversation as we made our way up the coast. Even though Fran's friend was devastated, she was still wonderful to get to know and learn about all of her great community activism. We stayed with her at her parents home for the night and went hiking at Achill [View Full Entry]

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We took the ferry to Inishneer the smallest of the Aran Islands for a night and most of a day. Lots and lots of rock walls and a beautiful rocky coast line. We got there in time for a sunset and the last bowls of soup at the local pub. In the morning we got up for the sunrise at the castle ruins and later we wandered along the shore sitting out at least one of the showers in the ship wreck ruins featured in the introduction to "Father Ted". I recommend "Father Ted" if you are in the mood for [View Full Entry]

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What started as a rush across Galway to catch a bus (which we missed), turned into a perfect day of hitch hiking, great detours, amazing weather and enjoying a book and lunch by a picturesque river. After missing the bus we walked to the appropriate intersection for a ride toward Cong and were picked up by a ride who wanted to show us a church ruin which was off the main road and amazing. They took the time to show us around and explain the construction techniques since they were both masons. Since I have studied building codes, I found it [View Full Entry]

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Galway ended up being our home base for our time in Ireland. The original plan was to spend most of the first five days in Galway and then have a little more than a week to travel. However the cancellation of the wedding (the reason for the timing of the trip) caused us to re-arrange the trip to be able to be around and fit Fran's friends' schedules which had just had a life altering event. This included two day trips to Connemara for hiking. One was a typical combination of rain, mist and a little sun and the second was [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Utah I headed toward Colorado where I had originally planned to spend to spend 3-5 days, however it turned out to be only two days. Once again I got there just in time for a snow storm. My original goals were to spend a day at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and then to spend a couple of days hiking, camping and driving the area with several 14,000 foot mountains and end with a day or two in the Eleven Mile Canyon near Colorado Springs. Each of these places has great memories from a cross country road trip [View Full Entry]

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I had about a week in Utah to visit a friend in Salt Lake City and to visit the some of the National and State Parks. Once again my decisions of where to go were some what based on having dogs, what the temperature would be and if dogs were allowed on trails. I started with Bryce Canyon, which had a high in the low 60s, which made it possible for the dogs to hang out in the car, in the shade while I went on some wonderful hikes. It was my first nights camping by myself and it was wonderful [View Full Entry]

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After a day and a half in San Francisco, I picked up my brother, Craig from the San Francisco airport so that he could join me in a week of my road trip and then fly out of Salt Lake City seven days later. We spent two days driving up the California coast and stopped and hiked in the Redwoods, amazing. We then spent two nights camping on the southern coast edge of Oregon where we hiked on the rocks, got caught in fast moving sand and watched sea otters at play. (If there is a next life, I want to [View Full Entry]

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My road trip started with a lots of driving with 30 hours to Phoenix in two days. The reasoning was that I had two friends who flew to Phoenix to meet me for five days of camping and hiking in the Sedona area. These friends Betty and Michelle were wonderful travel partners and very tolerate of somebody traveling with two dogs.. We hiked each day for 2-4 hours, enjoyed our camp site by the river, they tolerated my premade frozen food, which was then thawed by my camp stove and sleeping in a tent with two dogs. We finished the trip [View Full Entry]

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This was the third time I have been to Brazil and this trip was focused on hanging out with my dear friends Berti and Miguel. I was able to finally have time to relax, read and walk in the beautiful surroundings of Rio de Janeiro. We had a rainy beach weekend at the Oyster River which is a beach a couple hours north of Rio. Instead of days on the beach we had fun playing cards in our room and walking the rocks on the beach. We also went to Tiredentes in the mountains west of Rio for Easter weekend. Tiredentes [View Full Entry]

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