Adventure of the month

You know how you can tell that you have waited way too long to post a trip on your reportedly monthly travel blog? For me, it is generally when I have a hard time remembering all the details of the trip itself.  I'm terrible with numbers so I never have any expectation of recalling significant dates but when I have to run to google for the most basic details- names of museums, why I found it important to photograph a certain monument, who is that in the photo with me? This is when I know I might be a procrastinator.  At this very moment, it is December 2018. This is going to show up as a June entry bc that's the premise here but know that it's a lie.  It is the end of the year and I am doing last minute blog housekeeping lest I have to change the title to Adventure of the Year. So, back in June, I was kicking off my latest undertaking. Specifically, I am now the proud owner of a National Parks Passport and intend on getting as many stamps as possible. My unlik...

What do you get when you combine an extended stay in Los Angeles, a day that is supposed to be rainy but turns out to be quite nice, a mostly chilled out group of people (one of whom has what can be most generously described as having a slight Groupon addiction) and some very cooperative marine life? An excellent day of whale watching, that's what.  Or not.  I am not making any promises since I am not sure that this formula can ever be precisely duplicated. Assuming you keep good company, getting the group together and rooting out the discounted deals is easy (just google Groupon or Living Social and whatever city you happen to be in and you will find lots of things to keep the tourist with time on her hands busy).  Getting both Mother Nature and the elusive denizens of the Pacific Ocean to play along is another story altogether.

You ever get that feeling that you have seen everything there is to see in a particular destination? Perhaps you have been there a number of times or maybe the last time you were there, you were particularly active on the sightseeing front. For whatever reason, finding new ways to fill a day have become increasingly difficult. Los Angeles is one of those places for me. It is a city that I really enjoy and always look forward to visiting, but a recent 5 day stay had me scrambling to find new things to add to my itinerary (as opposed to just repeating the same old haunts from prior visits). Some googling led me to a place I think I may have visited as a child, but since clearly I don’t have a whole lot of recall on the matter, I decided to treat it as something new. It was in this quest for novelty that I planned an outing to the La Brea Tar Pits.