the turquoise trail

{new mexico} I crossed back into New Mexico in the late afternoon, too late to visit the tourist info centre & late enough to call it a night in the first town, Gallup.  I found a little asian restaurant for some well-cooked stir-fry, then found myself parking spot for a quiet night of Walmart camping.  Well, I think it was quiet - I was dead to the world thanks to the pain killers from the dentist... Welcome (back) to New Mexico!  As I was driving up to Albuquerque the next morning, the radio revealed that according to recent statistics, Gallup is the 15th most dangerous city for violent crime in the US.. fabulous.  It wasn't a place you'd choose to spend a lot of time, either way.   It was a couple hours from Gallup up to Albuquerque, where I headed to the old town district for a look around the historic square.  There was a wide selection of galleries and shops featuring native art, an old church & lots of adobe buildings with chile pep...

{texas cont'd} With mixed emotions, it was time to say my goodbyes in Houston and continue on with my trip.  I spent Friday night in Katy with Caitlyn & her family, where we stayed up wayyy too late sewing and chatting!  The next morning we all went out for brunch at a local cafe.  Through the course of conversation I mentioned that if Caitlyn wasn't up to anything she should just come to San Antonio with me.. so she did!  We went back to her place to quickly get her packed, then hit the road! We got into San Antonio mid-afternoon and went directly to the riverwalk to explore that area.  It's very quaint with lots of pretty little details; it was a busy day along the river but we enjoyed the sights regardless.  After a bit of a walk around, we decided to do the river cruise, which was a narrated half-hour ride along the canals. San Antonio Riverwalk Caitlyn made arrangements to meet some friends of hers for dinner, so after our river cruise we...

Hawaii; the big island I like to think of the big island of Hawaii as the rural island; it's raw, far less developed & has lots of wide open space (relative, of course.. you can still drive across the island in less than 2 hours..).  This is the island to come to if you like getting off the beaten track and nature is more your thing!  Some of my favourite things from a week on Hawaii.. {hiking} Kaumana Caves Park I did very little hiking during my stay on the big island.. the hiking I did do was mainly short sight-seeing type hikes.  Unfortunately, the Waipio Valley was closed due to a dengue fever outbreak, but I hear it has great hiking!  Kaumana Caves Park is just outside of Hilo and has a lava tube that you can follow for at least 1km!  It's really neat to see.. I'd recommend taking a light & coming back through the lava tube - the surface trail isn't well maintained or marked.  Green Sand beach is on the southern part of the island and...

I have to admit that I am definitely buying into the call of the mountains.. they are pretty tough to resist. I recently spent a few days exploring Banff, Lake Louise & Fernie with a friend, and it was absolutely incredible.  Seeing as there isn't too much snow this year, it was more of a sightseeing trip than anything. Here are some of the highlights..  {Lake Minnewanka} So gorgeous.  This view actually makes me speechless.  Something I found really interesting about this lake is that it develops bubbles in the ice which you can see as you are walking!  Nature is awesome. Lake Minnewanka {Wildlife} On our way to Lake Minnewanka, we were lucky enough to see a massive herd of elk!  It was my first time seeing elk outside of a zoo, so I was pretty excited.   Not very much further down the road, we also saw some mountain goats!  They were quite drawn to the salt on my cars tires, so we got really up close and personal with ...