Travel

I’ve been visiting San Jose since the mid-1970s.  My first stop there was when a friend dropped me off at the airport after we drove from Eugene, Oregon. I was headed to San Diego to see my parents and that drive cut my trip in...

Two nights at Miracle Springs Resort and Spa in Desert Hot Springs, as it has in the past, offered a relaxing, quiet spot in the center of Palm Desert that served as home base as we branched out across the desert floor.  Breakfast at the...

On day two of our two-week road trip, my wife Sarah and I said goodbye to Bakersfield and drove southeast on Hwy 58 toward the Mohave Desert.  We were greeted with fierce rain as we climbed Tehachapi Pass on Highway 58. Our interest in taking...

Thanksgiving this year included a 2,575-mile road trip, 21 relatives, two states, eight motels and a wide array of restaurants, both great and not so great. My wife Sarah and I left Watsonville on Highway 129 to Highway 152 in Gilroy for breakfast in Casa...

Since I was born in Columbia in the Sierra foothills, I’ve returned there a number of times to soak in some of the history and get a deeper understanding of California’s Mother Lode. Heading east of Modesto along Highway 49 my interest spikes as the...

This is the third and final installment of travel writer Tarmo Hannula's account of his trip to Petaluma. Click here for part 1 and here for part 2. As we steered south from Cotati and rolled back through  Petaluma, my wife, Sarah, and I still...

On the second day of an overnight journey to Petaluma at the top of the north San Francisco Bay Area, the Best Western Motel helped start our day with a waffle breakfast, good coffee and OJ.  Wandering through the older part of downtown Petaluma the...

It’s refreshing and sometimes surprising how much you can fit into an overnight road trip.  That was certainly the case when my wife Sarah and I drove to Petaluma for the night last month. Just going through San Francisco—as long as you're not in a...

After arriving in San Diego in 1969, my family moved into a  small house in Pacific Beach (PB) and I and my three siblings signed up in public schools.  Having lived the past two years on Guam—a 32-by-6 mile island in the South Pacific—taking on...

A trip to Las Vegas typically calls for a long walk along the Las Vegas Strip for great entertainment and, in my case, delicious food. This past weekend my fiancée, Luisa, and I made the seven-hour trek to Sin City in search of some...