Storrier Stearns Japanese Gardens

I came to this country as a 5-year-old little girl with just my small suitcase...

I'm just a Chicago Gal experiencing the California Wildfires. First,it was the Sand Wildfire that began just weeks after we moved from Chicago to California. The Sand Wildfire was merely miles away from us.

Celebrating National Parks season kicks off this month in a variety of ways. Here is what you need to know about the when, where and how to celebrate our National Parks, Monuments and Forests.

Along one of the turns, we saw a crashed van pulling a boat on the side of the road where yellow caution tape was up. We all had our theories about what possibly could have happened. Did the van get too close to the edge? Did foul play happen because it looked like gunshots in the windows? We’ll never know. We pulled over by the lake for a picnic lunch and enjoyed the serene views. When we got to the dam, we stopped and marveled at the history of all that this land holds and tried to imagine riding this trail via stagecoach. It was an adventure even by car.

The Channel Islands have always been this alluring beacon to me to come explore....