Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.
Every spring, the hills above Carlsbad in North San Diego County erupt into one of the most breathtaking seasonal displays anywhere in California. Sandy and I had been wanting to visit the Carlsbad Flower Fields for years — finally, this spring we made it happen during our California coast travels, and it was worth every mile of the drive north from San Diego.
Last Updated: July 31, 2026
So much of travel moves at a pace set by logistics — the next destination, the checkout time, the reservation that can’t be changed. The Sonoran Desert has a way of overruling all of that. You slow to three-quarter time whether you intend to or not, because the things worth seeing here don’t reveal themselves to anyone moving too fast. The cactus wren sitting three feet away on a saguaro arm. The bobcat stretched out in a patch of morning sun. The Costa’s hummingbird hovering in front of a blooming aloe, iridescent purple gorget catching the light. You have to be moving at the desert’s pace to see any of it. Continuing our spring stay at Western Way RV Resort near Tucson Mountain Park, we had two more weeks to let the desert set the tempo — with a day trip south to the artist colony at Tubac and daily visits to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum thrown in. Jake set the pace each morning, and it was always exactly right.
Last Updated: July 31, 2026
Spring is the Sonoran Desert at its absolute best — wildflowers carpeting the desert floor, saguaros preparing to bloom, hummingbirds working every flowering shrub, and evenings that turn the western sky a deep molten orange behind the Tucson Mountains. We drove in from the west in April 2021, stopping overnight in Gila Bend before continuing to our favorite base camp on the west side of Tucson near Saguaro National Park West and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We needed some minor repairs done on the RV — this was our third stay at Western Way RV Resort — and once the work was sorted, we spent two weeks photographing wildflowers, raptors, woodpeckers, numerous species of hummingbirds, and the kind of sunsets that make you understand why people choose to live in Tucson. Jake was entirely in his element.
Last Updated: July 31, 2026
Winter can be a beautiful transition from fall colors with warm days and cool nights to snow and a winter wonderland. Seems like our yearly migrations take us up to Canada in the summer, experience fall foliage as we make our way back south, spend the winters as far south as we can go, then make our way back north every spring. This is our fifth migration in the motorhome. We enjoy experiencing the USA and have put on an incredible number of miles.
Last Updated: July 31, 2026
Holidays for us have always been about visiting and celebrating with family and friends. Life on the road made that complicated — most of our immediate family live in cold winter climates that aren’t practical for a motorhome visit — and during COVID, seeing anyone wasn’t a good idea regardless. We have a property in San Diego that had been rented for years and was in serious need of some TLC, so we settled into social isolation there through December 2020, working through a long list of repairs and medical appointments while trying to make something warm and festive out of a very strange holiday season.
Last Updated: July 31, 2026
Desert bighorn sheep are one of the most thrilling wildlife encounters in the American Southwest. Found throughout rugged canyon country from western North America to northern Mexico and Baja California, these remarkable animals have evolved to thrive in terrain that seems almost impossibly steep. We love photographing them because they occupy dramatic rocky ledges with sweeping desert backdrops, are surprisingly tolerant of patient observers with long lenses, and their massive curling horns make for extraordinary portraits. Zion National Park in southwestern Utah is one of the best places in the country to find them — and on this January 2021 visit, we had an encounter we will never forget.
