Category: travel
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I have found simplicity to be a useful lens in life. Simplifying my stuff has provided freedom, remove unnecessary friction, while enabling me to pursue what is important to me, aka what I consider a meaningful life. The following is a complete list of everything I own. This list might look minimalist to the average…
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I have always appreciated when people make a collection of tips, hints, or hacks which encapsulate lessons they have learned in short, pithy statements. I really enjoyed Kevin Kelly’s Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier and his more recent 50 years of travel hints. Glen Van Peski has numerous “Pro Tips”…
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This post has been extracted from my camino page because the most common question we have gotten from friends was about what we carried. They already knew something about the Camino itself and most wanted to understand how we managed to “go so light” for a trip in May (temps were 37-72F). If you want to…
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I have carried the Gossamer Gear Vagabond Trail more than 2500 miles over last few years for EDC, done in a day outdoor activities, and onebag travel which included walking 500 miles of the Camino Santiago Frances route from SJPP. Between Jan 2023 and March 2025 I lived out of a Vagabond Trail as we explored…
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TL;DR. If you are looking for a small, light, fast drying towel to use while backpacking or traveling, I recommend the PackTowel Ultralight which now seems to be discontinued. I found I can effectively dry my body with a 25″x35″ towel, but the body size lets me wrap the towel around my waist or be…
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For the next 2-3 years we will be traveling. partially to explore the world, partially to determine where we will spend the next season of our lives. We decided not to sell our home in Mountain View, but to rent it out given the high rent and that it seems like a good investment to…
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Trekking packs are similar to travel packs, but put more of an emphasis on carry comfort and typically optimizes the volume to weight ratio. Trekking packs are often a bit narrower than typical carry-on sized travel packs and taller than typical personal sized daypacks. Travel packs typically have an “urban vibe”, prioritizing organizational features, ease…
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The Camino de Santiago is an amazing experience for nearly everyone. For some, it’s a once in a life time experience. For others, it is repeated regularly, it’s part of their life’s rhythm. Almost all are touched by what is called the Camino spirit. This is the combination of kindness, curiosity, and openness without judgement…
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Contents1 TL;DR2 There is a “moving” tax3 There is a “new” tax4 Need “Recovery Time” from “Work”5 Workspace matters6 The Challenge of Community7 AirBNB Expectations8 Renting our Place Out While Nomading9 What I am Using (Minimalism)10 Entertainment11 Fitness12 Kitchen, Food13 Sleep14 The Story Continued TL;DR I became intrigued by the digital nomad lifestyle in the…
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If you listen to popular culture and the ads which “inform” us about acceptable conduction you would be inclined to believe that there are numerous specialized products and activities that we must engaged in for the sake of properness. I ran a series of experiments in the last fifteen years to see if these were…
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The following is a reference I use when selecting the next hiking or backpacking destination with a bias toward Northern California. I make it in 2002 and just now moving it from my old site so it is easier to fix broken links and add new places to try. Each year I say “This year…
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Updated December 2023 My packing list for trips than range from a few days to several months. Items “*” are optional. This list was extracted from my Packing & Traveling Light post. For a more complete description of these items see my gear for life. Packing list from 2023 Camino. If a trip includes camping as…
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You can get commercial information from NapaValley.COM. For years, I found The Best of the Wine Country to be a useful guidebook to the area, but it’s out of date now. Wine Wine is the first order of business. There are more than 400 wineries in the Napa valley, and more than 600 if you include Sonoma county.…
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Yosemite is arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have been then tens of times, and never tire of visiting the park. While the Valley floor can be crowded, it’s still worth visiting. For a first time visitor to Yosemite I would recommend staying in the valley if possible. Lodging options range…
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San Francisco is a beautiful, world class city. There are numerous museums, places of nature beautiful, great food, and well known tourist spots. You could easily spend several weeks exploring San Francisco and only scratch the surface. The SF City Pass can be a good deal. The greater SF bay area has more Michelin stars…
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Part of my visiting northern California series. I would recommend taking two days to explore the area around Monterey. If you had a lot of time you could make it a four day leg and continue down Route 1 to Hearst Castle / San Simeon, Morro Bay, San Louis Obispo, and then come back via…
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Monta Loma (MLN) is a great neighborhood which has a real community. Long before nextdoor, the community had a website, mailing list and later a wiki. We have block parties, a gardening group, CERT team, etc. There was (and maybe still is) a babysitting coop. MLN is located near many high tech employers like Google,…
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I tend to prefer mildly spicy food with complex combinations of tastes. Southwest, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Fusion, Californian, and especially Pacific Rim. I can enjoy classic French and Vietnamese, but the subtlety is sometimes lost on me. Great meals involve more than food. It also is about being with people I love and an atmosphere…
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I think most people are best served packing light, and using a carry-on size “travel pack” which is a cross between a backpack and soft-side luggage. Most travel packs are designed for urban use with an emphasis on ease of use, convenient access when at your lodging, fitting efficiently into carry on luggage compartments, and…
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I recommend clothing that can be comfortably worn day after day for a wide variety of activities while still looking good. When in the outdoors no one cares how you look, but in urban environments it can make a difference in how people treat you. When in doubt, dress up rather than down. My packing…