Run DMZ

Several years ago a friend raved about a recent trip to a cooking school in Tuscany. She and 10 others stayed at this villa where you made and ate chef-instructed meals and took field trips in between. The setting was surreal, she said. The food, divine. Especially since every meal included fine wine. She wanted to go back with friends, so three of us made plans to go the following summer.   Then we didn’t go.   Let’s do this, I told my husband a few years later. He instead suggested we take one of those fancy train rides through the Canadian Rockies to celebrate a milestone anniversary. I looked into it and put down deposits, imagining views of Lake Louise and meals on wheels as the glass-ceiling train car rolled under canopies of aspens.   Then we didn’t go.   Booked a prized cabin in the middle of Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks so we could nestle among the ancient redwoods each night and explore beautiful lands each day. And, feeling adventurous, I paid in ad...

For my big birthday, my kids gave me an ebike that I ride when I can, which admittedly is not as often as I want. But I’m working out more than before the bike.  My husband gifted me an Apple Watch, having tired of me complaining about my old Fitbits and Garmins that never seemed to motivate me the way this thing does. Sure, there’s a ton of other functionality I use since my watch syncs to my iPhone. But the Fitness app is what gets me going every morning and sometimes well into the evening.  It’s easy to use: Just open the app on the watch; select the type of workout; and it counts down to start times. I haven’t used it long enough for the watch to know my actual calorie burn, but whatever I’m doing is working. Once done, I stop the timer and then wait for my “rings” to update. There are three:  --One recording specific movements that get the heart rate up  --One that logs at least 30 minutes of daily exercise  --One that reminds me to stand every hour  S...

Last weekend a small group of us ventured into Lake Calavera Preserve for a hike and were rewarded with an unexpected view of the remains of a volcano that blew its top about 22 million years ago -- well before my time. Only a portion of the original geological structure remains, but it’s a site to behold. Especially in Carlsbad, better known for beaches and Legoland.   In doing a little research, it appears the volcano’s remains are primarily basalt, which attracted miners back in the day and contributed to the hollow bowl we see now. (We debated if “caldera” is the correct term, but I didn’t run across any literature that called it that.) The basalt is actually what plugged up the volcano’s mouth millions of years ago and forced an eruption. Down below is Lake Calavera, which holds about 520 by 400 acres of water – or at least did. There was evidence the lake was low due to drought.   The Preserve itself is a network of mostly single-track trails easy to walk, if not always ...