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The morning of my first-ever trip to Bryce Canyon National Park, one of my many bucket-list level destinations, Wes and I had a terse conversation. We were driving, and interspersed with us talking was Google Maps’ crisp robot female voice instructing us to take this exit, that right, a left in a quarter mile. Our…

I have had many thoughts ricocheting around in my brain that I’ve wanted to share this week. Now that I’ve officially given myself the go-ahead to blog again, the inspiration just keeps coming. Which explains why when I sat my tanned-and-sun-giddy self down at my laptop in the lovely air conditioning of the mobile studio…

I had a silent adult temper tantrum last night just before bed. I’d pondered leaving to go pick up a plunger and drain snake to deal with the clogged shower drain. But I knew troubleshooting at that late, hot, tired hour was a bad move. If anything went awry (and doesn’t it always?) I was…

In Wenatchee, Stef and I had a choice. The table outside, in the sun? Or the table inside? I wanted the sun, but grudgingly went along with the more responsible choice. We’d already spent the whole morning hiking under the blazing blue sky and all the sunscreen in the world couldn’t prevent some level of…

In 2011 I would tell anyone that’d listen that I was moving to Reno, Nevada “for true love”. I said it with conviction, but also anxiety. I was leaving my chosen home of Anchorage, Alaska, my first real job, and a wonderful community of friends to give a relationship a go. Even sharing that now,…

Every day here in still-new-to-me southern Utah I feel a little dazed. Do I really need to drink this much water to survive? Is that red rock fake, or is that truly its glowing color? How does this one city have so much ice cream (not complaining)? After years of painting mostly snow and the…

Good friends have the uncanny ability to state the obvious. For those of us who consider ourselves fairly in tune with who we are (raises hand), these kinds of observations can be jarring, in ways both good and bad. On a casual walk earlier and many degrees northwest/cooler ago this spring, my good friend said…

In the beginning of the trek south, I imagined pieces of writing in outdoors-column sized blips. “I want to write about learning to embrace a road trip as a means of being outside,” I announced to my husband, “even as someone who, apparently, doesn’t really like driving.” “What do you think about ‘how to exercise…

I turned to Wes somewhere in southern British Columbia, as our truck bounced and pushed us along yet another stretch of highway along too many miles to count, valiantly hauling all 5,000 lbs of Mobile Art Studio in its wake. “This trip has had an overarching feeling of unease.”  He considered it, and said that…

For someone routinely engaged in challenging myself, I sure do like the easiest, laziest way.  Take exercise. I prefer running to almost everything else because it requires the least amount of gear: it’s just me, my running shoes, and a few layers. Bicycling, on the other hand, easily frustrates me with all of its “inflating…

I’ve done this before. In those final weeks and months before moving to Reno in 2011, I’d walk along Anchorage’s iconic coastal trail and gaze out at the massive and ever-changing waterscape of Cook Inlet. In the summer, the water shimmered blindingly under a lemon-hued midnight sun sky. During the winter, the Inlet glowed a…

It may not look like it from outside appearances, but life has quieted down. It’s good. It feels like when I’m cross country skiing and find myself working overly hard to keep my skis parallel, so I scoot over to groomed tracks and click in. Forward, smooth motions combined with a little kick uphill here…