Explore.
People often talk about living life to the fullest. It’s one of those phrases thrown around casually and nonchalantly, a generic mantra to live by. I have lately been thinking about what it really means to have a life fully lived. Perhaps it’s the new year, or the alarming number of friends who have loved ones with newly discovered illnesses this month, or just a time of transition for me. Whatever it is, it’s been weighing on my mind.
One of my favorite things about San Fransisco is how many great places are close by for quick get aways! This year for our anniversary we hopped over the bridge for a weekend getaway at Cavallo Point, a beautiful hotel tucked away right under the Golden Gate Bridge just north of the City. The hotel is housed in an old army post called Fort Baker and the buildings were built in the early 1900’s, and renovated and reopened as Cavallo Point resort in 2008.
Montana is a truly beautiful place. One of my happy places. It is peaceful and wild and free. I so highly recommend a trip to Montana if you are looking to spend some time in the great outdoors! This summer we took a week long trip with some of our friends to Montana, with half of the week in Ennis, in southern Montana, and the rest of the week in northern Montana at Glacier National Park.
Ennis is a quintessential all-American small town, a must if you are in southern Montana. It is quaint, wholesome and beautiful, situated in a valley surrounded by three mountain ranges. A place where you can spend your days exploring, fly fishing, hiking and day-tripping to Yellowstone, and your evenings cooking big family dinners, drinking wine or whiskey and soaking in the relaxation of Montana.
RUNNING NEVER GETS EASIER; YOU JUST GET STRONGER.
I didn’t grow up running, and didn’t start really until I was in my mid-twenties. But one day I decided I’d start running, and after hours and hours and miles and miles of training, I’ve finally become a runner. I sign up for races from time to time, to keep myself running because I certainly get burned out.
A weekend getaway is necessary from time to time. It’s good for the health, for the imagination and for the soul. If it can involve a little bit of luxury, all the better! Our weekend getaways almost always involve the opposite of luxury, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. However, staying in a swanky hotel from time to time isn’t too bad either. And it’s good for the beauty sleep in a way that sleeping in a tent will never be!
This weekend we headed on the red eye from San Francisco to Miami. Some dear friends of ours got married Friday night and they were so kind as to choose The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables as the home base for all of the wedding guests. What a treat it was to stay there, and I only wish we could have stayed longer. It is a lovely hotel, with beautiful architecture and thoughtful touches that make it feel so much like a Mediterranean getaway.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. – Edward Abbey
To travel is an essential element of life. It doesn’t have to be epic, cross the world, hop around from luxury hotel to luxury hotel kind of travel. To see new places, meet new people, learn about other cultures and experience things that you would never be exposed to at home – these are surefire ways to open your mind and live with intention. We travel often – many, many weekends out of the year are spent in little adventures around the west coast, but we also love to see the world when we can get away from work for a bit. Our most recent big international trip was to Patagonia, and one of our favorite activities while we were there was a fly fishing float trip down the Caleufu River in Argentina, near Bariloche (which I mentioned briefly here). After months of anticipation, R.Swig has finally put together a Go Pro video of that part of our trip! Read more
Part 2 of Crater Lake, Oregon – a quick Fourth of July trip to a beautiful national park. Saturday we again hiked down to the lake and hopped on the boat to take us to Wizard Island! A few of us hiked to the crater at the top of Wizard Island, while the rest of us hiked to the other side of the island for some fly fishing, a newly acquired (and quite tricky) hobby of ours. We caught rainbow trout and brown trout.
I love the 4th of July in America. It almost always means great weather, good food outdoors, and happy people celebrating the good things about being an American – freedom, opportunity and a beautiful land. Fireworks and hot dogs, lemonade and picnics, beaches and flags waving, for me it i s a holiday of laughter, sunshine and delicious treats.
This year R and I drove up to Crater Lake, Oregon, with some of our friends who live in our building in San Francisco. We have a strange/amazing Melrose Place-thing going on in our building – we have become very close friends with several of our neighbor couples, which makes socializing with awesome friends as easy as strolling down the hallway. So, 3 of these couply-friends joined us in Crater Lake for the 4th. We drove up Thursday night after work and stayed in Ashland, Oregon, a quick pit stop to break up the long drive to the national park. Unbeknownst to me, Ashland is quite the destination – a quaint, all American little town (perfect for the 4th holiday!) known for its Shakespeare performances in the summertime. We didn’t have enough time for Richard the Third, but we were able to pop into a couple of the little books shops on Main Street and of course the Ashland Fly Shop. R loves fishing and I love books, so it had to be done.
Welcome to The Pursuit of Life! I’ve been talking about this blog for ages, much to the annoyance of my hubs I’m sure, and have decided it’s time to put my words into action. I hesitate for a million different reasons, not least of which is because who has time for anything extra anymore?! But what a fun way to share the things that I love with anyone and everyone who cares to read about them, and so here we are. As I sit on the back deck of a house that we have rented with friends overlooking the Flathead River outside of Glacier National Park, in Hungry Horse, Montana, it seems like a good place to start.
At the very least this blog can be a way for our families to keep track of what’s been going on lately and what new cockamamie ideas we have sprouted and adventures we have sought. The ‘we’ here is my husband Ryan, our furbaby Coconut, and me. As a bonus, my day job lacks a creative outlet (which could be an understatement?), so I look forward to exploring the right side of my brain in a way that I’ve never allowed myself the time or energy before. And in striving to live my life with intention, to really pursue life and all of its joys, adventures, sorrows, feelings and experiences, perhaps I can bring some happiness, even if fleeting, to someone else.
Helen Keller said that ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.’ It is one of my favorite things to remember. We are all here for a short, finite period of time, so we should strive to make the most of our lives. The pursuit of life means a very different thing to each and every person. Through this blog, you’ll come to see what the pursuit of life means to me. Each day won’t be a daring adventure, but each day will hopefully bring a few of life’s joys. Read more
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