
What are you curious about? Curiosity seems to be a common theme lately, as I contemplate what it means to be an engaged human being. “A strong desire to know or learn something” (Oxford Dictionary) is the official definition. I realize that in my profession, part of what I am paid to accomplish is to…
I’ll never forget our trip as a family to Paris and the day we visited the Louvre back in July of 2017. The experience was overwhelming! So much art and wondrous architecture. This week though, I remembered specifically a walk through the Apollon Gallery and the pictures I took: Beauty can be fleeting. Bad players…

Few places have so inspired me and filled me with awe that I was left speechless. Monument Valley is now one of them. My daughter and I visited the last week of September, and took an awesome tour with a local guide. Here is a link to the campground we used which also has the…

The American culture has a hard time with sleep. In clinical practice, it literally is one of the top things I discuss with patients. The struggle is very real: folks have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep, and then wake up too early. Different factors affect sleep in significant ways: stress, bad habits, relational…

August without any smoke in the sky is the time to go high in the Olympics. Snow is pretty much melted away, and the days are warm and the nights are just pleasant. I hiked to Silver Lake last year for a day hike (Fantastic Day Hike!), but wanted to stay the night and then…

I took a few days off work in order to go hiking with my son up in the Olympic Mountains. We went to a new spot called Grand Lake, which neither of us had visited. It is within the national park and requires a wilderness overnight permit which can be purchased at recreation.gov. The difficult…

It’s July and my family spent a weekend up near Chinook Pass, and after everyone left and I finished my cleanup chores, I drove up to the pass for another dose of my favorite hike: Naches Peak Loop! It’s my go-to hike for July because of a number of factors. First the snow pack is…

It was a moody Juneteenth in the Olympics, with a marine layer just hanging out over the mountains and hiding them from view. I organized a hike with folks from work and over ten people participated, many hiking up into the Eastern Olympics for the first time. I was excited for them but was worried…

I am excited about the summer! In Washington State, the first sign of impending adventure is the opening of the mountain passes. Chinook Pass to be specific and the road to some of my favorite destinations is open as of Memorial Day Weekend! We spent some time in the mountains and traversed the pass finding…