Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
THE SAHARA

September 27, 2017

Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.

THE SAHARA
Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
CHEFCHAOUEN

September 24, 2017

Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.

CHEFCHAOUEN
Europe, Iceland
Jonathan Jung
ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

September 11 - 15, 2017

Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

United States

,

BRYCE, GOBLIN VALLEY, CANYONLANDS AND ARCHES

,
BRYCE, GOBLIN VALLEY, CANYONLANDS AND ARCHES

August 20 - 29, 2018

Trying to squeeze a road trip in the new van in, we drove to LA for our close friend’s baby shower and then headed out of town to Bryce. Spending a few nights in Bryce, we then headed north toward Canyonlands and Arches with a quick stop thru Goblin Valley. All places we’ve been to before, but Jonathan wanted to test out the new van and give Cody his first vanlife experience. As usual, all the stops didn’t disappoint. On the drive back home, we stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats again too. Not much to say posting these pics a year and a half later. Enjoy!

,

YOSEMITE

,
YOSEMITE

June 18 - 20, 2018

After getting our VW van finished, we took a maiden trip to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite to test it out. With Tuolumne Meadows opening early, we were easily able to get a campsite.

Previously, our friend Wallace and I had done an two night backpacking trip to Young Lakes so I decided to bring Allie and Cody on a day hike to an open meadow high in the backcountry that had incredible views. This definitely was not a short easy hike with a baby, but was well worth the effort.

,

YOUNG LAKES AND MT. CONNESS

,
YOUNG LAKES AND MT. CONNESS

August 21 - 23, 2017

This weekend was the perfect alignment of a new moon at night, perfect for taking photos of the night sky and also the solar eclipse. Young Lakes is the one set of lakes you can hike to from Tuolumne Meadows that Wallace had not hiked to, so we opted for a new location with the goal of doing two nights at upper Young Lake and to do a day hike to Mount Conness. Unfortunately, Young Lakes is higher than 10,000 feet in elevation, so no campfires are allowed, making for a cold few nights. Below are some of the highlights from our first day/night.

,

CLOUD'S REST

,
CLOUD'S REST

September 24, 2016

Big day hike today, about 12 miles round trip to the top of Cloud's Rest and back. Unfortunately, Wallace misplaced his water bottle at the top of the ridge on the way from Cathedral Lake to Sunrise Lake, so we were down to four water bottles. Stupid us, we also decided not to bring a water pump and instead tried to ration the four bottles amongst the five of us.

,

CATHEDRAL LAKES

,
CATHEDRAL LAKES

September  20, 2016

Jonathan and I returned from a close friend's wedding in Boston two days earlier and spent time with family all day Monday. Early Tuesday morning we left LA and headed north, past Mammoth Lakes to the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. Jonathan finally got his wish -- taking me backpacking in Yosemite. I remember early on in our relationship, he talked about how he had gone backpacking and I asked, "Is that where you were a life preserver on your back?!". Wow - so innocent and so naive! I think I meant a backpack but called it a life preserver instead. 

, ,

OAHU, HAWAII: A WEEK IN PARADISE

, ,
OAHU, HAWAII: A WEEK IN PARADISE

This past week, we headed to Oahu to celebrate my best friend Mica's 30th birthday. We packed a lot of stuff in for a week -- everything from beach time, snorkeling, cliff jumping, a few secret hikes (thanks to my friend Michelle), a sunrise, a sunset cruise, a waterfall, and ate tons of good food...all with great friends and family.

, ,

BEND, OR FOR FLEMMETTA FEST

, ,
BEND, OR FOR FLEMMETTA FEST

Our good friends, Matt and Kate, finally got married this past weekend. These two were the initial inspiration for our extended time off to travel. After traveling for 9 months, they settled in a little town in Oregon called Bend. Most people haven't heard of Bend, but after visiting them three times over this past winter, I think we're hooked. We were told getting a house on the Deschutes River was a must, so we squeezed three couples into a little place right on the river. It was worth it. So we floated the river as a massive group, BBQ'd and brought back A/C sliders, jumped into Crater Lake, watched two amazing people get married and danced the night away. 

, ,

ALASKA … THE LAST FRONTIER

, ,
ALASKA … THE LAST FRONTIER

I decided to end the season with a bang the last time we were in Whistler. What’s bigger than heli-skiing? Heli-skiing in Alaska I guess? So I did some brief research and hit up my brother to see if he could get the time off and went ahead and booked it. Neither of us knew quite what to expect, with the only glimpses of Alaska being in ski movies we’d seen. Needless to say, the trip was well worth it and the skiing was some of the best we’d had all season, a perfect way to end the longest season I’ve ever skied.

, ,

FOUR RESORTS: MT. BACHELOR TO MAMMOTH

, ,
FOUR RESORTS: MT. BACHELOR TO MAMMOTH

It's officially beginning to be Spring. As we headed down south toward a weekend in the desert for Coachella, the snow conditions are beginning to fade.

We stopped for a few days in Bend, Oregon, again to hang with our friends, Matt and Kate. Mt. Bachelor has enough snow to likely last thru Memorial Day weekend. How sick is that? Matt was even telling us that they've opened the resort on July 4th for a day of skiing if the mountain allowed. So crazy!

, ,

SNOWBIRD/ALTA

, ,
SNOWBIRD/ALTA

After driving straight home from Whistler, we took a few day break in SF, but pretty quickly headed back out with the aim to ski Tahoe for a week before heading to LA for a close friend’s wedding. After a day in Tahoe with pretty horrible conditions and a snow storm forecasted for UT, we decided to pack up and drive to UT for the week instead. It was definitely worth it. The snow at Snowbird/Alta was dramatically better than Tahoe. - Jonathan

, , ,

SHASTA/CRATER LAKE/BEND/MT. BACHELOR

, , ,
SHASTA/CRATER LAKE/BEND/MT. BACHELOR

To start our US/Canada winter trip we decided to head north first. First stop, Bend to ski Mount Bachelor again. On our way, we passed Mount Shasta and stopped in on Crater Lake. Both extremely beautiful in the winter time, definite must sees! During our time in Bend we got to see Matt and Kate again and an old friend of Allie’s from LMU, Justin. We were also treated with some incredible sunsets while visiting. Unfortunately, no new snow, but this time we were actually able to ski the summit and could actually see the amazing view.

Until next time, next up we are meeting up with some good friends in Whistler for the weekend.

, ,

ALCATRAZ ISLAND

, ,
ALCATRAZ ISLAND

Not too long ago, Jonathan and I stumbled on a documentary called Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – the documentary features a Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, “who uses social media and his art to inspire protests against the state, and suffers government persecution for his actions”. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely watch it.

, ,

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS

, ,
BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS

We had a 18 hour drive ahead of us from Vail back to the Bay Area. Halfway we stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats. It looked completely different than when we passed thru during the summer. The flats had filled with water from recent storms and the reflection was incredible. Definitely worth the stop.

- Jonathan

, ,

VAIL

, ,
VAIL

Jonathan’s college friend, Carolyn, and her boyfriend, Nate, invited us out to ski with them and their friends in Vail for Martin Luther King weekend. We spent two days at Vail and checked out Beaver Creek for a day – definitely a fun couple of days. We rented a pretty awesome house and got in some good skiing and had good times with new friends!

- Allie

, ,

TELLURIDE + ASPEN/SNOWMASS, COLORADO

, ,
TELLURIDE + ASPEN/SNOWMASS, COLORADO

On our way to Vail, we made a few more stops at a couple new resorts - Telluride and Aspen. Telluride was a really cute small ski town with one main road with shops and restaurants, surrounded by beautiful, snowy peaks. We found ourselves at the same Mexican restaurant called Esperanza’s two nights in a row – they honestly had some of the best carne asada we’ve tasted. 

Aspen was our next stop and we stayed at a little apartment tucked away in the Snowmass area. We were really impressed with the yummy food we had both nights – recommended by a friend of a friend. Hops Culture and The White House Tavern are definite must-do’s!

- Allie

, ,

THE WAVE: PART 2

, ,
THE WAVE: PART 2

just look at the pictures...

, ,

THE WAVE: PART 1

, ,
THE WAVE: PART 1

Yes … Part 1 because there are just too many pictures to decide which are the best. The elusive Wave hike … a 6 mile roundtrip hike that starts in Utah and ends in Arizona. But it’s really not just about the Wave itself, the other sandstone features on the way to the Wave and surrounding the Wave are just as amazing. The Wave is located in Grand Staircase National Monument and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

, ,

BRIAN HEAD AND BRYCE CANYON

, ,
BRIAN HEAD AND BRYCE CANYON

With a gap of 10 days between dropping Jason/Paula/Oliver off at the airport in Salt Lake City and meeting friends in Vail, we needed to fill the gap with a few other destinations. First was Powder Mountain, then with Utah still on the mind, the Wave started my mind going. Well, southern Utah isn’t exactly right next to northern Utah so I figured … why not stop by Brian Head and ski a day as a stopover, so we did.