One Busy Bee

Two months down for 2019. How would you say your year is going for you so far? February was full of travel for me. March, I’m headed back down. Down under, that is. Have you been? What are you down for? What downs have you come up from?  Like a basketball, you’re bound to come up. TRAVEL Almost a year after I completed the Princess Academy with Princess Cruises, I have selected my graduation gift: a free 13-day cruise from Melbourne, Australia and around New Zealand. My roommate is pretty excited. We both haven’t been down under. We will be flying direct on Qantas, thank goodness. We will spend at least one full day in Melbourne on both ends of the trip. She wants to hold a koala (still working on that). I want to go to their rooftop bars and eat at their nice restaurants. I am glad we both agreed to a spa day before we head back in time for our return flight to San Francisco. Then again, my roommate is down for anything. We have ran across the below articles on...

Covered in a little bit of mud and stuffing our faces with BBQ in Lafayette is when we planned our next hike. The date worked for the table at the time. Then things change as they often do. I was going to be in NYC during that time. Regardless, I wanted to stay on track with hiking once a month. While at the gym on a Sunday morning, I opted for outdoor cardio instead of being on machine. Kim, was of course, down to go. (You know her by now from my posts, right?   Text was sent, alert to my Let’s Hike Facebook group was posted and I finished up my weight training session. Google is great. I just entered ‘paved hikes in the east bay’ It generates options for me. I selected Coyote Hills in Newark, California. It was off of 84, my usual route to go to the day job in Palo Alto. I pass this area almost every day. Now I can say I’ve climbed to its little peak. Parking is free near the main road. It’s about half a mile from the main entrance and where your park entrance is collect...

2019 Goals , I'm comin' after you!  One of the goals for this year is to get back to hiking once a month. This One Busy Bee and Travel Agent loves exploring new territories and getting a work out in. Then reward myself with a beer and good food, which sadly cancels out the work out. But nonetheless, it's time well spent in my opinion. Trying to be a good granddaughter, I scheduled January's hike around taking my Lola to church. As a social butterfly like me, we were a bit late in getting out of there. Not to mention she had her walker to help her get around, which I nicknamed her skateboard. She thinks I'm silly. She is so right. After dropping her off at home in Martinez and doing a quick wardrobe change, I jumped in my car and headed to Lafayette to meet my roommate, Kim, and my Cuginos, Ron and Angela. Kim has missed doing hikes as she prepared for her Susan G. Komen walk in November and it's nice to do these hikes again with Rongela. We immediately d...

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King Jr.  Every time you turn on the news, do you feel it's often depressing by the terrible things that people do? Or even reading your social media feed, why do the good people you call friends fall victim to unexplainable acts? Does it make you angry? Sad? Motivated? Our current President wants to exclude and divide, while I have been raised to believe that America loves and accepts all. My parents are immigrants, as majority of us are or are descendants of one. Had they not immigrated and taken advantage of the land of opportunity, I wouldn't be writing with the same perspective today. With yesterday being Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Oakland-native Kamala Harris announcing her running for President in 2020, it is time to fight back and make changes with love. Heading quickly into the month of love and Valentine...