It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. Our vacation in 2026 was originally going to be themed “Hot Springs and Beaches”. I figured Kellan has put up with my colder coastal trips, so let’s do this for her. Unfortunately, due to reasons, we ended up only going to one hot spring. So let’s call this one “National Parks and Beaches”, instead. We made a huge loop around the Pacific North West, stopping at Glacier, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, and back up the Oregon Coast.

Every year for the last… I don’t know, 15+ years, I’ve gone on a vacation down the west coast of the United States. Covid screwed that up for me for a couple of years, but normally I spend a week or two around July 4th trying to get away from fireworks, by relaxing on a beach. I am drawn to the sea. This year, we took three weeks off, and the theme was “volcanoes and beaches”. We took the I5 corridor down, stopping at Mt. Hood and Mt. Shasta, then cut across to the Bay Area for a week, then worked our way back up along the coast.