New River Gorge NP

Last weekend, we took a road trip to West Virginia to visit New River Gorge National Park. It was designated as a National Park in 2020 and it's our 42nd National Park! It's less than a five-hour drive from our house - not quite as close a Shenandoah NP, but compared to other NPs, it's practically in our backyard! As I shared in my last post, we’re on a quest to visit all 64 National Parks, and having this one nearby is great!

One of the most famous spots in the park is the New River Gorge Bridge, which is what’s often depicted in photos of the park, but since it just so happened to be "Bridge Day" on Saturday, October 17 (a yearly event where extreme sport enthusiasts jump from the bridge into the gorge), we avoided that area of the park because we'd read that it would be extremely busy and obviously have no personal interest in jumping from a bridge! LOL!

As you'll see, we had the most beautiful weather and Avalanche loved all of the trails; I'm sure the park is lovely during the rest of the year as well, but the changing leaves and cooler weather made for a pretty much perfect day!

what you can't see in the photo because of the grass
is that the bottom side of the frame reads
"Bark Ranger"

We spent Saturday night at a nearby hotel and Avalanche is truly becoming a hotel expert, even though he still does not enjoy an elevator experience whatsoever!

he is always confused by elevators, and honestly,
I get it - you start in one location and somehow
end up in another location just by standing
in a metal box

he can never exit an elevator
quickly enough!

once we're out of the elevator,
he's all about the hotel life

he got a swag bag when we checked in

it contained a ball, a bag of treat,
and some wipes and baggies

absolutely at home in a hotel room

the sunset was too pretty
to not take a picture

On Sunday morning, we drove home, stopping at the Blue Ridge Tunnel for a walk, which we'd done with Avalanche one other time. It's little less than a mile in length, but much of it is in complete darkness, so you need headlamps or flashlights. It's a pretty fun little adventure!

I think his shadow looks like Batman!

Another National Park and another fun weekend! We currently don't have another National Park trip planned until February, so we're hoping the weather cooperates and we're able to go!

Happy Tails to you!

Chicago 2026

Earlier this month, we took a quick weekend trip to Chicago, flying there on Friday night and flying home on Sunday night!

While we are happy for any reason to visit Chicago, as we lived there many moons ago, the purpose of the trip was to visit Indiana Dunes National Park. While you might be wondering why we hadn't ever been there if we lived so close by, but it was officially designated as a National Park until 2019!

Between our trip to Texas last month, this trip to Chicago, and the road trip we did last weekend (I'll be writing about that tomorrow!), you may have picked up on a theme: our incredible National Parks. While we've always loved visiting the National Parks - Crater Lake NP is my very favorite place I've ever been on the face of the earth (and given how many amazing places I've been privileged to visit, that is really saying something!) and our Grand Canyon NP river adventure is one of the best trips we've ever taken - we've decided to make the National Parks a focus of our travel over the next two years.

Indiana Dunes NP was our 41st National Park so far! Out of how many, you ask? Until VERY recently, the answer to that question was 63, but now there are officially 64 National Parks! We have currently mapped out trips to all of the remaining parks on our list and the newest, Chiricahua NP, fits in perfectly with a trip we already have planned for next fall! The immortal words of my brother continue to ring true: "You guys really do love a checklist!"

Indiana Dunes NP (or I as was hilariously calling it, Indiana Jones NP - ask C if that joke ever got old LOL) was beautiful and its biodiversity is really the star of the park, along with the spectacular shoreline! We had extraordinarily wonderful weather for hiking and exploring and highly recommend this special place that's a quick and easy drive from Chicago!

this pic was not the result of me being
a mean wife - it was his idea bc he is hilarious!

We love Chicago and enjoyed stopping at a few of our favorite places before heading to the airport on Sunday evening, even though we would have loved to spend even more time there!

our favorite pizza:
stuffed spinach from Giordano's

Oberweis is a must for dessert

we had to evacuate the hotel in the
middle of the night due to a fire alarm

still dreaming about these pumpkin pancakes

visited our former apartment...

...left a little piece of Avalanche there

visited our other former apartment...

...left a little piece of Avalanche there, too

spent some time at a lovely park
not far from where we once lived

our last stop before our flight home
was a second dinner at Giordano's

Happy Tails to you!

My YaYa

Two weeks ago, we lost one of the people I loved most on this entire planet. My YaYa. He was almost 97-years old; someone I looked up to and always wanted to make proud. Someone who was happy to listen to us talk about our travel and heartily encourage us when we shared places we'd still like to see with an enthusiastic, "Go! Do it! Go! Go!"

If you've read other posts I've written about him, you already know how much he meant to me. How much he meant to both C and me. We always enjoyed visiting him when he lived in California whenever we traveled there, and when he relocated to the east coast when he was in his 80s, we were within driving distance, which was wonderful. As adults, we've loved every chance we've had to hang out with him, share holidays with him, talk with him, and be the happy recipients of his heartfelt hugs. He is the reason I'm a Dodgers fan and the reason I love Huntington Beach.

He welcomed C from the first time they met and over the past 35ish years, they grew to be amazing buddies, teasing each other and laughing uproariously. They talked about anything and everything...business, sports, technology, family, and travel. I loved watching them together all these years and I am so grateful for the bond that they shared.

I've been thinking and thinking and thinking for two weeks of what to write; how to capture what this man meant to me. I still haven't found the right words.

But I will share two memories that maybe provide the tiniest glimpse into the impact he had on me.

The first memory is from when I met him. I was an awkward Caucasian ten-year old who unexpectedly found herself part of a Chinese family. I was nervous and a little scared and quite unsure about how I was going to fit into this new family and its unfamiliar culture and customs. We flew from our small city in northern Ontario to glamorous and exciting southern California during summer break and from the moment I met him, YaYa accepted me as one of his own. I will never be able to articulate how it felt to be welcomed into this new family. Decades later, my heart still swells when I think about that. From that first trip to California, I had a YaYa. And he loved me.

The second memory is much more recent. In December 2023, we went to visit him in NJ and even though the staff at his assisted living residence knew we were coming and had planned to have him up and ready so we could take time to lunch, they hadn't been successful. When we arrived, he was still sleeping in bed, so I went over to him and when he opened his eyes and saw me, he loudly exclaimed, "My granddaughter! My granddaughter!" and threw open his arms to me. If you didn't spend the formative younger years of your life in any kind of family turmoil, this might not seem like much to you. But at 94-years old, to have him be so excited to see me, to know who I was even as his memory began to fade, and to hug me with such strength and energy was almost more than my heart could handle.

As I've shared before, he was technically my great uncle, not my grandfather, but he'd been like a father to my dad, so therefore, he was my grandfather. My dad adopted me, and I will be forever grateful for that. But my YaYa didn't adopt me; he could have decided to be polite and cordial and nothing more. I wasn't biologically part of the family. He could have kept me at arm's length and viewed me as an outsider. Instead, he chose to love me. Wholeheartedly and without reservation.

I miss him so much and I will miss him for the rest of my days. I'm heartbroken that he is no longer with us.

But I am so damn proud to be his granddaughter.

Happy Tails to you...