After an amazing visit in the Mantadia National Park the day prior, I awoke early to the sounds of the Common Brown Lemur (Eulemur fulvus) walking outside my bungalow at the Hotel Mikado. What a great way to start my Maromizaha Reserve adventure. I had arrived at the Hotel Mikado at night, so I didn’t see this Dypsis ‘Black Stem’ out…
After a full day of touring the Analamazaotra and Mitsinjo Reserves the day prior, and a good night’s rest at the Vakona Forest Lodge, I was ready to visit the much larger Mantadia National Park. Mantadia National Park and the Analamazaotra Reserve were once one large entity many years ago. Sadly, private logging and slash-and-burn agriculture have since divided the two….
It only took one day in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, before I was antsy and wanting to get away from the traffic and crowds. I was ready to start my month-long adventure of living off the beaten track. My first stop of the ten key areas of Madagascar I planned to visit was to Andasibe and its surrounding…
Thanks to the creative requirements that using airline points can produce, my trip to Madagascar involved flying Delta there and Air France back. This gave me the opportunity to spend two full days in Johannesburg, South Arica, as I waited for my connecting flight to Madagascar. The first day would be spent visiting the Apartheid Museum, the Mandela House…
Last week I found myself in Encinitas, so, having a little extra time, I figured it would be a great opportunity to do a tour of the Self Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens. For such a magnificent little garden, it is amazing how few people living in Southern California actually know about it. The Meditation Gardens themselves are part…
This past weekend my daughter had a soccer tournament at Coronado. Chance would have it that a family not big on mornings would get starting game times of 8 AM on Saturday and Sunday. With the coach’s requirement to be at the game 1 hour prior, that would mean a 5 AM wakeup to get to Coronado on time….
My wife wanted to do something different from our yearly routine this 4th of July weekend. I told her that if she wanted to plan something, I would temporarily relinquish my role as the Family Event Coordinator. So what does she plan for her first family trip with the new title? Palm Desert. In the middle of July! Not sure…
This past Saturday the Palm Society of Southern California (PSSC) held their quarterly meeting . This May meeting included two wonderful gardens tours in the Mission Viejo area. While I have been a member of the PSSC for many years now, I am usually unable to attend these meetings, as something kid-related always seems to take up my calendar. Lucky…