The strong personalities of the different home architecture line up as I stroll through Venice. It's like looking at a family portrait of the California family. The colorful houses reflected in the Venice canals under a bright blue sky. If the definition of beauty is symmetry and lighting, well, I just captured the perfect beautiful day.

Along one of the turns, we saw a crashed van pulling a boat on the side of the road where yellow caution tape was up. We all had our theories about what possibly could have happened. Did the van get too close to the edge? Did foul play happen because it looked like gunshots in the windows? We’ll never know. We pulled over by the lake for a picnic lunch and enjoyed the serene views. When we got to the dam, we stopped and marveled at the history of all that this land holds and tried to imagine riding this trail via stagecoach. It was an adventure even by car.

One thing I miss about the Midwest is Fall.  Driving along roads full of...

Alas, during my time in Phoenix last week, I heard the horses down by the Salt River, but as I hiked down the rocky incline,  I could hear the hooves as they scattered.  I spent an hour at the bend in the river, watching the early morning light change and dissipate my cold breath in the air.

Storrier Stearns Japanese Gardens