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Switzer Falls
Switzer Falls is one of the most visually exciting hikes I have done here in Southern California thus far. At a little over 4 miles round trip, the trail travels up and down a narrow valley in the Angeles National Forest. At some parts of the trail you will see remnants of old roads, other parts you will be traveling casually along a stream, and the next moment you will be climbing up high above the trees. Although a tad strenuous this trail will keep you intrigued the entire way.
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Etiwanda Falls
Etiwanda Falls is a short, easy, miserably hot hike to a gorgeous waterfall in Rancho Cucamonga. At just around 3.5 miles (round trip) most hikers can reach the falls in under an hour. But I must warn you, it is a long, hot hour up a rocky un-shaded hill. According to AllTrails we completed the entire trail with a moving time of just under 90 minutes.
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Lanikai Juice
Summer has been in full swing the past few weeks here in Southern California and that means hot windless nights and day time temps in the 90s (This week we’ve even been hitting the 100s!). California has turned into an oven and all I can dream about is Lanikai Juice. Sure California has Jamba Juice and Juice It Up! (which I do love) and little local smoothie shops, but since I’ve been back I can honestly say nothing beats Oahu’s Lanikai Juice. Lanikai Juice opened it’s doors back in 1997, serving healthy and fresh smoothies, fruit bowls, freshly squeezed juices, food, and cold pressed juices using local and fresh organic…
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4th of July
Now when I answer the occasional Facebook survey or someone asks me, "What's your favorite holiday?" I'll usually give them the traditional Christmas answer, but when I really think about it, the 4th of July has always given me so much more excitement and joy then most other holidays. And although I know that I have better memories, for some reason, when I think about the 4th, I find a lot of reasons to smile.
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Stairway to Heaven
One of the last hikes I attempted while on Oahu is also one of Oahu's most infamous and talked about hikes. It seems like everyone has heard of, or at least seen pictures of, Oahu's Stairway to Heaven (also known as the Haiku Stairs).
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Summer is here and I’m working on it
As I predicted at the end of my spring post, I am still a mess. In some ways I'm still the same mess and in other ways I am a new mess. I'm still working on many of the same things I was three months ago, but have fixed many of them and made progress on others. I'm still a mess, but as I hoped, I am a slightly happier mess.
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Where to get the Best Poke on Oahu?
Poke (pronounced POH-KAY) dates back to the ancient Hawaiians who would feast on freshly caught fish massaged with sea salt, seaweed and crushed inamona or kukui nuts. Since then poke has grown and evolved, in some circumstances, drastically. As immigrants from all around the world, and especially places like China and Japan, began arriving in Hawaii, new flavors began to shape poke. While the more traditional Ahi poke is made with tuna, shoyu (soy sauce), sea salt, green onions, Maui onions and limu, visit any poke shop in Hawaii today and you can find a wide array of flavors and options including kimchee shrimp, furikake salmon, miso tako (octopus), pipikaula…
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10 Years
This Tuesday (6/11) marks the 10 year anniversary of my high school graduation. The ending of one chapter and the start of a new. For everyone, their high school graduation means change and new beginnings. It's one of the many stepping stones into adulthood. For me it marked the beginning of the end in many ways, and that sounds much more dramatic than I intended, but I can't think of a better way to say it. This wasn't just the closing of my childhood chapter and beginning of my adulthood one, it was the first nail in the door to my childhood. Before the calendar year would end my life…
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Eaton Canyon Falls
My husband and I have finally, after over five months in California, started hiking again. In just the past few weeks we have tackled five different trails starting with Eaton Canyon Falls. Located in Altadena, CA, Eaton Canyon Falls Trail is a fairly easy and relatively short trail. Listed at about 3.5 miles, I tracked it at about 4 miles round trip and it took my husband and I about 2.5 hours to complete, including the time we spent at the falls.
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Old LA Zoo
I did a fair amount of hiking in California before moving to Oahu, but it wasn't until I was living on the islands that I first heard of the Old LA Zoo Hike. I'm not exactly sure how I first heard of it, I'm pretty sure I came across it while doing some research on the abandoned zoo on Oahu. However, no matter how I came across it, as soon as I heard about it, and saw the pictures, I knew I had to go.
