Eighty is a number. It happens to signify my age in a few days– October seventh to be exact.  But to help you understand how old I really am, I want to share a few things.

On my third birthday I got a doll house. I loved it so much and my grandmother gave it away when I was a teenager. I wanted to keep it in case I ever had a child, but she didn’t know that.

I took ballet and tap dancing when I was a little girl.

Kids played outside in San Diego where I grew up. We were seldom in the house. We played baseball in the street and hated it when cars would interrupt our games. Hide and Go Seek was my favorite outdoor game. Especially at night. The whole neighborhood would get together after dinner and it was a blast. 

Girls played Jacks, and boys played Marbles. Once in a while my brother would let me play marbles too. But only if he didn’t have a boy to play with. They had bags of marbles and aggies were their prized possessions. True aggies were carved from agates, and they were beautiful. Most marbles are made of glass.

Pick-up Sticks was played by girls and boys, sometimes together. It required patience and skill so as not to knock down all the sticks. You had to remove them without causing the whole pile to crash.

We had Gyros and Tops and Yo-Yos.

But one of my personal favorite things to do was to play string games. Cat’s Cradle, that you played with a partner, where you’d take turns passing a loop of string back and forth to create different geometric shapes without letting the string tangle. 

And Jacob’s ladder you’d play solo. You start with a loop of string across your palms and then perform a series of finger and thumb transfers. It was a lot of fun, but not that easy.

Later on the Hula Hoop came along and we spent hours making those things move with our hips. Jump Rope was popular in the 1950s and we had chants that went along with them. “Not last night but the night before. Twenty-four robbers came knocking at my door.” I think the Pogo Stick showed around that time too. I remember there were lots of injuries with that one. My brother made me a set of stilts out of old lumber. I loved them. It was fun being so tall. I could use some of those now.

Hop Scotch was a classic children’s game then too. We’d draw the squares and use a thing we called a lager to toss in the first square to start. You’d skip the first square, hop into the second square and then continue through the connected squares. You’d pick up your lager on the way back. Then throwing your lager into the second square, skipping that one, and so on.

Television was non existent in my house until I was nine years old. Can you even imagine a time there was no television? And our television was a 12 inch screen, but the cabinet was large enough to house big tubes to bring the picture to us. Of course the picture was in black and white and there were only about four channels. It would be years before we had a color TV. 

The only show I liked was The Mickey Mouse Club. It ran from October 3, 1955 – September 25, 1959. Mom let me eat dinner in front of the TV on a TV tray to watch it, as a reward for good behavior. Annette Funicello still stands out in my mind as one of the best Mouseketeers. I was such a nerd I wore my Micky Mouse ears when I watched the show.

The first Disneyland was opened when I was nine too. It was in Anaheim, CA, a couple hours drive from our house. I went every year after that too, and continued to enjoy it when my kids were little. Those days are fond memories.

We had a rotary dial phone when I was a youngster. It was in the hallway in a small cubby area built-in for it. The cord was short, so you had to stand in the hall to talk. The kicker though, was that we had what was called a “party line.” It was annoying actually, not a party. There was one other household that shared the phone line, so if you picked up the phone and someone was talking, you couldn’t use the phone. No call could come in either, it would send a busy signal to the caller. After a few minutes you could pick up the phone again, and if someone was still talking, you were out of luck. The other person could hear you pick up the phone and if they didn’t hear you hang up, they’d tell you to hang up. Back in those days people didn’t talk for too long though. Mostly you used the phone for making appointments or quickly getting information from friends or a family member from out of town or you were inviting someone over. My brother and I rarely used the phone until we were teenagers. 

By then, we had a private line and you could buy a 25 ft. cord that would allow you to bring the phone into another room if it was not more than 25 feet away. I talked with my friends for hours slipping the cord under my door. Privacy was important.

I had a radio in my bedroom and could listen to Elvis, The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Sam Cook, Connie Francis, Roy Orbison to name a few. Blue Moon was a favorite of mine and Theme from a Summer Place by Percy Faith.  You can almost hear me singing along to Chubby Checker’s “Twist” and his next one “Twist Again.” One of the songs I loved was “Tonight You Belong to Me” by Patience and Prudence. I loved to sing along to all the songs. Did I mention I was a nerd?

The 60s brought us surf movies. Beach Blanket Bingo, Ride the Wild Surf (I saw in a drive-in in Hawaii in 1964), and of course Endless Summer and Gidget. 

Dance crazes besides the twist were The Mashed Potato, The Swim, The Fy, and The Watusi. As teenagers we loved what we called the slow dances. Girls put  their arms around the guys neck and he’d put his arms around your waist. And you’d move slowly with your bodies pressed together if you liked the person. If not, you weren’t wrapped around each other and you were  careful to keep your distance, which is what the adult chaperones were always wanting you to do anyway.

In the summer we went to the beach and had barbecues. We’d jump the waves, catch sand crabs, make sand castles, eat hamburgers,  and generally wear ourselves out. In San Diego there are a ton of family beaches and bays to visit. We had to learn to swim when we were very young. 

Being a child was a lot simpler than it is for kids now. Things have dramatically changed, and in my opinion it was way more fun back when I was young in the late 40s, the 50s and early 60s. 

think I’ll get some chalk and make a hop scotch grid. I can use a stone for my lager. Want to join me?

If not, see ya on the flip side.

*Photos are from Google or Getty Images, except the first three, and this last one which are from my own library.

We’ve had a few little storms with wind and rain. A couple tropical storms skirted the southern tip of Baja where we live, but they never came close to us.

The photo above shows what we can normally expect. But now we go with whatever nature brings us.

It is amazing how the waves end up where we used to step onto the sand. I do love the explosions of the waves, and the spray even makes it all the way up the trail sometimes.

We had several turtle nests on the beach, but the ocean has taken them all. It’s part of nature. Sigh.

I’m reminded of how the only constant is change. Gotta roll with it.

Meanwhile, back at the house our trees and plants are loving all the recent rain. The hills are green and people have said when they fly into the airport in Cabo San Lucas it looks like Hawaii. Well, there’s that!

We moved into our house in 2012. Since then we’ve added my art studio and a little casita above our garage for family and friends to visit.

Olive Ridley sea turtles nest on our beaches here in southern Baja. I took this photo years ago and since then we’ve seen many nests and experienced joy watching the babies come out of the nest and make their way to the ocean.

Here are babies struggling to get out of the nest.

And these are about to enter their ocean home.

We’ve also seen many dead females who have been mauled to death by loose dogs. A couple in our neighborhood don’t seem to understand that you can’t allow your large pack of dogs to run loose on our beaches. They’ve been fined and threatened by authorities to keep their dogs (at one point they had 12) within their property. It’s very difficult to get the authorities to respond, and this couple has never complied to the law for very long. Their dogs are once again attacking and killing the females who have come to lay their eggs.

It is the saddest and most horrific thing to see these defenseless creatures dead on our beaches.

Warning: At the end of this post I will add some photos. Don’t scroll to the end if you do not wish to view them.

Olive Ridley Turtles nest on our beaches here in Todos Santos, El Pescadero, and Los Cerritos. 

These creatures are vulnerable when they come to lay their eggs. For many years we’ve discovered them lying dead with their flippers mauled. 

This past week I’ve come across three of them in that situation on the Gavilan beach. Allowing dogs to run loose without owners with them means this will continue to happen.

The Olive Ridley sea turtle is sometimes called a beautiful dancer, because after the female lays her eggs, she bounces on the sand, pounding it flat to seal the site where she has deposited her eggs. She props herself up on her front flippers and hind legs, alternately bouncing her plastron side to side in a little dance.

Most Olive Ridley lay 2 or 3 clutches of eggs each year–each clutch can be up to 110 eggs. Another interesting fact is that the eggs that reach the highest temperatures (86-88 degrees) become females, hence they are mostly found in the center of the nest. (Yes, girls are hot!)

Adult Ridley eat crabs, snails, clams, barnacles, algae, fish, fish eggs, and jellyfish. Sounds like they might like the sushi bar.

Here in southern Baja on our beaches the turtles come up to nest between July and December. It can take from 6 weeks to 2 months before turtles hatch. It depends on a lot of things, but mostly temperature.

We can all do our part to keep trash, not just straws, out of the ocean, accompany your dogs and keep them in control, and do what you can to keep our beaches natural.

Throw your trash in the ocean or on the beach? Drive on the beach? Let your dog run loose without being with you? A resounding, “NO!” The turtles will thank you by living to come nest on a beach near you.

HELP SAVE THE TURTLES

Stop scrolling if you don’t want to see the photos.

These guys are the clean up crew.

So sad, isn’t it?

What I learned and saw in Bryce Canyon fills me with awe. Its formation was done in three geological stages.

Paraphrased from the internet:

Sediments were deposited into lakes 50 million years ago. This sediment was like an artist’s palette of alternating layers of compressed minerals and iron oxides from the mud, silt, and sand that was washed into the basin. This made layers of mudstone, siltstone, and limestone together with the iron oxides that stained the layers orange and pink. (The Claron Formation)

Next the tectonic forces pushed the region upward to 8,000 to 9,100 feet above sea level. This uplift happened 20 million years ago. The upward thrust caused cracking in the limestone beds and breaks in a vertical line.

Weathering and erosion come on the scene next. Periods of freezing and thawing, snow, rain, wind. The freezing and pressure expands the rock further, and rain mixes with carbon dioxide to form a weak carbonic acid, which slowly dissolves the limestone.

Softer rock layers dissolve and wash away faster than hard layers, leaving behind the weirdly shaped pillars, windows, and spires known as hoodoos.

Exploring, hiking, and meditating in Bryce Canyon gave us both the experiences we will always remember. We are grateful and filled with happiness that we got to have such a great vacation of a lifetime.

Mornings were a bit nippy, as you can see by our hats and jackets. The crisp air felt good though and only added to the adventure.

Look at this masterpiece.

The colors changed during the day. These shots were taken as the sun was doing its magic dance.

We got up early every day so we could enjoy the spectacular morning hours. It helped us get prime time parking spots too. Then we would take off hiking and come back to the van to fix something to eat, before taking off again.

So much to see.

The Navajo Loop trail afforded us spectacular views, and I wish we could have brought the wonderful fragrance of the pine trees back home with us.

Thank you Bryce Canyon for allowing us to spend time with you.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my photos, but truly to appreciate it, you must visit this magical place.

Greg and I traveled to many National Parks in May and June 2026. One of the fascinating places we visited was Death Valley. I’d never been there, and he’d only been as a child and didn’t remember much about his time there.

Quite frankly, I didn’t know what to expect, and the whole experience was surprising and wonderful.

The sand dunes are so beautiful. I always hesitate to put my little footprints on the sand. It looks so pristine without me messing it up.

From the National Park Service website:

Less than one percent of the Death Valley desert is covered with dunes. For dunes to exist there must be a source of sand, prevailing winds to move the sand, and a place for the sand to collect. The eroded canyons and washes provide plenty of sand, the wind seems to always blow (especially in the springtime), but there are only a few areas in the park where the sand is “trapped” by geographic features such as mountains.

It’s intriguing to see the sculpted sand with the mountains and the gorgeous blue sky in the background.

I’m a sucker for cloud formations. This gave me a thrill.

We spent a lot of time on the dunes, but we were also excited to see more of what the park had to offer. It was all new to me and I was in heaven taking photos and immersing myself in this part of the world.

I like skeletons of all kinds. Even trees.

It was in the high 70s and low 80s when we visited. Made it a great time to be there.

There’s a section called Artists Palette and we spent a lot of time exploring in this area of the park.

These colors are from volcanic deposits rich in compounds. The green color does not come from copper. Chemical analyses have identified the elements titanium, iron, aluminum, magnesium, and some of the minerals are red hematite and green chlorite.

TStar Wars Fan? Check out the area around Artists Palette for some familiar views! Parts of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, were filmed here.

After I got tons of photos, we left the artists palette and headed to the Badwater Basin. You can see it in the background of this photo.The white you see is salt. So off to the Salt Flats.

From the National Park Service website:

Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in North America. The salt flats at Badwater are composed mostly of sodium chloride, along with calcite, gypsum, and borax.

This massive 200-square-mile expanse features unique hexagonal salt polygons formed by extreme cycles of flooding and evaporation.

We pulled right up to the salt and got out to explore a little.

Intense Concentration

The source of Badwater’s salts is Death Valley’s drainage system of 9,000 square miles—an area larger than New Hampshire. Rain falling on distant peaks creates floods that rush ever lower. Along the way, minerals dissolve from rocks and join the flood. Here, at the lowest elevation, floods come to rest, forming temporary lakes. As the water evaporates, minerals concentrate until only the salts remain. After thousands of years, enough salts have washed in to produce layer upon layer of salt crust.

Crystal Power
The vast, surreal salt flats of Badwater Basin change constantly. Salt crystals expand, pushing the crust of salt into rough, chaotic forms. Newly formed crystals ooze between mudcracks, sketching strange patterns on the surface of the salt flat. Passing rainstorms wash off windblown dust and generate a fresh layer of blinding white salt.
Floods create temporary lakes that dissolve salts back into solution, starting the process all over again.

After checking out the salt flats we went on a couple hikes.

This is the kind of thing that makes us so happy. Being together in nature and exploring places like this.

You can get some perspective of the size by looking at me way back there in my pink shirt.

I’m going to leave you with this one. Thanks for coming along to Death Valley National Park.

If you’ve never been, you owe it to yourself to visit.

All photos by Susan Farrar

Yesterday in the late afternoon, I took a walk through an arroyo near the town of El Pescadero where I live. There were five of us on this field trip. One of the young Mexicans on the trip is doing a project regarding the issue of basura (trash) and how it affects the town and its wildlife.

Many of the locals are using this arroyo as a dump. Without making judgments right now (there are so many reasons for this behavior and that’s not the point for this post), this walk opened my eyes to something I didn’t even expect or know about.

You can actually follow the arroyo under the highway and go all the way to the beach a few kilometers beyond.

Looking at it from the start just beyond the town, you’d never know how incredibly beautiful it is. With a lot of work this could be turned into something extraordinary for the people of the town. 

Here we enter and find our way down into the arroyo.

Both sides of the arroyo have trash cascading down to the bottom.

We just kept going, making our way through the brush and trees toward the highway underpass.

I didn’t take a photo as we went under the highway, but that’s about where the ground water was trickling down the pathway. It was a bit soggy.

And the longer we walked the more we were in awe of the growth.

I was surprised at how lush it became. It was truly beautiful.

This looked like a yellow kiwi fruit.

A tomato plant has found a home here tucked into the native plants that were covered with spittle bugs.

Beautiful torote trees (sometimes called elephant trees) interspersed with other vegetation.

I am told that as you move farther toward the ocean, there are places with more trash and it’s not as lush as this part, but we turned around to head back here. I’ll go back some other time and check it out.

We left just before sunset to go up in the hills to watch the sun go down and to see the lights come on in Pescadero.

That’s when it was my turn to take photos, as my project is about light pollution.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll share about that soon. You can come back for a visit.

Here’s a preview

Thanks to our friends, Paula and Carlos, who own Explora Baja, we spent 3 days and 2 nights on Magdalena Island, staying in a 4 bedroom home overlooking the bay where we board the boat for a wildlife adventure. Gray whales migrate over 10,000 miles from the Arctic to Magdalena Bay, Mexico, from late December to mid-April to mate, give birth, and nurse their calves in the warm, sheltered lagoons.

Greg and I had a great time with our son, Matthew and his fiancee Michelle, my former student Heather (from 26 years ago) and her husband David, on Magdalena Island for our whale watching trip. Paula gave us lots of information about the whales and the area before we started.

It was a marvelous adventure, even though this time we didn’t get whales come to the boat close enough to touch, they were very close to our boat and we felt the thrill of being with them.

Looking at them in the water on the surface was surreal.

Magdalena Island has very few residents (under a 100) and most of them are fishermen and their families. Some of the fishermen have opted to use their pangas for whale watching. Others still fish. They live simply and seem very happy, which is easy to understand, as they are living so close to a large number of creatures in the wild. There is one church and a couple stores with snacks, plus a restaurant where we had lobster dinner the first night.

The photos above and below were taken at sunrise a few steps from the 4 bedroom house we stayed in.

Michelle, Matt, Heather, David, me, and Greg in front of the house we stayed in.

We took the boat through the mangroves to the sand dunes and the Pacific side of the island. The dunes are so fascinating and the beach is alive with shells and sand dollars.

We stayed on the dunes till the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. What fun!

I’ll close with this. Hope you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for stopping by.

Wake up early, make some coffee, put on your hiking shoes and get out there. Watch the sun light up the sky. It’s the best way to get that joyful spirit going.

I remind myself that blessings abound and another day is full of promises.

Today our middle son and his sweet girlfriend arrive at the San Jose del Cabo Airport. Also today one of my former students and her husband arrive at the same airport. We are all going to Magdalena Bay to go whale watching and spend time on the island with Paula and Carlos, our dear friends who own Explora Baja. https://explorabaja.com

My next post will feature all our fun. This is from their website:

Duration:

60 hours (3 Days, 2 Nights)

About:

Whales encounters, sunrises in the bay, view from the deck of the house into the majestic Magdalena Bay. Get to see the huge diversity of animals of the bay and island. 

Experience the real Baja. Stay in a mystical fisherman village at a fisherman´s house (4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms). Eat fresh fish and lobster from the area and support local communities. You will have the chance to have 3 whale watching trips, observing whales close at their breeding grounds in the sheltered waters of the bay. 
Spending the night on the island is an amazing experience as not many visitors get to be there at night. 
We work hand with hand with the locals making sure that the energy of the trips flow both ways, ensuring a good healthy economy in town and in the islands.

Enjoy three of the best whale encounters you can experience with these incredible gentle giants, visit mangroves, walk on endless sand dunes, observe sea birds and many times coyotes and bald eagles that lives close to the house.

In order to make reservations at the house, it’s important to book this tour as soon as possible, at least three months prior to the trip. Magdalena Bay is approximately 5 hours north of Todos Santos so expect a drive but a great reward as well.

Meeting location:

At your accommodation in Todos Santos, Pescadero, or Cerritos

What to bring:

• A reusable water bottle (Hydro Flask, Nalgene, etc.) – disposable water bottles are prohibited 
• A hoodie, jacket and beanie is also recommended to keep you warm.
• Bring sandals and comfortable walking shoes in case we go for a stroll. 

What’s included:

• Round trip transportation to Puerto San Carlos from Todos Santos
• Driver, guide & captain
• 2 nights in a house in Magdalena island
• 3 whale watching trips
• Walk on pristine dunes and the pacific beaches
• Mangroves and sea birds
• 2 breakfasts
• 3 lunch
• 2 dinners
• Snacks throughout the whole trip
• Drinks (beer and wine with dinner)