Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Measure Frequently, Judge Less Frequently

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:18:32 GMT

A few weeks ago I was chatting with my friend, David, about our experiences using GLP-1 medications. (I'm taking Rybelsus, the pill form of Ozempic; he's taking Zepbound.) I mentioned, "I weigh myself every morning" as a segue to talking about the results I'm seeing so far.

"Oh, you're not supposed to weigh yourself every day," David admonished, gently. "I was weighing myself every day at the gym, and one of my gym-friends there saw me and was like, 'Nooooo! You're only supposed to weight yourself once a weeeeek!'"

I understand why that friend-of-a-friend thinks you should only weigh yourself once a week. He's almost certainly aware that there are mistakes people make when weighing themselves every day. Thing thing is, "Weigh yourself just once a week" is the wrong solution. It's better to understand what those potential mistakes and work to avoid them. I call it Measure Frequently, Judge Less Frequently. (Okay, that doesn't quite roll off the tongue. I'm working on a snappier version of it! 😅)

The basic problem with checking your weight every day when you're working on losing weight is that weight loss doesn't happen smoothly and evenly. The first phenomenon that trips people up is that your body plateaus. The body tries to maintain equilibrium, so even if you're eating right and exercising to lose weight you'll see yourself weighing in at the same rate for 3 or more days at a time. Then your body will shed a week's worth of weight loss over a few days, then you'll plateau at the next level down for several days.

There are also instances where you'll actually gain weight, like a pound or two, while on a losing-weight plan. Those instances can be really frustrating! Thus it's important to understand they can happen even when you're doing everything right and not overreact. What can cause weight gain? It could be as simple as water retention. Eating salty food can cause the body to retain a bit more water. You'll lose it later; you've just got to get past the blip in weight.

I know my body tends to retain when traveling. I'm not sure why; I just know it does. So when I get back from a trip I know I'm going to weigh in at least 2 pounds higher than when I left. I know it's another type of blip so I don't overreact, e.g., by punishing myself with an austerity diet— "OMG, 2 pounds?! I can only eat rice cakes and celery sticks for the next week!" I know if I continue doing whatever's normal for my weight loss plan, those extra pounds will come back off soon.

So, yeah, go ahead and weigh yourself every day. Just don't overreact when you see plateaus and upward blips.

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Out of Sight = Out of Mind, Fridge Edition

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 04:06:34 GMT

On each of our last two visits to Hawk's parents we've spent time clearing old & expired food out of their refrigerators and freezers. Yes, those words are plural. This pair of 80-something empty nesters have a large kitchen fridge/freezer combo (bigger than the one owned by the family of 6 I grew up in), a large commercial stand-up freezer, and two mini-sized (about 3' tall) dorm/office fridge/freezer combos. And all four of these devices were packed full.

Not only did Hawk and I throw out 3-4 bags of food during our April visit but we started our recent visit clearing out another 2 bags of food— including things that had been left to rot since our April visit. Then, late last week as our visit was winding toward an end, we cleared out yet another 2 bags of food into the garbage.

Part of the problem IMO is "out of sight, out of mind". Their fridges are not just "full" the way most people use that term.... They are literally packed so every cubic inch is occupied. Every shelf is filled 5 layers deep. And you cannot see any of the deeper layers until you peel off what's on top of them. As we dug through the topspoil into the permacrud in the commercial freezer we found food dated from 5 years ago. Nobody remembered it was in there. Once it got pushed behind 2 layers of newer stuff it became an artifact for archaeologists from the future to discover.

We sifted through the layers to figure out what to keep and what to toss. What we didn't toss, Hawk reorganized. She sorted things onto different shelves by theme. For example, "Frozen dairy products". She even took pictures of the freezer and diagrammed them with zones numbered 1-12 (yes, twelve) so FIL could figure out what's where. 🤣

While Hawk was doing some of the reorganization I patiently explained to FIL what freezer burn is and why it makes food unsatisfying to eat. Apparently he thought putting things in the freezer was like casting Time Stop on them. I showed him examples of bags with air in them that resulted in moisture being leached out of food in just a few months, while carefully vacuum-sealed foods might last a few years. I don't know if the lesson stuck. He seemed to be looking for a simple rule like, "Freezing any food makes it good for n months/years."

Another thing we did during the 11 days we were out there recently was focus on eating through food already in the fridge/freezer. We went out for dinner as a family exactly once, the first night we were there. And we did go grocery shopping for a main dish to have the second night, but after that it was all, "Hey, this thing we found in the freezer from [mumble] years ago looks good still, let's cook it." And we made sure leftovers got eaten, too. Eaten within 2 days later, or tossed out. Because leftovers that got tucked away and saved for months or years until they looked disgusting and nobody was sure what they were anymore, made up a big part of those 7 bags of food we trashed.

By the time we left Saturday, between throwing out multiple bags of food, eating through some of the stuff, and reorganizing the rest, we got to the point where a person can actually see what's in the fridge. Hopefully that will help them actually eat the stuff they've got, instead of constantly buying new stuff because they can't see 80% of what's in there.

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Nice Weather on Tap. Maybe I'll Enjoy It.

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:35:34 GMT

Today's the first day of June. And finally the weather looks like it'll be seasonally appropriate... no more spring in February, summer in March, and winter in May. Look at this beautiful 10 day forecast:

Ah, all this beautiful weather on tap. Maybe I'll even be able to enjoy it.

...What do I mean by that passive-aggressive sounding remark? Sigh. Yesterday was a beautiful day, too. And I set one goal for myself: Go outside and enjoy the pool. And I failed. I was too tired. Too tired even to go outside and relax by, or in, the pool. 😞

Guess what my goal is for today? Yup, same as yesterday. Guess what my chances of success are. Sigh. Right now I'd call it about 50/50. ☹️

I shouldn't be this tired.

Update, 4pm: I got out to the pool today. And not just for a quick soak; I did laps in the pool, followed by a soak in the hot tub, then sat out under an umbrella for a while. Woohoo!

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Back from our Trip Within a Trip

Sun, 31 May 2026 18:00:49 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #14½
Centralia, PA · Tue 26 May 2026. 9:30pm.

This blog got lost in my backlog a few days ago. I'll post it now because it's a good summary of the "trip within a trip" Hawk and I took in Pennsylvania while we were visiting her folks.

Tuesday evening we got home from our "trip within a trip". Well, home as in the home of Hawk's parents— which, for now, is our home away from home. We took a two day trip, just the two of us, to enjoy some hiking and also take a break from being with her parents 24/7. Where did we go/what did we do?

From near Harrisburg we drove toward Hickory Run State Park. We braved rain and heavy fog on the drive then considered hiking the SHADES OF DEATH trail... but it was more lame than metal so we skipped it.

We hiked Hawk Falls at Hickory Run. Thankfully the rain had stopped though everything was still wet and the sky gloomy... which is actually good weather for enjoying waterfalls.

We hiked the Seven Tubs trail near Wilkes-Barre.

We stayed overnight near Wilkes-Barre. We could have day-tripped it out and back both days but decided to save some time, and give ourselves more of a break from family, by spending a night in a hotel.

Tuesday we visited Ricketts Glen State Park, where there are an astonishing 21 named waterfalls on one loop trail. With the recent rains we saw more falls than that, plus we added official falls #22 after a late afternoon ice cream stop.

We detoured slightly on the way home to the town of Centralia, where an underground coal mine fire has been burning for 64 years! Our notion of disaster touring came up a bit short as there was no sign of the underground fire we could see, just a town abandoned and razed so long ago that most of what was once the town center has returned to nature.

The one bit that's new since all of those previous blogs is that we stopped for dinner on the way home this evening. We could have stopped at a popular looking small-town drive-in burger stand in the next town over a few miles south of Centralia, but we didn't. I don't know what better option I was holding out for... because once we got out of that and back onto the interstate the options were basically McDonald's and Burger King. We ate at McDonald's. It was my first time at a McD's in 10 months. It was... not as bad as the sad McDonald's visit 10 months ago. Maybe I'll be ready to go again in 6 months after this.

Now we're back home... well, home away from home... and it's an empty house. MIL, FIL, and BIL are out getting ice cream. Hooray that MIL felt well enough to get out!

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Home from Harrisburg

Sun, 31 May 2026 05:34:33 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #20
Back home · Sat, 30 May 2026. 10:20pm.

We're back home from visiting Hawk's parents in Pennsylvania for the past 11 days. We walked through our own front door 20 minutes ago. I quickly unpacked my bag, now Hawk is unpacking hers after partially sorting through the mail. We have a lot of mail, almost all of it political mailers for highly contested races in next week's primary.

The trip home today was easy if a bit boring. We had all kinds of time in the schedule so we didn't have to rush or fret over minor delays. We left her parents' place after lunch then promptly made a pit stop for road snacks and drinks. We drove down to Baltimore for BWI airport. As I've explained before, BWI is the most logical airport for traveling to my inlaws even though it's ~90 miles away from them. We had a few hours of slack time at the airport.

The nonstop flight to SJC was long and boring. We landed a bit late but, again, it didn't bother us much. The one thing that was perhaps most frustrating about the trip was having to wait 30 minutes for our checked bag. Southwest Airlines at SJC seemed to have just one baggage team at 9pm, and there were 4 arriving flights stacked up. That wait would be more frustrating if we both had to be up early in the morning for work, but we don't— today's Saturday. And we're both retired. Every day is Saturday. 🤣

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Packing to Leave, Planning the Next Trip(s)

Sat, 30 May 2026 20:35:46 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #19
At my inlaws' house · Sat, 30 May 2026. 12pm.

Our bags are all packed. We'll be leaving my inlaws' house in an hour or so. We've been here for 11 days. Well, minus the two days we took a trip-within-a-trip, just the two of us, to a park with, like, a bazillion waterfalls and a town that's on fire.

Before we leave today we're planning our next trip(s). We've agreed our next visit to Hawk's parents will be TBD for now. We'll figure out timing after MIL's next followup with her cancer doctor about two weeks from now. We're all hoping she'll be able to resume treatment after that, and we'll plan around her treatment schedule. But that's not the only trip we discussed this morning.

We're also planning a trip to Hawaii! This is something we've been discussing for about a month now. I've been waiting for some hotel points to fall into place so we can book a nice place on Maui on points. We'd been planning to book reservations for December, but when we looked at availability today and cross referenced it with weather averages we landed on dates in September. So, it'll be a late summer visit to Maui for us!

We've got trips planned in August and September now. Nothing yet in June or July, though. We'll have to get busy figuring out what to do for the next 10 weeks. Though right now I'll be happy to get home and spend the next few days taking it easy and lounging around the pool.

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Sous Vide Corned Beef

Sat, 30 May 2026 06:30:46 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #18
At my inlaws' house · Fri 29 May 2026. 10am.

This one's actually from last week, but I put it off/forgot about it until now. I did sous vide cooking for the first time. It was in my mother-in-law's (MIL's) kitchen, with her equipment and her guidance, while she's not well enough to do the cooking herself. It was fairly easy, and the results were— to my surprise— fairly good.

Sous vide, for the one or two people who still don't know at this point, is a method of cooking wherein food is slowly cooked in a water bath. The name in French literally means under vacuum, referring to the fact that the food is sealed in a plastic bag with the air pressed out of it to help with the cooking. In the picture above you see a large plastic container, filled with water; the meat, placed in a Zip-lok bag, and the heater, set to keep the water at a constant 68.5° C (155° F) while cooking.

How slow is "slow"? In the case of this corned beef, which traditionally would be cooked by boiling in a pot (how my Irish-American grandmother always made it) or in a roasting pan for 3-4 hours, we cooked it sous vide for a whopping 29 hours. TBH I'm not sure where that cooking time came from. MIL stated it as she guided me on how to set up the rig. It's certainly not marked on the meat's packaging. The water temperature of 155° F (68.5° C) came from instructions included with the device.

The results were good. I mean, we had to plan ahead and start cooking more than a full day before we wanted to eat. And MIL wanted her corned beef sliced sandwich-thin, which meant we had to plan for it to be done cooking a few hours before dinner so that we could refrigerate it to slice it thin enough. I sliced a portion thin enough for her to have two meals of it (she's eating very little right now) then sliced the rest in larger chunks and reheated it to serve in a more traditional style.

How were the results? They were delicious. And that (pleasantly) surprised me. Why? It was surprising because, frankly, virtually everyone I know who praises sous vide food routinely overcooks it, badly.

I still remember the first time I encountered sous vide, probably 20 years ago now. A friend was rhapsodizing about how tender the meats are and how it's impossible to overcook them. He was signing these praises while offering us all pieces of a steak he'd cooked— a steak he'd cooked until it was gray through-and-through and tasted like shoe leather. Everyone around me agreed with the chef. The steak was delicious and tender, they all nodded, adding their effusive praises to the chef's self-congratulatory back-patting. Chewing over and over on a tasteless slice of meat I felt like a subject in that psychological experiment about peer pressure where everyone else in the room agrees that object A is bigger than object B, when it's objectively true— and clearly visible— that B is bigger than A

And it wasn't just that one bad experience I've had with sous vide. A relative of mine brags constantly about cooking meats sous vide. He goes on about it like vegans crowing about veganism. He considers himself a pro-quality chef of the style and has looked at creating a business around it, doing catering for parties. Reader, I've eaten his food, and it's so overcooked that if I were served it at a restaurant I would send it back. I would send it back and then, after the chef came out to berate me for clearly not appreciating beautiful, perfectly cooked food, never eat at that restaurant again.

So, given my experience that sous vide is more of a freakin' cult than a valid means of cooking food, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that good results can be achieved just as easily as shoe leather. Now I'd actually consider buying one of these rigs for my own kitchen.

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MIL's Better. What a Difference a Day Makes.

Fri, 29 May 2026 19:21:18 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #17
At my inlaws' house · Thu 28 May 2026. 12pm.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday my mother in law (MIL) was heartbroken over an unsettling recommendation from her cancer doctor to suspend treatment. She took some prescribed pain medication in the afternoon then had trouble waking up in the evening. Hawk, her father, and I were on the verge of calling 911 because she couldn't stay awake and couldn't form words into even short sentences. We did ultimately get her to get up, and we decided it wasn't an emergency. Today she's doing so much better. She's awake, alert, and able to communicate normally.

MIL and FIL are also feeling better about the recommendation from the oncologist. They're no longer interpreting his advice as wanting to stop treating her cancer permanently. Instead they're taking it as (1) continue pausing the treatment at least another 2 weeks. This allows time for a serious blood infection she's still suffering to clear up. She basically can't get chemotherapy while the infection's still present. Two weeks from now is her next followup with the doctor to assess if she's ready to restart chemo. And (2) the's doctor description of "If you stop treatment you'll have higher quality of life for 6 to 12 months" is informing her of her alternatives, part of what any good medical practitioner should do, and is not him saying, "I'm stopping treatment, you've got 6-12 months to live." MIL still very much wants to fight this cancer, aggressively.

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On the Verge of Calling 911

Fri, 29 May 2026 13:45:35 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #16
At my inlaws' house · Wed 27 May 2026. 11:30pm.

This afternoon I wrote about my MIL's health situation taking a turn for the worse this morning. This evening things got worse-r. 😨

MIL took some prescription pain medication around lunchtime. It was the right choice IMO because of the combination of physical pain and the emotional shock of the morning. But the combination of the pills and the emotions hit her hard. She napped all afternoon. This evening we tried to wake her for dinner and had trouble. She'd be physically awake but would have trouble forming words in response to a question. She had shallow breathing. Then she'd fall back asleep until we called out her name again. We were seriously on the verge of calling 911.

In medicine there's a 5-step scale that rates how alert or unresponsive a person is. Level 1 is fully alert, Level 5 is coma. I remember a time sitting with my father in the hospital when he was at level 4. He needed intervention to recover from that state, and it only happened because I advocated for a nurse to call a doctor at home at 2am on a weekend. Anyway, MIL wasn't at level 4— but she was darn close to level 3. Add in the shallow breathing and that's why we were prepared to call 911.

The three of us got MIL roused. It took a while. Ironically what broke the logjam was Hawk gaining her attention and sternly saying, "Mom, if you can't wake up we're going to call 911." Ooh, she did not want to be carried out in a stretcher and brought back to the hospital. She stood up and used her walker to get to the bathroom. It was very slow all around, but she did it. And she was more alert afterwards. She ate a few bites of food.

MIL is back asleep now. The three of us feel the emergency has passed. But we quietly agreed that we'd take turns checking in on her, as she sleeps sitting up in her chair (she can't sleep lying flat in a bed yet), overnight tonight. I checked on her just now, and she's breathing evenly again.

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Disaster Touring in Centralia, PA

Thu, 28 May 2026 16:55:40 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #14
Centralia, PA · Tue 26 May 2026. 6:30pm.

Earlier today while we were driving to Ricketts Glen State Park I quipped to Hawk, "I'm curious to visit Centralia. How far off our route is it?" It turns out it's closer than I thought. It's not on the fastest route home, but detouring through the town adds only 5 minutes to the drive.

"Why do you care about visiting a town with a population of just 5 people?" you may ask. Ah, there's significance behind that tiny population. And I don't mean numerology.

An Underground Fire

Decades ago Centralia was yet-another small town in the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania. It was like many of the small towns we drove through on the way here— with houses and businesses. It was surprising to see how many people still live in those 100-year-old little towns, BTW. But Centralia is almost a ghost town. It's because in 1962 a fire started burning in an underground coal mine. The fire could not be put out. The fire has never been put out. It's been burning now for at least 64 years!

In 1983-84 the federal government approved a buy-out for Centralia residents. Many took it and left. By 1990 the census recorded just 63 residents left— down from approximately 2,000 before the fire. In 1992 the governor of Pennsylvania used the power of eminent domain to condemn the buildings in town. An agreement was made with a few hold-outs to remain in their houses until their death. The 2020 census shows an official population of just 5 people.

Centralia isn't much in the news anymore. I remember it from being a news item back in the late 1980s. Presumably it stopped being as newsworthy once nearly everybody was moved out.

What We Saw

I wasn't sure what to expect in Centralia. Oh, I had some fanciful notions, like smoldering ruins and smoke venting from ruptures in the ground. Hawk mentioned online descriptions of steam vents visible in a cemetery. Imagine how metal that would be... walking through a cemetery with acrid smoke rising around the graves as if from the fires of hell burning beneath them. 🔥🪦💀

Alas there was nothing like that. We arrived in Centralia to find... almost nothing. Old streets were laid out in a grid, but along those streets was nothing. There were no houses, just empty lots now overgrown with trees. Evidently the houses were flattened years ago, flattened and the debris removed. The tracts where buildings once stood have already returned to nature.

Amid the empty blocks we did see two houses still standing. Both had signs of habitation— specifically, cars and trucks built within the past 5-10 years. And judging by the number of such vehicles there seemed to be a lot more than 5 people in town.

We did check out those cemeteries, BTW. We even walked through two of them (respectfully!) that were open to visitors. They just look like normal cemeteries. They're even well-maintained, with fresh flags put out by many of the graves. And there was no smoke.

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22 Waterfalls... And Then Some!

Thu, 28 May 2026 03:28:47 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #13
Red Rock, PA · Tue 26 May 2026. 5pm.

When I put Ricketts Glen State Park on my list of places to visit I was lazy about doing the research. I saw the park has a bunch of waterfalls and I figured, "Yup, let's go there." When I got there and spoke to a park ranger I learned the park has 22 waterfalls... and 21 of them are on a single trail! Better yet, as we walked the trail we found several unnamed bonus falls. I figure that's the benefit of putting up with the past 5 days of rain.

I decided pretty quickly on the hike that if I only made photos of the falls I'd have a hard time remember which is which. So I recorded video at each one and named them as I went. I knew that would also make it easier to write this blog. Instead of slogging through processing dozens of photos, which would take me several hours, I stitched the videos together. I think it only took me about 90 minutes. And this video will be easier to share with my relatives than a lengthy blog.

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Staying Overnight on our Trip Within a Trip

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:11:09 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #12
Spark hotel in Wyoming Valley, PA · Mon 25 May 2026. 10pm.

Tonight we're staying at a hotel near Wilkes-Barre in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania.

"Wyoming?" you might wonder. "Why is it named after a big western state?" Actually that question has it completely backward. The state of Wyoming is literally named after the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. That's why this afternoon we did a hike on the flank of Wyoming Mountain. And tonight we're staying in a hotel near the foot of Wyoming Mountains. The word "Wyoming" comes from the Munsee language of the native Delaware people. "How is the Wyoming Valley even relevant to me?" you might ask next. Well, the city of Scranton is here. 🤷‍♂️🤣

Okay, so maybe you're not linguistically curious. Maybe your next question is, "Why are you staying at a hotel when you're already staying at your inlaws' place for free?"

I'll tell you, that's a question I've asked myself several times. We're just 2 hours from their place by shortest driving route right now. So it was feasible to do this two-day trip-within-a-trip as two day trips. But we had a few reasons to stay out for a night.

Probably the biggest reason is that One reason is that it's less driving back-and-forth this way. We're saving about 3 hours in the car by staying here. Reason two is we figured we'd enjoy some time away from family. And reason 3 is we found this hotel with a nice indoor pool and hot tub— which felt really good to soak in this evening. That's right, we needed a dose of #PoolLife this trip!

This trip we're at a Spark by Hilton hotel. Yes, that's their name, "Spark by Hilton". It's like with a new brand they need to add the parent company to tell you it's good.

But is it good? Well, it's yet-another limited service property. It seems to slot in as more basic and no-frills than Hampton Inn, which has been Hilton's biggest footprint (most properties) and a mainstay for us as a reliable mid-scale brand.

A lot of Hamptons, though, and most of the other Hilton brands, too, were designed decades ago, Spark is brand new and more Millennial or even Gen-Z appealing. I noted right away in our room one thing it doesn't have: an alarm clock/radio on the bedside table.

The damn things are ubiquitous in hotels. They used to be ubiquitous everywhere. I remember getting one for my nightstand at home when I was ten. And I remember also getting rid of it, like, twenty-five years ago when mobile phones replaced clocks and alarms. But hotels seemed to not get the memo. They've continued to clutter their nightstands for the past 25 years with these relics of 1980s technology.

This is literally the first time I've stayed in a hotel that does not have an alarm clock/radio on the nightstand. Instead they've got a power bank/charging pad. There's even a note stenciled on it for those who fret the sky will fall without alarm clock/radios to hold it up: PLACE PHONE HERE. Better yet, there's one of these on each side of the bed.

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Hiking the Seven Tubs

Wed, 27 May 2026 02:19:32 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #11
near Wilkes-Barre, PA · Mon 25 May 2026. 3:30pm.

After hiking Hawk Falls earlier today we drove further north, toward Wilkes-Barre, to visit the Seven Tubs. Actually first we drove into town to check into our hotel and get some lunch, but I'll write about town later. For now it's all about the hiking.

Seven Tubs is the name given to an area near the foot of Wyoming Mountain (elev. 1,932') where a creek slices through a narrow sandstone gorge. There are numerous spots, apparently seven of them, to be exact, where the water swirls around in pools where the creek has carved slightly wider spots in the rock. These are still pretty narrow, though, and often hard to see from above. But more than these tubs what interests us are the waterfalls between them.

The first pair of falls (above) are easy to spot, They're in the canyon below a footbridge that crosses over the creek at the near end of a loop trail.

From here we walked back across the bridge around the left side of the gorge and up one branch of the short loop trail. This branch of the trail was rough, clambering over uneven rocks slicked with four days of rain, often within just two steps of the lip of the gorge. It was weird because in most parks this kind of footing would be beyond the fence and the signs marked "Danger" and "Do not enter". But here it was part of the trail. And we were sure it was part of the trail because it was marked with blazes.

At the back end of the loop we crossed a smaller footbridge then came back around the right side of the gorge. The trail here was more what I'd expect for a state park. Still there were no signs or fences, but at least the trail wasn't like, "Take two steps to the side and you'll die." I mean, I like nature wild and free unblemished with fences and signs, but in our litigious society it feels weird to see.

One upside of the "no fences and signs" thing was we could scramble down the slippery slope of the canyon to the water's edge. Okay, sometimes we do that even when there are fences and signs. But it felt go to not be confronted with reminders that we were committing a crime to do so.

Speaking of crime, there were a lot of young people on the trail with us. It seemed like all of them were out here to hole up in a nice spot and smoke marijuana. We had to leave our spot near the creek in the photo above because the second-hand smoke was noxious. (Note: marijuana is legal in Pennsylvania only for registered medical users. Recreational marijuana is illegal. Apparently there were lots of really sick teens and twenty-somethings, like with glaucoma or arthritis or nausea from chemotherapy for cancer treatments, out here with us. 🤣)

As we came back down to the footbridge over the canyon we discussed again whether to descend the other trail at the junction. It leads down to another creek that joins the one in the gorge. "I bet there's a falls right beneath this bridge," I added. We agreed to descend specifically for that. Indeed there is a falls right beneath the bridge.

We walked upstream along the other creek for a bit, too. It has a few small cascades. And, today, lots of pot-smoking teens. We bailed out after 100m or so because the small cascades weren't worth choking through acrid clouds to get to.

Now back at the trailhead we're stowing our gear for the short drive (back) to our hotel.

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Hiking Hawk Falls in Pennsylvania

Tue, 26 May 2026 11:42:39 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #10
Hickory Run State Park · Mon 25 May 2026. 11:30am.

We are finally at Hawk Falls. This morning we drove through rain, heavy fog, and SHADES of DEATH to get here. After all that the hike itself was an anticlimactic stroll 1km downhill to the falls.

The weather has held out being not-rainy for the past two hours. That's good because this hike would be a lot less fun in the rain. But because it's rained so much the past several days we had no worries about whether the falls would be flowing fully. And the continued gloom overhead is actually a nice condition for visiting waterfalls. When the sky is dim overhead the forest feels more intimate and the leaves glistening with raindrops practically sparkle.

For these two pictures (above), yes, I/we am/are kind of standing in the creek below the falls. Actually, we're balancing on rocks. Though in the first picture I've placed my camera tripod right in the water. The rocks aren't that big. I wore my boots so I wasn't afraid of stepping in a few inches of water. Hawk had her hiking sandals on (boots don't fit comfortably after toe surgery a few months ago) so had to be more cautious.

Partway back up the trail we spotted a side path over to a rocky outcropping. I could hear the crash of the falls from the main trail at that point so I figured we'd looped around to be right above them. Indeed we had. And the rocky outcropping 20m off the main trail offered a great view of the falls. The only downside was that the rocks were wet. That meant we had to be careful scrambling over them... and that we got the seats of our pants wet sitting down to admire the view. But that's part of why we wear our "hike-y clothes" when hiking.

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Driving Across PA. Shades of DEATH?

Tue, 26 May 2026 02:25:39 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #9
Hickory Run State Park · Mon 25 May 2026. 10am.

Today we embarked on a trip within a trip. We're visiting Hawk's parents near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. For the past 6 days we've been at their house. But this morning we hopped in our rental car and drove a couple hours north to do some hiking. We'll do a few hikes today, stay overnight at a hotel in Wilkes-Barre, and then do more hiking tomorrow before returning to my inlaws' place until Saturday.

Our first stop today is at Hickory Run State Park. The drive here was concerning as we passed through rain and heavy fog most of the way. The forecast called for rain to be finished by dawn today but clearly Mother Nature did not agree with the meteorologists. The heavy fog on I-81 through central PA reminded me of a white-knuckle nighttime drive I did through that stretch when I was 20. It was easier dealing with the fog in the dayime this time. And fortunately the rain did abate by about 10am. The heavy fog lifted, too.

Driving through Hickory Run State Park we spotted signs for a trail named Shades of Death. "That sounds so metal," I quipped to the park ranger at the visitors center, a man so young he probably doesn't know what "metal" means unless someone posted on TikTok about their cringe uncle thinking he's still cool for wearing band t-shirts from 40 years ago while fat and balding and complaining about the cost of Medicare. "What's there?"

The ranger explained that it's a trail through a section of forest where the pine trees grow close and shade the sun so much that little else can grow on the ground below them.

"Oh, so it's just an old growth forest," I thought to myself. Mature trees with canopies blocking the sun so there's no undergrowth is a common phenomenon that usually doesn't get a dire descriptor. And this old-growth forest isn't even that old if it's pine trees. Shit, I've got redwoods growing in my back yard. I didn't say any of this aloud because I didn't care to start a biology debate with a kid who was probably already comparing me to his cringe uncle. 🤣

Well, as you might surmise from what I just wrote, we decided Shades of Death wasn't worth our time to hike, totally metal name or no. Instead we'll drive on a few more miles to our intended first hike for today, Hawk Falls. Stay tuned!

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Dreary Days in PA

Mon, 25 May 2026 20:20:11 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #8
At the inlaws' house · Mon 25 May 2026. 6:15am.

This trip to Pennsylvania and the one we did ~8 weeks ago have both been a study in weather contrasts. On the earlier trip we arrived to sub-freezing temperatures and saw a high of 80 a few days later. This trip things have gone in the opposite direction. We arrived Tuesday morning to a sunny day with highs that rose into the 90s. By Thursday it was 55 and rainy. And the last 4 days have been nothing but drear— cloudy skies and near-constant light rain.

Today's was supposed to be better. Cloudy, still, but with rain ending early this morning and temperatures warming back into the 70s. A peek outside at this early hour shows the "still cloudy" part of the promise is fulfilled 😅 but it looks like it could rain at any moment. No odds on whether it will actually get warmer.

Speaking of this early hour, I'm up early because... well, the honest reason is because I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. But that's part of a plan as I went to bed early last night ("early" in this house being 10pm) because today Hawk and I are going hiking. We'll drive a few hours north, hike a few trails today, stay over at a hotel in Wilkes-Barre, then hike a few more trails tomorrow before returning to my inlaws' house.

So, yeah, I really hope the weather does improve from "shitty" to merely "partly shitty". 🤣

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Buy Points? IHG Offer

Sun, 24 May 2026 21:35:06 GMT

It seems like lately airlines and hotels have been sending me "Buy the points you need!" offers more frequently than usual. I figure that's an indicator of a slowing economy. They're not selling enough flights and room nights, so they're hawking points to make up the difference in revenue. Make no mistake: points are revenue. A major airline a few years ago (I think it was American) notoriously boasted to Wall St. that it made more money from selling points than operating flights. Who buys these points? The big buyers are actually banks. They buy the points they offer on all those credit card deals. Individuals like you and I can buy points, too.

I've always cautioned people to be careful with buying points because it's usually a ripoff. (It's not a ripoff for the credit card issuers; they buy points a billion at a time. The small-fries deals offered to individuals like you and I are the iffy ones.) Let's take a look at one of these offers and see if/how it makes sense to buy.

The email I received today advertises this:

This is your chance for 100% more points

Hurry to buy points now through June 6, 2026, and we’ll double them — just because. Plus, you can buy up to 300,000 points, more than usual!

Clicking through the offer I found that the best points rate starts with a purchase of at least 26,000 points. They're a penny apiece, $260. With the 100% bonus the cost drops to 0.5 cpp (cents per point). I can buy up to 600k points (300k + 300k) at that rate, for $3,000.

To understand how good (or bad) of a deal this is you have to know what the points are worth. Remember, just because something's on sale for half off doesn't mean it's actually a bargain. The price may have been marked up more than double to start. In fact it usually is.

Lately I've valued IHG points at 0.6 cpp. That valuation comes from my observation of what the points rates are vs. normal cash rates when I've checked prices on IHG hotels various times over the past year-plus. BTW, IHG hotels is the brand family that includes brands like Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. Those are among our go-to brands for ordinary stays.

So this would seem to be a good deal, right? Buy points that are worth 0.6cpp at a cost of just 0.5cpp. Ah, but the fact they're selling points this cheaply— and have been on multiple occasions over the past year— is a leading indicator that IHG points are being devalued again.

Yes, points devaluation is a thing that happens regularly. Rival hotel chain Hilton devalued their points three times in the past 18 months. Hyatt did a big devaluation a few days ago. Whenever a company starts selling points at a new, lower rate it's a strong indication that another devaluation is coming. Indeed, already it's been getting harder to get 0.6cpp value on points stays at IHG. Half the time the rates I see embed an exchange rate that's lower, like 0.55cpp or 0.5.

What this all tells me is that rather than buy new points right now, I need to hurry up and spend my existing points before they lose value again. Thankfully that's exactly what I have been doing. We stayed 6 nights on IHG points in Ohio last month and I've already booked another 5 nights with IHG points on a trip we've planning for August.

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MIL's Birthday

Sun, 24 May 2026 13:55:24 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #7
At the house · Sat 23 May 2026. 9pm.

We celebrate my mother-in-law's (MIL's) birthday with a party today. Her actual birthday was a few days ago, and she turned... well, I'll say she's in her 80s. Today, a Saturday, was more convenient for having friends and relatives visit, including friends and relatives from out of town. We celebrated with lunch out at a restaurant MIL (and FIL) enjoy and then came back to the house where we served cake and ice cream.

It wasn't a big group for the party, just 12 of us total including MIL and FIL. Among those attending:

MIL's children and son-in-law (me!)

MIL's sister and brother-in-law, who flew in from Chicago

MIL's sister-in-law, who drove up from Virginia

Long-term family friends who live nearby

A long-term "our kids are in the same grade" friend from Silver Spring, MD. Funny story: MIL met her when they lived in the same neighborhood in the 1970s and were registering their oldest boys for kindergarten. Not only did they have kids starting school together, but when the admin instructed the parents to line up alphabetically by last name (seems like an awfully advanced task for kindergarten 🤣) they discovered they have the same last name! They've been friends ever since— which is now about 55 years.

We'd invited a few more who were unable to attend. 12 turned out to be a nearly perfect size, though, as the table at lunch wasn't overwhelming and everyone fit easily in the house for the cake-and-ice cream party. And MIL had more energy than we in the immediate family expected.

MIL herself had expected she'd only be able to handle two visitors at a time. Hawk and I built a plan around moving people between rooms so as not to overwhelm her. But then MIL sat down at the head of the dining room table and asked everyone to grab chairs and sit down with her. Not everyone sat at the same time; a lot of us had done a lot of sitting (especially those who'd driven or flown in) so we were happy to stand. And splitting ourselves between two rooms did work better for everyone anyway. And MIL enjoyed being able to talk to, like, four people at a time.

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Boomers and Technology

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:51:52 GMT

Ah, Boomers and technology. Or, more generally, older people and technology. The past few days as we've been organizing a birthday party for my mother-in-law (MIL) it's been humorous— in a "laugh, so you don't cry" way— working with old people trying to use technology. The thing is, here in 2026, almost everyone under 90 is using technology, many are depending on it every day, but so many of them have close to no understanding of how to actually use it, beyond "I push the button and the thing happens." Here are three stories:

1. Can't Book a Hotel with a List of Names and Phone Numbers

To help MIL's & FIL's older relatives figure out where to stay, Hawk and I put together a short list of hotels nearby that we know to be good, clean places. It was made more difficult by the fact there's a show in town this weekend, jacking the rate on the usual places we'd recommend to 2x normal. As part of our research we checked prices and narrowed down the list to 2 recommended hotels. "Book here or here, they're known-good hotels, nearby, with fair prices." We provided names of the hotels and phone numbers.

That was either too hard or too simple for Aunt Diane.

( Read more... )

2. The Name, Please, Not Directions

This one involves my own inlaws. Even though FIL has worked with computers since the 1970s, his understanding of them apparently stopped evolving in about 1992. The modern Internet might as well not exist. Apps on smartphones might as well not exist. Despite being reminded about mapping apps multiple times a week, he cannot comprehend that people no longer need a 5 minute monologue of directions to get someplace, they just need the name or address.

( Read more... )

3. Can't Read Directions While Driving, Won't Pull Over

Another aunt was driving in from a few hours away. She had Hawk read directions to her over the phone the day before. "Don't you have a smartphone?" we asked, incredulously, because we know she does. "Yes, but I can't read it while I'm driving," she explained. So Hawk read turn-by-turn directions to her over the phone, while auntie wrote it down. And the dictation exercise took twenty freaking minutes because auntie needed everything repeated three times and spelled out. (Why couldn't she have looked it up on her own phone and copied it down to paper herself?)

And that's not even the worst part. ( Read more... )

Not All Boomers

Not every older person is a complete disaster when it comes to using technology effectively. The counterpoint to this came with Hawk's uncle, Ron.

( Read more... )

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Got the A, Working on A+ (and CP)

Fri, 22 May 2026 12:17:52 GMT

Years ago the status chase used to be a big thing for me. I'd accumulate airline miles and hotel nights in pursuit of elite status with various providers. When I was traveling 100 nights and 150,000 miles a year it made a difference, and I could reach high tier status through my travel. Nowadays it's different. I fly a lot less frequently. I may only log 35k miles this year. And I do still maintain several elite statuses— but most of them are through lifetime achievement (United, Marriott) or owning the right credit cards (Hilton, IHG). There is one airline I still have to get status with the old fashioned way... by earning it every year. That's Southwest.

About 10 years ago I upped my game in the status chase sport. Instead of just logging on to Southwest's portal frequently to see how close I was to requalifying for status, I started maintaining my own spreadsheet. I'd track not only what flights I'd already flow and how much they'd earned me but I'd forecast future activity & earnings, too. Here's a screenshot I made when I wrote about this a few years ago.

So, how am I doing this year on Southwest? Pretty decently, actually, though I've still got a gap to close.

I passed the threshold for Southwest's "A List" elite status with 35,000 Tier Qualify Points (TQPs) two weeks ago. My flight to Cabo took me across the line on that.

An A on Southwest isn't my goal, though. I'm shooting for A+... aka A-List Preferred status. That requires 70,000 TQP. I'm near 41,000 currently. With future activity already planned I'll hit 56,000 TQP by the end of August. I'll have to generate another 15k by the end of the year to hit A+. I don't see that being a problem. (Though of course last year I said that, too, then needed a mileage run to cinch the last 150 or so points.)

Southwest also has a separate elite status, the Companion Pass (CP). That's the two-for-one flying I've written about many times before. CP requires 135,000 CP Qualifying Points (CPQPs). Right now I've got 93,000 with a forecast of 116,000 through August. Again, there's some work to do to get across the line, and I'm reasonably confident I'll hit it with flying later in the year.

What's this "later in the year" I'm talking about? Well, right now I don't have anything booked after August. That leaves a whole 'nother 4 months to fly. Hawk and I have been talking about a trip to Maui in December. I'm going to try to book that next week. (I've been waiting for hotel points to fall in place so we can book an award stay.) It's also likely we'll take at least one other long-haul domestic flight, possibly another trip to visit her parents, and maybe a short-haul or two for weekend-sized trips up or down the west coast. Tracking my spreadsheet allows me to plan when to book such flights using points instead of earning points and when to consider another airline vs. concentrating my activity on Southwest.

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Carrying a New Old Bag

Thu, 21 May 2026 22:33:44 GMT

Lately I've traded down on the shoulder bag I carry. It's what I use to carry my computer, cables, spare charger, lip balm, etc., when I travel— whether riding the train into San Francisco to visit my friend David for the day or flying across the country or overseas for days or weeks at a time. And by "traded down" I mean I've downed the size. The new bag I'm carrying is less than half the size of the previous one. It's also trading down because this bag is free. It's an old bag of Hawk's, and I'm just borrowing it.

For years I watched Hawk use this bag and thought to myself, "No way, that's way to small for me." And the thing is, it was too small. Keyword, was.

For years the shoulder bags I carried on work and leisure trips were about twice this size... the same height, twice as wide, and a bit deeper when fully stuffed. They were basically soft-sided briefcases with a shoulder strap.

What drove that sizing decision was, initially, the size of a laptop computer and its (large) power adapter. Back in the mid/late 00s those were a lot bigger than they are today. I also carried wire-bound engineering notebook because guest wifi access was generally not a thing. When I managed to downsize the form factor of my laptops in the early 10s I started carrying two computers at a time— work and personal.

Now that I'm retired 🏝️ there's no more issue of carrying two computers at a time. So why carry a big bag anymore? I asked myself a few weeks ago. Hawk lent me this bag, and it's been working beautifully. My MacBook Air fits snugly in the main pocket. The second pocket has enough room for the cables, chargers, pill bottles, etc. I need— even on a 2 week trip, like I'm on right now.

A big benefit of the smaller size is this bag fits easily under the seat in front of me on aircraft. My old, briefcase-sized bags? Those often had to be wedged in at a diagonal, making it hard to get my feet under there, too. And when it's time to get up and walk, this bag slings comfortably over one shoulder like a small pack.

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Home Sweet Home for MIL

Thu, 21 May 2026 12:25:48 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #5
At the house · Wed 20 May 2026. 9pm.

Today we picked up my mother in law (MIL) from the rehab facility and drove her home. Yesterday when we visited her at the center she already looked more energetic than the last time we saw her, 7 weeks ago at home. Today she looked even perkier than that. When we arrived today at 10:40am she was already sitting up in bed and fully dressed & packed to go.

MIL said upon walking into her living room, and getting ready to sit in her favorite chair, "It feels so good to be back in my own home!" I checked back through family text messages... between the hospital and rehab, she'd been away since May 1.

MIL had a lot more energy throughout the day than I expected. I mean, she wasn't busying herself in the kitchen like she always used to. She can barely stand. But she did spend several hours going through bills and statements that Hawk had sorted the mess of paperwork on the dining room table into yesterday. As I contended from the start, 80% of it was trash.... But she's got her own system for it, and none of it is trash until she says it's trash. 👈

In the evening we ate dinner together. I got drafted into being the cook. I don't mind; MIL couldn't, FIL needed a break, and Hawk had done all that work with the bills. Plus, I've done most of the cooking at home for years. It was my contribution to the day. The main challenge was finding everything I needed in MIL's well stocked but idiosyncratically organized kitchen.

The meal plan we put together yesterday worked fine. The pulled chicken we bought was actually the easiest piece to prepare. It was just "nuke this for 1 to 2 minutes". I cooked frozen broccoli, made instant mashed potatoes, and cooked the last 6 frozen rolls from a package. For dessert I cut slices of a cheesecake I picked at the store yesterday and drizzled them with chocolate sauce. I thought I was the only one who liked it that way, but MIL and FIL both thought that was a fantastic improvement.

MIL remarked a few more times throughout the day how nice it is to be home. We hope she stays for a while longer now!

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Out with the Old Food, In with the New

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:51:03 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #4
At the house · Tue 19 May 2026. 9pm.

We did a few errands today with my inlaws. One was visiting MIL at the rehab center. She's coming home tomorrow, and we went to see her today, too. The good news is that even though she's in a medical facility right now she has way more energy than when she was at home during our last visit.

Before we left the house to visit her we did some more cleaning up. Earlier today Hawk cleared— well, tamed— the mess on the table. This afternoon we tackled the fridge.

Before We go Food Shopping, We go Food Trashing

This chore grew out of Hawk and I deciding what we need to shop for. For years in the past we'd come to visit her parents and the fridge (and pantry, and other fridge, and basement freezer) would be well stocked through the whole visit. That's because MIL is a compulsive grocery shopper. But with MIL in the hospital/rehab for several weeks the fridge has been left to rot. In some cases... literally.

What was rotting in the fridge? Among other things, a lot of fresh food that we bought (or was bought for us, or defrosted for us) during our last visit, 7-8 weeks ago. The sandwich meat we didn't eat? Still in there. All the cheese that was in there (some of it already months old even then)? Still in there, untouched. Smoked salmon and smoked tuna? Still in there. Oh, and tons of leftovers that were in there 7-8 weeks ago already getting hairy were now... green and hairy. 🤢 I filled a trash bag with stuff to throw out. And that was after Hawk already filled a trash bag without even looking in the meat-and-cheese drawer.

BTW, this rot is just from the last 7 weeks since our previous visit. On our previous visit we filled 4 trash bags cleaning out food that had expired months before.

Time for Food Shopping. ...Almost.

So, we did the clean-out in the afternoon, then visited MIL at the rehab center, then went to eat dinner out at a restaurant before shopping for groceries. It's like that old saying, "Don't go food shopping on an empty stomach," right? So clearly the solution is to dine out first. 🤣 But seriously, nothing was ready to make, and FIL was at his wits' end and needed a break, so the three of us (Hawk, FIL, and I) went to Chili's. Then we went grocery shopping.

Part of the point of going grocery shopping together tonight was to help educate FIL on how to do it. It's not that he doesn't know how to buy groceries at all. It's more that he doesn't know how to buy groceries that match the situation, "We're two 80+ year olds who eat very little and don't have a lot of energy for preparing complex meals."

That means, among other things:

Not buying meat in 4+ pound valu-paks. Yes, they can parcel them out into small portions, but that's a) more work to do up front and b) more crap that occupies their multiple freezers and could get buried for a year or more.

Not buying more than one loaf of bread at a time. FIL was all set to buy as many as three loaves "So people can have a choice." I countered that we should just pick one that looks good and people can eat it. And if it runs out in 2 days, we can buy more. And it'll be fresh. I also showed FIL where this store sells half loaves of delicious-looking fresh bread for when there isn't company coming. (We chose the store specifically because we know it does bougie things like this.)

Buying quality ready-to-cook or pre-cooked dishes to simplify meal prep. For tomorrow night's dinner we grabbed a tray of pulled chicken— a small tray of pulled chicken— that can be heated quickly and dressed up with barbecue sauce. Again, we chose the store because we know it has a wide selection of good pre-cooked and ready-to-cook dishes. We'll pair it with frozen vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, and frozen rolls already in the house.

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Flying to Baltimore, Driving to Harrisburg

Tue, 19 May 2026 13:39:22 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #2
Parked at a Wawa near BWI · Tue 19 May 2026. 7am.

It's 4am California time, but already it's 7am here in Maryland. The sun is up. We feel like death warmed over from barely sleeping on an overnight flight. And we're sitting in a rental car in the parking lot of a convenience store near BWI airport, eating a breakfast of a pepperoni stick, a few balls of cheese, a cup of donut holes, and a quart of Coke Zero. (Well, that's my breakfast. Hawk's is less well balanced.)

Last night I shared that we're traveling to visit my inlaws in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for my mother-in-law's birthday. Well, the overnight flight we took from San Jose didn't take us all the way to Harrisburg. We only flew as far as Baltimore, Maryland. That's by design as H'burg has a tiny airport with only connecting service to/from major hubs like Chicago, Washington, and New York. Instead we caught a non-stop flight to BWI. We've rented a car and we'll drive from here. The drive is about 1h45m minutes in light traffic.

The timing on this is not ideal. First of all, the flight was a red-eye. That is not ideal. But it's the lesser of two evils. The reality of geography and time zones is that flying from California to the East Coast is a tradeoff of either a) burn a whole day flying, or b) get a crummy night's sleep flying. I routinely choose (b) when flying to visit family.

And nowadays Southwest Airlines offers an SJC-BWI nonstop. SJC is less than 10 miles from our house, and BWI is the closest major airport to Harrisburg. (Baltimore, MD is actually closer than Philadelphia, PA.) That means no more schlepping up to SFO, which is half an hour further from home, to fly United to IAD, which is at least half an hour further from Harrisburg.

The second thing that's not ideal about this timing is that right now it's 7am. On a weekday. That means rush hour traffic. That's not a huge deal, really. It just means the drive will take longer. And that's partly why we're taking a quick breakfast break right now, at 7am, at a Wawa convenience store near BWI. We're tanking up here on food and drink before we hit the road to Harrisburg.

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Headed to Harrisburg. Again.

Tue, 19 May 2026 03:26:17 GMT

May Family Visit Travelog #1
SJC Airport · Mon 18 May 2026. 8:20pm.

This evening we're embarking on a trip to visit my inlaws near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Yes, we were just out there to visit them several weeks ago. Thus I can't even call this blog series "Spring Family Visit Travelog" because we've already visited this spring. 🤣 Thus the new title May Family Visit Travelog.

Why go again so soon? This time it's because it's my mother-in-law's birthday. In past years that hasn't been an occasion for travel. She doesn't make a big deal about celebrating her birthday and has been happier having us visit instead for major holidays and anniversaries. But now we're visiting for her birthday, and so soon after our previous trip, because she's in ill health. She was diagnosed with cancer in March, and she's had a lot of complications arising from treatments since then. I don't mean to sound dramatic when I say this may be her last birthday celebration. 😨

When my grandmother and my own father were in their last year/months of life I was able to visit them frequently, for support. I know it meant a lot to them, and it meant a lot to me, too. I'm glad that coast-to-coast trips were not a barrier then. They certainly aren't now. This likely won't be the last such trip Hawk and I make this year.

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