Big Sur, California — Day Two Filed from the California Coast  ·  Highway 1, Southbound Nobody tells you that Highway 1 doesn't build slowly. There is no gentle warm-up, no gradual reveal. You

Monterey, California: Day One The rental car smelled like someone else's road trip. That particular combination of air freshener and recirculated air means you are finally, actually, in motion and that

I didn’t book this trip because I had the time. I booked it because I recognized something in myself that nine years of nursing has taught me to recognize in my patients:

There’s a particular kind of anticipation that builds in the weeks before a trip. The kind where you’ve memorized the map but haven’t yet felt the dirt beneath your boots.

As a nurse, I’ve stood beside countless bedsides — but nothing prepares you for the moment it’s your own mother’s hand you’re holding. After losing her to dementia, I turned to the trail at Starved Rock, where grief met grace and nature helped me begin to heal.