Ho Chi Minh Trail - San Diego

We were in San Diego for a family vacation and I cannot not talk about Ho Chi Minh Trail!

While we were there it would be my sister Katelyn's birthday. After searching around looking for ways to make my her birthday as special as possible - I found a post on Pinterest of this awesome looking trail/hike to the beach. This trail is apparently a shortcut for surfers headed to the beach but we did not know what we were getting ourselves into!

None of us are really "hikers" per say and I'm not sure if a lot of people would classify this as a hike... but my rule of thumb is usually if I feel like I need to be wearing sneakers, its probably a hike.



There were lots of twists and turns and little slips here and there. It also was not all tiny passageways - there were some general walking paths through it. The views the entire time were so worth it!

I will warn you there is totally a rope at the end that we did not see coming. 2/4 of us fell and I hit my head really hard. Did I mention I'm not much of a hiker?

 
Once you get to the bottom, the beach is pretty secluded with a few people and mostly day-surfers. I can't speak to the weekend though to travel at your own risk. There were quite a few people going through the path as well - and I was very glad there wasn't any more or things could've gotten tricky.


What do you think? Is this view worth it? We thought so - although we chose to take the road back up to the car instead of following the path. Not sure if it was the right choice as it zig-zagged up the hill and took us forever in the hot sun. I'm glad we took on this adventure though!

One Month Plastic Free

My close friend, Charity, put into the Facebook universe a few weeks ago that she is doing a plastic-free July. I was very interested in this since I've been wanting to go plastic-free for a long time but never had a real reason to.

Not going to lie, this is not going to be an easy process. In the weeks leading up to July, I kept noticing just how much plastic I not only bring in to the home but also consume from stores like Starbucks and etc.

A few things I know will be difficult for me:

- I often carry reusable shopping bags - but not produce bags. It will be important for me to make some before my next grocery trip

- I typically order my groceries through instacart which is a grocery delivery service where you can order food online from participating grocery stores. I can request that they use paper bags when checking out from Aldi, but unfortunately, almost everything I buy at Aldi is pre-packaged in plastic. Yikes. This is going to require much more time and effort to not buy "middle-isle" foods packaged in plastic.

- Milk. I'm grateful that there is a local dairy farmer that packages their milk in Glass containers (it's the best milk in around) but it's not cheap.

- Time. I know it's going to take a lot of planning time and shopping time to get the things we need this month without contributing to plastic waste. I am nervous that time will be a factor in the process but I'm committed to success.

- Soda. Same as milk, it comes in plastic and unfortunately I do not have a soda stream yet. This month might be better for my health, too! 😂

- Remembering my reusables. I know I have reusable items like cups and straws, but it will be important to remember to take some when I go out and not just leave them at home.

I'm nervous but excited.

Here goes nothing!