1 of 60 - Hualapai Mountain Resort

View at the top of the Hualapai Mountains

One of my best birthday presents this year, was that my friend Cheri Johnson spent 6-hours to drive up from San Diego to surprise me at my 60th Birthday Party -- and spend the whole weekend with me. After a very late night (or would that be a very early morning?), and sleeping out on my back patio, we woke up Saturday morning famished. There was a restaurant I'd always wanted to try -- and I'd heard had fabulous Saturday Morning Brunch, so off we went.

I live near Kingman, Arizona -- and it's usually pretty hot here. But less than an hour away are the Hualapai Mountains -- and they get quite a bit of snow in the winters. This was the perfect chance to get out and have breakfast with a friend while exploring these mountains. 

Cheri has a new car, so she drove and I navigated -- and we chatted and laughed and caught up on our lives. As much as I love a New Car smell, the smell of the fresh clean air up in the mountains was absolutely intoxicating. You couldn't help but take in big deep breaths of the cool air -- with just a hint of pine.

There's a lodge, cabins, and a couple of campgrounds at the top of the Hualapai Mountains. We stopped first in the cute little General Store, and met the nice lady that works there -- then headed to the restaurant. The buffet is simple, but good/fresh/clean -- so I loaded up on bacon, and Cheri dug into Biscuits & Gravy. And we chatted and laughed and caught up some more. Our poor waitress kept checking on us, because we were there for a while -- but eventually we were stuffed, and decided to head on out. 

Before we piled back into her car, we stopped again and took in the beautiful scenery. And, of course, snapped a few Selfies -- to commemorate the occasion. PRO TIP: You should always do the Selfies BEFORE a large breakfast. Trying to smile AND suck-in-your-gut is much tougher! 😉

If you're in the area, take a detour to the Hualapais -- the scenery alone is worth the drive. And the Saturday Morning Brunch is delish. More details: Hualapai Mountain Resort - https://hmresort.org/ 

Cheri and Gena - June 2025

60 New Places in My 60th Year

    I tend to get reflective around my birthday, and this year was a biggie -- so as I thought about the past 60 years, I decided to look forward to the next 60. (Yes, that IS optimism!)

    For this 60th year, I want to get out and see more of this great world. So I've set a goal to get to 60 New Places in My 60th Year. Fortunately, with a friend visiting, I got a couple of new places in over my birthday weekend. And I have a few roadtrips planned this year, so I'm going to try to rack up a few more.

    Because the best parts of this past 60 years has been LIVING this life -- and many of my best memories have been when I have taken a leap and did something outside of my comfort zone. And I'm not really very good at Selfies, but I'm gonna try. My mom always hated having her picture taken, so we have very few of her, especially over the age of 60 -- but I'm just going to muddle through some bad selfies and focus on LIVING. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "The purpose of life, after all, is to LIVE it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."