Wander & Wonder
Climate-friendly and slow travel, equitable access to outdoor recreation, and nature’s awesomeness
daily practice
When you go slow enough, you create things
Hello from a slower pace
For the first two months of 2026, slow travel has shown up for me in quiet, winter ways. While slowing down and exploring with intention is not the easiest practice, I’ve noticed how spending more time in nature has helped me ground and connect with curiosity, delight, and astonishment.
Book review - Coming Alive on the Ride
Coming Alive on the Ride by Michael Yang is a memoir that offers ample food for thought about experiencing joy, exploring the tradeoffs of ambition, and finding community.
Yang immigrated from Korea to the U.S. as a teenager, and this book weaves together three parts of his life: his Korean heritage, motorcycle touring, and his career and entrepreneurial ventures in Silicon Valley.
Book review - SHE TRAVELS
A book of travel wisdom, She Travels seems meant for women who are ready for a change in their lives, especially when they may have been sidelining themselves for the needs of others. This book shows how travel to new places can catalyze personal growth as we lean on our inner resources and work with the difficulties we encounter.
Is it a walk or a hike?
Explore this meandering flowchart to discover if your latest adventure is a walk or a hike.
Book review - Ian’s Ride
Ian’s Ride is a biography written by Karen Polinsky about the resilience of Ian Mackay who broke his neck at age 26 and became quadriplegic. Polinsky recounts Ian’s journey to becoming a world-record-holding endurance athlete, tech innovator, and advocate for accessible outdoor experiences. This tender story explores how we adapt to adversity and open our hearts to life.
Anna Zivarts - mobility system advocate
Anna Zivarts has a visual impairment that prevents her from driving. In recent years, she’s been working as a disability and mobility advocate to shed light on U.S. car dependence and how that dependency fails everyone in our culture. Her book, When Driving Is Not An Option, published with Island Press in 2024. In addition to discussing the effects of car dependency, we also talked about the challenges of book touring as a nondriver and her experiences in other communities in the U.S.
Talking to bicyclists - road project planning
Whether you’re leading a road project engagement process or wondering why people are often in your way out on the road, there are a few things to keep in mind to ease tensions. And comics!
Wander and Wonder, a Venn diagram
I made a map of the Wander and Wonder topics – climate-friendly and slow travel and equitable access to outdoor recreation – to help me imagine what travel in the future might look like. This framework is a work in progress.
Welcome to Wander and Wonder
Wander & Wonder explores climate-friendly travel and equitable access to outdoor recreation. Transportation is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and the tourism industry. Additionally, outdoor recreation is not easily accessible to many people, yet time spent outdoors is important for personal health and well-being.