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From 1965 to 2020, options for places to play pickleball have exploded. See 40 days of our journey and the 21 courts we found along the way

From Lisbon, Portugal to Madrid, Spain, it would have been faster to drive. The distance is only 388 miles (625 km). At warp speed, no time at all, but given current scientific constraints, about 6 hours. However, there’s a pesky little problem with the border between Portugal and Spain. Despite the fact that the European Union has officially made borders between member countries a thing of the past, the car rental companies have not completely followed suit. They don’t rea

A pet sit in Nottingham, England for two dogs named Izzy and Jessie turned out to be in a most interesting location near a former gate house

Don't worry, everything is working fine. It's not that kind of "out of order". This blog title refers to the fact that I've had to skip a couple of blog posts (which I hope to go back and fill in - sorry Wales) to catch up to near current day. Ky and I were thrilled to learn that there would be an inaugural English Open Pickleball tournament around the time that we had been invited to come pet sit for Zoe in Teddington, England. We planned our entire trip around this event. T

For the sake of completeness of a record of places to play pickleball in Southwest England, this post will be brief but hopeful. In Devon and Cornwall there is currently a woeful lack of pickleball players. But what the area lacks in pickleball, it makes up for in sheer beauty and history. We were so fortunate to return to Teddington, England and pet sit for people who offered us time at their beautiful vacation home in Devon. When people asked where we were headed next on o

Zoe was happy to see us, and we were very happy to see her too. For a bit more than a fortnight (two weeks), we petted, snuggled and cared for this sweet 14 year old kitty for the second time in less than a year in the lovely town of Teddington, just west of London, England. In case you don't already know, we pet sit for people around the world. It's one of the ways that we have been able to afford living a full time nomadic lifestyle for over four years. We sit for well beha

We returned to England for pet sitting and pickleball. The Southern Coast and friends made for a great start to our European adventure.

Vancouver BC is the terminus of our Mexico to Canada Epic Pickleball Road Trip. More to come in Europe though.

Who doesn't know about Seattle? Even those reading that live in foreign countries likely know about it, and many have even already visited. Our Pickleball Road Trip took us to the Emerald City, and just north of it are the small towns of Shoreline and Edmonds. We have long-standing ties to the Pacific NW. We lived east of Seattle, in Bellevue and Issaquah, from 1988 - 2002, and both of our children were born in Bellevue. We actually had our own pickleball court at a home we o

The history of pickleball on a badminton court to a modern day private court. Coffeys2Go enjoyed a day getting to know a Pickleball family.

If you've been reading along on this blog for awhile, you might have noticed that I like using pickleball related alliterations in my titles. Today's alliterative word is Shadowing: The strategy in Pickleball of moving in tandem with your team partner, keeping roughly 10 feet between each other. Both players move laterally, approach the net or retreat to the baseline together in sync. ​It's definitely something I need to work on! Ky and I couldn't see our shadows on the way u

Our Airbnb hosts in Lincoln City were simply among some of the best we've had. The morning we were scheduled to leave, the husband, David, took us out crabbing. He had been planning to meet a friend to go fishing, and he offered to throw his crab pots in and see what he could catch and send with us on our journey. He took his kayak out, put it in the water where the Siletz River empties in to the North Pacific Ocean. It was a perfect weather morning, cool air and beautiful bl

Shhhh! Don't tell them who gave you this info. Here's a secret place to play pickleball. It's in Bandon, OR at HLMS - Harbor Lights Middle School in the gymnasium. The folks there might not really be trying to keep it a secret, but it is not listed, as of this writing, in Places2Play. The small coastal town of Bandon, Oregon is located about 100 miles north of the California Border. About 2,700 residents live within the city limits, which is known as the Cranberry Capital of

Port Orford is a beautiful small town on the Oregon coast. People are friendly and the pickleball is good. What more could you want.

We woke up, packed up, drove up (north), filled up (with breakfast), saddled up (on bikes), drove up (farther north), laced up (hiking boots), drove up (even farther north), laced up (tennis shoes), played pickleball up (and down the courts), drove up (finally to Langlois, OR). We had no more up in us, so we fell down on the bed! We are early risers, as in 5 am early. After we packed up the 4Runner, and said said our "Bye bye" to the Obsession sailboat, we drove just a short

Some girls like rose petals on the bed or the bath water. Me... yep, pickleballs are preferred! Great play in Arcata, CA!

We had a great time playing pickleball in Eureka, CA at the Adorni Center and staying in an Airbnb in a nearby sailboat in Woodley Marina.

Our proposed route from Alamo to Eureka, CA was only going to be about five hours, but some of you know that is a long time to go without pickleball ;-) If you're away from your home courts and you find yourself craving a game, open up the App Places2Play or look it up at www.Places2Play.org . Last summer we were in Santa Rosa, and we found awesome people and courts at Finley Park. We were strongly drawn to return to it, but we like trying out new locations (ya think?) but t

What comes to mind when you think of Concord? A town near you in one of seven different states (AL, AR, CA, DE, GA, IL, IN)? Grape juice perhaps, or maybe a really fast airplane (but you need an “e” on the end for that). It is quite likely that in the future, pickleball will be what people think of first when Concord, CA is mentioned. Willow Pass Park, just a quick 20 minute drive north of Alamo, subject of my recent post, and if you’re in the general area, this park is one y

Rudgear Park in Walnut Creek, CA is an awesome place to play pickleball on their 8 dedicated courts.