Did someone say cooler weather? Because Southern California certainly didn't get the memo. We enjoyed a whole week of "fall" before the sun remembered it had a quota to fill and cranked the thermostat back up to broil. Fortunately, we escaped the oven on a road trip and are currently hiding out just outside of Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park. (Which, by the way, is absolutely stunning and significantly less melty.)

Oddly enough, this month's scam tip came about because of a hotel stay we hadn't actually planned on. Our original B&B cancelled on us at the last minute, which I can only assume was a cosmic setup for a better deal. We ended up closer to our sightseeing, got a nicer room for less money, and I even walked away with a fresh scam tip. Nothing says "relaxing vacation" quite like researching phone scams in an elevator. Check out this month's tip on how to handle those pesky spammy phone calls.

Getting this shot was a bit of a challenge. We'd gotten directions from a man at an information booth, but he only told us about half of what we needed to know. It's the old joke of not knowing what you don't know until you find out what you didn't know. In any case, with a little help from a fellow visitor, we found the ideal spot to view a reflection of Half Dome in the Merced River.