I visited Wroclaw, Poland, during an interesting time in history: it was the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence, the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht. As for Wroclaw itself, it …

When I think of Cambria, I often think of my Grandpa Bristol – outfitted in a pair of brown waders – prying large red abalones from tidepool rocks. The Bristol home was close to the …

A little while back my mother and I decided to go on a ghost-hunting expedition to Tombstone, Arizona. Being the “professionals” that we are, we packed our equipment (flashlight, electromagnetic field detector, digital audio recorder …

Sometimes an adventure shifts your perspective and uproots your priorities. For me, that adventure was a road trip through Portugal and Spain in September. The story begins in Lisbon, Portugal: My friends picked up me …

What a great place! Not long ago my husband and I were in the Windy City (more about that later). It was early October, unusually warm; in fact, temperatures were in the high 70s with …

Athens, Greece, is the antidote for the bland. I was inspired by it all – the cultural sites, museums, cuisine, and congenial residents. Athenians are guardians of a rich heritage. Over two thousand years of …

In Portugal’s southern Alentejo province, near the town of Evora, in the incongruous midst of a vast cork plantation, stands Portugal’s Stonehenge. It is called Os Almendres. Around 6,000 years ago, for no obvious reason, …

If Paris has its Seine dividing the city into Left and Right Banks, Lyon, France’s third largest city, is wedged in by two great rivers – the Rhône and Saône. From Paris, it’s a short …

The Palms Hotel at 12th and Island downtown (originally known as the Bay View and reportedly San Diego's oldest continuously operated lodging) and Hillcrest's similarly rundown Friendship Hotel are being purchased by the same Newport-based …

The pre-Gaslamp, premultiplex downtown of 1979 exists today only in the fond memories of cinemaniacs old enough to recall a time when Jaws made you afraid of the water, Friday the 13th made you afraid …