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Stories by Karin Leperi

El Paso from six feet under

No shortage of history in this Texan desert treasure.

I’ve never considered visiting graveyards a “must-see” travel experience, but I’ll have to admit that lately I am finding a wealth of history and a deep sense of place that develops necessarily when jaunting graveyard ...

Here Be Dragons: Ascending Switzerland's Mt. Pilatus

Alpine adventure and legends aplenty.

High above the bustling lake town of Lucerne, Switzerland, lies the rugged cliffs and steep mountain terrain of Mount Pilatus. It’s here where the legendary dragons of yore resided – in particular, a winged dragon ...

MONA: World's Most Unconventional Museum

It just opened on January 21, 2011, and already it's the most talked-about museum in the world. And who could have guessed? David Walsh, the eccentric pro gambler and millionaire founder of MONA, or the ...

Melbourne Street Art

Across the street diagonally from Federation Square – a celebrated architectural icon and Melbourne cultural center – is a hidden laneway named Hosier Lane. It’s here where I start my urban encounter with the street ...

Changi Airport, Singapore: Layover Shangri-la

I just returned from a marathon flight halfway around the world, where I was faced with a layover of almost seven hours in Singapore. By my calculations, that translated to almost a day before I ...

Christchurch, New Zealand's International Antarctic Centre

In February 2011, Christchurch captured world headlines when New Zealand’s second-largest city was jolted by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, flattening downtown buildings and claiming 181 human lives in its debris-laden wake. Though parts of downtown ...

Oklahoma City: Who Knew?

The last time I'd been in Oklahoma City was as a 6 year-old child. My family was passing through on our annual road trip from California to Indiana to visit aging relatives. What I remember ...

Cody, Wyoming: Stoking My Inner Cowgirl

I must've been a cowgirl in a previous life, because nothing can quite explain the immediate attraction and connection I experienced on a recent trip to Cody, Wyoming. From immersing myself in Western culture at ...

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Oregon

On a recent visit to Portland, Oregon, I found myself unexpectedly with an extra day in my itinerary. So, being an aviation buff and former flight engineer in the Naval Air Reserve, it was a ...

Shenandoah National Park: Mountains that Whisper

“For me, it’s Yosemite and Shenandoah.” ~ Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker As I sit perched atop Blackrock Summit, the highest point in the Big Meadows area at 3,721 feet, I ponder the panoramic vista of ...

Panama in the Buff

Today, wedged between the old and the new, the natural and the modern, Panama is a country of both paradox and transition. With a biodiversity exceeding its more famous neighbor to the northwest – Costa ...