The Trona Pinnacles (not to be confused with Pinnacles National Monument near Steinbeck’s Soledad) is one of those natural geological wonders that awes. Set back five miles off SR 178, twenty miles east of Ridgecrest, …
February 21, 2012
Travel Stories
Trona Pinnacles, Mojave Desert, California
Day Trip from Delhi: Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Agra
The stunning architectural beauty of the Taj Mahal, built entirely of white marble, is particularly evident at sunrise and sunset. At sunrise the changing light casts shadows, and at night it seems to glow – …
Captivating Cape Verde: Locked in an African Wine Bar
I’m sitting in an African bar scratching a description of Praia, Cape Verde, into a notebook, sipping my third cup of passable Portuguese plonk. I don't know if it was my intense concentration on the …
A Stroll on Balboa Island
For starters, the name is misleading. “Balboa Island” is not an island – well, not a real one, anyway. Back in the early 1900s its harbor, Newport Harbor, needed channels dredged of sand and silt …
February 16, 2012
Shooting Star Saloon - Huntsville, Utah
Utah might be the last place on earth you would expect to find the longest-running open bar west of the Mississippi. And when traveling towards Huntsville, UT, it’s not hard to imagine that you are …
February 16, 2012
Cologne, Germany's Love-Locked Bridge
Trains rumbled over the bridge and thousands of padlocks chattered in unison as I walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Germany, looking at messages of love. Row after row of various shaped and sized …
February 14, 2012
Hip Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
"In Ho Chi Minh City, there are eight million people and five million motorbikes," my guide informed me as we slowly wound our way through this bustling city en route to the Củ Chi tunnels. …
Getaway to Key West
The Conchs (those born in Key West) are friendly sorts, and so are the chickens: you’ll see them anywhere and everywhere. Large iguanas can also be found basking in the historic city cemetery, where some …
February 10, 2012
Old-school in Wheeling, West Virginia
There was a time when Wheeling, West Virginia, had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. Once the capital of “newly restored” Virginia and the new state of West Virginia, it was …
February 8, 2012
La Bufadora, Baja – Escape from SoCal Sprawl
Punta Banda is a narrow, mostly barren finger of land that pokes out into the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of Bahía Todos Santos near Ensenada. Near the very tip, busloads of bug-eyed tourists …
February 7, 2012
New York, NY: The High Line and Other Adventures
When I was in New York City, there were two things everyone wanted me to see: Occupy Wall Street and the High Line. In my very limited time, I opted for the High Line. Anyway, …
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Balcony view of a festival in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana.