After living in Prague for about two years and struggling with the obtuse Czech language, a broken relationship and missing the feeling of being around people who understood me or vice versa, I was ready …
June 16, 2011
Travel Stories
Doing Europe: Rimini, Italy
Camping in South-Central Miami
Through the thin walls of the tent, I hear an elephant trumpet, and a breeze caries its musty smell across the open expanse. Somewhere nearby, a lion joins in. If you had told me this …
June 16, 2011
Vikingsholm Castle, Lake Tahoe
Vikingsholm Castle sits at the bottom of a steep, mile-long switchback driveway that drops 500 feet to the shore of Lake Tahoe. Once at the bottom, I purchased a ticket to participate in a guided …
June 16, 2011
Kaohsiung: Southern Taiwan
If you have Taipei on your travel agenda, pencil in Kaohsiung as well. Hop on the high-speed rail in Taipei and exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes later, you’re in southern Taiwan, in Taiwan’s second …
June 14, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West
Of all the buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed, his favorite was Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s one of the most popular destinations for lovers and admirers of the architect’s work, and, with the …
June 14, 2011
Historic Coronado, California
I float in a sun-warmed, peanut-shaped tile pool, watching the breeze flip the palm fronds against a turquoise San Diego sky, sipping a midday mimosa. Cally, the woman for whom I was house sitting, had …
June 9, 2011
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 …
June 9, 2011
Mayan Ruins of Palenque, Mexico
Amidst jungle-shrouded hills overlooking the Usumacinta River basin in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the Mayan site of Palenque is a jewel for anyone interested in ancient Mayan civilization. Palenque offers a little bit …
June 9, 2011
Southeast Alaska: Craig and Klawock
You arrive at the Ketchikan Airport and quickly transfer to the Island Air Express counter. You excitedly secure your seatbelt and headphones inside the tiny nine-passenger aircraft. Within five minutes you’re soaring with the eagles …
June 7, 2011
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
Carlsbad Cavern National Park lies within the limestone Guadalupe Mountain range – the world’s best-preserved Permian-age fossil reef – in what was once a shallow inland sea some 240-plus million years ago. I talked my …
June 7, 2011
Baja Revisited
Recently a close friend and I embarked on a two-week road trip that took us from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, the tip of Baja California, Mexico. We’d been discussing such a trip for …
June 2, 2011