Ten minutes late (on time if you’re on “hippie time,” I suppose), a woman wearing sparkly orange tennis shoes and a long velvet coat walks up to the street corner, shouting to us in a …
April 30, 2012
History
San Francisco Hippie Tour
La Jolla Sea Caves
Weathered from a 75-million-year-old sandstone cliff in La Jolla are seven sister caves. Like many other seaside caverns, these, too, have been used by pirates. Only the cargo they smuggled was human. California’s eight-year-gold rush …
April 18, 2012
Birmingham, Alabama: Birthplace of a Movement
Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 – after the Civil War – but quickly caught up with other Southern cities’ cruel segregation and Jim Crow practices. Some say it bested them. Dr. Martin Luther King, …
March 27, 2012
At the World’s End: Hiroshima and Miyajima
The tragic events of 1945 can barely be appreciated without seeing the peaceful, dignified city of Hiroshima, Japan. Within minutes of stepping off the bullet train, a local resident offered us a free tour of …
Medieval Life in Winchester, England
William the Conqueror was a busy guy in 1066 after successfully invading and taking control of England. After being crowned king in London at Westminster Abbey, William immediately took control of the town of Winchester, …
March 14, 2012
Looking Back: Day Trip up the Khyber Pass, 1998
There is a 19th-century Protestant church at the south end of Bombay’s Colaba Causeway. It has a disproportionately tall steeple, and before the skyline of Nariman Point was developed, it was the most prominent landmark …
Filipino Flair – The Philippines
“We’re the fun Asians.” After soaking in the aforementioned statement from a Filipino friend and almost three years of living and working with a multitude of friendly Filipinos here in San Diego, I had to …
March 6, 2012
At the World’s End: Chernobyl and Prypiat
I was two years old and living in the U.K. when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, on April 26, 1986. Naturally, I have no memory of the event, but my mother assures me that …
March 5, 2012
Washington Grove, Maryland – Town within a Forest
Northeast of Washington, D.C., lays a “town within a forest.” Washington Grove is a shady hamlet tucked beneath an age-old stand of forest. It’s a town built purposefully around trees, one of the early intentionally …
A Day in Provincetown, Cape Cod
Cape Cod’s most popular destination, Provincetown, is on the furthest tip of the peninsula and offers New Englanders and travelers alike a relaxing spot to refresh and recharge. A 90-minute ferry ride out to Provincetown …
February 23, 2012
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 …