When you think of a national park, your mind rarely conjures up images of people falling in love. The classic boy-meets-girl scenario is usually left to Hollywood's far-fetched romantic comedies. But here’s a story about …
November 1, 2012
Travel off the Beaten Path
Oz's West Coast – and the Unexpected
Go Dutch in Delft
Breaking out of Amsterdam can be a difficult task, as there's so much to see in the vibrant city. In fact, it took me numerous visits to finally venture outside the capital. If you're looking …
October 26, 2012
Whidbey Island, WA
A hot sun overhead, we roll into Coupeville in the early afternoon and stop in at Toby’s Tavern on the town’s historic port waterfront. The bartender, a raspy woman in a Harley-Davidson vest, lists off …
October 22, 2012
Into the Heart of Magic Realism Country
There is a family somewhere near the Colombian Caribbean coast who have a novel way of caring for their elderly, infirm grandfather. Supposedly, along the banks of the river Magdalena, the very same river that …
October 22, 2012
Giving Face in Kashgar
It was my final day in Kashgar, China. I had all the photos I needed and was ready for a good meal before catching my flight out, when I noticed a tiny man sitting outside, …
October 9, 2012
Shark Calling in Papua New Guinea
I became interested in shark calling when I met shark enthusiasts like myself who had visited the remote island of New Ireland off the coast of Papua New Guinea. I arrived at the village of …
October 8, 2012
The Merry Cemetery in Maramureş, Romania
In the twenty-four years of my life I spent in Romania, I never had the occasion to visit a unique place in Transylvania called the Merry Cemetery. So, about two months ago, I called my …
October 5, 2012
Sea Ranch Chapel
Just north of Salt Point State Park, half way between Point Reyes National Seashore and Fort Bragg along the Pacific Coastal Highway, is a place called Sea Ranch. About 300 of the 1,800 uniformly shingle-clad, …
October 4, 2012
La Vida Tranquila: A Family's Pursuit of Paradise
(Originally appeared as a 9/4/12 blog entry at HuffingtonPost.com.) In 1998, I left a boyfriend who admitted he couldn't commit to anything more than putting food in the cat's bowl. We were in our early …
October 4, 2012
Benin, West Africa: Begging for an Education
In the first century A.D. a Christian mystic named Augustine said, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read but the first page." Those words have guided a great deal of …
October 2, 2012
Weird – and Luxurious – Hocking Hills, Ohio
I certainly wasn’t expecting to find European-style castles and other luxurious things in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Yes, they have some of the more expected things, like biker …
September 20, 2012