June Bivins wasn’t crazy about visiting Germany. “I do love German cars,” said my Auburn friend, “but can’t handle polka music.”  Yet she made plans to meet her sister and niece in Europe. “The draw [...]

My country tis of free, many sites don’t charge a fee.
Washington Dc is packed with  amazing history, architecture, culture, science and politics, and the forever-free Smithsonian is worth my precious tax dollars. A British scientist [...]

“A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.”
Thomas Jefferson
Long before the Pilgrims, the English planted a colony at Jamestown and a hybrid culture of hardy people tamed the [...]

The day my first passport came, the travel bug hit me like a double–decker bus. I remember “Around the World in Eighty Days” where Philias Fogg goes on a global sojourn to win a bet. [...]

We arrived in the City of Lights braced for the worst. “The Parisians are rude,” said my latte-loving friend. “They just snubbed me when I asked directions to Starbucks, and it was just down the [...]

It seems a far cry from anywhere, but it’s just 45 miles from Sacramento. Once famous for its wild saloons and dance halls, the quaint little berg of Volcano is a great place for a [...]

While Judi talks, I swoon and turn green with envy–emerald green– like the picturepostcard landscapes, lush pasturelands, breathless coastlines they’ll see on their trip. My part-Irish eyes are smiling just thinking of boldly painted doors, [...]

“I could never let strangers sleep in my bed,” declares a skeptical friend. Michele and Frank might be foreigners but not strangers, not after dozens of email dispatches across the pond. It all stems from [...]

The next time you get an itch for the wine country, why not add a little grown-up fun at the house Charlie Brown built. Alright, it’s really a museum built for Charles Schulz—the creator “Peanuts,” and it’s over in Santa Rosa. Haven’t we all been captivated by the often-undone Charlie Brown and Lucy’s outrageous 5-cent consulting services?

After the holiday party winds down, talk always turns to travel. My bucket list?, friend Jeanne says, Pasadena, New Years Day, the Rose Parade. What? All the crowds?

The highlight of a soldier’s day were letters from home. My pack-rat father stashed his away, forgotten for decades. No war stories at our house. I never asked, he never offered. After he died, I [...]

Somebody once said that travel whirls you around and turns you upside down, often right at the gate. We arrive early at the airport, wheeling our smartly-packed carry-ons, only to hear

Scandinavia, Land of the Midnight Sun. It has a compelling ring to it, I tell my traveling friends as we toss around suggestions for an overseas trip. The Hansen in me gives thumbs up to

Last summer, I lingered over luggage at TJ Maxx with Jan Marcello. “Your Italy slide show gave me the bug to travel,” she said. “Let’s buy me a bag, for that someday when