Star Trek: Finding Celebrities in LA

In honor of the Oscar’s this Sunday, I thought I’d give you a peek into “the dark side:” that of celebrity stalking. This is the lengthier version to a story I wrote two years ago for Visit California’s 2011 Visitor’s Guide. And for those of you who weren’t aware I supplemented my travel writing career [...]

A First-Timer’s Guide to Skiing Vail

The problem about skiing is once you get a taste of the good stuff, you only want more—not only that, but you want it bigger, better, faster, snowier. Which is why after three years of skiing in California, we hopped over to Colorado last spring for our first Rocky Mountain ski trip and realized we [...]

Photo Friday: Vail, Colorado

I just returned from six days in Colorado late last night, and if this trip didn’t have me wanting to pack all my belongings and move to the mountains, nothing will. It was our second experience skiing in Colorado—our first was last March in Keystone—and I love how even a “bad” snow year (as locals [...]

How the Other Half Skis

On the majority of ski trips I’ve been on in the past, we’ve stayed in kitschy 80s-style cabins or big chain hotels or, in the very rare case, a multi-room family condo, as we did in Mammoth two years ago and Keystone last year. So this season, when we booked a trip to Colorado and [...]

Photo Friday: Roatan, Honduras

While the island was a foot under water both times we ventured to Roatan, we made the most of it and decided to spend our days, well, underwater. Due to the heavy rains, the surface was churning, which doesn’t translate to great clarity underwater. Thus, much of what we saw is how you’re seeing it, [...]

Eating and Sleeping Our Way Through Fort Lauderdale

Our very last stop on our trip around the world with Semester at Sea wound up being a place with which I am very familiar: Florida. I spent my Spring Breaks growing up at my parents’ condo in Orlando and many a summer laying by the pool at Sandestin in the Panhandle. I’ve been to [...]

13 Things I Love About Japan

We had our frustrations in Japan, sure, but overall, I am enamored with the country. I’d go as far as to name it in my top 10 favorite places visited, if not top five. Here are some of the quirky attributes that gave it such a high ranking in my mind. 1. The culture of [...]

Photo Friday: Lake Tahoe, California

While I had a blast at Snowcial in Tahoe last month, I’m still dreaming of days spent tearing down the slopes as my time on skis was limited this past trip. We hoped to hit up Park City this winter—a ski fantasy that will be shelved until next season what with our relocation, SVV’s new [...]

Japan: Efficient, but Not Necessarily Easy

Somewhere in between China and sailing across the Pacific, we made a five-day stop in Japan. It was rainy, and we had booked a room in Kyoto, so the first order of business was taking the train there from Kobe. Easier said than done—particularly if you’d just offloaded from a ship and didn’t have any [...]

Roatan Under Water

After Costa Rica, following a day cruising through the Panama Canal, our Semester at Sea voyage made one final stop before docking for good in Fort Lauderdale. Originally, we were slated to visit Havana, Cuba, but when our travel license didn’t come through in time, that changed to Santa Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala. Well, one [...]