Some of the best unfiltered water I’ve ever drunk cascaded over broad gravel bars along the Canning River – surging down the North Slope of the Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Northeast Alaska. Three friends were paddling in a raft, while I paddled in a one-man pack raft on our way […]
I love Sicily— and not just because I am half-Sicilian! The food markets, the array of amazing architecture, the people, the scenery… Palermo is a vibrant port city, from its underground catacombs to the heights of Santa Rosalia, and from amazing fine art collections and museums to eye-popping churches and restaurants of the highest caliber […]
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If it’s good enough in this century for Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney and Zendaya, (whom I just missed by a day) – and in the past century frequent visitor Winston Churchill, as well as U.S. Ambassadors Joe and Rose Kennedy, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, W. B. Yeats, and other political and literary movers and […]
A half mile up Scorpion Canyon on Santa Cruz Island, I could hear the deep barks and bellows of raucous California sea lions. Their symphony of bawls carried beneath the low canopy of dewy fog hovering above the Santa Barbara Channel, and the Channel Islands National Park. It was 4 am, and as time crept toward […]
The Channel Islands National Park has always been a haven for migratory birds needing a rest, especially during and following big windstorms. From my kayak, I’m always keeping an eye out for any seafaring feathers that might be out of the ordinary. Seabirds like Pacific loons are on my radar come spring, big northwest winds […]
Plenty, as usual, it turns out. Before checking into my second Hawaiian hotel (one of four on my eight-night islands foray), I had a fantastic brunch/lunch at Istanbul Hawaii, a delightful Turkish restaurant opened five years ago in the Kamake’e Corridor of Ward Village. Turkish native Chef Ahu Hettema, along with her mother Nili Yildirim […]
One of the things I love most about living in California is the diversity and abundance of floral life throughout the year. Taking road trips is a hobby of mine, and I especially adore the drive from Santa Barbara to San Francisco Bay. I’ve compiled a list of 10 amazing flower walks that can be […]
I traveled to the Hawaiian Islands for eight nights and visited four hotels this past spring for three reasons: 1. To see my dear friend of half a century – the amazing octogenarian artist, Dr. Masami Teraoka and his family who live on the island of Oahu, while reporting on my tourism stops. 2. To give […]
My seatmate on Alaska Airlines from LAX to Puerto Vallarta was Jeremy, a South African who made his fortune developing software for Wall Street and had become a U.S. citizen. He was traveling with 16 of his best friends to celebrate his 60th birthday in Punta Mita, Mexico. I was heading for a special culinary […]
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After a three-day wellness program visit to Sensei Porcupine Creek in Rancho Mirage, California, I can honestly say that the bar for health retreats was set incredibly high. I’ve visited many stellar “health retreats/spas” over the years (Rancho La Puerta is a favorite that comes to mind), and this one is right up there in […]
After bushwhacking and rambling across three mountain ranges and crossing two rivers between Nira Camp in the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument, amazingly I didn’t find a single tick on me. It was December 2023, and fortunately, the same went for my five comrades as we spent seven days and […]
The Channel Islands National Park has more sea caves documented than anywhere else in the world, with close to 300 grottos. However, there isn’t a toothy grotto quite like the geological feature that’s wave-battered into the sheer, 200-foot-tall cliffs of West Anacapa Island. As I kayaked inside the dark, dank sea cave at dawn, I […]
I’ve always wanted to visit Japan – a country that recently reopened to tourism. In the meantime, I thought I might approximate a Zen-like trip to Japan along the coast of California… just an hour’s drive away. These days, you can go throw a dart just about anywhere on the tourism planet map and visit […]
The lighthouse towered prominently atop a desolate, wave-battered, weather-beaten crag in a remote region of southern Namibia. Surrounded by whitecaps, it seemed like a great place to construct a lighthouse. But what doesn’t feel far-flung in this desert country of Southwest Africa? There’s just over two million people living in Namibia, making it the second […]
