There are few destinations that evoke more traveler’s fantasies than the Hawaiian Islands; of these, Maui is thought by many as THE island to visit. I have a genuine fondness for the Big Island, but Maui also has its charms.
One of the most popular places in Seattle, and rightly so, is Pike Place Market. Near the waterfront of Puget's Sound, but really a world to itself, Pike’s is Seattle's favorite tourist attraction. It covers 9 acres and has...
Norwegian Air Shuttle, a low-cost carrier that has begun flying trans-Atlantic from Oslo now plans to offer service by this summer to NYC and LA from London Gatwick.
I've previously described what a great travel destination Bratislava is (click here for that link). Clean, historic, vibrant -- in a healthy recovery after decades of repression under the Soviet regime. As we were...
My final blog post on the Big Island covers the driest (less than 25 cm of rain a year) and oldest parts of the island — the northwest and central regions. (Petroglyphs, King's Trail, Waikoloa village) The Kohala...
The Portland, a steam towboat, was used in the mid 20th century to dock, turn and assist ships through the Willamette River's narrow channels. She was retired in the early 1980s when more efficient diesel engined boats took her place....
This blog is being published on the same day PHeymont posted some great pics of Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, or Place of Refuge, which you can see here. Along with the Place of Refuge, I'm discussing...
Airlines have recently begun replacing many of their seats with lighter, slimmer seats that allow them to either offer more legroom or...surprise!...jam in more seats. As this article from the Sydney Morning Herald points out, it's not just that space...
(Sunset over Hilo Bay, Big Island of Hawaii) Hilo is tucked into the northeastern corner of the Big Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa’s rainy side. And boy can it rain; the region gets up to 200 inches (500 cm) each year though...
Ancient bathers share the beach with modern visitors at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. The park is a bit south of Kona, on the west side of the island, and on the way to Volcano National Park....
(Volcanoes National Park -- plume of volcanic smoke from Halema'uma Crater) There are many places in the world I wish everyone could visit. At the top of this list is Hawaii. It’s a great travel destination and for me retains...
I lived in Spokane for almost seven years. I love the region, a beautiful forested hilly area between the great mountains of the Cascades to the West and the Rockies to the East. The Spokane River runs through the heart of the city,...
I remember my delight in making soap bubbles as a small boy! My mother would mix the soapy solution and I'd take my little wand and run outside, blowing and watching the little bubbles drift away (before they popped). So it appealed...
Two of Brussels’ most famous obsessions—chocolate and the famous Maneken-Pis stature of a small boy urinating—are caught in one picture of a chocolate shop featuring endless sizes and flavors of the statue.
This is a hold-up! This fellow (and a companion on the other side of the door) carry the weight at building entrance on Stromgaten, near Bergen, Norway rail station. Historically, statues have served a variety of serious purposes: to honor the...