When I first started traveling, it made sense to do multi-day group bus tours: it was economical (a big bang for the buck), it was a lot of activity packed into a short amount of time, they took care of all the transportation and hotel arrangements, and I didn’t even…
The warmest of the 3 Mexican Riviera cruise destinations, Puerto Vallarta was my favorite, in terms of shopping, cleanliness and public art. As the southern most port, it had a different feel from Cabo and Mazatlan, and somehow seemed to have a brighter atmosphere. Now, don’t go asking me to…
It was 120 degrees in Egypt on my first trip in 1993, and because the sun was almost directly overhead, there was very little shade to gather under as we listened to long-winded tour guides extolling the virtues of pyramids, obelisks and stone carvings. So I set aside my pride…
In Junior High, the time when other kids are the most critical if you look a little bit different, I used to go to swim team practice before school. Which meant that, without a miracle, my red chlorine eyes were going to get all kinds of the wrong attention. So…
As part of our Princess cruise of the Mexican Riviera, we had a full day in Mazatlan, which I’m going to dub “A Tale of Two Cities.” Why, you ask? The Old Town or Historic Center was about a 10 minute, $7 taxi ride up a winding cliff from the…
My first cruise was on Carnival to the Caribbean in 1995, and while the atmosphere was too much of a late night party for my taste (even then, when I was significantly younger!), I fell in love with cruising! Not the days on the ship, mind you. It was the…
One of the things I love about travel is the feeling of being transported to another time and space, and that is exactly what happened when I walked into Albuquerque’s Old Town. There is so much history packed into a 10 block area, including the Central Plaza (which formed the…
My parents, who both grew up in Idaho (my mom in Boise, and my dad in the small northern town of Kellogg), moved our family to Coeur d’Alene in 1966. That was when my dad bought his first business (of 28 he bought and sold) at age 29: Eddyville Lodge,…
Back in the days when I had a ”real” job (before I started my own business in 2000), I used to travel every year over Thanksgiving. My reasoning was: 1) I worked 4 x 10’s, so for 3 days of PTO, I would have 11 days off; 2) My birthday…
Many moons ago (1985-86), I attended graduate school at the American College of Fashion in London (now defunct) to study (what else??) fashion. I already had my BS in Business Administration and Management from Grand Canyon College (GCU now), but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I decided…