Wallowa Lake and the City of Joseph

A trip to Northeast Oregon is an opportunity to witness where one of history's tragic stories begins. This is where the Nez Perce Indians spent their last free days, before going to a reservation. Today, among the...

The Mysterious Underground of Pendleton Oregon

Like an epic novel, the intriguing "city beneath a city" of Pendleton, Oregon, is rich with characters and settings as diverse as underground opium dens and ice cream parlors. The entertaining and knowledgeable...

Biking Through History - The Civil War Northern Campaign on a Bike

      I arrived nearly 150 years too late for the Battle of Antietam. The signs of war however were still evident across the Maryland landscape.  Burnside Bridge still crosses Antietam...

What Lies Beneath – An Underground Journey through Carlsbad Caverns

Daylight vanishes as we walk down the steep serpentine trail leading into the huge mouth of Carlsbad Caverns located in the southeast corner of New Mexico. My two daughters and I were glad to be wearing good...

Angels and Knights over Nation’s Capitol

(updated) Screaming in formation through the blue skies near the nation's capitol, the phenomenal U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the Army's premier parachute team, the Golden Knights join a host of other aerial acrobatic...

Kinetic Race a Big Success in Baltimore - Race Results

Wilma and the Wombats, Fifi and Platypus were crowd favorites at the 10th annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM).  The annual race started under overcast...

Photography in National Parks – Be Aware, Not Afraid

  Our National Parks are wild, beautiful and all too often dangerous, especially for tourists with cameras.  I have often seen people so caught up with recording their experience that they put themselves...

The Other Air and Space Museum

The largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world traces the history of human flight in grand fashion at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.  The Smithsonian has two Air and Space...

Living Christmas Tree Sings Out

This is the time of year for many churches across America to erect elaborate scaffolding in the shape of a Christmas tree for their annual Christmas presentations. One of the largest singing Christmas trees is at the...

48 Hours in New York

If you had 48 hours for a family weekend in New York City what would be your top five places to visit? Before giving the specifics about where we went during our 48 hours, I want to state that my family was...

Enchanted Evening at the Hearst Castle

The rich and famous have always fascinated me, particularly after watching the classic 1941 film Citizen Kane.  The movie by Orson Welles traces the life of the fictional Charles Foster Kane, whose rise to...

Stuck in El Paso

I just returned from an unplanned, last minute trip to El Paso, Texas. If you're stuck in El Paso without a plan here are some interesting places to visit and eat. The good news is that downtown...

Going to San Francisco?

If the answer is yes, be sure to bring your camera or journal to capture some memories for a lifetime. There are plenty of sites to see and experiences to enjoy in this city by the bay. San Francisco is one of...

Spice It Up in Old Mesilla

If your travels take you to Las Cruces, New Mexico or El Paso, Texas schedule time to travel to Old Mesilla, New Mexico. It is only a few minutes from Las Cruces and about 45 minutes from El Paso. The food, shops and...

Not Your Grandparent's Vacation - Niagara Falls

My family and I must be some of the last people to see Niagara Falls. Whenever I mentioned we were headed to Niagara I would inevitably hear "oh I remember going there when I was ten" or "I went there forty years ago...