Travel

Last weekend, out-of-town relatives were visiting and wanted to go to the beach while they were here. It’s always interesting for us to see our Presque Isle State Park in northwestern Pennsylvania through fresh eyes. We grew up with the lake and beaches and often take them for granted. The older we get, though, the…

If you’re an American planning on traveling to Europe, you’re in for a treat. Such rich history! Such spectacular architecture! Such interesting people! So many surprises in store. Luckily for you, if you read this post, a dozen interesting aspects of European guest houses won’t take you off guard. Some of these also hold true…

I like movies. I like to watch them, research them, and share them. A couple of years ago I responded to a Tweet from DVD Netflix asking if I was interested in partnering with them in their new “director” program for movie fanatics. I considered the gesture an honor, and I feel fortunate to be involved in…

TSA Page Dedicated to Contact Lens Solution If you wear contact lenses and you’ve traveled by air, you’ve probably made a special trip to the store for contact-lens solution (saline) in a bottle 3.4 ounces or smaller. But that trip was unnecessary, because you could carry on a gallon of it if you wanted to…

Recently, I streamed the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life episodes on Netflix and became intrigued when character Lorelai, single mother of grown daughter, Rory, decided to clear her head by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which would be just like her, when part of the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail runs through Connecticut, probably right past…

The other day, a movie called, The Guard, bubbled up to the top of my Netflix DVD queue. It stars American Don Cheadle and Irishman Brendan Gleeson as a by-the-book FBI agent and an unconventional Irish policeman, respectively, who team up to bust an international drug-smuggling ring. While watching the movie, I became curious about the signage on the squad cars, “GARDA.” I…

Last week, husband Jim and I went on a genealogy trip to Cranston, RI, and while we were there, we thought it would be a nice idea to pop over to Newport, where we spent part of our honeymoon “quite some time” ago. We relived those days as we toured the mansions and strolled the Cliff Walk. Newport,…

My husband is quite the genealogist. He’s always following hints on Ancestry.com, scrolling through old, imaged documents, and updating his Italian family tree. We even traveled to Italy a few years ago to walk the same narrow streets his grandparents did at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Recently, a distant relative from Cranston, RI, contacted…

Yesterday, after dinner with out-of-town guests, we visited the popular Presque Isle bayfront in downtown Erie, PA. Our guests hadn’t been here since Christmas, so we decided to show them the new Courtyard Erie Bayfront hotel, which is opening this week. When we parked in the convention-center lot next-door, we noticed people walking in and out of the…

It all started with a photograph. The large, framed photographic print depicts a stone stairway in Lisbon, Portugal. At the bottom of the scene, a colorful mural, featuring the words, “Fado Vadio,” splashes the side of a stucco building. The piece hangs in the home of a friend. The photograph is a conversation piece, because…