Travel

After four full days at Mandalay Bay, one of the best-known Las Vegas luxury hotels, I’m happy to report that nothing occurred on our Las Vegas vacation that needed leaving behind. We didn’t lose a lot of money gambling ($20), didn’t attend any racy shows (no shows at all, actually), or even break any laws…

On our four-day stay in Vegas, my greatest wish was to visit Hoover Dam, a civil-engineering wonder, which is an easy 40-minute drive from Las Vegas. My current research subject, W.E. Dimorier, visited Boulder Dam, as it was first named, in the summer of 1935, just a month before it was dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. During my…

(2026 Note: I deliberated whether I should add this post to my new website, but I guess, if any of these are still open after more than a decade, you know they must be good. Oh, and Jim and I fell off the plant-based wagon.) At home, my husband, Jim, and I usually follow a…

On the last full day of our four-day Vegas vacation, hoping to get a little closer to the majesty of the Spring Mountains, we decided to drive to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in our rental car. The area offers a 13-mile scenic tour that we thought would be fun. For an automobile, the charge to…

Yesterday, in Las Vegas, could be considered something akin to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It had to do with some bad decisions on my part and some inferior customer service from an Apple Store. But this post is less about an Apple complaint on my iPhone and more about how I handled…

For years, I have avoided Southwest Airlines, even after watching its reality show a while back. I thought of it as the Walmart of travel. Being a Virgo, the unassigned-seat approach seemed as if it would upset my sense of order and make an already-stressful experience more so. I have flown a lot in this lifetime, but…

Depending on our destination, we find ourselves on one of three airlines: US Airways, Delta, or United (previously Continental). If we’re flying US Air, we connect in Philadelphia, a flight of more than 90 minutes from Erie, PA. The flight attendant announces that because of the short duration of the flight, there will be no…

On the Forgotten Coast of Florida near Port St. Joe, St. Joseph Peninsula State Park offers swimming, hiking, fishing, snorkeling, birding, and camping.

Before I give you the low-down on our trip-home adventure, here is a list of all the blog posts for the 2011 Italy trip! Well, now we’re back home in the USA, in our small community, in Erie, PA. Although we had an amazing time in Italy, we’re so glad to be back home. Gettin…

For the last two days of our vacation, we stayed in Gaeta, a seaside town south of Rome, for its proximity to Itri, which is where Jim’s maternal grandparents were born. Itri is much larger than Troia, where his paternal grandparents came from. When we were in Itri, we enjoyed the pool at our hotel,…