Sailing in Marina del Rey on the Shimmering Bay
When I first saw Marina del Rey, California, all I could think of was, “I wonder exactly how many boats there are here?” That’s because when you look at the harbor of this city of about 8,000 people, all you see are the bobbing boats and masts that go on […]
Ringing the Bell at the San Buenaventura Mission with Father Tom
By Jack Dunphy Spanish missionaries built a chapel in what is now the center of Ventura California in 1782. Father Tom Elewaut, the current pastor, explained the early missionaries built the church with the hope of bringing Christianity to the 1200 native Chumash Indians. San Buenaventura Mission has endured for three […]
The Jolly Oyster: Slurping By the Sea at St Buenaventura State Beach Park
Mark Rey has his priorities straight. As we sat at a picnic table beside St Buenaventura State beach park and slurped down the oysters grown on farms he owns in Baja California, I asked him about celebrity customers who have enjoyed his products. “The most important people are the people […]
Big Bear Lake Wine Room: The Perfect Après Ski
By Jack Dunphy If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Big Bear Lake California a must visit is the Wine Room. After your day of skiing at Snow Summit or hiking or any of the numerous outdoor activities here the Wine Room offers a delightful place to relax. […]
Ventura’s W2O is a Rockin’ Venue High Above the Busy Street
We drove across southern California today, from Big Bear Lake down a winding road, plunging from 7000 feet to sea level and across the state to the coast to Ventura. The drought stricken landscape included vast empty streambeds and vegetation that looked like it would catch on fire any minute. […]
Action Segway Tours: Don’t Forget Your Gloves and Longjohns!
With the sun shining and the temps hovering in the low 50s, we joined Action Segway Tours for a chance to tour the town on their most elegant two-wheeled vehicles, offering speeds up to 14 mph and an easy 360 turning radius. Joining us were four young adults dressed in […]
Dallas Goldsmith: Big Bear’s Top Boot Fitter
Dallas Goldsmith is a Big Bear guy down to his toes. He grew up here, and then moved away and to be a golf pro at the Presidio, in San Francisco. But the pull of the family business and the perks of being stockholders at the local ski areas, Big […]
Big Bear Lake: The Ship Sank and The Sun’s Out
We took a scenic drive up a winding mountain road and as the temperature dropped and the altitude soared, we finally reached Big Bear Lake tonight. Soon it was time to meet a local resident and find out what people are talking about up here in this resort community with […]
Art McLean Always Gave People the Time of Day
Art McLean passed away in May, 2013 in his Sunderland home. He had a long, happy career at the Valley Advocate and in later life he had difficulty getting around after a broken leg hobbled him and kept him from his beloved walks in the woods. He was 66 years […]
Running Around the Town on Frigid Mornings
I decided to take up running after my gym membership expired and I got tired of having to drive to Greenfield every day just to get a work-out. I decided that if I did a short burst, say, 25-30 minutes of running every day it would accomplish much the same […]
New York Times Travel Show is on Tap This Weekend
I am burning the midnight oil getting ready for something I do every year. I am speaking about travel photography at the New York Times Travel show on Saturday. So I have to prepare my slides and feel reasonably comfortable that I can speak for a 50 minute session. It’s […]
The Assiniboine Park Zoo Will Bring Churchill and Polar Bears to Winnipeg This Summer
This is an exciting year for tourism in Winnipeg, with two big attractions opening in the summer and fall that will bring thousands more visitors to the city. Besides the tremendous Canadian Human Rights Museum, the new Journey to Churchill at the Assiniboine Park Zoo is going to excite and […]
Manitoba Legislative Building Is a Treasure Trove of Mason Secrets
Don Finkbeiner has a favorite place to take his tour guide clients when they visit Winnipeg. He showed me the Exchange district, the city’s bustling arts and entertainment area, as well as St Boniface, the French-speaking community across the Assiniboine River. He talked of the incredible wealth that came to […]
Winnipeg’s Museum for Human Rights Will Be a Magnet for Tourism for Decades
Want to put a relatively small city on the map forever? Build a $351 million state-of-the-art interactive museum about human rights, and make the building so spectacular that it looks like nothing ever built before. That’s what’s happening in Winnipeg and the big party happens this September. I got a […]
Winnipeg, Manitoba Celebrates the Winter with All Manner of Festivities
Flying in February 2014 is a tough business, not for the faint of heart. I set out to Bradley hoping to catch an 11:25 am flight to Minneapolis, then another flight to Winnipeg Manitoba. But as the appointed hour grew near they began making announcements about a strange vibration in […]
Speaking to SATW and at the New York Times Travel Show this Month
I was interviewed by the Society of American Travel Writers for their newsletter, and they published it yesterday. It is about how to get published for the first time and includes tips for writers to get editors interested in using their stories. READ INTERVIEW I tried to join this group […]
BB Gun Shooters Will be Arrested Soon
When two men drove through Northampton last week and fired a bb gun out of their car windows, me and many of my friends were enraged that this could have happened, and hoped that someone would throw the book at them. And just as I had hoped, the long prong […]
The O Generation’s Herald Sings
In the Recorder today was a sad column, yet it also showed wisdom and honesty, and a sense of reality, not despair. Joshua Freund is a local man with three jobs, and his main point in the column was to show how resilient his generation is. He calls them […]