Thanks for coming back! If you liked this post, you may want to sign up for my weekly blog roundup. Thanks for visiting and continuing the conversation! There’s a part of me that’s always been curious about Native American rituals, dating back to when I spent part of my junior year of college...

I spent last weekend at the Hacienda Tres Rios, one of the many all-inclusive beach resorts on the Riviera Maya that line Mexico’s Caribbean coast, from Cancun south toward Tulum. One of the biggest travel questions I get from friends is whether or not they should choose an all-inclusive resort...

I traveled to Mexico this past weekend, as a guest of Hacienda Tres Rios, an award-winning, eco-oriented all-inclusive resort north of Playa del Carmen. The trip marked my first time back on the Riviera Maya (the stretch of resorts running south of Cancun toward Tulum) since last year’s swine...

On the long plane ride from Seattle into New York for TBEX, I grabbed a book that I had been meaning to read for years: Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. Turns out I couldn’t have made a better choice. The Travel Blog Exchange conference, now in its second year, personifies Shirky’s theory...

Edward may rule the hearts of the girls in Forks. But down the road at La Push, on the Quileute Nation reservation, it’s Team Jacob all the way. In the book, Jacob and other members of his wolfpack/family are Quileutes, which happens to be the same name as the tribe who has lived in La Push for...

  I spent the weekend on the Olympic Peninsula, in search of the real-life Washington sites mentioned in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books. The timing coincided with the release of Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight movies, which is coming out June 30.    I’m not really a Twilight...

Commander’s Palace, that venerable turquoise restaurant in New Orleans’ Garden District that’s been around since 1880, has always been one of my favorite “occasion” restaurants, in a city where people go out of their way to find reasons to celebrate, no matter what disasters...

Aspen is not for shoppers on a budget: High-end stores such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Prada are the norm rather than the exception on the ski town’s main streets. So imagine my surprise when I found Harmony Scott, an independent jewelry shop where the prices were as appealing as the pieces...

Have you ever stayed at a haunted hotel before? After a night at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, I can consider myself in that number. I moved into the Hotel Jerome – Aspen’s most historic hotel, dating back more than 120 years – after two nights at the Aspen St. Regis, where I stayed courtesy...

I’m no stranger to health problems on the road. I’ve suffered a blood clot in Florida, a gallstone attack in Thailand and pink eye in Costa Rica. That’s why I tote a virtual drug store with me when I travel, including Cipro, sleeping pills, Neosporin, Visine, Tums, Claritin, Imodium, insect repellent...