Spring is my favorite time of year. Confession: I live in Florida, so I don’t suffer the common winter blues as many northerners do. My world is green and blossomy year round. Yet, there is something about spring that rejuvenates my soul and fills me with general glee. Spring also marks the annual observance of…
Weird and wonderful is the only way to describe my brief visit to Salem, Massachusetts. If you have a fascination with the hauntings of Halloween, this is the epicenter for such things as ghost tours, a touristy witch “museum”, kitschy horror shops, and storefront psychics. On the other hand, the colonial charm and history of…
They report for duty in uniform — khaki shirt, name tag over the left breast shirt pocket, and a cap with an embroidered emblem that looks like lightning bolts. A patch on the left sleeve identifies who they are: National Park Service Volunteer. They’re surrounded by electronic relics— most still working— that take up space…
You can appreciate what it took to help ships navigate the rocky, fog-shrouded, and windswept northern Pacific coast when you journey far out to the isolated Point Reyes Lighthouse. It is a hike to get there. From the parking area at Point Reyes National Seashore, you first ascend a steep paved walking path and then…
One of America’s most natural wonders sits directly in the path of one of the world’s most well-known earthquake zones: the San Andreas Fault. Point Reyes National Seashore has spectacular beauty, abundant flora and fauna, and magnificent coastal cliffs. Yet the ground under it all is constantly on the move. The San Andreas Fault is…
