Some national parks immediately impress you with their sheer grandeur. Yosemite and Glacier come immediately to mind. Others are more subtle, like the old growth floodplain forest of Congaree or the rocks and unique foliage of Joshua Tree. Saguaro National Park, just outside Tucson, Arizona, falls into the second category. The beauty of the desert…
If ever the name of a place could conjure up specific imagery, Tombstone, Arizona is such a place. The town, a silver boomtown in the late nineteenth century, has been sensationalized in books, songs, and films as a rough and tumble western outpost, with its entire history summed up by a singular event: the gunfight…
It is time for my annual father-son driving trip and, since my dad will be moving back to California this fall, our last one based in the Midwest. This year's destination is a new one for me: the upper peninsula of Michigan! A couple years ago, in the early days of The Royal Tour, I…
In 1963, the Cold War was heating up. The Berlin Wall had gone up two years earlier. The Cuban Missile Crisis was less than a year in the past. The next generation of US nuclear missiles was ready, and 54 silos were created in three locations, each containing a single, new Titan II missile, the…
A cloudy California coastal morning gives way to blue skies and sunshine as the marine layer retreats into the vastness of the Pacific. The deck of the Monterey Bay Aquarium begins to fill with eager visitors searching for life in the Bay: otters, seals and sea lions, and, for the very lucky, dolphins or whales…
The first half of 2019 has just flown by! I can't believe June is basically over, summer is here, and so many trips have come and gone. (Fortunately there are still a ton coming up to keep me excited.) So let's take a brief look at what has happened so far on The Royal Tour…
Nicaragua is, without question, the most controversial place I have visited, both from a tourism standpoint as well as a political one. My two week trip to the Pacific side of the country - most tourist spots are here, as well as the majority of the nation's six million inhabitants - was truly a journey…
The last time I was here I was maybe eight years old. I was not the same person and this was not the same Watts, a neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles best known for a series of riots in 1965. But these are the same Watts Towers. The soaring man-made pinnacles, the tallest of…
In April of 2018, widespread protests broke out in Nicaragua against the government and Daniel Ortega, the country's dictator. The government responded with massive violent crackdowns, with estimates of those killed ranging from 30 to well over 100, including the well-publicized shooting up of a church in which some protestors had taken refuge. The United…
Nicaragua isn't for everyone. In my last article, I talked about the reasons people should visit. Today, let's examine this controversial country from the opposite end of the spectrum. So here are eight reasons you might want to think twice before visiting Nicaragua. 1. Ortega is still the dictator Daniel Ortega has been the dictator…