Sitting just across the Santa Barbara Channel (for which they get their name) from the coast of Southern California, the Channel Islands are tantalizingly close - and yet a world away from Los Angeles life. Eight in total, only one seems to be a target for visitors. Catalina (made famous by the song, "Twenty-six miles…
What if I told you there was a place where green met blue, with forests extending all the way to beautiful shores? What if I told you that this place of immense natural beauty also had a fascinating history? Finally, what if I told you that this place was right here in the United States,…
The isolation here is palpable. Walking on a narrow path, I hear only the birds, insects, Lake Superior's minor waves, and my own footsteps. Plants block my path occasionally - this is, after all, designated wilderness and I am intruding on their space. I gaze around, amazed at just how many shades of green can…
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…
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 November of 2018, three fires devastated parts of California, in what has seemingly become a dark annual ritual. While the main story has been - and should be - the incredible loss of life and property from the blazes, I also wanted to tell the tale of a place that is very special to…
The American Civil War is the most transformational event in the country's history. Battlefields and historic sites decorate much of that US Southeast, some well preserved, others simply marked with a small monument, and others lost to obscurity. It is impossible to visit all of them. Last year, my father and I were blown away…
Sometimes, travelers are lucky in weather. I've had perfectly blue skies at Crater Lake in Oregon in a single week between snow storms, had the rain let up in Amsterdam just as I arrived, and had a storm abate just long enough to visit the ruins at Ephesus before it came back in. Other times,…
"Almost heaven, West Virginia. Blue Ridge Mountains. Shenandoah River. Life is old here, older than the trees. Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze." The song is beautiful, and one I can't stop singing as my father and I criss-cross this state. The mountains loom over us, wisps of clouds hovering around the tops,…
In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of Mormon settlers crossed the Mojave Desert in California. They spotted a tree they had never seen before. Its outspread branches reminded them of a biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands to the sky in prayer. And so they named it the Joshua tree. The Joshua tree…