Editor’s note: the FOMO is real with this one. Not only is Peru a destination right at the top of my travel wish list, but this specific trip was taken by my two best and oldest friends, Ari and Dan. For more of Dan’s incredible adventurous travel stories, click here to visit his index page.…
Editor’s note: As The Royal Tour grows, and more destinations want to work with me, it is impossible to find time to go everywhere myself. After meeting the amazing staff of Visit Las Cruces at a convention, I suggested they might want to work with our writer Tamara, who is a bit closer, being based…
This is not what a desert in California is supposed to look like. The thought creeps into my head for the hundredth time, and I’m barely halfway up the Pisgah Crater. My drive here, only two miles from Interstate 40 and Route 66, just east of Newberry Springs and about thirty minutes from Barstow, went…
Editor’s note: Vancouver is seriously one of the most wonderful places in the world. My guide, which you can see here, covers some of the same places as this beautiful piece by Sam Spector, although he fills in some important gaps. This is one of the reasons I love having other voices on The Royal…
Note: another version of this story appeared in City Lifestyle Laguna Niguel magazine. Otto is only a few months old, but he is already bigger than many human adults. And yet, by elephant seal standards, Otto is still quite small. And that’s why he’s here, in an enclosure at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in…
The cities are in two different states, but are less than 45 minutes apart. El Paso is a city of about 800,000 at the western tip of Texas. Las Cruces sits just north, in southern New Mexico. At just over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the state (behind Albuquerque). Both are cities…
Editor’s note: after a brief absence (law school is apparently time consuming), our resident national parks expert Christian is back with his take on Cabrillo National Monument. For my own take, click here. If you love national parks, make sure to visit Christian’s index page. Cabrillo National Monument is named after Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo -…
There is an exhilaration that comes from doing something child-like. That feeling dominates my morning as I slide down sand dunes on a sled that reminds me of a trash can top. Lean forward to start the momentum downward, then lean backward to stay on. Fail, and fall off into the soft sand, spinning onto…
Editor’s note: I have been to Moab once, to spend a single day in each of the two local national parks. Sam, however, has spent more time, and has some wonderful recommendations for the area that make sense given his status as a Utah resident. For more of Sam’s amazing writing, click here. I am…
The mountains tower over the Chihuahuan Desert of west Texas, silent sentinels that seem incredibly out of place here in what is largely flat and arid land. The desert extends for hundreds of miles, the remnants of what was once a shallow sea that covered this portion of the continent, with the stunning Guadalupe Mountains…