If I had I my way, I never would have met Romeo Farrington and that would have certainly been my loss. His daughter Espree was the one who picked me up from the airport in Nassau, drove me to dinner and then back to my hotel for the night. She explained that her dad was tied up with a wedding but he’d be by to pick me up for my one-day tour of Nassau the following morning. I had other plans. “Just you tell him you’ll be my guide tomorrow, okay?” I asked. The truth is I was enchanted by Espree from the moment we… Read More…

At 56, I am one of the younger Americans with a clear recollection of the day fifty years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The students in Ms. Sherman’s second grade class at Oak Grove Elementary School in Florida were in line waiting to be dismissed for the day when the announcement that the president had been shot came over the public address system. Times were different then. Seven year olds didn’t understand what being shot meant. At least I didn’t. It was immediately apparent, however, that this was devastating news. Ms. Sherman and the other teachers clustered in the hall, shaking their… Read More…

Last week a tow truck pulled up to my house, loaded a 1974 Jensen-Healey sports car on the bed and left. Pulling out of my driveway the autumn leaves swirled a bit before settling back on the street. Seasons come and seasons go and so do cars. The departure of that one was a news-making event in some quarters. My husband Jim wrote about it for The New York Times Wheels blog, which you can read here.  As with most stories, there is more than one side. Here’s mine. The Jensen-Healey was my husband’s first love and an occasional irritant in our 30 year marriage. … Read More…

One does not decide to spend four days on a trip that can be accomplished in 5 hours by air without some weighing of the pros and cons. On the upside, taking the VIA Rail train from Vancouver to Toronto would give me the chance to actually see a part of the country with which I am not familiar. It would give me expanses of uninterrupted time to finish working on a writing project and also a plus, I’ve always, always enjoyed sleeping in a moving vehicle, train, boat, car it makes no difference.  The VIA Rail trip promised 4 nights of glorious slumber. On… Read More…

  Mexico has its playas, the Caribbean its beat, but Americans are prone to overlook the charms of the neighbor to the north. I’ve already had a healthy dose of the remedy to that affliction with visits to two of Canada’s largest cities; Calgary and Vancouver. Soon, I’m off on a four day journey back across this great big land on VIA Rail, Canada’s version of the Orient Express. A full report on the train trip will follow my arrival in Toronto, but I already know it will be a far different experience from the ones I’ve had so far. While a tour by train… Read More…

When my kids were little we used to take them to Eastover Estate  & Retreat in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. Ignore the fancy-pants name, this was a home-spun, teeny-bit threadbare mom & pop resort – a place where three meals a day were served in the enormous dining hall, next to which was a equally enormous community space with fire place, game tables and 24/7 hot chocolate. We all loved the place because it was like going to camp. Heck, we could do the same activities at home but throwing darts and dancing to Top 40 tunes in the resort’s wood-paneled rec room was… Read More…

On a side street in Sedona, Arizona, behind the adobe-style shops and the Pink Jeeps that take tourists to the area’s abundant natural wonders, Felipe and Marcela Roldan in are making a new life for themselves in a tiny kitchen of the Oak Creek Brewing Company.The couple may not have made cheapflights.com’s just released top 10 hot dog stands around the world, but their Simon’s Colombia-style Hot Dogs deserves a mention. Through lunch and dinner, the Roldans turn out man-sized meals with an global theme. Recently,  my husband Jim and I ordered a selection of four dogs, the Colombian, the Cowboy, the Wunderhund and Tokyo Madness. I’ll admit, when I read… Read More…

The only other time my husband, Jim and I saw a whale in the wild, it was an orca that came up to our boat flashing its shiny black tail so close I gasped out loud. We were in, or I should say off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. It was thrilling, but full disclosure, it was one whale and we’d traveled 90 minutes in very choppy waters to see it. So my expectation when boarding the Dolphin Fleet whale watching boat in Provincetown on Cape Cod last month was for a similarly look-hard-and-don’t blink experience. Wrong. Thirty-five Humpbacks, 9 North Atlantic Right Whales,… Read More…

“Crack House” was the phrase that sprang to mind when I pried open the door to board the Metro Plus commuter train to Simon’s Town in Western Cape, South Africa on Saturday morning. Yep, it looked like a scary place. By the end of the journey, one of my fellow travelers reminded me that first impressions aren’t always correct. Let me explain. First, there were no lights in the car and, as it was sitting in the station, no sunlight either. Not that much light could have permeated the scratched and fogged windows anyway. So I could see very little, but I could smell and… Read More…

By Andrea Lee Negroni In New York, I ride the subway and buses. In Washington and Paris, I travel on Metro, and in any city with a bikeshare program, I ride a bike. Failing these, I take cabs. This routine gives me an excuse to brag occasionally about exercise, economy, and the environment. I’ve never been a “car person,” but a couple of hours at the Auto Shanghai 2013 could convert even a diehard devotee of public transport. At the Shanghai New International Expo Center last weekend, buildings larger than airplane hangars were mobbed with adoring crowds wielding cameras. The event, recommended by a female… Read More…