New Column for Examiner.com

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged — on my own website, at least. I’ve been so busy ghostwriting, web consulting, writing Wikipedia entries, and teaching high school (yes, you read that correctly) that I’ve let my poor beloved blog sit idle for far too long. However, should I once again begin to slack and [...]

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America's Purdiest, Per Forbes Traveler

ForbesTraveler.com recently compiled a list of what they deemed to be the prettiest darn towns in these here United States. Luckily for me, I’ve already seen quite a few of them — and I’ve knocked off several this summer alone. There was a wealth of options in the Southwest and Northeast, but I was surprised [...]

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"Desert Romance" Article Published in Exquisite Weddings

It’s live! My travel piece on Southwest wedding destinations in Exquisite Weddings has hit the stands. This was my first piece for the publication, and it’s quite an impressive glossy.

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Photo Chosen for Schmap's California Guide

Someone at Schmap must love me. I’d never even heard of the site before they contacted me in March to tell me my photo of Kealakekua Bay had been short-listed for the Hawaii guide. (It eventually made it in.) Now one of my photos for the Tallac Historic Site, located on South Lake Tahoe, has [...]

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Los Angeles To-Do Checklist

I’m freshly back from the Los Angeles Times Travel Show and ready to tell you all about the good times had by all. I plan to get to that over the next few days, but various social obligations and pre-birthday festivities have cramped my time for an elaborate re-cap just yet. So I’ll save the [...]

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Anacapa: Unbagged (Channel Islands, Day 3)

The few bananas still on board didn’t faze us, although at least one person tried to attribute the shape and yellow color of the kayak to Chris’ unusual incident. After breakfast, during which we fended off the swarm of flies that had come aboard some time during the night, we took turns paddling the sheltered [...]

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Stampede of the Sea Lions (Channel Islands, Day 2)

We slept well last night — almost nine hours, in fact — fatigued by our many encounters with rotting animals and the unending activity of hauling anchors, hoisting halyards, and searching for the perpetually elusive “bag of bags” in the chaos of the galley. After a breakfast of omelets, the Sun Soleil headed towards Painted [...]

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Santa Cruz: Spanish for "Isle of Corpses"? (Channel Islands, Day 1)

It seemed to bode well that we had quite the picture-perfect sailing day as our boat, Sun Soleil (repetitive, no?), motored through the marina at Channel Islands Harbor. The sun was high in the azure sky, a few billowy clouds floated about, a slight breeze carried us to the harbor inlet towards the open ocean. [...]

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I'll Dive With Sharks, But Not With This Freak of Nature

Yeah, I’ve gone overboard (pun intended) on the whole shark thang, but I’ve recently gone eyeball to eyeball with an even freakier ocean denizen. Seriously, this abnormality has given me nightmares in recent weeks. After living in Cali nearly 10 years (well past my personal deadline), I finally made the trek to the world-renowned Monterey [...]

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Green Flash Sighting -- At Long Last

When I first moved to SoCal, there were several myths I’d expected to implode — once I’d lived here long enough. I’ve now been here just under a decade, and I’ve found that most of these fables are more truth than legend (awesome weather, Hollywood superficiality, excessive flakiness, etc.). But the green flash, that most [...]

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