Travel Stories, Cruise Reviews, and Cultural Adventures

The countryside around Julian, California, offers fine hiking, fun places to stay, bird watching -- and a peaceful get-away.    Lilacs...

The entrance to Clifton's, a Los Angeles tradition, is a preview to the lights, glitz, old-fashioned fare and displays inside. While you...

A theatrical Valentine awaits in "Freaky Friday," at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Wherever on the planet you are, consider a play or concert to create an artful, memorable Valentine's Day Make your Valentine happy at a play -- here approaching La Jolla Playhouse's  beautiful Mandell Weiss Theater. "Freaky Friday" is the current production. BE ARTFUL ON THE DAY OF ROMANCE: THINK THE ARTS, WATER, SKY   how about a wonderful musical, dinner on the water, picnic, reaching for

SeaWorld's popular Orca show will no longer be part of the offerings at the internationally famous nature and amusement park.  In its...

Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly in the film, "Singin' in the Rain." Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds will be featured Friday, Jan. 7, in...

Lawrence Welk Resort, north of San Diego, California, offers housing options, restaurants, theater, golf and a charming little museum...

A splendid Georgia mansion built of rare pink marble, known as "Etowah Pink Marble" is decked out for the holidays. Through Dec. 21, the...

Nick and Nora love huckelberry ice cream, a roadie treat in Julian, California which they visit twice a year. "Charley is a mind-reading...

Christene "Cookie" Meyers and Bruce Keller take to San Diego Bay and a Flagship dinner cruise, with spectacular views. TAKE YOUR PICK OF...

Nubian goats are part of the fun for school kids and families.   Egg-laying chickens entertain city kids and archaeological digs are...

On a half-dozen visits since 2010, we've found Lake Tahoe's scenery some of the most beautiful in the western United States. Dixie II offers a fun night on the lake, even on a recent rainy evening. "It is a vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or a hundred good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface, I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole world affords.” --  M

Hundreds of elephant seals -- once nearly extinct -- swim in a few weeks each year to breed on central California's coast. WONDROUS...

ENJOY THE REAGAN LIBRARY FOR A WELL ORCHESTRATED TRIBUTE TO A DEDICATED PRESIDENT Flowers are left at the foot of Reagan's bronze each...

Good-bye Marlee: We will miss your sweet smile, music and precocious wit. SATURDAY MEMORIAL CELEBRATES BRIEF, LOVING LIFE OF MARLEE CLUFF...

Actor Ron Campbell gives a brilliant performance as R. Buckminster Fuller in "The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" at San Diego Repertory Theatre.  'HISTORY, MYSTERY OF THE UNIVERSE' GLITTERS:  A STAR-SPANGLED, BEAUTIFULLY ACTED, THEATRICAL WORK The real Buckminster Fuller by his famous geodesic dome. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER and courtesy San Diego Rep and Scatena Daniels FASTEN YOUR  seat belts, and prepare for a wild, wonderful ride. You're ab

Thrilled guests watched a pair of whales blow -- thanks to Hornblower staff who make announcements on sightings, explaining various whale...

William Wrigley Jr. put his heart and his pocketbook into his beloved Catalina Island, where his widow erected a loving memorial in the...

This buffalo is probably happy to be on Santa Catalina, not freezing his hide off in Yellowstone Park this winter. BUFFALO SEQUENCES...

GLITTER, GLAMOUR, ART, THEATER AND A FANTASTIC ORGAN CONCERT TO BOOT The historic Catalina Casino was built in record time and opened in...

TOUCHING PLAY WITH FINE ACTING, A COMIC EDGE AND A TOE-TAPPING TRIO TO SET THE MOOD Manny Fernandes and Carla Harting square off and eventually admit their attraction in a winning play at San Diego Rep. From left, Richard Tibbets, Jim Mooney and Alicia Previn set the tone for "Outside Mullingar," a lyrical tale of family, loyalty, pride and love.  The pastoral pull of Ireland's countryside comes inside with "Outside Mullingar," San Diego Rep's first-rate production.  STORY By