Travel Stories, Cruise Reviews, and Cultural Adventures

Kick hell out of your bucket list in 2016. Have you always wanted to see Egypt? Don't let fear of travel stop you. Here, Cookie and...

AUF WIEDERSEHEN TO A BELOVED ICON: ACTOR, WRITER, CAT LOVER, GOURMET, GARDENER, TRANSLATOR, TRAVELER Hannelore Carter, left, her longtime companion and "son of the heart," Jason Webinger, and Christene Meyers, at a reception following a play. "The sun will rise and the moon will set and we learn how to settle for what we get. It will all go on if we're here or not, so who cares, so what." -- "So What?" from the score of "Cabaret" STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS

TONY BENNETT PLAYS VEGAS WITH LADY GAGA TO KEEP HIS TALENT TUNED UP Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga took the stage in Las Vegas to usher in...

THE APPLE CAPITAL of the world has a nice rhyming nickname. It also offers a get-away both soothing and exciting. Julian, California, a small, quaint mountain town in southern California, offers history, fun hotels, shopping, scenery and perhaps the best fruit pies in the state.

This Montana visitor may be a grizzly -- we can't quite see a hump. Several neighbors spotted him recently. The nearby Nye Church in Stillwater County, has had grizzlies in the yard and a grizzly is meandering the West Fork this week. HIGH CHAPARRAL, MONTANA, ATTRACTS WILD LIFE: LIONS (NO TIGERS), & BOUNTY OF BEARS AND DEER This bear is definitely a grizzly, as evidenced by the hump. He was photographed near Lake Louise in Canada. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE

Road trip to the top of the world: last week, up the Beartooth Pass on the famed Cooke City Highway. John Steinbeck had Charley, and Keller has Nick and Nora, below. TRAVEL THE COUNTRY, SEE NEW TERRAIN, ENJOY SURPRISES, AS THE CAR IS YOUR COCOON! STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER JOHN STEINBECK described, when beginning a trip, that delightful sense of the unknown in his engaging "Travels With Charley." He said, “A journey is like marriage. The certain way t

Cows graze contentedly in a thunder storm earlier in the week. Workers on the new roof took a rain day Thursday. CONSTRUCTION CHAOS IS GETTING UNDER CONTROL, WING IS HEALING AND WILD LIFE'S FANTASTIC UNDER THE BIG SKY Berries are ripening this week, ready for the bears and birdies. Hawks are on the watch for food, fall. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER "The Carpe Diem Kids" Cookie and Keller load up on Park City, Montana, corn. THERE'S SOMETHING GLORIOUS a

PURPLE MARTIN'S MAJESTY GROWS FINE ORGANIC FARE James Walker Hayes washes freshly picked produce at the organic farm he and his partner, Kelle Martin, run. The historic Point Arena Lighthouse, above, is a few miles back toward town from the farm, then up the road a bit. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER THE APPROACH to a gardener's Eden is a good half hour outside of Point Arena, Calif., down a winding country road dense with fir, cedar, pine and redwoods. Yo

SAMPLE TOP ACTING AT OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, LIVELY CABARET, THEATER, FINE RESTAURANTS, CLASSIC HOTEL, CHEESE AND CHOCOLATE!...

Take a walk in a garden to cure what ails you Dahlias recall the photographer's childhood with his mother painting and arranging flowers and his dad growing them. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER "The Carpe Diem Kids" Apples and sunflowers glisten in September sun. MY PARTNER and the photographer for our essays has a soft spot in his heart for flowers. No surprise. His mother, Jean, painted them -- lilies, tulips, chrysanthemums, daisies, the exotic orange

Catalina Island

A mother's love of all things theatrical inspires lifelong affection for drama, movies, costumes and the Land of Make Believe Rudolph...

This birthday, Keller takes Cookie sailing off La Jolla Shores. Ringing in another year brings time for reflection, joy, humor and appreciation "...all the gardens of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud. There could I marvel my birthday...." --Dylan Thomas STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER "The Carpe Diem Kids" AS I MARK my birthday tomorrow, I am thankful that I, too have "lark full cloud" and a

The family run Crazy Mountain Inn against a lovely rainbow sky in the small Montana town of Martinsdale. Guest house, cafe in the middle of nowhere offer guests opportunity to go back in time STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER "The Carpe Diem Kids" Scenery surrounding Crazy Mountain Inn is serene and green. GLISTENING in the rain, the Crazy Mountain Inn looks like a setting from an Agatha Christie novel. She could be perched high upon a cliff, or set back deep

Child born with Down Syndrome sparks love, unity, courage in Cosgriffe family Christena's auntie Misha bestowed a pretty new dress!...

Make your journey fun, safe and smooth sailing when you're traveling with four-footed pals

Bruce Keller and his mother, Jean Keller, board a harbor cruise at Oceanside, where Jean taught Keller to paint as a lad. STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS RECENT PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER, and CM "The Carpe Diem Kids" It's always a bit melancholy in our home on the second Sunday in May. Both Keller and I are orphans now. We remember lavish brunches, parties, cruises, corsages and other merriment when we think of our mums. We had similar celebrations, albeit thousands of miles and s

COOKIE RECALLS MISS AMERICA, PROTESTS, PLAYBOY AND HER FEMINIST GROUNDING STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS THE SUMMER of 1968 was a memorable...

I miss them. On a recent, rare melancholy rainy San Diego day, I thought of them: Of all the plays they’ve missed since they died – mum in 2008 and Robbie two years later in 2010. Of how much joy they received from travel – we had many trips together. Thinking how they'd both have voted

PENY WAS BORN in 1949. Christa was born in 1948. They would have been friends. Both were gregarious, over-achieving, loving, fine teachers, intrepid adventurers, with daring, charisma and humor. Christa became famous as the first teacher to train for a space flight. Peny was a ground-breaker, too.