Back from Nepal with only 4 days to prepare for this trip of a lifetime; a rafting trip on the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon.

we considered ourselves part of the first wave of what will become a flood of American tourism as things improve between America and Cuba.

Months ago, friends suggested I volunteer to ride as “sweep” for the 36 mile rocky, winding, singletrack Mountain Bike Tour of the White Mountains in our town of Pinetop, Arizona.

Costa Rica has plenty of less-traveled rural towns where you will never hear English spoken and the adrenaline rush comes from the intense, mind blowing beauty of nature.

During an Arribada, in a single night anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of sea turtles march heavily up the beach at high tide to conduct what can only be described as a mass nesting.

I can light a campfire, pitch a tent, and in bear country know better than to sleep with my chocolate chip cookies next to my head.

Glen and I walked off the overnight ferry from Helsinki rolling our luggage and studying the map of St Petersburg, Russia.

A physically demanding Cibecue Canyon Falls hike near the White Mountains of Arizona.

Glen is a dowser, a finder of subterranean water and perhaps things like buried minerals or oil were he to set his mind to it.

These hot spring mineral waters are just one of the reasons I am here in Ojo Caliente.

Hiking the Grand Canyon seemed like the right answer to lift my spirits. My husband Glen had just set off for a month long International Red Cross disaster volunteer assignment to Sierra Leone.

Flat with bike paths all over the place. Along the canals, in the cities, from town to town.

Traveling and tips from Red Cross local colleagues allowed us to experience the “real” Geneva instead of the larger than life Private Swiss Banking version

And as we stood there mesmerized by the roar I began to get it. To feel the bone-rattling power of all that cascading water up close is to understand the awesome natural wonder that is Niagara Falls.

Her house sits on a bayou that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a pretty nice scene watching the birds coming and going from the lush cyprus trees lining the banks.

Scents of fresh coffee beans and cacao mixed with cinnamon, sugar and almonds spilling out of the kitchen as the ladies spent an hour preparing mouthwatering traditional Oaxacan food for breakfast such as stuffed pepper

Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday that some mistake as half Halloween and half Mardi Gras, has deep spiritual roots going back at least 3,000 years, to the Aztecs and beyond.

I have just launched and paddled out on my haunches from a white sand beach in the Sea of Cortez, off Mexico’s mainland coast five hours south of Arizona.

Well, when you get down to the Southern Arizona part it is pretty flat. Well those bumps in the middle of all the flat are called Sky Islands.