Travel

Perhaps it's the economic state we find ourselves in that creates more worry about one's safety and personal information. Taking a vacation or business trip either in the US or abroad (including on a cruise ship) might increase that concern. Here are som… more »

Guess who got to polish all the collection of antique brass and copper? Prepare about six pounds of crudités, help shred cabbage for 50, make dips, arrange cheese boards, roll up plastic cutlery in paper napkins, clean up after…enough said. more »

armed with our new linguistic knowledge, we headed off on our own into the shops that lined Nanjing Road, a major shopping area in Shanghai. In one shop, we pointed to a fan. The clerk took it from its case to show to us. We looked it over and carefully said in our best Mandarin, "Mao, mao, hoo, hoo." The clerk's eyes widened. She backed away into the protection of the other clerks who were standing around stone-faced trying to decipher our intentions. more »

I was thirty years old when I took my first trip to Europe, and I did so with reluctance and misgivings.I had never had any desire whatsoever to roam. I’m not sure why. Fear wasn’t stopping me. The word “terrorist” wasn’t yet part of the travel vocabulary in that innocent age, and the thought of flying intrigued rather than intimidated me. more »