If you love Kauai as much as I do, there’s great news. The Kauai Department of Land and Natural Resources says Ha’ena State Park, the incredible Kalalau Trail and Napali Coast State Wilderness Park will re-open in early to mid-June. They also say the north shore section of the Kuhio Highway is set to open May 1. The north shore of Kauai was hit by massive flooding in April of 2018, with significant damage to the Kuhio Highway west of Hanalei. In a story posted at www.thegardenisland.com, one local says the five landslides that took place on the 11-mile Kalalau Read more
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PALM SPRINGS – We’re humming along a quiet suburban road outside this popular tourist destination on a clear, cool March morning. It’s only around 8 a.m., but already the dun-coloured mountains off to the northeast look like they’re already baked to a crisp. Our Desert Adventures Red Jeep Tours guide, Mike Groves, tells members of our tour group (my wife, Barbara, plus my Dad and his ladyfriend, Lucy) to look more closely at some of the small valleys and impressions on the side of the hills. Sure enough, we fix our gazes and begin to make out a series of Read more
SCOTTSDALE – The crack of a bat. The sun on your face. And hardly a Zamboni in sight. It’s spring training time in Arizona, where roughly half of major league ballplayers gather to hone their skills in time for the regular season. All big league teams have their spring headquarters in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area, which makes Scottsdale the ideal base. Scottsdale proper is home to three major league teams for spring training: the San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. You’re also within a few minutes drive of all the other teams in Arizona, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Read more
NAPLES, FLORIDA – I’m only a few minutes away from one of the top destinations in Florida on a bright, clear morning. But the only sounds I hear as I wander along a wooden boardwalk at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary are the shrill warbling of tiny birds in overhead pines and a light wind tickling the fronds of a palm tree. Below my feet, the water likes flat and shiny blue-back beneath my feet. Spiky bromeliads, neon-green plants that grow from the trunks of trees, shine in the dappled morning sunlight and tiny insects scurry across the dark surface of Read more
A shorter version of this story was posted earlier Monday on Sun Media/Postmedia websites in Canada. BLOWING ROCK, NORTH CAROLINA – I’m out to catch the first rays of sun in the mountains of northwest North Carolina. I’m driving along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway and pass a cyclist wearing an American flag jersey working his way up a steady hill. As I pass over a bridge suspended over a high canyon I glance to my left and see an electric pink sun rising over pale grey-white clouds on the horizon below me. I pull over as soon as I Read more
