If it weren’t for the northern lights, I would never have found myself in Svolvær—the largest town on the Lofoten Islands archipelago in Norway, located just north of the Arctic Circle....
I have never frolicked through a field of flowers as I did on Te Waipounamu....
One moment we'd be driving in the shadow of a hulking mountain, and the next we'd be zooming through lush farmlands as twin lambs ran side by side, their strides matching each other step for step....
Dad’s duffel bag was permanently damaged, but it was a small price to pay to meet a superhero, in my opinion. “Now I see why they warned us!” my mother sighed. As always, mom was right: the locals who met our group of explorers had...
The rock garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is one of my favorite places in Japan and one of the most sacred places on the planet for me. In its sere simplicity, its stark purity, it’s a place that slows me down, quiets me, leads...
As much as I love exploring the wilderness areas of Brazil, it’s the people and culture that most touch my soul. After five months there, what I remember most are the endearing characteristics of the Brazilians I met, from Teresopolis to Rio de Janeiro to...
Standing on an empty expanse of sand in a tropical downpour at dawn, I witnessed one of nature’s most moving wonders: On Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast, tiny green sea turtle hatchlings were being released to the sea....
My five friends and I walked to the edge of the black stone jetty. As we stood along southern New Jersey’s coast, waves from the Atlantic surged and shot up around us. I looked just beyond the rocks, where I would normally paddle out on...
Their traps were set: Along a dark, dripping wall of stone, silk strands dangled in waiting. The victims, attracted to an irresistible glow, would be caught in the pearls of glue that shone like drops of dew in my flashlight beams....
National park adventures come in all sizes. Come with me on a "small" but memorable one, to the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia....