Thanks to Michaela at Awe Inclusive for including me in Budget Travel Adventure’s Best of Travel 2011 and giving me an opportunity to look back on the best of my 2011 travel adventures. Last year was another fabulous travel year for me. I visited London for the third time and Paris for the first time, though it was my second trip to France. So here’s my Best of Travel 2011 roundup —...

Last weekend, I decided to go to Washington, DC to see family and friends and also to view the monument to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which was recently unveiled on the Mall. It was to have been dedicated on August 28th in a ceremony marking the anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech but was postponed because of the arrival of Hurricane Irene. As with...

I took these photographs last March in DC with my Blackberry. As I remember, it had warmed up a bit during the week but later turned cold, rainy and windy so most of the Cherry Blossoms I wanted to see had been blown away by the weekend. The tulips, however, survived the bad weather and were just beautiful. All kinds of colors and color combination. It was almost the same...

I have been unable to look at the images that have been coming out of Japan since the  magnitude 8.9 earthquake and 23-foot tsunami devastated the north eastern portion of that country. They’re too surreal. That the people I know, former co-workers, who have returned to work at headquarters in Tokyo and their loved ones are okay, have brought little consolation. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must...