Close-to-Home Travel Good for the Soul

Two weeks ago, I received a call that I'd been dreading for a long time. As soon as I heard my father's unusually fragile voice, I knew what he was about to say. Immediately, I started to cry – sob, actually – before he'd even finished telling me the news.

Earlier that morning, he'd received his own terrible call. While he was vacationing with his wife's family in Florida, one of his father's neighbors had tried to reach him on his cell phone. Apparently, she was concerned because my grandfather had failed to place her newspaper on her doorstep that morning – something he'd done every morning for years. Unfortunately, my father's cell phone reception was poor in the Florida Panhandle, so after several attempts to contact him, the neighbor had called the police, who were unable to breach the burglar bars on my grandfather's doors and windows. Before alerting the fire department, however, the police tried to contact my father once more, and this time, he answered. more >>

Favorite Movie Locales from Coast to Coast, Part 3

Within the first two parts of this three-part series, I described 10 of my favorite movie locales in the United States, from the French Quarter to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Here, in geographical order, are the last five places on my list, all of which recall inspiring movie experiences as well as beloved travel memories: more >>