Guest Post: All-Star Road Trip

For those of us to whom summer means hot dogs, apple pie and baseball games, the recent Major League All-Star Game was a significant milestone. Marking the midway point of the season, the All-Star Game put baseball back in the national spotlight, a place where “America’s Pastime” has only been a part-time player for many years. But while attendance and viewing numbers for Major League Baseball have been overtaken by rival sports like basketball and football, there is one world where baseball still hits a clear home run: its extended family of local baseball teams that make up the Minor Leagues. more >>

Guest Post: The Best Beaches of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo

By Bruce Whipperman

Not long ago, I began to realize that a number of luscious strands around the celebrated twin resorts of Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo ranked among the loveliest in Mexico. That notion became a certainty one day as I stood atop a Zihuatanejo cliff, overlooking Playa La Ropa beach, at the sheltered inner edge of gorgeous Zihuatanejo Bay. From that summit I recognized, for the first time, that the beach sand, relentlessly scooped and redeposited by a gentle surf, appeared as a long necklace of miniature half moons.

Up closer, La Ropa beach goers enjoy that gentle surf, too mild for either surfing or boogie boarding, but nevertheless perfect for child's play and a soothing afternoon in the sun or in the shade of a beach umbrella. more >>