Charleston’s Battery and Rainbow Row faded from view as my travel companion and I sailed aboard the ferry toward Fort Sumter, perched on a small island in Charleston Harbor, site of the first battle in America’s bloodiest war. The five-sided Fort was planned during the 1820s, in the wake of the War of 1812, designed… Read More Fort Sumter
Boone Hall is one of the oldest working plantations in America. Since its founding in 1681, it has produced a range of goods from cotton to pecans and been owned by a cast of colorful characters from an early English settler to a Georgian prince. The plantation is named for its first owners Elizabeth Patey… Read More Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens in South Carolina
Road-trip season is here, perhaps this year more than others. After months of lockdown, we’re ready to see new places and old friends. In early July, I jumped into my silver sedan and headed down the east coast to visit friends who’d recently moved to South Carolina. It was absolutely wonderful, a much-restorative break after… Read More How to Plan a Road Trip during Lockdown
The Winery at La Grange in Haymarket, Virginia, features 5.6 acres of vineyards and a three-storey, red-brick, 18th-century manor house with a small garden blooming with pink hydrangeas. With our commonwealth inching toward reopening, a friend and I decided to head out to Prince William County and enjoy the bucolic setting. We decided on the… Read More Reopening Report: Winery at La Grange
Lafayette Square is a seven-acre public park directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. It is one of the most meaningful areas in American history, where citizens have lived out the freedoms protected by the First Amendment amid statues of the men who won our independence from Great Britain. The Park and its surrounding… Read More Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.
Northern Virginia began reopening under Phase One last Friday, and two friends and I made plans to meet for our first restaurant get-together in three months. We settled on Carlyle, an American mainstay located in the Village at Shirlington, an open-air neighborhood retail area featuring boutique shops and midscale restaurants, in the Washington, D.C., suburb… Read More Restaurant Report: Carlyle in Shirlington
“We’re in Ronald Reagan’s closet,” I said to my brother, my eyes wide. “I know!” he stage-whispered, equally incredulous. Surrounding us in the small walk-in were a few Western shirts, denim jeans, riding boots and britches, Nancy Reagan’s red robe. We were enjoying a private tour of Rancho del Cielo, the Reagan Ranch in California,… Read More Ronald Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo
California’s San Gabriel Valley lies just east of Los Angeles. Some of its well-known cities include Pasadena, San Marino, and of course San Gabriel. It is home to a number of colleges and universities; I first spent time there years ago on a campus speaking tour and have visited many times since then. It is… Read More Things to Do in California’s San Gabriel Valley
