Story by Crystal Gabrielle. Photos Copyright © Crystal Gabrielle. AS PART OF MY ongoing house-sitting adventures, I’m house sitting right now in Tucson, Arizona. My work is portable (writing coach) so I bring it with me on house-sitting jobs. I was planning to have an adventurous summer but got...

Text & photos © Estrella Azul I LIVE AND WORK IN Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The second time I traveled to Kingston Upon Thames for work, I got the chance for a longer stay. One of my colleagues said Hampton Court Palace is a must-see and offered to drop me off there after work one afternoon. A different...

Text & photos © Catherine Nichols Never before had I been so stressed on a trip. There we were, stranded in Vancouver in a nightmare Airbnb situation with four kids. Count ’em: four. It was the one time we had decided that two of our daughters could bring two of their friends along on what...

Text & photos © Catherine Nichols With leaf earrings dangling from my ears, I got in my car and drove three miles to one of the best kept secrets of San Diego. Even though I live so close to San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas, California, I rarely visit. I decided to go this year because we’ve...

Text & photos © Catherine Nichols WHAT I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT OF as a one-time, frivolous trip to the East Coast has become a necessary part of my year. The trees in all their colorful glory call my name. By the time October rolls around, the whispers become shouts, and I find myself packing my suitcase...

Text & photos © Catherine Nichols Imagine a place where it’s bumper-to-bumper traffic for the better part of most days and evenings in the summer. The tourists have descended on your city and there’s nowhere to escape. It takes you 30 minutes to get anywhere (at a minimum), and you just want...

Text & photos © Catherine Nichols “Where’s a good place to hike around here?” I asked the local waitress. “Just up the street about a mile at Wildwood Recreation Site,” she replied with a huge smile. How can you tell you’re in a great place where the majority of the people are happy?...