Kodiak, Alaska – I always love the places where cultures meet and mingle. Kodiak Island is the ancestral homeland of the Native Alutiiq and site of the first Russian settlement in Alaska. Lots of cool history here (which of course…
Prince of Wales Island
Klawock, Alaska – Prince of Wales Island is a truly gorgeous corner of the planet–a rugged place of tiny villages, indigenous culture, fishing lodges, hiking trails, and cave networks. It’s only 36 miles southwest from Ketchikan, but it feels like…
The Land of the Raven
Sitka, Alaska – I am thrilled to be back in the Land of the Raven, aka Southeast Alaska. I am covering this region for the next edition of Lonely Planet Alaska. Southeast is also the home of the Tlingit people…
Mohican History of Stockbridge
Stockbridge, Mass – It’s not my first trip to the Berkshires (read about some of our previous trips here). And I am a travel writer, a so-called expert in New England and its history. But I still learned something while…
Plimoth Plantation & Mayflower II
Plymouth, Mass – After my crisis of conscience that occurred along the Mohawk Trail, I jumped at the chance to give a proper, accurate introduction to local Native American tribes. If the twins are so interested in Native American culture,…
Mohawk Trail
Shelburne, Massachusetts – The route we drove this weekend–from Boston to North Adams along Rte 2–has been dubbed the Mohawk Trail. It’s just a rural highway, but it was built along an old trading route that Native American tribes used to cross…
Fruitlands Museum
Harvard, Mass – One of our local heroes–and certainly a hero of the 19th-century Transcendentalist movement–was Bronson Alcott, a teacher, philosopher and reformer (and incidentally the father of the famous author Louisa May Alcott). As a transcendentalist, he believed that…