Travel

The real shock was seeing Spring again. The last time we saw each other—the only time we saw each other—was nine years ago, in Spain. I was still married, still in my twenties. She was still a rumor until that …

I took the red line down to Koreatown on L.A.’s still brand spankin’ new mass transit system. I was advised not to take it at night because “nobody uses it.” I can’t say whether or not that’s true. I rode …

My sister gave me a good primer on how she learned to live Los Angeles: “Just accept that you’re always going to be in traffic and that everybody’s a tool, and you’ll be fine.” It’s a bit harsh, but that’s …

Snaking over 650 miles down California’s coast, the Pacific Coast Highway is both an engineering marvel and one of the most spectacular drives in the country. It’s a bit easier to get there now, as long as you have the …

For all the movies and books written about him, Wyatt Earp’s first brush with fame came as the referee of an infamous 1896 boxing match.

There comes a point on any trip when the arc away from home ends, and the arc of returning begins. This doesn’t necessarily have to be at the halfway point, either in time or distance. It’s more of a state …

My first ride hitchhiking in the Puna district was with two old hippies, beards to their stomachs, who started smoking pot as soon as I got in the car. “You guys grow up around here?” I asked. One of them …

  “Anything that can create itself by erupting out of the bowels of the Pacific Ocean is worth looking at.” —Hunter S. Thompson, The Curse of Lono The rain closed down the backcountry trails my first few nights on the …

“Oh man,” said my friend Tui when I mentioned Kealakekua Bay. “That’s where Captain Cook got got.” Which is a polite way of saying that James Cook got stabbed to death with a spear, then had the flesh cooked off …

It’s not as easy as driving. But if you don’t want to spend your vacation dough on a car, hitchhiking is still widely practiced on the Big Island. Let me preface this by saying that there is a public transportation …