The stereotype of the avid birdwatcher is classic: a well-equipped enthusiast wearing the latest outdoor gear, carrying the biggest lens, peering into the trees through the most expensive binoculars, traveling to all the most exotic corners of the globe to be able to check another…
They are one of the first signs of the holiday season: bright red cranberries in a sauce or compote on the Thanksgiving table. Sometimes they’re part of the centerpiece or decorations and they’re there all the way through Christmas. It used to be that when…
Every year, usually some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I bring out all the good stuff. I put out an assortment of foods I’ve picked up as I traveled in the months before and brought home to share with my family. Some years it has…
I’m fortunate that my work takes me to Europe several times a year, but I try to go on my own at least once each fall or winter. Sometimes I travel with my husband or accompanied by one of my adult children, and that’s always…
I had a lot of miles ahead of me. I was about to depart on a 3-week solo itinerary that would take me from the Northwest to Paris to New York City to a cruise along the New England coast before coming home in mid-October.…
Several weeks ago my daughter, a marine geologist who works off-shore assignments around the world, left for a 6am flight out of Spokane. It was the first of leg of a grueling multi-flight journey that would end when she arrived in Italy late the following…
We spent an October weekend at Walt Disney World several years ago, and every year around this time I wish we were back. Fall is a great time to visit Disney World or Disneyland, and it’s especially fun if you are in the park after-hours...
His story was not uncommon but that only increases its bittersweet quality. In late September, 1918, just weeks before the end of the Great War that had decimated parts of France and Belgium and effectively destroyed an entire generation of men in Europe, Sergeant Headley…
Most hotel rooms come with a few amenities, things like tiny bottles of shampoo, scented soap, a shower cap, a miniature sewing kit and occasionally some fragrant shower gel or body wash. But, because travel always seems to bring unexpected complications, I’ve learned how to…
When my plane landed in Brussels in the spring of 2012, I was stupid and dazed from lack of sleep. I'd slept only a few hours in the last couple of days, having worked late into the night on Thursday and then pulled an all-nighter…
It early spring, when the Spokane River was a wild spectacle, swollen with snowmelt and spring rains, thundering over the jagged basalt falls, pouring through the deep canyon at the edge of downtown, I could not stay away. I kept going back to stand on…
Travel seems to get more complicated every year. With all the new TSA requirements, confusing flight options and fares, crowded airports and seasonal weather cancellations, it can be hard to keep up and stay on track. Fortunately, the list of iPhone and Android applications is…
Planning for two days in New York--including a night at the theater and a lot of sightseeing--a 7-day transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2 with at least two formal nights, and then another three days hoofing it around London before flying back home, made…
After our June transatlantic crossing on the Cunard Queen Mary 2, we spent an additional three days in London before flying back to Spokane. That’s not a lot of time in one of the world’s most beautiful and historic cities, but with a map, a…
This time of year there are a lot of people wandering around Tuscany, tasting wine in the hot Italian sun. And just as many snapping photos of the beautiful lavender fields in Provence, France. While I can’t be at either of those places at the…
If I told you I’d gone to the city to see a few shows, listen to some impressive live music, catch a cutting-edge film festival, spend time in world-class museums, and chow down on an astonishingly diverse and multicultural dining scene including Cuban, Ethiopian, Mexican,…
After I’ve run the security gauntlet, after I’ve shown my ID, after I’ve exposed the contents of my bag to whoever is manning the scanner, after I’ve emptied my pockets and made my way through, the world shrinks to the faces and voices I hear…
I was standing in an alcove on an upper deck about to step out onto the deck of the Carnival cruise ship, the Miracle, when the doors opened and a family blew in. A man and this three sons, each holding an ice-cream cone, lunged…
Our crossing. Such an elegant phrase. Even today, in an age of mass travel, it perfectly captures the tradition of boarding a big luxurious ocean liner and sailing across the Atlantic. Before we catapulted from one continent to another, we crossed. And the phrase still…
When I was asked to write the Eastern Washington feature for last month's Alaska Airlines Magazine's annual Washington section, I was given only one note: Show us what you like best. I wish all assignments were that easy. I ran out of space long before…
For history lovers, like me, there is something deeply important about following the footsteps of the men and women who came before us. That’s often what compels us to travel, to put ourselves in the place where important things--significant events that shaped the world we…
I paid the $5 taxi fare from my mid-town hotel and walked through Seattle’s King Street Station to the track where the Amtrak Cascades was waiting. After I stowed my bag overhead I settled into my seat as the rest of the passengers filed on…
It was almost midnight by the time my delayed flight landed in Spokane. I followed the stream of weary passengers through the terminal and met my husband at the door. We drove silently home in the dark .The window was open and I caught a…
(Photo: Martina McBride performs on the Carnival Ecstasy.) A few days away from work, escaping the usual family obligations and the routine of the daily grind, can quickly recharge our emotional batteries. There’s no better way to get some much-needed time with your spouse or…
I poured the first cup of coffee of the morning and opened my email. There was the usual flood of messages: personal notes from friends, updates from editors and scattershot public relations pitches. And there was one surprising note. It read: Hello Cheryl-Anne! My sister…
Cheryl-Anne Millsap's Home Planet column appears each week in the Wednesday "Pinch" supplement. Cheryl-Anne is a regular contributor to Spokane Public Radio and her essays can be heard on Public Radio stations across the country.
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