I’m not a big fan of pizza. I like it well enough, but I had never had a pizza that I thought was extraordinary. There is one exception – I’m originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania and pizza from the town of Old Forge really is delicious. But with square cuts from a big rectangular crust, thick tomato sauce, and an American cheese blend, Old Forge pizza always seemed outside the realm of ordinary pizza, in its own category, at least in my mind. I have to admit though – New Haven […]

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Working as a tour guide in Philadelphia’s historic district, I must have become a little Pennsylvania-centric on my view of the American Revolution because I was absolutely stunned when I stumbled upon the Trumbull Room at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. It was the thrill of unexpectedly running into dear acquaintances while on vacation – the familiar blue and yellow uniform in the painting of my favorite founding father, General George Washington at Trenton by John Trumbull, a striking contrast to the bright red walls of […]

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Tennessee is really a fascinating place, particularly for history buffs. There are sites exemplifying pioneer history, the founding of the United States, the Civil War, the Great Depression, WWII, and the Civil Rights Movement – all easily accessible from Knoxville (itself named after Henry Knox, Revolutionary War hero and Secretary of War under President Washington). Most interesting to me is that America as the grand experiment – a country founded on an idea, not on an ethnicity – is really put to the test in Tennessee, on more than one […]

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“When an old person dies, it’s like a small library burning.” — Alex Haley, author of Roots, spoken to his friend John Rice Irwin, founder of the Museum of Appalachia[i] Until I went to Knoxville, Tennessee, I hadn’t experienced a place with such a strong sense of preserving the past. Not just the events or places of the past – I work as a tour guide in Philadelphia and we have that here – but the importance of each individual life gone by, of each individual story woven into the fabric […]

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I am a self-acknowledged history nerd with a film degree. I had no idea that Pittsburgh had an abundance of sites covering my two big interests – colonial and current celebrities. Mostly I am interested in the places celebrities were – so that I can stand in, sit on, or touch the same spot. I imagine I am forging a connection that transcends space and time, that the celebrity’s genius energy can infiltrate my own and affect it in a positive way. With movie sets I am inspired by the creation; […]

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Visit Pittsburgh. It’s a vibrant city with fantastic views and all kinds of easily accessible ways to see them, a sports legacy to envy, and vital American history. But more importantly, it is a tribute to what city government, public and private enterprise, and concerned citizens – what we, as human beings – can accomplish. In the last 50 years or so Pittsburgh has orchestrated a miraculous environmental transformation. Ride to the top of the famed Duquesne Incline and check out the photos from the 1940s when the city was choked in […]

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One of my favorite activities is hiking, yet I’m afraid of heights. I love trying different modes of transportation in my explorations, but I’ve been seasick on whale watching trips and catamaran booze cruises. While I’m a huge fan of beautiful views, driving in elevation, particularly if the roads wind and twist, tends to make me carsick. I generally feel colder than everyone else around me. To function at an optimal level, I need to eat more, drink more, sleep more, pee more, and yes, even poop more, than most […]

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We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. — T.S. Eliot The press trip to Hocking Hills, Ohio, that I was invited to sounded like just my kind of quirky fun – visits to a washboard factory and the world’s only pencil sharpener museum, candle and pottery-making classes, off-road Segway and zipline rides, and hikes – including a haunted one at night – through unique geological formations. The trip also […]

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The eighty degree weather we’d had at breakfast in a California border town transitioned sharply into the fifties by lunchtime at the Grand Canyon. I exchanged my flip flops for socks and hiking shoes, threw a jean jacket over my summer dress, and donned a beanie, the only warmer things I had easy access to. My dress whipped around my legs in the chilly wind. The weather was unexpectedly far from ideal for sightseeing, but we couldn’t drive past the Grand Canyon and not stop. Dizzy with the height and […]

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I was on my way to Philadelphia’s Triumph Brewing Company to meet with my boss, Joe Wojie of Grim Philly Twilight Tours, and Laurie Hull, a paranormal investigator from Tri County Paranormal. We were going to discuss and map out the route to our Halloween tour, a hands-on historical ghost hunt. I had been waiting at my South Philly bus stop for over 40 minutes, alone. An older man, tall and skeletal, inappropriately dressed for the sweltering summer day in a bright red sweatshirt and winter beanie, chain smoked across […]

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“There’s a view there, but I’m not too sure how good it will be.” View? I was all about the view. That was the reward for a difficult hike. That was the explanation I gave to my mother who could not understand “why anyone would want to walk up a mountain” – how else would I get to see wonderful vistas? How else could I stand in awe at my own puniness in the face of nature’s grandness? And this hike had promised three vistas, at least one of them […]

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We heard the surf pounding the rocks in front of us, though we couldn’t see the waves in the inky blackness. Far out on the water’s surface a flame flickered and glowered, illuminating the edges of a wooden pier. Festive white lights ran up and around the palm trees next to our table, and I read the menu by the dim light of the candle. It was too beautiful not to sit outside, though my dress-up skirt and cute jacket were obscured by layers of towels from the room and […]

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“Open sesame.” I asked the secret passageway through the bookcase to reveal itself. “Open sesame!” I commanded, an octave lower. Nothing. I looked at my friends, the ten of us pressed close together in the bustling hallway, but they were all there for the first time as well. I stomped my foot. “OPEN–” The creaky bookcase swung open, and we hurriedly followed the guide inside. For my fortieth birthday I had decided to celebrate with the Houdini Seance Evening at The Magic Castle in Los Angeles. My boyfriend at the […]

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