Take the Smooth Jazz Cruise
Yesterday, I wrote about the most memorable cruise I ever took, aboard the Aranui to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. The cruise I’m most excited to take in the future is the Smooth Jazz Cruise. George Benson, David Sanborn, Norman Brown, and Peabo Bryson are just a few of the well-known jazz musicians performing on this winter’s two Smooth Jazz Cruises, January 10-17, 2016, and February 21-28, 2016. Leaving from Fort Lauderdale aboard a Holland America’s Eurodam, the cruise stops in the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Key West. But the real action happens at night when jam sessions from these great performers last until the wee hours of the morning. This is the only way to cruise!
Just had lunch yesterday in Boston with the
Conveniently located halfway between Boston and New York on the I-95 corridor, Mystic has always been a popular stopover to see the beluga whales at the Mystic Aquarium and the former whaling vessels at the Mystic Seaport, a re-creation of a 19th-century seaside village. Then there’s B.F. Clyde’s, the oldest steam powered cider mill in America, Mystic Pizza, and Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, where homemade ice cream has been served at the same site for over a century. Lodging, however, has always been geared toward families, not adults who crave a bit more sophistication. That will change on May 4 when management of the acclaimed Relais & Chateau property, 
The two weeks that surround Columbus Day is one of my favorite times of the year to be in New England. The temperatures are still reasonably warm, in the upper 60s during the day, and the leaves have changed color. Anywhere in Vermont will do nicely, thank you. But I love Addison Valley, known for its web of backroads ideally suited for road biking. The network of roads that branch off from the 
In 2012, Boston, a city that prides itself on its fresh seafood was rocked to its ocean-loving core when a two-part expose published by the Boston Globe revealed that a significant number of fish were mislabeled at area restaurants, grocery stores, and fish markets. Diners were served cheap Vietnamese catfish instead of the succulent and more expensive grouper, haddock instead of cod, tilapia in place of pricey red snapper. Indeed, 24 of the 26 red snapper samples tested were some other species of fish. The two reporters went on a fish collecting spree, sending samples of their findings to a laboratory in Canada for DNA testing. The outcome? A whopping 48 percent of the seafood was mislabeled. In his latest book,