Laurie's light travel travel tips

Climbing aboard the opulent Classic Harbor Line's new Manhattan II battery-powered lightweight wooden schooner out of Chelsea Piers felt cinematic. I had been having a rough month, and the buoyant jazz cruise was just what I needed. Classic Harbor Line is a national company boasting turn-of-the-century style schooners and motor yachts that sputter out of New York City, as well as Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and Key West. Its PR person tells us that the line offers the ideal alternative to "typical sightseeing boat tours" in part because of its eco, wind-powered sailing feature. He also claims this is the only eco schooner in the world! Beyond the green features including beautifully polished hardwood flooring, the divine jazz by Sound Waves, and the yummy cheese perfectly paired with Sauvignon Blanc, was the fine time out on the bow of the boat. Sure, the scardy cats - okay, a little mean of me - might not have welcomed the ups and downs on the bobbing blue Hudson a...

Had enough of His Orangeness? Overwrought with angst that the Republican nominee is spewing vitriol we would scold our middle schoolers for? That's why you need a Trump-free vacation. First, turn off the TV in your home and crank up Bach. Nothing serves as an anecdote to ugliness as classical violin music. Second, go to Expedia and book your vacation. Here are some tips: • Think remote islands, countries, and villages • Think campgrounds, beaches, other natural settings • Grab your passport, SPF 30, iPod, and best friend Then turn your cell phone OFF, put a vacation message on your Gmail and work e-mail accounts, hire a cat sitter, water the plants and GO! After a day away from the "news" about Trump, you'll be surprised by how much better you feel! No one is insulting anyone at the cabana. That eagle you spotted on your hike didn't call anyone a loser. Your boyfriend complimented you for your brilliance, and didn't insult you when you said you'd gained f...

You know how they say you never know what you have till it's gone? I'd like to add that you don't know what you have until it's almost gone. In a few days, I have to leave the tri-state area and head South. I'm looking forward to some Southern hospitality, events in NOLA, and the return of the What-a-Burger, but overall, I'm not ready to leave. That's why I decided I'd give Connecticut and New York another lap around the track. I'd go back to favorite spots and seek out the new. Yesterday, that mindset led me back to the Met. The exhibit "Manus x Machina" did not disappoint. I'm not going to explain the exhibit here, except anecdotally, sharing that the 3d printer-tie-in to modern-day designs was nothing short of extraordinary, even for a 10-year-old boy who happened to be with me. I was touring the museum with him, a former tutee, and his big sisters, who joined me from Brooklyn. He particularly seemed to love an image of 3D print...

When I went back to San Francisco at Christmas, I was expecting a crush of techies jostling for cafe space or elbowing me out of the BART. I predicted one long gloomy trip as I struggled to relate to millennials or Gen Zers too focused on their smartphones to notice they were tripping over my Birkenstocks. Hey, I don't really wear Birkenstocks (not that there's anything wrong with that), and it was too cold and rainy in the Bay Area to have worn them anyway; but apart from that, I sensed that the Old Guard was still very much in the power position in my city. Take, for example, my cabbie in Pacific Heights. I'd just left a very classy hotel I'd reviewed , and after a bad experience on the trip was sharing my concerns with him. We ended up talking about the changing face of the newspaper business in the city, sharing names we both knew, and then laughing our way into the Richmond. I didn't have a ton of money for a tip, but clearly, this Old Guard San Franciscan w...

In part one , I trumpeted the PCH and Pismo Beach, Rome, Texas, Silicon Valley and Disneyland. Today I'll go a little more off the travelocitybeaten track. If you're sick of Vegas glitz and New York ego, LA traffic and Parisian prices head to locales where attitude is only something one adjusts and not an aspirational state. Head to ... For kids-at-heart: Carlsbad Caverns, New Mex . is a wonderland of bats, caves, weird rock formations, underground pools and tunnels that is a real life Disneyland. If you have a fear of being buried alive, it may not be for you, but it'll definitely prove educational while also providing a fine work out. Self-guided or ranger-guided tours are available. To book a tour, click here for more info. The caverns are just south of Carlsbad, New Mex. in the Guadalupe Mountain Range. For "Breaking Bad" fans : As long as you're in New Mex., why not visit some of the sites made famous in the best episodic series to wind down in 20...

Hard to believe another year is upon us, but then, I am quite sure I said this Dec. 28, 2012 as well. This past year, the talk was full of Miley Cyrus, Edward Snowden, Obamacare, the Boston bombings, "BreakingBad" and a spate of states sanctioning gay marriage. Hopefully for you, it was also full of exciting and memorable travel; but if you are like many cash-strapped Americans, 2013 was a tight year. So let's look ahead to a more prosperous 2014. Grab your passport, suntan oil, GPS and favorite traveling companion and get your booking digits ready. Herewith, five of the top ten treks for 2014: For techies: While technology is being manufactured from Japan to Chicago, California's infamous Silicon Valley is still the gold standard when it comes to all things geeky. Whether you'd like to visit Google's headquarters in Mountain View or the Apple Campus in Cupertino, SV lives up to the hype. (Note: it's not really a valley.) For...

Knight's Haven B&B: They say we travel far in order to find ourselves, so it should not surprise one when the journey never ends. For, like a bottomless ocean, each layer gently unravels and the discoveries spill. We may glimpse a representation of ourselves--whether in the morning's first fresh light as it pours over an emerald field, the sight of a black cow lolling, an eye toward Shannon...a mile to Glin, indicated on a stone marker, castles clotting my path as I walk in this wondrous, stormy wrought-from-a-storybook meld of old and new, Celtic pleasures, boisterous humour and simple joys. I met John Barrett, proprietor of JC Barrett's, a.k.a. "The Real McCoy" today--such a generous and kind man, who offered to drive me up the road to look at a castle (one can only assume a pretty younger lady in town for a spell might provide an extra sparkle to his day.) I drank two delicious Irish Coffees there -- the best ever! and the second was bought for me by ...