travel

This might come as a shock, but not every cruise is about rum-laden umbrella drinks, 24/7 bingo, "The Love Boat" theme on steel drum and a general atmosphere devoid of culture.

With a psychedelic Chevy bus as a backdrop, Wade Lawrence is trying to talk the shirt off a man's back.

It's not just any shirt. It's an original Woodstock T-shirt, and there were no T-shirts or any other merchandise sold at the legendary festival -- just another way the organizers lost money.

Gardeners know that plants grow fast in Florida. So it's no wonder that one of the largest trees in the world resides here, an enormous banyan that spans more than an acre.

If you go ...
Climate: The best time to travel to Egypt is the winter -- December, January, February -- when daytime temperatures in Cairo and Luxor stay in the 70s, with evenings 10 to 20 degrees cooler. Summer temperatures can frequently rise above 100 degrees. In a country that receives on average 2 inches of rain a year, precipitation is rarely an issue.

Egypt, home to one of the world's oldest cultures, draws 9 million visitors a year. The tourist industry generates 20 percent of the country's foreign currency revenue.

No visit to Egypt is complete without time in Luxor, home to Ancient Egypt's Golden Age. Egypt's seat of power from 2,100 to 750 B.C., Luxor is sometimes referred to as "the world's largest open-air museum."

How do you top birthday celebrations trekking to see tigers in Nepal, scuba-diving off the Fiji Islands, taking bullfighting lessons with a matador in Colombia or sojourning among rug makers in the Medina of Fez?

It's not often that one exits an amusement park attraction thinking, "That ride was really well-written." But that just might be a common response to The Simpsons Ride, which opened last year at Universal Studios theme parks here and in Orlando, Fla.

My boys and I unbuckled our sandals and slid down a muddy bank, slipping our feet into the cool waters of Plum Creek -- Laura's Plum Creek.

Here are resources to inspire and guide an exploration of Laura Ingalls Wilder sites:
A good place to begin, with information on festivals and much more, is www.laurasprairiehouse.com.