travel

Travel in your future?

If so, expect to shell out some extra bucks if you intend to check a bag. Some airline carriers are either charging for checked bags or have plans to do so. Charges are $15 for one bag, $25 for two.

So what's an already cash-strapped traveler to do?

Learn how to carry on correctly.

To my beautiful niece Caira and my dashing nephew Cam:

So you're each heading off to Europe this summer for the very first time. How I envy you! You're about to embark on adventures that could forever change your relationships with the rest of the world.

The quintuple whammy of a stuttering economy, soaring energy costs, stringent security, eviscerated flight schedules and weak dollars has Americans reconsidering taking vacations abroad.

Chris Chojnicki was always one flight from a family fix. She would think nothing of flying to Chicago and Atlanta and California four or five times a year to see her aunts and cousins for reunions and graduations and birthday parties.

But now, the Pittsburgh woman vows never to board another commercial airplane because of the expense and the sheer hassle of flying.

AUSTIN, Texas -- As the Colorado River stair-steps through the splendid green hills of Central Texas, it makes wide bends through downtown, catching the sparkling reflection of the vibrant city. Lady Bird Lake, as the river is called by locals, gives this place its definitive aura of openness and freedom.

WASHINGTON -- Chalk it up to the eternal conflict between good and evil, but Americans have always been fascinated with crime.

From the stocks and pillories used during Colonial times, to the bloody shootout at the O.K. Corral, to the notoriety of serial killer Ted Bundy, who confessed to 30 murders before being executed in 1989 -- it all fuels our imagination.

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec -- One wonders what Samuel de Champlain might have thought about the white-faced, mute provocateurs strolling the piers along the St. Lawrence River at "Esplace 400," the multimedia fair where this charming city's 400th anniversary is being celebrated.

BILOXI, Miss. -- Three simple words: sun, sand and sea.

The way to bliss is to wiggle your toes in the sand of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Watch pelicans patrol the shoreline, nap in the sun, read a book from a beach chair planted in the surf.

Try another three words: Be there soon.

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec -- It should be no surprise that this quaint city on the St. Lawrence River is a food lover's paradise. It is, after all, the cradle of French culture in North America, and everyone knows the French practically invented gastronomy.

WASHINGTON -- Evidence -- Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's wooden cabin, a replica of the D.C. snipers' car and heiress-turned-bank robber Patty Hearst's rifle.

Most museum exhibits contain what curators call artifacts, but the new exhibit at the Newseum is full of evidence borrowed from the FBI.