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My mom would take me to Yosemite for every school break I ever had when I was growing up. I had hiked Bridal Veil Falls about 4 times by the time I was 8. I have various pictures through the years of my childhood of camping, hiking, sitting around the campfire with complete strangers, wading in the rivers, wandering through Tuolomne Meadows and just sitting with my mom with Half Dome in the background.

Some of my best memories of being a kid are in that park.

This was my first trip to the east coast. If I could afford it I would move here. It’s beautiful! I was there in April and even though the Big Dig was going on it did not detract from the beauty of this city one bit. So much history stuffed in such a small place there is no way you could see it all in any less than a week.

Flying into Logan is a hair-raising experience. I hate (I mean I HATE) to fly and the plane literally lands about 15 feet from the edge of the Atlantic. All you see out the window is water. Water. Water. As the plane is getting lower and lower you start thinking the captain is possibly drunk and can’t see anything. Then there is the runway and BAM down goes the plane onto the runway.

Logan has a really good bar right outside the landing terminal for United Airlines by the way

I live directly across the Strait from Victoria, B.C. and I go over a couple of times a year.

The streets are clean and the shopkeepers are friendly. The bartenders are heavy-handed and the prices are reasonable. You can get a hotel for about $50 US or stay in a gorgeous BnB for about $85 US

The Royal British Columbia Museum is wonderful. Make sure you get the IMAX show with your museum admission, it’s worth the extra. Don’t waste your money in the Undersea Gardens unless you’re from Texas or some other landlocked state that’s never seen sea anemones or an octopus before…

If you have the time and the $$, take a horse-drawn carriage ride through downtown Victoria (it’s best at night when the Parliament building is all lit up).

Eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Order one piece of cheesecake per person and every other bite…switch your plates one person to your right…yell out SWITCH before you do it so you can entertain the waitstaff