About

My travel writing career was launched when I wrote my first guidebook, Innocents Abroad, Traveling with Kids in Europe. The research for my portion of that co-written book entailed racing through five European countries in two months with a two-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old son in tow – a completely exhilarating and utterly exhausting trip, but it whetted my appetite for more.

Five more guidebooks and hundreds of articles later, my travel stories have included everything from piloting a four-ton houseboat barge through the canals of Burgundy (so many locks!) and navigating wild river rapids in West Virginia on a leaky inflatable kayak to investigating Champagne at its source and single origin sugar cane rum on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Over the years my travel articles have appeared in publications such as Taste and Travel, Family Fun, Parents, Ladies Home Journal, The Dallas Morning News and the Miami Herald. My humor pieces have appeared most recently in Real Simple and Writer’s Digest magazines.

In addition to my main focus on travel, culinary and humor writing, I’ve designed playing cards and other graphic material and written annual reports, artists’ websites, advocacy publications, training courses, children’s books and just about everything in between.

I enjoy taking on projects in a variety of genres, tailoring my writing style to meet the needs of a wide range of audiences. But culinary adventures are my greatest love, whether I’m slurping oysters in Appalachicola, salmorejo in Cordoba, or hoppy beers in IPA-crazy San Diego. Sure I love to sightsee, but these days I find myself favoring farmers markets and food trucks over fortresses and fine art. Show me an exhibition of hand-crafted Northern California cheeses lined up on a plate in front of me – now that’s what I consider artistic inspiration.