Seeing a place for the first time—whether Paris or Machu Picchu—has magical moments that stay in our memories long after the trip is over. And for travelers who want those new experiences, it’s tempting to discourage or eliminate return travel. While I’m drawn to places I haven’t yet visited, there are destinations that I return...

I expected that it would be excessively hot on the late August day that I’d be working on a home in New Orleans. I’d already imagined it in my mind: alternating time between standing on a ladder and collapsing under a tent to balance my body temperature. Instead, it rained steadily on the day before...

On August 29th 2005, almost 5 years ago, hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of North America. It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by, as the people of the area are still recovering from the disaster. In 2007 I took a sprawling North American road trip that landed me in New...

Everybody who loves Louis Armstrong knows his birthday was on July 4, right? It turns out that it took until the mid-1980s to learn that Satchmo’s special day wasn’t July 4, 1900, but August 4, 1901. And why do you care? Because if you’re anywhere near New Orleans the first weekend of August, you can...

In the days leading up to Mardi Gras a couple weeks ago, I fielded some strange questions from camera-clutching visitors to the city of New Orleans, where I've lived off and on the for past year-and-a-half. Though the post-Katrina streets of the French Quarter had grown encouragingly festive and rowdy in anticipation of Fat Tuesday,...