Trips

Beginning the day with tasty pastries, passing up "must see" sites but choosing to mingle with regular folks, then topping the day off with a sumptuous meal ... well, you can't see all of Lisbon in two days. But you can always return.

Unsure about how to proceed, and knowing that walking up and down Lisbon’s steep streets would prove a bit too arduous for our aging legs, we asked the employees behind the Lisboa Carmo Hotel desk for advice. And they suggested taking a Tuk-tuk tour.

Jaws dropped when Jillian Foster pulled her camper into Spencer Spit State Park for a summer job as a park aide.

On the morning of Nov. 1, 1755, a major earthquake hit the Iberian Peninsula and nearly leveled Portugal's capital city, Lisbon. Rising from that disaster, today's Lisbon is one of Europe's more scenic capital centers.

Last week some out-of-town guests from the East Coast came to visit. Since they wanted to get a feel for this part of the Pacific Northwest, we took to the road.

How long does it take to feel at home in a place? That’s the million-dollar question.

I don’t possess that much of a poetic soul that I felt anything like Stendhal's “palpitations of the heart” while journeying through Sevilla's ancient royal palace, the Real Alcazar. But I did feel overwhelmed by the maze of buildings, stairwells, intricately crafted walls and balconies, not to mention the attendant gardens.

Three of the most beautiful state parks on the West Coast sit within a few miles of each other at the entrance to Puget Sound.

From the seats of our double-decker bus, we were able to tour both sides of Sevilla's Guadalquivir River, famous for being Spain’s only navigable river and where Magellan started his 1519 trip around the world.

The Nerja Cave, which sits on Spain's Costa del Sol, features a 45-minute walk along stone pathways and wooden stairs that brings visitors up close and personal with any number of majestic rock formations.

Back when we were in our 20s living in Spokane, we’d take the occasional backpacking trip.

When abroad, my wife Mary Pat Treuthart and I travel mostly by train. But Mary Pat would much prefer that I drive. And I did so recently as we continued our trip through southern Spain.

Many road trippers live by the motto: Home is Where You Park It.

I knew that Islam was a force in Spain for some eight centuries. I just didn’t know how much of an influence. That is, I didn’t know until I read about -- and then visited -- Granada’s most-visited site, the Alhambra.

You need to be careful with first impressions, especially when traveling. Simply stated, though, our two-night stay in the Spanish city of Granada filled me with nothing but love.

We love life on the road, but sometimes we miss friends and family.

Common sense tells you that it’s impossible to get more than a feel for a city in just a couple of days. Much less so in just one. But you can get at least a taste of what a city has to offer.

Mount Rainier is waking up for another summer season and it’s the perfect time to plan a trip to Washington's most popular national park.

International travel is a great experience. The only real drawback, aside from the expense, is a little something known as jet lag.