North America
Mariposa in Sunlight
by Bonnie Etherington
(Spiritual Category Winner in the 2012 WanderWomen Write Travel Writing Contest)
November is warm this year in Mariposa, central California. The aspens that line the highway are almost naked. A few yellow leaves cling to the lower branches that arch against a blue blank sky. The leaves are dry… Read more >>
Burning a Hole in the Sky
by Ashley Cultra
(Grand prize winner in the 2012 Hawaii-themed Travel Writing Contest)
The metal handle is cold and merciless beneath my fingers. Another gust of salty air burns my nose as the wind sprints past. I am alone and lost in this remote fragment of heaven…. Read more >>
Wavering on the Fiery Edge
by Nancy Kerstetter
(Earth Category winner in the 2012 Hawaii-themed Travel Writing Contest)
Like all good tourists who visit the Big Island, I was making an evening trek out to where the volcano lava was flowing at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in 2003. We drove in a long snake-like line of slow-moving vehicles… Read more >>
Falling Up
by Adam Kotlarczyk
(Sky Category winner in the 2012 Hawaii-themed Travel Writing Contest)
My years of training – many years – in no way prepared me for this: about to jump off a mountain. To be fair, my training isn’t in mountain climbing, or jumping, or anything physical at all… Read more >>
My Kauai Merman
by April Nelson
(Sea Category winner in the 2012 Hawaii-themed Travel Writing Contest)
A Kauai native with dive gear and a surfboard, Raf lived in the ocean. He had the muscles of a merman and wide feet that resembled those on the seagulls he swam with… Read more >>
Seeing the World with New Eyesby Linda Ballou
The blast from the whistle of the locomotive quickened my pulse. Make way Make way!.. I’m coming through, Read more >>
Shifting Gearsby Elaine K. Miller
“chief of all the dangers attending this new development of feminine freedom [bicycling] is the intoxication which comes with unfettered liberty.” Read more >>
Hardcore Holidayby Judith Ritter
It’s 90 degrees and I am lying on my back in the sand while a six- foot tall man who is reputed to have blown up ships in enemy harbors and tracked Taliban in high mountains, is shouting a machine gun fire blast of orders in my face… Read more >>
Where the Spirit Moves You: Kohala Coast Hawaiiby Beth Whitman
“When I was growing up, we weren’t aloud to talk Hawaiian, now they have special immersion schools.” Danny Akaka walks us through the property at the Manua Lani Resort – pointing to petroglyphs and ancient boats as we make our way to the beach. Read more >>
Antlers in the Grassby Kerri Kerber Dieffenwierth
The beefy woman on the big black horse in front of me seemed to sway her hips extravagantly from side to side, as if on purpose. Her kind gelding dutifully lowered his head and continued to stride smoothly through tall summer grasses and crushed wildflowers. Read more >>
In My Father’s Footsteps: Hiking Yosemite’s Half Domeby Drake Lucas
The granite steps to Half Dome proved a way to weed out hikers who had already put in six hours on a steadily climbing trail. Some weren’t even steps, just slabs of rock to scramble up… Read more >>
The Magic of Esalenby Susan Norton
Somehow, I missed the 60′s. Perhaps, I was just too busy pursuing other interests, such as bee hive hairdos, hot pants and the pursuit for a perfect husband to have the time or inclination to delve any deeper into my self awareness than a full length mirror would provide… Read more >>
Canyon Ranch Spa Experienceby Annette I.
Not long ago, a knee injury on top of a particularly challenging consulting assignment left me overwrought and stressed out! It was then that I found out spa vacations offered secret weapons against the pressures of home, office… Read more >>
A New Frame of Mindby Meg Peterson
The thirty-seven foot raft dived over the edge into the center of a churning, boiling cauldron of white foam… Read more >>
