My twelve year old daughter and I flew to Paris for Spring Break in 2004. Her French teacher takes a group of seventh and eighth grade French students on trips to different parts of France every other year, and we decided that it would be a great father/daughter trip. Since we planned to extend our trip beyond the ten days that everyone else was taking, we were put on a different outbound flight from the rest of the group.

When Rachel and I arrived at the Portland, Oregon airport, we ...

My wife entered a raffle drawing in 2006 and won four Parkhopper passes to Disneyland and accommodations for three nights near the park. Since it coincidentally worked out best for our schedule, we flew down to Anaheim on my daughter Rachel's fifteenth birthday. Before boarding, I discretely asked the agent at the check-in counter if it would be possible for my daughter to sit in first class, since it was her birthday. She told me that she had no authority to do so, but I could ask one of the flight ...

Although I'm a big fan of the multi-course, white tablecloth, different wine with every course dinner, some of the best meals that I have ever eaten have been purchased at carts, booths or palapas. One of my most memorable meals was in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico. Sayulita is a surfing town half an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. A cab from the Puerto Vallarta airport will run around $80 but the local bus will get you there for about $2 per person. There are no paved streets in Sayulita. The streets ...

My wife, Michelle, and I were in Nepal in 1990. We spent a few days enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of Kathmandu. While we were there, we talked to a lot of people about trekking, which was one of the things that we wanted to do while in Nepal. The general concensus was that we should go to Pokhara and make arrangements from there. Michelle and I located the bus company that goes from Kathmandu to Pokhara and we purchased round trip tickets for the following morning. We were told that we ...

Since this is the first blog that I've ever written, I'm a little unsure of what I'm supposed to write. Probably the best thing to do is to tell everyone how I became The Piranha. In August, 1991, my wife and I moved to Hana, a tiny town on the rainy east coast of Maui. My wife is a family physician and she was the only doctor in Hana for three years. I know that many of you have heard of or have been to Hana, but Hana is known mostly for the road that visitors must drive to get there. Affectionately ...