Kiteboarding: can a middle-aged woman of average athletic ability and no previous experience snowboarding or surfing fly through the waves on a kiteboard? Absolutely. I discover this in San Juan on Puerto Rico’s Isla Verde Beach during a two-hour lesson with 15 Knots.

When you cruise Europe’s rivers and canals, you wind through farmlands and medieval villages, past terraced vineyards, and historic castles and sometimes straight to a city’s heart. You can choose from luxury ships that accommodate 100-150 passengers to small boats and barges carrying 6-12 people.

What do a log cabin, 20,000 books and a guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen have in common? They’re all part of the Mansion on O Street’s surprises. The Mansion not only offers hotel rooms and event space, but hosts teas, brunches, treasure hunts, blue grass jams and drag shows.

Turks & Caicos' Grace Bay Beach, on Providenciales, with its 12 miles of sugar soft sands, fulfills any bride’s dreams of a beach wedding. During a scouting trip with my son Matt and his fiancée Christina, we discovered that planning a destination wedding is its own type of adventure.

There’s still plenty to enjoy in Washington, D.C., even after you and your family tour the U.S. Capitol, visit the White House, see the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, take in the monuments and memorials and peruse the exhibits at Natural History, Air & Space, American History

In Virginia’s southwest and its Blue Ridge Highlands, toe-tapping fiddle and banjo tunes as well as blends of folk and popular music ring out against the mountains. Along the region’s back roads and main streets, discover the other kind of mountain magic: handmade quilts and pottery plus contemporar

Travel back more than 2000 years by touring Pompeii and Herculaneum, ancient sites easily reachable from Naples. When the Mt.Vesuvius volcano erupted on August 24,79 A.D, it froze both towns in time, but did so differently. Here’s how cruisers and day trippers can choose which lost world to enter.

A European and Mediterranean cruise comes with the excitement of exploring museums, cathedrals and ancient ruins in France, Italy and Greece while unpacking only once. What we learned early on that mars the fun: long drives from ports plus planning too much to do in one day.

Corfu Town, the historic area on the island of Corfu and one of Greece’s largest medieval cities, lures walkers like us with its winding, centuries-old pedestrian streets. That, along with the mix of stores, cafes and an ancient fortress, made the place a favorite stop on our Mediterranean cruise.

Luray Caverns, the largest cavern in the Eastern U.S., deserves its ranking as a top tourist attraction. The cathedral-like chambers with their millions of intricate and massive formations have been amazing visitors for decades. But those aren't the only cool places at the caverns complex.