Travel hero: My five-year-old son Cass. We got lost on a six-hour hike in the jungle and he was a rockstar. No complaining. Never begged to be carried. Kids will surprise you when you need it most.
Travel hero: My neighbor, Joan Crowley. She’s in her 70s and just did a road trip through Africa with her sister. Picture it: Two elderly ladies driving themselves around.
Favorite childhood travel memory: My mom and I took the MGM Grand airline to New York, and Dorothy (yes, of "The Wizard of Oz") was on the flight, as well as other characters.
Weirdest thing seen on travels: One of the more recent ones was the man who walked around Rome taking photos of nothing but door handles. We all have our passions, I suppose.
Weirdest thing seen on travels: In Berlin I saw a guy who created a sausage grill that he wore over his shoulders and never touched the ground. You'd order the sausage, and he'd grill it standing.
Weirdest thing seen on travels: The wooden phalluses erected as fertility totems on farms in Bhutan, with suggestive strands of thick white yarn dangling from the tips.
Weirdest thing seen on travels: Weirdness is great. But the most inexplicable to me is those tourists who take endless pictures of buildings and fields.
Weirdest thing seen on travels: Flash mobs. It just isn't the same as just watching them on YouTube. Everywhere I go, I check out the local pub. The key to my heart is good pint of beer.
I always bring home slippers. Cotton in-flight slippers, terry hotel-room slippers, little beaded silk slippers from Singapore. It's nice to look down at your feet and remember where you've been.
