Adventures in Oregon: First Stop, Hood River
The winds on the Columbia River Gorge were far too strong for stand-up paddleboarding when we arrived on its shores. According to friend Kirby Neumann-Rae, Editor of the Hood River News, the winds were “nukin.” That didn’t stop the windsurfers and kiteboarders from hitting the water and the air in this wind tunnel that separates Oregon from Washington. Neumann-Rae soon led my brother and me on a drive away from the river to the fertile valley backed by the snowcapped peaks of Mount Hood and Mount Adams. Called the Fruit Loop, a 35-mile drive leads to pear orchards, fields of lavender, alpaca farms, farm stands, wineries, and an emerging hard cider scene. This is not the cloyingly sweet beverage you’re accustomed to drinking. We made three stop at HR ciderworks, Fox-Tail Cider, and Hood Valley Hard Cider, and were surprised that the drink tasted more like dry sparkling wine than apple juice. It was crisp, refreshing, and could easily be paired with the Chinook salmon and steelhead trout the region is known for. Sample the cider on the back deck picnic tables of the Solera Brewpub in Parkdale and you’ll be mesmerized by the spectacular view of Mount Hood.
Take one of Abercrombie & Kent’s luxurious tented African safaris and plop it down on the northern fringes of Vancouver Island in British Columbia and you start to understand the sumptuous wilderness experience that can be had at 
Guest Post and Photos by Amy Perry Basseches
While some Greek isles like Rhodes, Mykonos, and Santorini can be overrun with tourists in the summer months, there are those isles like Folegandros and Tilos that seem to be a coveted secret among knowing Scandinavian travelers. Moments after you arrive at the main square in Folegandros, you realize that this is the authentic Greece. People dine on wooden tables under a string of electric light bulbs. Men with mustaches out of a 1880s barbershop photo grill souvlaki on an open grill. Older men drink coffee at a small café. All is framed by whitewashed buildings and churches. Tilos is an island where the locals, still unaccustomed to tourists, greet you as if you lived there your whole life. A place where one picks fresh figs off the tree and finds deserted medieval castles that request no admission fee.
Only an hour drive north of San Francisco, expect the vineyard-draped hillside of Napa Valley to be tinted with crimson and gold come autumn. But the real reason to head here this time of year is to participate in one of the harvest season’s crush parties, where you get to stomp on the grapes. Some of the biggest names in American wine, from Opus One to Stag’s Leap, line Highway 29 north of Napa and the