All entries by this author

Irene visits the San Luis Valley which straddles the US states of Colorado and New Mexico.

After Adrian’s report on a British county show, Irene attends her first American one – the Arapahoe County State Fair. How similar are they?

The experience surpassed my wildest dreams – every day we were just feet, and in one case inches, from enormous, gorgeous polar bears.

Irene visits thelush, fertile region of Colorado known as the Grand Valley which has many award-winning wineries, succulent peaches and other fruits, and dramatic western high desert landscapes.

Irene finds that you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to see Aspen when you can be just a short drive from the glitz and status for so much less?

Irene goes whale watching and kayaking in Mexico’s Baja California and regrets not seeing mantas jumping out of the ocean in moonlight.

In the centenary year of the US National Parks Service, Irene visits the magnificent red rock serenity of southwestern Utah’s National Parks and Forests.

On Irene’s last day in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas, we visited Estero Llano Grande, one of nine World Birding Centers located here, where we were captivated by a flock of some 30-40 soaring white pelicans high in the sky.

“It’s a little city with a big attitude,” said Albert Francis, Irene’s taxi driver, who escaped Katrina’s wrath by snagging a cab fare who paid him to transport his family to Atlanta.

Stepping out from the opulent marble palace-like Casa Gangotena boutique hotel in Quito, Ecuador, I found myself in a bustling plaza dating from the 1500’s. The ornately decorated San Francisco Church and Convent fronts this enormous cobblestone-paved square. On this sunny, crisp morning, in every direction there were moms with their youngsters in tow, scurrying off to school – some with their breakfast plates in hand! There was a small group of rowdy men in a corner, apparently recovering from the festivities of the night
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Irene is bowled over by the sights of St Louis in Missouri.

With a beaming smile that splendidly broke through the cloudy day, my almost 88-year-old mother rode her segway down the wide trail at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park in Edmonton, Alberta.

It’s not just New Orleans that has a Mardi Gras. Irene visits Lake Charles, which hosts the second largest Mardi Gras in Louisiana.

Irene describes Puerto Morales in Mexico as being like Cancun – before it became the Cancun many of us now know!.

Irene and her husband head to Hawaii not to enjoy the beaches but for a bicycling adventure.

Last year in March, Irene visited Nebraska, the migration destination of half-a-million birds. She shares with you what you can see if you travel there next month.

Irene ventures into the Rocky Mountain National Park to try some Nordic ski-ing also known as cross country ski-ing.

Irene explores some of the new products around that make your travel plans just that little bit easier. Readers can get a discount of 20% off some products.

Irene visits Boulder in Colorado which, she says, exists in a wonderful world of its own.

Irene visits Nayarit, a small Mexican state which will open up now that there are direct UK links into Puerto Vallarta.

Here in verdant, mountainous Chiapas, one of the least westernised Mexican states, I was already used to seeing native people in traditional costumes, speaking a wide variety of tongues.

Irene visits the small town of Healdsburg in the wine country of California and finds that, for some reason, it is still uncrowded compared to some other parts of the Napa Valley.

Irene heads to Door County in Wisconsin where she finds goats grazing and wild turkeys near the lighthouses and a life almost protected from the modern day.

irene visits Aspen’s not so well-known neighbour in Colorado, Snowmass and finds that its not just a place for a winter vacation; there is a lot happening in summer too.

Raja’s big brown eyes looked sideways at me with a touch of suspicion. Irene’s trip to Taos in New Mexico could only get better.

Surrounded by 1,500 other folks in the jam-packed arena, Irene knew that Dolly Parton’s Dixieland Stampede show featured live animals but had no firm grasp of what this wildly popular Branson, Missouri extravaganza would be.

Irene travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the Roanoke Valley, a destination that not that many of us over here know about or visit.

Irene heads for one of the oldest hotels in Colorado, the Broadmoor which is the longest running winner of five star awards in the USA.