by Steven Cole, Lowell, MI (First of two parts, jump to part 2)

“It seems like yesterday. . .” is a phrase older folks find themselves saying quite often. For me, it seems like yesterday that I was taking stairs two at a time. Now I avoid stairs whenever I can. But in January ’06 I had an opportunity to ascend the world’s biggest “staircase” — in the Himalayas.

I was going to Pokhara, Nepal, as a consultant on a U.S. aid project and would have sufficient free time for a trek,...

Story by Dana McMahan, Photos by Dana & Brian McMahan and Holly Maynard.

I traveled to Italy with my husband, Brian, and another couple in March ’06, staying at a rented villa in Tuscany for a week. A highlight of the trip was a market tour and a hands-on cooking class in Florence at Divina Cucina (Via Taddea, 31, 50123 Florence, Italy; www.divinacucina.com), where I had won a class for two (valued at $375 per person) through a trip-report writing contest.

Change of plans...

by Andrea Granahan, Bodega, CA

Several times while in Peru, I felt as though I had reached the end of the world. Upon reaching the island of Amantani on Lake Titicaca, I felt that way again. Not only had we traveled far into the Andes to get to the lake, we had been riding for hours in a boat across the vast body of water.

Our day on the lake coincided with the first rainy day we had had in three weeks. Even though it was Peru’s spring, the rain was cold and the winds, sharp...