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IT may have been the best week of my life. It was certainly the most sybaritic. There are 16 of us, all Americans, on the French Country Waterways barge Esprit, […]

STANDING outside the Tower Hill Underground station one day last spring, I fell into casual conversation with a woman from Philadelphia. We were part of a group of 12, all […]

IT was shortly after the horrors of September, and I wanted to get out of Dodge, at least for a little while. Nassau, the Bahamas, lay only a short flight […]

The Congregational Church of Bradford, Iowa, spang in the heart of the Midwest, looks as if a tornado had blown it in from New England, except that it is not […]

Death in Holy Orders By P. D. James. 415 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $25. CHARACTER, plot and setting take equal part in the work of P. D. James, […]

THIS is what you see when you stroll along the fifth-deck Royal Promenade, forward to aft. On the starboard side: Cafe Promenade, the Games Arcade, the Weekend Warrior sports bar, […]

THE elevator opens onto a dazzling, celebrity-filled New York party. Wolfgang Puck pours Champagne. Liz Smith gossips with Larry King. The mayor and the governor stand around looking affable. Woody […]

THE one sits in life-size bronze majesty, surrounded by her generals and other illustrious men, overlooking the Ring opposite the Burgtor entrance to the Hofburg; the other displays her tiny […]

A ONE-WEEK American Hawaii Cruise among the Hawaiian Islands, calling at five ports on four islands, sounds like exactly the ticket for alleviating the winter drearies. It does not, however, […]

THERE is something that feels a little illicit about checking into a neighborhood hotel for a weekend, even if the man you are checking in with is your own husband. […]

THE snow and sleet and ice that we were hoping to escape delayed our departure from New York for several hours, but Tom and I couldn't complain. Unlike many other […]

YOU can take the girl out of California, but you can't take the California out of the girl. This may be true, but nonetheless, I occasionally need to return to […]

SOME years ago, my mother and stepfather made their first trip to Europe. My husband, Tom, and I had bought platform tickets to meet them at the Gare de l'Est […]

ON shore, the Midsummer's Eve bonfires twinkle dimly in the sunshine as we sail out of Bergen. Jet-lagged, we seek out our cabin and go to bed long before dark. […]

MANY moons ago, first as impecunious students and then as impecunious married students, Tom and I hung out in San Francisco. Then, as now, the city offered maximum fun for […]

'NO tattoos,' my husband says firmly, 'and no bungee-jumping.' But even with these restrictions, the Great Allentown Fair in Pennsylvania offers plenty of diversions, from livestock judging to hay-bale-throwing and […]

IN mid-February in New York, spring can seem far away. In Bermuda, the freesias are said to be in bloom, and the mere idea of these most divinely perfumed of […]

WHAT better way to end the summer than with a little trip to someplace green and bountiful? Rural Pennsylvania, around and beyond the city of Lancaster, sounded good to my […]

ONLY 90 or so miles from Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and its environs have long been a retreat of choice for movie stars and others; it's easy to imagine, say, […]

WHEN I was a child, my favorite place in the whole world was the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. In love with the Biltmore's coffered and gilded ceilings and grand […]

IN the middle of a sweltering New York summer, a few days in Atlantic City seemed like a swell idea. But staying on Boardwalk was essential, and, as anyone who […]

THE star-studded memorial parks of Los Angeles are the mortuary equivalent of the footprints at Mann's Chinese Theater or Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. In the course of a four-day […]

THE menu cover shows a dandy of the late 18th century, ruffled neckcloth, pastel-striped greatcoat and all. In his upraised hand he holds a heart-shaped contrivance, the ornate 'V' monogram […]

I'VE always thought that the author of 'White Christmas' had it exactly wrong. Forget the white stuff. I grew up in southern California, and my idea of a real, traditional […]

THE city of Chester, in northern England, is an enormous gift box, overflowing with nearly 2,000 years of history. Holding it all together is its wall, unique in Britain and […]