DesignDestinations

Rancho La Puerta focuses on Wellness and Healthy Living

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:00:58 +0000

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” is a popular, often-cited statement commonly identified as a Buddhist or Taoist proverb. It was true for me on a recent visit to Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. I’ve visited the Ranch many times often with a profound impact on my life. This trip was […]

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Brilliant Zebra Design

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 25 May 2026 11:00:13 +0000

I love Zebras. I always have. I look at a major Zebra portrait in our home daily and I get soft and squishy when I see photos of these magical creatures. I am not sure why I have such a fascination with the Zebras, but maybe it has to do with the graphic stripes designed […]

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Destination: Purple Rose Theater, Chelsea, Michigan

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:00:33 +0000

The Purple Rose theater in Chelsea, Michigan is a delightful surprise. Nestled near the Pinterest -Worthy downtown, the small performing group is a wonderfully creative organization that I had never heard until recently. This is a bit of a shock to me, because I have lived in Michigan all my life—Spring Lake, Grand Rapids, Dearborn, […]

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Morocco: Casablanca

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:00:33 +0000

by Kate Dernocoeur, Guest blogger The name “Casablanca” is familiar nowadays, but the place actually started out as the ancient city of Anfa. When the Portuguese arrived in 1468 and blew Anfa to ruins and later built a military fortress there in 1515, they called the village that grew up around it “Casa Branca” […]

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Loving Chefchaouen in Morrocco

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:00:28 +0000

by Kate Dernocouer, guest blogger Seventeen days is too little time to make a person expert about a place, but it’s more than enough to have made me fall in love with this northwestern corner of continental Africa. That lyrical name — Morocco! — piqued my curiosity for decades. The way the word rolls off […]

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Epic Universe adds to Orlando fun

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:00:52 +0000

Last winter I had a chance to go to the new nine billion dollar Epic Universe theme park in Orlando and would love to share what I saw. Since I hadn’t planned to do a blog post the images are a bit random. I wasn’t new to Theme Parks. I had taken my now adult […]

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The Gilded Age lives in Chicago

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:00:54 +0000

by Judy Bereza, Guest Blogger The Guilded Age lives on in downtown Chicago. This former “Marble Palace”has been reborn as the Driehaus Museum. This remarkable house museum was the highlight of a recent visit to Chicago. The house was beautifully decorated f or Christmas, an additional treat for visitors. The history of the house is […]

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Serenity of Nature

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:00:23 +0000

GARDENS OF GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, JAPANESE TEA GARDEN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA by Linda Laughter, guest blogger Last spring, we had the opportunity to visit the oldest Japanese Garden in the United States. It is like a peaceful island in the busy city of San Francisco. The gardens are a complex combination of paths, ponds […]

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Visiting Cartagena, Colombia

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:00:47 +0000

I have mixed feelings about Cartagena, Colombia. On one hand it is a vibrant coastal city with an historic walled area, lots of things to see and to do, gorgeous beaches and an abundance of South American charm. The historic old city, where I stayed on a Photography Tour last March, is overrun with […]

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Enjoying the Sights at Colombian Markets

Susan J. Smith — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:00:33 +0000

Going to local markets in foreign countries is an activity I particularly enjoy. Actually I have enjoyed visits to places like Eastern Market in Detroit and other US cities too. The food and the people can give one a sense for what the culture is like while providing a myriad of photography opportunities for folks […]

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