Ireland reaches out and grabs you. It lures you in with extraordinary green landscapes, good food and drink, and hospitable people, and keeps you there with history, music, and new friends. If you’re planning a trip to Ireland, or just thinking about things to do for St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve got you covered.

One of the questions I hear most often (besides how to teach your kids to love art) is how to combine science and travel. I have two words: Science Museums! We love them, we visit them whenever we can, and we have such fun.

Mountains, camping, hiking, sand dunes, hot springs, history—Colorado has it all! A must visit for every extreme sports fanatic, nature lover, and the one who loves to just sit and enjoy themselves in a heavenly natural hot springs, there are endless reasons to travel to Colorado.

There isn't much that I like more than visiting lighthouses during the summer. The sun, the sand, and sunny skies lend themselves to long lazy days walking along the beach, sun bathing, boating, and building sand castles.

We're lucky here in Michigan, where more than 110 lighthouses dot the coasts of the Great Lakes that surround our state's Lower and Upper Peninsulas, and I'm especially fortunate to have visited many of these historic beauties over the years.

New York City is the city of dreams, lights, and busyness. People who live in the city aren’t known to be particularly nice to tourists – it’s just a fact. Here are some ways tips to surviving NYC - and making your trip enjoyable.

Traveling with CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) is one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced (it comes in second to living with CFIDS, to be honest).

NYC… home to so many people.

NYC… my home, and to others, the place of skyscrapers, Broadway shows, and lights. Don’t get me wrong, NYC has lots of lights and tall buildings, but it’s more than that for me. It’s home, always has been… if you don’t count the first year or two of my life in Wisconsin. In NYC (well, really, everywhere), history is all around you - you just have to be interested enough to learn about it.

In May 2010, my family and I went to Nepal for a month. Over the course of that month, we traveled all across Nepal, but the highlight—for me, anyways—was trekking in the beautiful Khumbu region.

Is it your dream to bike through France? It can be an incredible, life-changing experience – if you’ve got the right bike, and a good plan. There's nothing worse than trying something (bucket-list worthy) and failing. Consider self-guided cycling holidays in France.

Ready for a travel experience like no other? I’m always reminding my students to use the 5 senses in their travel writing, because it packs such a punch in relating a place to the reader.