Every evening while we nap to be non-comatose for the capital’s 10 p.m.-and-later dining hours, the cream-colored retriever named after the American singing icon barks excitedly as his Spanish owner returns from work and showers endearments we can hear from a floor above, then takes his pet down the small apartment building’s time-worn wooden steps for an evening walk. Renting an apartment in a foreign country is a way to live alongside locals — and feel more like a resident than a tourist. Renting also can buy more for your vacation dollar, especially in Spain, which has been hit hard in [ ... ]

BY the time we reached the first rest stop, a Burger King in Cle Elum, in central Washington State, I was suffering two anxieties: That I would kill the guru, and that if I didn’t, he would ignore me for the next 3,000 miles. He’d been as quiet as a statue for the two hours since we left Seattle. When he finally spoke, it was to say, “Oh, look, chicken sandwiches, only $1.05.” People who haven’t spent time with a spiritual master might think that being [ ... ]

Comfort Inn guests will soon be noticing some changes. Next month, Comfort Inn Suites hotel will open in Spokane Valley, Wash., as the brand’s first newly redesigned property. The hotel’s furniture, fixtures and equipment were all replaced to fit into the new Comfort Truly Yours design. Choice Hotels International, Comfort’s parent company, got feedback from more than 1,500 guests to come up with the new design. More than 100 properties are in the midst of a redesign. Others will follow, with the brand-wide overhaul scheduled to be completed by 2015. The company has said it is willing to close up to [ ... ]

ON Monday, the wind blew so hard that only a fool would have ventured near the rim of the canyon. On Tuesday, a sandstorm colored the sky the yellow of motel linoleum and left a film of grit in your mouth. By Wednesday, I was properly stir crazy, and so when I stepped out into a cold Arizona morning of cerulean skies and the medicinal smell of sage, I got into my car and, for no particular reason, decided to hit the road. It was my vague notion to drive from my hotel [ ... ]

Norwegian Cruise Line today unveiled a three-day promotion on Alaska cruises that includes a $100 per cabin on-board spending credit. The Alaska Bonus Weekend offer, as it’s being called, is available for 2012 sailings in the region on the Norwegian Jewel or Norwegian Pearl, both of which are sailing to Alaska this summer out of Seattle. Norwegian says would-be Alaska cruisers also can get up to $500 in airfare credits on select sailings and an e-coupon booklet that could bring up to $400 more in on-board savings. RELATED:  Look inside a Norwegian Cruise Line ship More information on the Alaska Bonus Weekend offer is [ ... ]

BY the time we reached the first rest stop, a Burger King in Cle Elum, in central Washington State, I was suffering two anxieties: That I would kill the guru, and that if I didn’t, he would ignore me for the next 3,000 miles. He’d been as quiet as a statue for the two hours since we left Seattle. When he finally spoke, it was to say, “Oh, look, chicken sandwiches, only $1.05.” People who haven’t spent time with a spiritual master might think that being [ ... ]

UPDATE: Can’t make it out West to view Sunday’s annular eclipse in person? The National Park Service will broadcast the eclipse live by webcast from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. from New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument. ORIGINAL POST: In the hours just before sunset on Sunday, May 20, the first solar eclipse in the USA in nearly two decades will dazzle viewers along a swath from the Pacific Coast to Texas. And some of the best places to see the annular eclipse – one in which all but the outermost rim of the sun is blocked by the moon, leaving a “bull’s [ ... ]

UPDATE: Can’t make it out West to view Sunday’s annular eclipse in person? The National Park Service will broadcast the eclipse live by webcast from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. from New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument. ORIGINAL POST: In the hours just before sunset on Sunday, May 20, the first solar eclipse in the USA in nearly two decades will dazzle viewers along a swath from the Pacific Coast to Texas. And some of the best places to see the annular eclipse – one in which all but the outermost rim of the sun is blocked by the moon, leaving a “bull’s [ ... ]

UPDATE: Can’t make it out West to view Sunday’s annular eclipse in person? The National Park Service will broadcast the eclipse live by webcast from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. from New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument. ORIGINAL POST: In the hours just before sunset on Sunday, May 20, the first solar eclipse in the USA in nearly two decades will dazzle viewers along a swath from the Pacific Coast to Texas. And some of the best places to see the annular eclipse – one in which all but the outermost rim of the sun is blocked by the moon, leaving a “bull’s [ ... ]

UPDATE: Can’t make it out West to view Sunday’s annular eclipse in person? The National Park Service will broadcast the eclipse live by webcast from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. from New Mexico’s Petroglyph National Monument. ORIGINAL POST: In the hours just before sunset on Sunday, May 20, the first solar eclipse in the USA in nearly two decades will dazzle viewers along a swath from the Pacific Coast to Texas. And some of the best places to see the annular eclipse – one in which all but the outermost rim of the sun is blocked by the moon, leaving a “bull’s [ ... ]

Q. Did you travel much in your childhood? A. My family took trips for two reasons only: to attend Sanctified Brethren Bible conferences for several days of preaching and Bible study or to visit relatives who we actually liked, so my memories of travel are tied up with the Book of Deuteronomy and the imminence of the second coming, or feeding Aunt Bessie’s chickens. We rode in a Ford station wagon, my mother with a breadboard on her lap making baloney sandwiches to save money, [ ... ]

Q. Did you travel much in your childhood? A. My family took trips for two reasons only: to attend Sanctified Brethren Bible conferences for several days of preaching and Bible study or to visit relatives who we actually liked, so my memories of travel are tied up with the Book of Deuteronomy and the imminence of the second coming, or feeding Aunt Bessie’s chickens. We rode in a Ford station wagon, my mother with a breadboard on her lap making baloney sandwiches to save money, [ ... ]

Q. Did you travel much in your childhood? A. My family took trips for two reasons only: to attend Sanctified Brethren Bible conferences for several days of preaching and Bible study or to visit relatives who we actually liked, so my memories of travel are tied up with the Book of Deuteronomy and the imminence of the second coming, or feeding Aunt Bessie’s chickens. We rode in a Ford station wagon, my mother with a breadboard on her lap making baloney sandwiches to save money, [ ... ]

Q. Did you travel much in your childhood? A. My family took trips for two reasons only: to attend Sanctified Brethren Bible conferences for several days of preaching and Bible study or to visit relatives who we actually liked, so my memories of travel are tied up with the Book of Deuteronomy and the imminence of the second coming, or feeding Aunt Bessie’s chickens. We rode in a Ford station wagon, my mother with a breadboard on her lap making baloney sandwiches to save money, [ ... ]