The list of cultural seats for the Irish-American diaspora usually starts and ends with New York or Boston. Chicago maybe. But Tulsa? Not...

I generally think of music festivals as minimally clad young people writhing in blazing heat taking duck-lip selfies amid a greater...

(Note: This article was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on April 19, 2023.) I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the...

I counted out a sizable bet and slid it across the green felt toward the three aces face-up in the middle of the table. Then I rested my...

We rolled up onto a bridge curving high over the interstate and I looked out at flatness as far as the eye could see, stretched taught...

I might as well have driven down to Mississippi a hundred years ago. But it was March of 2020. Peering back through the lockdown haze, I...

I was 8,600 miles from home and the bridal party was taking advantage of the afternoon sun for group pictures, so I used the delay to...

It took me 59 years to visit Asia for the first time and I still wasn’t ready for Mumbai, a city of jarring contrasts that overwhelms the...

When an affable, interesting, infectiously enthusiastic Mumbai travel guide invites you to his apartment to sample homemade Parsi tea and...

A hectic day of travel and a long, stressful night retrieving a lost suitcase had me in a fitful sleep. My mind raced from one thought to...

Two days in Florence, birthplace of the so-called Renaissance, and an extra day in Rome visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, led...

“You attend to the pancetta,” Fulvia said, as she walked through the open kitchen door into her sun-drenched yard. “I am going to the...

Outside on the busy sidewalk, groups of loud teenagers wandered past. Italian business people strode from one appointment to the next, or...

If Florida had secret beaches guarded by limestone cliffs, vineyards sliding down to 900-year-old stone walls, lovely, zig-zagging...

Good luck if you are the city after Paris on a European trip. The deck is stacked. We are now in Dublin, where the answer to the Eiffel...

I didn’t notice until I’d passed her three or four times, looming over the small square near our temporary home base like a guardian...

One of the hallmarks of the good vacation is finding a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that turns out to be delightful, then walking out with...

We'll cross Europe slowly on our way to a Thanksgiving wedding in India.

The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa is an inspiring tribute to the creative process of this musical and lyrical genius.

I’ve always turned to wandering driving trips in times of slumping stress. Few things clear my head better than a winding country road...

There are places that come to mind before Green Bay, Wisconsin when I think of a rejuvenating getaway. But that’s just what I got when I...

By John Carpenter (Note: This story was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on March 2, 2020. It has also been published in...

By JOHN CARPENTER When it comes to excuses for a guys weekend, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is as good as it gets. We can safely...

By Mary Carpenter Escuche. Preparar. Esperanza. These were among the handful of Portuguese words I could make out during the sermon at...

By JOHN CARPENTER When my teenage son showed me a list of potential colleges that included Duke and Vanderbilt, my first thought should...

By JOHN CARPENTER SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. I tasted the ocean in the air as I sat on the outdoor deck at Matunuck Oyster Bar, the ebbing...

By JOHN CARPENTER (This article first appeared in the Chicago Tribune April 14, 2017) My first trip on a Lake Michigan ferry was 25 years...

By JOHN CARPENTER (This article first appeared in the Chicago Tribune Aug. 7, 2017) Few golfing moments are more rewarding than standing...

By JOHN CARPENTER (This story was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on July 24, 2019) When my daughter put two California...