As we emerge from the urban, palm tree forest, there it is. The 17,500-seat SAP Centre, a silver-sided edifice better known as the Shark Tank, is the home rink of the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks. This is definitely going to be NHL hockey, California-style. My son, Alex, and I have walked three blocks up downtown's main drag of Santa Cl...

This little overseas territory of the UK is home to Barbary apes. We affectionately name our favourite Gib. Admittedly, it's not a very original moniker for an adorable baby monkey on the little peninsula of Gibraltar. After all, Gib is the nickname of this seven-square-kilometre chunk of rock in the Mediterranean, which is an overseas territory of...

Taylor Baptiste draws the bow back and, bam, shoots the arrow straight into the heart of the bear cub. Don't fret, this isn't a real, live bear cub, but a plastic bruin-shaped target. It's been set out with a similarly fake badger for our archery session on the sage flats of Canada's only desert in the southern tip of British Columbia's Okanagan Va...

Morning bread and wine are the preferred refreshment on this Italian Riviera excursion. It's the breakfast of champions on the Italian Riviera. A chunk of focaccia bread washed down with a glass of white wine launches the day with flair for dock workers and tradesmen as well as slightly hungover tourists. In the case of the tour group my wife and I...

The Speakeasy: Age of Scofflaws in San Francisco is an interactive party featuring cocktails, comedy and cabaret show. Excuse me, do you know where I can get my pants tailored? With that simple, yet completely off-topic question, the woman in the blue hat and blue scarf allows us to pass through the door of Joe's Clock Shop after handing us a Treas...

Bathing naked, sip sparkling wine and eat schnitzel in the historic German city of Wiesbaden. Certainly, you can make eye contact and even nod in greeting. But, for heaven's sake, don't stare, in neither admiration nor aversion, at anyone's privates or bare backside. Those are my do-and-don't tips for taking the waters naked at Kaiser Friedrich The...