Best Beaches Northern California: Flavors of Capitola and Santa Cruz

[10 Jun 2009 | No Comment | ]
Best Beaches Northern California: Flavors of Capitola and Santa Cruz
Which beach is best? Capitola with its cocktail cuisine has a party flavor — plus family appeal. Santa Cruz main beach has sea lions alongside the wharf, surfing beneath the cliffs and the famous Boardwalk.

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
All travel has a culinary flavor, given that one has to eat. True culinary travel, however — I’d say what defines it is the focus. It’s about eating the specialties of a place. Learning about the food traditions of the people. It doesn’t imply eating lavishly, isn’t necessarily about haute cuisine, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot. Visiting a farmers market and creating a picnic from the produce stall … Read more

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Conscious Living, Mindful Travel, South Africa Travel »

Butterfly effect links Buddhist groups in South Africa and San Francisco

[29 May 2009 | One Comment | ]
Butterfly effect links Buddhist groups in South Africa and San Francisco
And a miracle called Woza Moya is born in KwaZulu-Natal

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
First published in the Sunday Tribune, South Africa
The Ufafa district, near Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is home to around 23,000 people. Families reside in a sprawling muddle of family compounds that stagger up hills and tumble into valleys, forming a jumbled patchwork of mud, thatch, concrete block and tin. The dwellings have no electricity. Water for drinking, washing, cooking and bathing is hand-pumped from underground wells and carried in plastic bucket and barrels. The area could have been forgotten. But — was it serendipity, karma or …

Conscious Living, Featured, Mindful Travel, South Africa Travel »

South Africa has it all. But — What Is This?

[18 May 2009 | No Comment | ]
South Africa has it all. But — What Is This?
There’s surf, sunshine, scenery, wildlife — adventure. And when you get tired of the tourist scene, there’s Buddha, dharma and sangha. Prepare to be enlightened!

Story and photos by Wanda Hennig
First published in Sunday Life Magazine, South Africa
“I ENVY you. That’s just the sort of holiday I need. Somewhere to relax, space out and unwind.”

The comment comes from a colleague. We’re in the newsroom of the Sunday paper we’re both working on in Durban, South Africa. He has just asked where I’m going for my eight-day break and I’ve told him …

Coaching, Conscious Creatives, People & Lifestyles »

Yes you can Wow the World with your online presence

[3 May 2009 | No Comment | ]
Yes you can Wow the World with your online presence
Ask Oakland technology guru Anca Mosoiu and she’ll show you how

Do you Twitter, Facebook and have a bunch of people following your daily blog? If not and you feel you should — or need — to know how, go speak to Anca Mosoiu in her 14th Street technology hotspot and salon in Oakland. She’s committed to leveling the playing field, teaching social networking and essential web skills to da people.

People & Lifestyles, Writers »

Writing and Kicking Butt at 80-Plus

[15 Apr 2009 | No Comment | ]
Writing and Kicking Butt at 80-Plus
If The New Yorker had a book of records, Geets Vincent would be in it..

Story & photos by Wanda Hennig
Geets Vincent teaches autobiographical writing. Contrary to the claim that those who fail at something resort to teaching it, she can and does write herself. When we first spoke, we were with a group of travel writers …

Conscious Creatives, Headline, People & Lifestyles »

Botti Beautiful

[6 Feb 2009 | No Comment | ]
Botti Beautiful
You know you’re a jazz superstar when you make a slow, dark, moody, melancholy record and it tops the charts.

Story by Wanda Hennig
Photo courtesy the artist
First published in Black Diamond Living magazine

We all know Sinatra, Paul Simon and Sting. Most of us, however, didn’t know trumpeter Chris Botti until late in 2004. Strange when you think that his first professional gig was with Sinatra; that for five years, starting in 1990, he played the world with Simon; and that he joined Sting as a featured soloist in 1999 and the two have collaborated ever since.

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