It’s impossible to visit Texas with a virgin mind, uncorrupted by a steady diet of images in the media.

So when I landed in Dallas, I immediately started stereotyping: visions of big hair, cowboy boots with spurs glinting in the sunlight, George W. Bush’s lopsided face, tumbleweeds, Jessica Simpson-as-Daisy Duke, and 12 oz. deep-fried sweet tea balls choked down in one bite.

Winter is here, and San Diegans are flocking to the mountains to enjoy the snow.

As much fun as we have playing in the sunshine or biking on the boardwalk along the Pacific Ocean, many of us simply need to get a dose of our favorite winter sports and wintry weather fun every year. And we all have to make the trek to local mountains and distant snowy escapes in order to do so.

From snowboarding the slopes with friends to making snow angels with the kids and gondola rides with loved ones, discover your local Winter Wonderland escape at these nearby mountains and snow parks.

“Are there more resident bald eagles on the island or resident gays?”

My lesbian wife, the always-sunny Mary B. of San Diego, and I are 22 miles away from mainland USA on a chunk of land known as Catalina Island.

True to lesbian cliché, we met only months ago in the GayTravel Guru finals, and now we consider ourselves wed, making this island adventure our honeymoon of sorts. We are on a tour of the vast, rugged interior with two gay residents who work for the organization that controls 88 percent of the land here, the Catalina Island Conservancy.

NEW ORLEANS -- The Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans is a haven for the artistic and bohemian. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, it’s one of the neighborhoods benefiting from the surge of gay and lesbian transplants, relocating to and rebuilding the city.

“It’s been a remarkable journey,” said Will Poole, who with his partner Loren Penton bought the Maison de Macarty Bed and Breakfast.
They opened just in time for Halloween weekend, one of the biggest LGBT celebrations in the city.