Bahamas

Whether by necessity or choice, a quarter of Americans take at least one vacation by themselves each year. Some solo travelers are single. Some have partners who dislike travel or have different interests or can't get away. Some just crave freedom. But all face the same question: What's the best trip for the person traveling alone? "The key is to know yourself," said Beth Whitman, author of a guide for women traveling alone and founder of Wanderlustandlipstick.com , a website devoted to advice and tours for women on the go. "There are times when you just need to get away, to recuperate.

We were someplace outside San Antonio, crossing the high plains of West Texas in a rented RV the size of a city bus, when the winter storm took hold. On the radio, a forgotten Buck Owens rendition of "Truck Drivin' Man" filled the darkness. Then the news flash: Snow and high winds had closed Interstate 10, not far down the road. We had a deadline, so we kept moving. As we gassed up in Sonora, the first flakes began to fall - scouts for an oncoming army. Soon a blizzard blew horizontally, blanketing the highway.

Bahamian police were put on alert to turn back New York's wandering garbage barge Thursday after a developer said he wanted to unload it on a tiny uninhabited island to help build a tropical playground. Tony Gallina of Largo said he planned to use the 3,100 tons of refuse as fill on which to lay foundations for a resort on Little San Salvador, a spit of land 250 miles southeast of Miami in the Bahamas' Out Islands.

LONDON - Allyson Felix could not believe what the Olympic Stadium scoreboard was telling her. She had taken the baton from Tianna Madison and did her part well on the second leg of the U.S. 400-meter relay team Friday before handing the baton to Bianca Knight, who got it to Carmelita Jeter for a blazing anchor leg. As Jeter crossed the finish line she pointed to the clock and screamed. Felix gasped: Their time was 40.82 seconds, eclipsing the world record of 41.37 set 27 years ago by East Germany.

President Reagan will name Carol Boyd Hallett, 48, to be ambassador to the Bahamas, the White House announced Thursday. A former member of the California state Assembly, Hallett currently is national field director for Citizens for America, a private lobbying organization for Reagan Administration programs.

The 43 members of Parliament in the Bahamas have listed assets totaling $38.9 million, the government's Official Gazette said last week. Kendal W. Nottage, a former Cabinet minister who resigned in 1984 after a Royal Commission of Inquiry report on allegations of corruption and drug smuggling, listed $8.4 million in assets and $560,686 in liabilities, making him the wealthiest member of Parliament with a net worth of $7.8 million.

The Professional Golfers Assn. will precede its 1986 Tour with a new event, the $300,000 Bahamas Classic at the Paradise Island Golf Club, PGA officials announced. The tournament, scheduled for Jan. 2-5, will feature a starting field of 44 players -- the top 30 available players from the final 1985 PGA Tour official money list, seven foreign invitees not otherwise eligible and seven sponsor exemptions, said Deane Beman, commissioner of the PGA Tour.

U.S.marshals and Bahamian police Monday announced the arrest of eight international fugitives wanted in this country on drug smuggling charges, marking the first time that the two nations have cooperated on such an ambitious crackdown. The arrests should send a message that "there are no safe havens" for fugitive drug smugglers in the Caribbean Basin, Stephen E. Morris, director of the U.S. Marshals Service, said at a news conference in Miami.

We were someplace outside San Antonio, crossing the high plains of West Texas in a rented RV the size of a city bus, when the winter storm took hold. On the radio, a forgotten Buck Owens rendition of "Truck Drivin' Man" filled the darkness. Then the news flash: Snow and high winds had closed Interstate 10, not far down the road. We had a deadline, so we kept moving. As we gassed up in Sonora, the first flakes began to fall - scouts for an oncoming army. Soon a blizzard blew horizontally, blanketing the highway.

LONDON - Allyson Felix could not believe what the Olympic Stadium scoreboard was telling her. She had taken the baton from Tianna Madison and did her part well on the second leg of the U.S. 400-meter relay team Friday before handing the baton to Bianca Knight, who got it to Carmelita Jeter for a blazing anchor leg. As Jeter crossed the finish line she pointed to the clock and screamed. Felix gasped: Their time was 40.82 seconds, eclipsing the world record of 41.37 set 27 years ago by East Germany.

LONDON -- If there were an Olympic award for courage in competition, Manteo Mitchell would get a strong nomination. Mitchell ran the opening leg of the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay Thursday and seemed to labor, unable to hand over the lead to Josh Mance after a leg of 46.1 seconds. Afterward, Mitchell said he had a cramp in his foot. But his struggles didn't seem to matter because Mance, Tony McQuay and Bryshon Nellum rallied to get the U.S. to the finish line in 2 minutes 58.87 seconds, tying the Bahamas for the fastest qualifying time.

The Bahamas await you for $475, round trip, including taxes and fees, on AirTran from LAX to Nassau. The fare is subject to availability for travel between April 16 and May 30. There is no minimum stay. Info: AirTran , (800) 247-8726 Source: Airfarewatchdog

The notorious "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced to 7½ years in prison Friday for an improbable odyssey of burglaries, thefts and stolen-aircraft joy rides across eight states that turned him into a cult hero around the world — and in the remote wooded islands where he grew up, an object of fear. Judge Vickie Churchill declined to impose the full 10 years sought by prosecutors for Colton Harris-Moore, 20, citing the young defendant's offer to make restitution to his victims, his expressions of remorse and a dramatic history laid out in court of a childhood full of abuse, neglect, poverty and alcoholic parents that led him to begin stealing food and shoes from neighbors at age 13. "It's a tragedy that he had to steal food because he had nothing to eat as a young boy. That he had to bear the taunts and jeers of classmates who ridiculed him because he lived in a derelict mobile home.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Mammoth Mountain bus getaway The drive from Southern California to the Mammoth Mountain ski resort can be tough on busy holiday weekends. Pacific Sports Tours offers a bus trip over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend for skiers and boarders (and families too) that might take the angst out of getting there. Dates: Jan. 13-16 Price: $279 a person, based on four to a room (two queen-sized beds) at Sierra Nevada Lodge; also, $299 a person for a triple and $369 a person for a double.

Andros Island in the Bahamas offers a kick-back experience with year-round bonefishing in the tropical shallow waters of the Caribbean. Frontiers Travel takes anglers on four-day trips to a lodge at Kamalame Cay with a discount of $815 a person for February departures. Relax at the lodge and go fly-fishing with a guide to find dorado, wahoo, king mackerel, tuna, grouper and marlin. Date: Trips leave year-round, but February trips are discounted. Price: $2,955 a person (with discount)

Hurricane Irene grew into a Category 2 storm that is forecast to strengthen as it moves toward the Bahamas and possibly the Carolinas and the Northeast U.S. Irene's maximum sustained winds remained at 100 miles per hour, up from 80 mph yesterday. It may become a major hurricane later today, according to an advisory. The storm's winds may increase to 111 mph, according to a statement yesterday. "I don't see any roadblocks to intensification over the next four or five days," said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Joaquin E. Bacardi, a retired president of the rum empire founded by his grandfather, has died after suffering from heart problems. He was 85. Bacardi, who spent his entire career with the company, died Tuesday in Nassau, Bahamas. Bacardi was born in Santiago de Cuba, where Don Facundo Bacardi established the company in 1862.

Three soldiers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for taking two of their wives for an unauthorized ride on an Army helicopter that crashed in the Bahamas, killing both women. Chief Warrant Officers David E. Guido and Daniel P. Riddell and Sgt. William E. Westgate, all stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., had been sent to the Bahamas to take part in an anti-drug program. They took Guido's wife, Pam, and Riddell's wife, Rebecca, for a ride on their helicopter July 6.

Dumped in a squalid holding cell and then shunned by a society he doesn't know, Patrick Escarment struggles to learn Creole and build a life in earthquake-devastated Haiti. His arrival here this year was not voluntary. Escarment was in the first group of Haitians with criminal records to be deported from the United States to Haiti after a one-year moratorium. After the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that destroyed most of this capital and killed more than 300,000 people, the Obama administration suspended deportations.

I just returned with my family from our three-night Bahamian cruise aboard the Disney Dream, where I blogged daily from the ship about our experiences and took photos . It was the first cruise for my family, Disney or otherwise. We found the ship’s décor luxurious and the entertainment mostly top-notch. The food and service were hit or miss, and at times, the pampering didn’t live up to the top-dollar price tag. But all in all, we had a great time. [ Updated at 12:15 p.m. Feb. 15 : After we left Nassau, a major fire broke out Monday in the popular Bay Street shopping area, damaging the Bacardi Building,  shown in one of my photos, and other structures, the Tribune in the Bahamas reported.