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Teaching the kids to think like a fish -- with help from a Maine expert

''I see it!'' said my 8-year-old son, Nathaniel.

His eyes and finger followed a barely perceptible ripple in the water. There was a fish out there, and he and his 13-year-old brother Danny were after it. Under the guidance of our fishing guru, Chip Gray, they were learning to cast off, reel in and how to ''read'' the waves, interpreting patterns on the water's surface to figure out where the fish were.

Catching anything was almost beside the point; this was about the art and fun of the hunt. It was something I wanted my children to experience, but I hadn't been fishing myself since I was about 10, so I needed an expert to help.

90 years later, the opera's back on Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street -- where Dixieland jazz competes with karaoke bars, rock 'n' roll cover bands and strip club jukeboxes -- is also one of the first places in America where opera was heard.

Now, it's being heard there again, with a New Orleans-style twist.

Performances take place in a hotel lounge called the Puccini Bar, named for the composer of Madama Butterfly . And spectators sip cocktails while listening to the free, informal shows, which include arias from La Boheme and Carmen .

Amelia Island: Old Florida charm

In those fresh and heady days of new romance, a getaway is something of a forbidden pleasure. Almost any place will do. Later, when the ink on the marriage announcement has long dried, romance becomes a matter of absence: Absence of kids, office politics, social commitments, bill-paying, the appointment with the Terminex man. But turning off the worry spigot isn't automatic. A place of ease - of unhurried moments, natural beauty, a graciously preserved past - can help slow the mind.

That is why The Husband and I headed for Amelia Island, a snappy 30-minute drive from the Jacksonville International Airport, itself a quick hop from South Florida.

Amelia is historic but modern, natural but convenient. This means options enough to please both partners, but few enough to forestall arguments. The major dilemmas: Where to stay (B&B, upscale resort, motel or cottage rental.) Where to dine: White tablecloth scene or a beachside burger. What to do: Kayaking, cycling, boat tour, horse riding on the

Small-town charms: A half-dozen places that may steal your heart

B et you haven't run into a man who's never seen an airplane. But I can lead you to one.

This gentleman chats with tourists every working day at Fort Clinch at the northern tip of Florida, where he plays the costumed role of a Civil War soldier. Since there were no airplanes in the 1860s, he scoffs at talk about machines that fly. He doesn't even admit airplanes exist, even if you point out one in the sky.

This role-playing throwback to an earlier age is one of the more unusual experiences one can have when visiting Fernandina Beach, one of many interesting small towns in Florida.

The tales they'll tell at Longfellow's Wayside Inn

SUDBURY, Mass. -- Almost every little town in New England seems to have an olde inne where Paul Revere changed horses or Abigail Adams left her spectacles. But Longfellow's Wayside Inn near Sudbury about 20 miles west of Boston is the genuine article.

It's said to be America's oldest operating inn, but ``operating'' is the key word. Aside from a 36-year hiatus at the end of the 19th century, the Wayside has offered ``food and lodging for man and beast'' since 1716, when David and Hebzibah Howe opened their two-room house to travelers on the old Boston Post Road.

The inn, just off what is now state Highway 20, occupies a stately red-frame building by a rush-fringed pond, brook and meadow full of purple clover. The ground floor has a taproom, shop and warren of dining rooms with low wood-beamed ceilings, spindle-back chairs, glass-globed candles and pictures of George Washington. Ten handsomely decorated guest rooms line an upstairs hall.