Page 15 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2025 THAILAND

132 JAPAN’S PERFECT BALANCE

We were overwhelmed when planning our first
visit to Japan in over 50 years.
The country is some 1,800 miles long from north
to south, stretching from Cape Soya in Hokkaido
and Sapporo to Cape Sata in Kyushu.

156 LEGENDARY CHICAGO

You may know it as The Windy City, Second City
or the City of Big Shoulders, but Chicago’s origi-
nal name is the Place of Stinky Onions.

166 RESCUE IN NEPAL

As I lay in my bed in a Kathmandu, Nepal, hospital
recovering from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema
(HAPE) - following an emergency helicopter rescue
from near Everest Base Camp - my Zen-like mantra
was "It's not the destination, but the journey."

Maribeth Mellin

Maribeth Mellin is an award-winning journalist whose travel articles have ap-
peared in Endless Vacation Magazine, U-T San Diego and Dallas Morning
News among others. She also travels and writes for several websites including
CNN Travel, Concierge.com and Zagat, and has authored travel books on Peru,
Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii and California.

Tom Gable

Tom Gable has been writing about wine and travel since 1972 when he was
business editor of the San Diego Evening Tribune and had a weekly syndicated
wine column in more than 400 newspapers. He wrote for The Wine Spectator
and lifestyle and airline publications before moving into a career in public re-
lations. While in PR, he continued as the wine columnist for San Diego Maga-
zine for more than 35 years and a freelance travel writer. After retiring in
March 2023, he now writes wine and travel features for magazines and news-
papers, and blogs at (www.sdwineguru.com).

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