Happy World Turtle Day. Here are some (unrelated) tips:

Traveling, you want to be on top of things. So why not take a professor along? History professor Bob Feldman is leading a tour titled "The Changing Face of Russia" Sept. 11-22. Four days in Moscow, six in St. Petersburg. Price is $5,990 from New York. www.eastwest-tours.com.

Taking a professor's guidebook along with you would be the next best thing. Stephen Solosky teaches in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Processing at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY, but for years his other passion has been Paris. So much so that he has written a concise (29-page) guide to the city that is available in a digital format - for free. Write to solosks@yahoo.com

Not a professor - but a former Sun-Sentinel business writer - Alan Snel is leading a one-day, 170-mile, coast-to-coast bike ride (from the ocean in Vero Beach to the Gulf in Clearwater Beach) on June 1. The ride is being held to memorialize the life of Bill Fox of Middletown, NY, who died in a bicycle accident in the Hudson Valley on June 1, 2002.
alansnel@yahoo.com

It always seemed to me that if you can't make it to faraway places, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival would be the next best thing. The festival is held every summer on the National Mall and showcases a number of different cultures. This year: Bhutan, NASA and Texas. Dates are June 25-29 and July 2-6.

Back in Florida, The Inn on Fifth in downtown Naples is offering special summer rates for Florida residents: $119 a night Sunday-Thursday; $129 Friday and Saturday. Good through Oct. 31.

Up in St. Petersburg Beach, the TradeWinds Island Resort is offering rates of $169 a night for Florida residents (good through Sept. 30).

The nearby Don CeSar (aka The Pink Palace) has rates of $189 a night from June 1-Sept. 30 and you don't even have to live in Florida to get them. You can live ANYWHERE!

And next Friday, May 30 Slow Food Miami is presenting a screening of King Corn: You Are What You Eat at the Wolfsonian in South Beach. The film, at 7 pm, is free; dinner afterwards in the museum's Dynamo Cafe is $100 (plus film and champagne reception at 6:30).