This week's question comes from Lindsey in Florida, the world’s second-largest orange-growing area (after Brazil):

I would like to apologize to the friends, family, and strangers about whom I’ve said negative things when you were pickpocketed. I thought that if you'd known everything I know about how to secure wallets, you never would have lost yours. I was wrong.

A pickpocket targeted me in Dubrovnik last month inside a gelato shop (talk about being punished for gluttony!). I was overwhelmed by a desire to get out of the jam-packed store, and when I abandoned all my pocketbook principles in favor of a quick exit, a woman saw her opportunity and grabbed it.

The gadget guru is back! My iPhone has completely revolutionized how I travel and I'm not just talking about having access to my email and Google maps. Here are my top 10 travel apps I can't live without when I'm on the road. I've noted what devices they are compliant with and their cost. And please chime in with your favorite apps in the comments section. I'm all ears!

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

--Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty's tablet

Lately, everywhere I turn, I hear a new horror story about how people are treated entering our country. Meanwhile today our new president won the Nobel Peace Prize. How can it be that a country that prides itself on being a safe haven for refugees from war and famine can treat the average tourist with such contempt? It feels so completely out of step with our national values.

I'm all about getting sporty on my trips. When I was training for the NYC marathon, I had to visit Washington, D.C. at a crucial point of my training. Instead of halting training or spending hours running on the hotel treadmill, I hired a running guide through City Running Tours who took me on a sightseeing run through our nation's capital.

So when I heard about a physical fitness event  -- again, in Washington, DC -- coming up on October 11, I thought I would share it with you. Bike for the Heart is a day-long event put on by the Sister to Sister organization, a group dedicated to educating women about heart health and risk prevention and providing free heart health checkups.

The day consists of four events:

 - a family-friendly five-mile bike ride around our nation's capital (this would be my choice)

I’m a sucker for spokesanimals (I’m not sure there’s anyone who loves the Frontier Airlines crew as much as I do), so I was excited to hear that the gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park have started Tweeting and Facebooking their way to conservation funds. (Those opposable thumbs sure have come in handy!)

Check out the new Friend a Gorilla website and its Twitter and Facebook pages; the team behind them will be adding new features (like geo-tracking gorilla families) soon.

Even if the economy is doing a little better, times are still very tough. We've all got stories about how this recession has affected us and many of us are still recovering from being laid off. And if you're anything like me, the only thing that helps you re-focus on what's really important when times are tough is helping others in need.

If you've ever wanted to take a volunteer vacation, you should apply for a $5,000 Change Ambassador grant from Travelocity's Travel for Good program. The deadline for applications is September 30th and we choose two deserving do-gooders a quarter.

It’s hard to pick a highlight from my recent trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina—from the second I crossed into the country from eastern Croatia, it was clear this place was different.

It’s true that buildings were pockmarked from mortar attacks of the last decade, Cyrillic road signs were sprayed with the political graffiti of a rival alphabet, and towns were crumbling down beneath still-towering minarets.

But green hills and golden fields also greeted us, and people could not have been more welcoming, as my friends and I quickly discovered when we rolled up to a toll with no local currency and were allowed to pay in Hungarian forint and nervous laughs.

Deal alert: If you've been thinking about taking a volunteer vacation, there's almost never been a better time to book. Globe Aware is offering 15% off trips booked before October 12, 2009 and completed by November 20, 2010. How are they doing this? The devoted employees at Globe Aware are donating hours so the organization can pass along savings to you!

Choose from volunteer vacations to Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Brazil, Romania, Jamaica, China, and more! Plus, don't forget that the program fee and airfare are 100% tax deductible for U.S. and Canadian citizens.

So let's recap the deal. You get:

1) Warm fuzzies from helping people in need around the world

2) 15% off your volunteer vacation program fee

3) An awesome tax write-off

Recently I crossed something big off my must-see-before-I-die list: Machu Picchu. I took a day-trip to the stunning UNESCO World Heritage Site during my volunteer vacation to Cuzco, Peru. Machu Picchu is situated 8,000 feet above sea level and Cuzco, where I spent the majority of my time, was at 10,800 feet.

Leading up to the trip, every single pamphlet, website, and guidebook I read discussed how to avoid altitude sickness and I must confess, I skimmed it. It didn't feel like there were any good options. For instance, the side effects of the prescription medicine for altitude sickness are often worse than the actual symptoms of it. One woman on my trip who was taking it kept saying, "My nose is tingling! I can't feel my fingertips!" Uh...no thanks.