States

The Best U.S. Beaches

May 28, 2012

This is the 22nd year for the Top 10 Best Beaches list, created by Dr. Beach, also known as Stephen Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research in Miami. Coronado Beach in San Diego won first place this year. It has great sand, the warmest water on the west coast, and the [...]

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Fredericksburg, Virginia ~ Dining

April 24, 2012

This Easter we are up in the air, flying from Seattle, WA to Washington, DC non-stop with Alaska Airlines. Thinking about our food plans, I do some research on restaurants in Fredericksburg, VA, which we will be passing through around dinner time on our drive to Norfolk, VA. Bistro Bethem rises up as I search. [...]

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Santa Fe, New Mexico ~ Restaurants, Farmers Market

April 5, 2012

Deciding where to dine in Santa Fe is serious fun. Our generous hosts, Dorsey & Richard, have sampled all the best local fare and together we have a terrific time experiencing some of the local favorites… Tesuque Village Market, 138 Tesuque Village Road, is a charming market and restaurant about 15 minutes north of Santa [...]

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Fiestas de Santa Fe: The Burning of Zozobra

January 1, 2012

Each year on the weekend after Labor Day, The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe stages the burning of Will Shuster’s Zozobra, kicking off the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe. Zozobra centers around the ritual burning in effigy of Old Man Gloom, or Zozobra, to dispel the hardships and travails of the past year. The Fiestas [...]

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Las Vegas, New Mexico

December 13, 2011

Las Vegas, New Mexico is laid out in the traditional Spanish Colonial style, with a central plaza surrounded by buildings which could serve as fortifications in case of attack. An important consideration in 1835 when it was founded. The town soon prospered as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail which was a 19th-century transportation [...]

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Lexington, Kentucky and the Bourbon Trail

November 20, 2011

Bluegrass, rolling hills, grazing horses… Kentucky is beautiful. At the entrance to downtown Lexington Gwen Reardon’s collection of sculptures in Thoroughbred Park greets us. The park is a tribute to the thoroughbred race horse, and features thirteen sculptures. Seven life-size bronze race horses and jockeys race toward an imaginary finish line, while in the adjacent [...]

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Seattle’s TEDxRainier 2011 Conference

November 14, 2011

Heading off the island Friday evening we are full of anticipation about tomorrow’s TEDx Rainier event. This year’s theme is Gained in Translation: Ideas Crossing Frontiers, featuring over twenty five speakers whose ideas and extraordinary work span across domains and fuel innovations and insights. Followers of TED for years online, this is our first live [...]

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR

November 10, 2011

Leaving family in Missouri we head to Bentonville, Arkansas for an overnight. Yes, this is the home of Walmart and Jay wants to visit their flagship store, Sam’s Club, where they are practicing state of the art sustainability. We have no trouble getting a room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bentonville.  A friendly young [...]

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Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage

November 8, 2011

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage charts a new course for one of America’s best-known living photographers. Different from her staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines like Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Pilgrimage took Leibovitz to places that she could explore without an agenda. She wasn’t on assignment this time and she chose the [...]

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Martin Luther King and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials

November 6, 2011

I was born (in the USA…) and raised in the Washington, DC area and I love to return to visit. On this trip east we have one day in DC and decide to walk along the Tidal Basin, through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, to the new Martin Luther King Memorial. The Tidal Basin is [...]

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Cincinnati, OH and Covington, KY too

October 19, 2011

“Experience, travel – these are as education in themselves” ~ Euripides, Greek playwright, c. 480-406 BC. In the ancient tradition of traveling across lands, I find myself stimulated and curious to learn about each area we are driving through or stopping to visit as we traverse the country. Sitting with our friends on their balcony [...]

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The New Landscape in Iowa

October 6, 2011

Entering Iowa from the northwest corner, hundreds of wind turbines rise majestically from the endless corn and soybean fields that are a staple of the Iowa landscape. Pulling into an access road, we drive up to a newly installed wind turbine that looks like it is ready to be commissioned. It is a GE wind [...]

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Pit Stop in Rapid City, South Dakota

September 29, 2011

Mid-day we make a pit stop in Rapid City looking for wireless service, lunch, a natural foods store… and architecturally interesting buildings. Right downtown and an easy drive from the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore, The Hotel Alex Johnson is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structural design is a blend [...]

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Bear Butte in the Black Hills of South Dakota

September 22, 2011

Planning on a sunrise hike up the Butte, we car camp in the Bear Butte State Park campground, located on Butte Butte Lake – the perfect spot – with an unobstructed view of Bear Butte and a lake loop trail for walking. A gorgeous sunrise greets us this morning and we dress in its’ soft [...]

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Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, South Dakota

September 6, 2011

Arriving late in Custer, SD we happen upon the Rocket Motel. Located in downtown Custer within walking distance of restaurants & shops, and with the coolest lobby we have seen so far, we take a room. The decor is black and white with a pristine white cotton bedspread and very fun black & white check [...]

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Beartooth Hwy to Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy in NW Wyoming

September 4, 2011

Leaving Yellowstone National Park from the northeast gate we drive through Cooke City and find Crazy Creek campground in the Shoshone National Forest. A remote and scenic campground about half full when we arrive in the late afternoon, we are thrilled to get a campsite with a view of the surrounding mountains. Randy and Pam [...]

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Yellowstone National Park

September 1, 2011

We enter Yellowstone National Park through the western gate, and we are immediately entranced. Wild elk graze beside a pristine creek. This park is nature’s church. It is a holy place that is sacred to all who visit. Though the park is visited by millions, there is no sign of litter that abounds in many [...]

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Butte, Montana

August 20, 2011

In its heyday, from the late 19th century to about 1920, Butte was one of the largest and most notorious copper boomtowns in the West, with a maze of over 10,000 miles of mines beneath it’s surface. As was common in the early wild west, Butte was home to hundreds of saloons and a famous [...]

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Historic Wallace, Idaho

August 17, 2011

After a surprisingly good nights sleep in our CRV camper we resume the drive east. Driving along Interstate 90, about 45 minutes past Coeur D’Alene, we decide to check out historic Wallace, Idaho. What a delightful surprise. The entire town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and whole blocks in the business [...]

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Dinner in Spokane, WA

August 15, 2011

Quite an impressive site from the lookout – the Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, it is the largest electric power-producing facility in the United States, and one of the largest concrete structures in the world. Spokane [...]

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