SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. -- Fat drops of rain tap out a mournful melody on the nylon ceiling stretched over my head. Peeking out from under a thick down quilt, I watch tiny rivulets of water drip down the sides of my tent and sigh.

It's not supposed to be raining here, at the entrance to Arizona's Saguaro National Park. Not in March. Not ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Along the narrow country lane, rolling waves of autumn color covered the hills. I was cutting through bluff country on my way from the National Eagle Center, in Wabasha, to Whitewater State Park, in Altura, about 30 miles apart. But I didn't take the straightest route. It was autumn, after all, and the sun was shining.

I wish I ...Read more

Get into a museum without getting out your wallet on Sept. 21 thanks to Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day.

The annual event, now in its 15th year, gives people tickets for free admission to one of 1,300-plus museums and cultural institutions across the country.

Admission is always free at Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. -- and some of ...Read more

MARIANNA, Ark. -- Deep in the Arkansas Delta is a barbecue joint whose owner repeatedly attracts national attention, without seeking it out.

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner brings international and close-to-home foodies into Marianna, one of the state's poorest communities, with a population around 4,100. It's estimated that at least one-third of the ...Read more

PORTER, Ind. -- When Indiana Dunes jumped categories from national lakeshore to national park earlier this year, it joined the elite ranks of the country's most hallowed natural wonders, 61 sites whose esteemed members include Yellowstone and Yosemite.

The Dunes' climb up the National Park Service ladder is really just a matter of perception. ...Read more

OTTAWA, Ill. -- Sometimes you just need to get in a car and drive, out to the edge of Chicago, through the suburbs and past the exurbs, to a place where the highway is straight and smooth and the sky shows you where it meets the land, or at least the treetops, in all four directions.

I do this now and again, on Interstate 80, and usually I end ...Read more

When tourists came to Florida back in the days before Disney, they still went on "rides." But in Old Florida, those rides were boat tours not roller coasters.

Seeing Florida by boat is still one of the best ways to enjoy all it offers.

On a floating getaway, you can reach places where there are no roads and glimpse views you can't see any ...Read more

SCHUYLER, Va. -- Deep in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, miles from any multilane highway (or any straight road for that matter), through dense forests of Virginia pine and over trickling streams, I heard a familiar voice.

"Illi-noa? Why that's a ways away from he-uh, suh."

The woman at the front desk of the tiny museum I was ...Read more

DANE, Wis. -- We're ready for a bit of day drinking at 1:30 p.m. on a Monday and know where to begin.

A tree-lined driveway near Dane, 20 miles north of Madison, leads to expansive lawns and a farmhouse with pillars and shutters. Doors are locked, but on a chalkboard is this: We'll be right back. We're touring the rickhouses.

Sprinkled through...Read more

Horror fans looking for a new adventure this year at Halloween Horror Nights will be happy to learn that Universal Pictures' "Us" is coming to Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort this September.

Themed after Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele's blockbuster horror film, the Us mazes in Florida and California will ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Visitors may finally set foot in the sunken living room, the dining room and the conservatory of Frank Lloyd Wright's famed Hollyhock House in Los Angeles' Barnsdall Park, even though they still have to cover their shoes with paper booties and keep their hands to themselves. And more rooms upstairs and down are expected to open to...Read more