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

MONHEGAN ISLAND, Maine -- Eleven miles off central Maine, a duck bobs in shallow water near a rocky island shore. A 19th century lighthouse rises nearby. Three painters drag their easels onto the beach. A lobsterman tinkers in his shack.

This is Monhegan Island, cherished throughout New England for its scant size and population, weather-beaten ...Read more

When my daughter put two California colleges on her list, I casually wondered whether it would be cool to take the train there from Chicago and maybe drive down the Pacific Coast Highway from Berkeley to Pomona. Her eyes lit up, and the decision was made.

Parenting tip: When your 17-year-old agrees to spend 57 hours on a train with you, ...Read more