CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio -- There was nothing obviously out of the ordinary about the middle-aged man sitting near me in the hotel breakfast area, except for the beverages he chose to supplement his morning coffee: a flight of beers.

Well, maybe it wasn't that unusual, considering that I was breakfasting just outside of Columbus, Ohio, at the ...Read more

Leavenworth is a trip. Nestled against the far side of the Cascade mountains just a few hours east of Seattle, this little town does an impression of a Bavarian village with all its might. The beer flows freely and the music is oompah; buildings are decorated with wooden beams, family crests and gingerbread trim (or their trompe l'oeil versions)...Read more

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This was the heart of Saturday night, and honky-tonk singer-songwriter Whitey Morgan had Ryman Auditorium in an uproar.

Wearing a determined scowl and a long beard, Morgan prowled the stage as if looking for a fight. Now and again he'd let his band, the 78's, carry the tune while he paused to pull on a bottle of whiskey.

"...Read more

You don't go to the most isolated islands in the San Juans for the amenities. You go for the quiet, for pitch-black nights with the sound of waves hitting the beach. You go for the rare opportunity to disconnect from your modern, plugged-in life.

The latest gossip I hear on Decatur Island, practically before I even have time to unpack, is that ...Read more

EUGENE, Ore. -- You can visit the Willamette Valley in Oregon just about any fall to sample wines, beers and spirits, hike the buttes, float in a river or cycle alongside one. But this August, there was a baby boomer bonus: the chance to see "National Lampoon's Animal House" slip awkwardly into middle age.

"Animal House" was filmed on and near ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- In years past, Six Flags Magic Mountain's annual Halloween celebration isolated the monsters and ghouls to certain areas of the amusement park while keeping other parts, such as the kid-centric Bugs Bunny World, as a scare-free sanctuary for parkgoers who wanted no part of what the Southern California park calls Fright Fest.

...Read more

Floating on the waves and hiking through the jungle are must-do activities on Kauai. But to better commune with the westernmost of the well-populated Hawaiian Islands, I also wanted to taste the local bounty.

Fortunately, there are great ways to savor what makes Kauai unique without breaking the bank at gourmet restaurants. There may be nowhere...Read more

Paddling across White Iron Lake, I looked up at the sky, cloudless and blue. Then I glided around a bend and spotted them: a pair of slim maple trees, rising from the rocky shoreline, burst into a brilliant orange.

It was still early. Mid-September. In this northern edge of Minnesota, just outside Ely, most of the trees still shimmered green. ...Read more

SEATTLE -- Seeing Seattle's Chinatown through the lens of the martial artist reveals the community's rich living history.

Don Wong knew Bruce Lee. As young men, they worked at Ruby Chow's restaurant together. When Wong, leading the Wing Luke Museum's "Bruce Lee's Chinatown Tour" describes his connection with the martial-arts star, it's not the ...Read more

Long before Harry Potter cast a collective spell with his wizardly ways, a chubby Midwest kid who dabbled in magic was fending off evil in the fictional town of New Zebedee, Mich.

His name is Lewis Barnavelt, the lovably nerdy protagonist in a series of gothic mysteries that debuted in 1973 with the children's book "The House With a Clock in ...Read more

Marge Padgitt had always loved Ginger Rogers.

"I was a fan of Ginger Rogers, as was my mother," said Padgitt, a longtime resident of Independence, Mo. "She got me interested in old-time movies and, of course, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing. There was nothing like the two of them. They were the best."

So it's only fitting that Padgitt ...Read more

CHICAGO -- "Dancing Aloud," a sign said. On stage, guitarist Corey Dennison, 43, white and well tattooed, had just opened an instrumental conversation with a grandfatherly figure in a White Sox cap.

"This is my old man, Mr. Carl Weathersby," Dennison told the crowd. "He taught me everything I know about the blues."

Weathersby, 65, and African-...Read more

Vibrant blue-green water lapped at my kayak, bobbing beside towering sandstone cliffs. Seagulls squawked overhead. The water that sprayed from my paddle was ice-cold, a reminder that I was paddling the largest -- and coldest -- of the Great Lakes.

As I toured Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior, I could hardly believe ...Read more