Author: Ms. R.

The mountains are calling—but not for the reasons you might expect. While Colorado has long been a dreamland for wandering souls and intrepid explorers, it’s now gaining renown as a magnet for adventurous palates. Over the last decade or so, an influx of new visitors, unique tastes, and inventive chefs have transformed Colorado’s food scene into a hotbed of culinary innovation. Just last fall, Michelin made its debut here, awarding five restaurants with One Michelin Star and four with……

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Many tourists who visit Florida head for Orange County, home of the state’s most famous theme parks. But just 85 miles west of here lies a lesser-known county, with a similar name and its own wild character. If you’re looking to explore Florida’s natural beauty, or if you’re into hiking, biking, and paddling, you should visit Citrus County. The region is home to forests, springs, trails, and the oldest hippopotamus in captivity. That hippo is Lucifer, better known as……

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Colorado’s land and soil—the same things that make the state a treasure trove of natural wonder—also conspire to forge another kind of magic: incredible local food. Fields here gleam golden with corn, orchards teem with juicy stone fruit, and sheep roam verdant, stream-fed pastures. Everywhere you look, there’s abundance. This isn’t lost on Colorado’s culinary masterminds, either; many of the state’s top chefs spend summers traveling to local farms, hand-picking ingredients, and weaving these flavors into their seasonal menus…….

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Chef Travis Milton has spent more than a decade working to restore Appalachia’s historic foodways—longtime traditions he learned from his grandparents’ generation, like canning, raising heritage cattle, and breeding heirloom fruits and vegetables, but that disappeared as coal took over the region’s economy. At Hickory, he presents Appalachian fare as the world-class food culture he knows it to be. The restaurant, a 130-seat fine-dinery, sits on a 480-acre property that includes a golf club, inn, vineyard, glamping yurts, and……

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As a relatively small island nation, Malta may not necessarily seem like the type of place to find an automobile museum, yet one has been established in the resort town of Buġibba. This museum was the brainchild of car enthusiast Carol Galea, who first started customizing and building cars for local hill-climbing races but who later decided to delve completely into collecting and restoring vintage cars.  The collection today has about 90 vintage cars, many of which are sports……

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Devonport is a quaint community at the southernmost point of Auckland‘s north shore. As you step off the ferry, among the shops, cafes, and restaurants, you’ll find the Devonport Library. If you were fortunate enough to visit Auckland pre-2017, and you happened to enter the library, you might have the pleasure of meeting Benjamin the library cat.  Benjamin resided at the library for over a decade and was known for wandering the town and visiting buildings. But his true……

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In Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, just south of the district’s most popular tourist site, the Lotus Lake Taoist Complex, the remains of an ancient wall surround an idyllic park. Only three of the four gates and portions of the eastern and northern walls remain, thick crenelated structures made of concrete, granite, and coral stone. Defensive structures have existed in the area going back to 1722. The area had been a county seat since the Qing conquest of Taiwan from Zheng……

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Nestled in Hindhead Commons and Devil’s Punchbowl is a Grade-1 listed gravestone. Few know of the “Unknown Sailor,” an anonymous mariner, who met his demise in September 1786 at Hindhead in Surrey. His assailants met justice when they were publicly executed on Gibbet Hill the following year. According to the tale, a sailor was documented as having visited the Red Lion Inn in the village of Thursley. It was September 1786. He had been on his way back from London……

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Referred to as the “castle in the clouds,” 430 Hawkins Hill Road sits on a hill, isolated in the bush, overlooking Wellington. The site was originally a decommissioned Airways Corporation radar bunker until Brian Willman purchased the property in 1998 with the intention of building a conference center. For years, executives and business folk visited the castle until Willman wanted a lifestyle change. Willman opened Woofington’s in 2016, branded as a luxury dog hotel. A series of incidents connected to Woofington’s……

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Just an hour southeast of Page, Arizona, a hidden gem stands over a canyon in the Navajo Nation. Eggshell Arch is a natural sandstone arch formed over thousands of years by erosion. The arch is not well known (yet) so it is likely you won’t see other visitors in the area. The arch glows during sunset from October to January, a phenomenon known as the “Thanksgiving Glow.” This glow effect is created by the sun rays reflecting off of……

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A short distance north of Shanivar Wada, along the Mutha river, sits an elaborate but crumbling temple complex, complete with an underground shrine. In 1633, the land the Amruteshwar Siddheshwar Temple Complex sits on was awarded to the Chitrao family, who had worked for the royal family of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj for generations. The oldest of the temples was built in 1673. The original Ram Temple did not survive, but now stands in a reconstructed form complete with original……

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On the gateposts of the Royal Palace of Naples stands a pair of grooms tending to their horses. These often overlooked bronze sculptures are no work of the Renaissance, let alone Ancient Rome, but of Imperial Russia. The original pieces were created in 1851 and stand on the Anichkov Bridge in Saint Petersburg to this day. The “Horse Tamers” are one of the best-known works by sculptor Peter Clodt von Jürgensberg, a favorite of Emperor Nicholas I. It is said……

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