When the couple, there for their 20th visit, commented that it was the first time they had taken the house tour -– one of the staples of the Mohonk Mountain House experience -- I asked what they had been doing all those years. Liz and Dan Gleason from Haddon Heights, NJ replied: “There’s just so much to do all the time, you just can’t fit it all in. Every year, there’s a new surprise. This year, it’s the Smiley family parlor.”

Nestled on the far eastern border of Washington State, Spokane was originally the home of The Spokans ("children of the sun"), who were drawn to the hunting grounds and abundance of salmon in the Spokane River. This changed with the arrival of the first European settlers who established a trading post and eventually a railroad industry that built the city.

This is the day we set aside to visit Mariposa Grove.  After our usual breakfast, we headed to the camp to pick up Maria and Kathy to accompany us.  The drive to the grove took close to an hour, longer than it would have taken if we didn’t stop, but we stopped often to photograph various highlights, including a panaromic view (also known as the Tunnel View, when the photo is taken upon exiting a tunnel on the highway) of El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridal Veil Falls, and much of Yosemite Valley.  We also saw Horse Tail Falls.  One of the things I’d hoped to see in Yosemite was climbers going up the sheer granite valley walls.  At one point, we actually saw six climbers going up El Capitan.  Binoculars were needed to verify the number.  When we saw them, they were just beginning their climb.

The quilt barns represent an agricultural heritage, providing a connection each family has to the quilt and that the quilt has to their history. From inception to installation took about 6-8 weeks, and the quilters’ guild worked closely with the farm owners on design, colors and concept.  A lot of research went into identifying existing quilt designs which represent what the family wanted, and when none existed, an original design was  painted. Many are on farms over a hundred years old, with 10 on Century Farms which not only refer to their age but also the fact that they have been inhabited by one family all that time.

Traveling to Locations Close to Home is the theme of our latest T-Boy Society of Film, Travel & Music’s poll. ‘Close to Home’ can mean by foot, car, scooter, motorcycle, skateboard, drone, skis, surfboard, blimp, parasail, parachute or human cannonball. It’s always fun to see our many T-Boy writers – writers who have been regularly delivering original content that cannot be found anywhere else on the globe – address joyful, memory-filled locations, which are in their own backyard.

It's a city where anything goes, where everyone feels comfortable. A city of contradictions. It's a city that's part Left Bank, part island getaway. A town where tacky sits comfortably with tropical vegetation on the same barstool, Bacchus, blues and beignets share the same plate.

These intelligent Corgis come in earth color shades where some are fluffy, others are brindle. I believe the further away you go from the black and sable Corgis, the further away you are from the pure-bred Royal Corgi. Naturally, our very own two Corgis are pure-bred (and we have the papers to prove we spent a fortune for them). Hey, when you've spent an arm and a leg on something, you need to brag in order to recuperate your loss, right?

Built in 1926 by the Spillman Engineering Company and brought to Griffith Park in 1937, the merry-go-round boasts 68 horses. Each horse is finely carved with jewel-encrusted bridles, detailed draped blankets and decorated with sunflowers and lion heads.

Although the Sea Turtle Art Trail is what first captures the imagination, a visit to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center is a good place to start the journey. Injured turtles from the Laguna Madre Bay often discovered by tourists and fisherman are brought to the hospital for rehabilitation and usually recover enough to be released back into the wild. The Center offers tours of its many residents in various stages of recovery, an extensive education program involving lectures and field trips and overseas the conservation program which patrols the beaches during nesting season from March to August to help the moms lay the eggs and the babes to find their way to safety once hatched. 

From the vantage point of the open-air terrace, I could just make out Maui's iconic Pu'u Keka'a. Illuminated by the Hawaiian moon, it is the spot where Kahekili II would demonstrate his bravery by jumping 400 feet into the sea. He called it lele kawa, which means leaping off high cliffs and entering the water feet first without a splash. Said to be seven foot tall and 300 pounds, his massive physicality made his splash-less dive even more remarkable. In the 1700s, as the king of Maui, Kahekili II selected Kāʻanapali’s pristine stretch of sands and lush gardens as a retreat for Hawaiian royalty and training ground for his warriors.