Hole In The Donut Travels

For years I have had a love/hate relationship with Key West. Although its an entertaining place to visit, its “party town” image makes it seem plastic and phony. The island is rich in history, local lore, and is home to a vibrant, multi-ethnic culture, however I have never been able to break through the tourist [...]

Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reuben Margolin creates one-of-a-kind techno-kinetic wave sculptures. His inspiration comes from observing things in nature – things as simple as a caterpillar’s movement or the patterns created when a drop of water splashes into a pond. When he moved into his new shop, Margolin [...]

Lydia Raurell has always loved to dance. Like so many little girls, she dreamed of becoming a fairy ballerina. When she was chosen to perform in the children’s Corps de Ballet it seemed that her dream might come true, but after two years her dance instructor said that her bone structure was too fragile to [...]

The footage of an angry ocean crashing onshore and sweeping beneath an oceanfront cottage is indelibly imprinted onto the memory of anyone who saw the movie “Nights In Rodanthe.” The storm scenes are so jaw-dropping that people may think they were computer generated, but the house is real. It is located in the development of [...]

Although I have visited some downright unpleasant places in my travels, the majority of the places I visit are lovely, interesting, and entertaining. However, it is also true that some places “grab” me more than others. I like almost every place I visit, but occasionally I find that I love a particular place. This happened [...]

Eight years ago Orrin Hudson was watching the news on TV and heard that seven restaurant employees were shot in the head, execution style, for $2000. He said to himself, “That’s it, I have to do my part.” Hudson, who had previously been an Alabama State Trooper and subsequently owned a car dealership, used his [...]

While I am still searching for a way to give back something to this world, Kaziah Hancock has already figured it out. She is an artist who lives on a rural Utah ranch with 100 goats, painting landscapes in oil that sell for thousands of dollars. Then one day, she heard about the first Utah [...]

I met Kathleen Flinn one evening last October when Sarasota News and Books held an author’s event to promote her new book, “The Sharper Your Knife, The Less you Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School.”
Wait! Don’t back up and re-read the last paragraph. I realize those of you who [...]

Hidden at the end of narrow Freeschool Lane is the last remaining acre of undeveloped land in Key West’s historic Old Town. How this priceless parcel escaped development is nothing less than a miracle, but even more miraculous is the tropical rainforest that today grows upon the site. This is Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden, a [...]

Exploring the back roads of Hatteras Island in search of old homes that have weathered scores of hurricanes and provided shelter for generations of fishermen is one of the many delights of any visit to the Outer Banks. The Old Gray House, tucked into the woods just off the main road in the tiny village [...]