Hole In The Donut Travels

San Juan Marriott Resort in Puerto Rico is saying Merry Christmas with a Twitter scavenger hunt that will provide a free three-day stay at the resort for five lucky winners.
Beginning tomorrow morning and continuing for each of the five days leading up to Christmas, the hotel will tweet a holiday item at 10:00 a.m. EST.  [...]

During my recent trip to Chicago, I took an afternoon stroll around Northerly Island, located just behind the downtown Museum Campus on the lakefront. This narrow peninsula was once home to Meigs Field, a tiny airport that opened on December 10, 1948 and by 1955 was the busiest single-strip airfield in the country. In its [...]

Plunging an amazing 411 feet, Upper Whitewater Falls in southwest North Carolina is the highest waterfall west of the Rockies. Located in a fairly rugged, little-visited area, the upper falls are easily accessible via a short paved path bordered by wildflowers, moss-covered boulders, and dense forest.

After five weeks on the road it was time to head home, but not before one last day of hiking. From the North Carolina mountain town of Cashiers, I mapped a route past Gorges State Park, which opened to the public this past May. Located atop the Blue Ridge Escarpment, this newest North Carolina park [...]

The meaning of the term “skyscraper” has changed dramatically over the centuries. Originally a nautical term referring to a tall mast or main sail on a sailing ship, the word was first used to describe buildings when the ten-story steel-framed Home Insurance Building was constructed  in Chicago in 1885. Although later demolished, the structure forever [...]

Phony teepees, gold panning operations, and stores overflowing with “Indian” souvenirs stamped “Made in Taiwan” dominate the main street in Cherokee, North Carolina. On the sidewalks, performers with not a whit of Indian blood don garish costumes and perform steps bearing little resemblance to actual Cherokee ceremonial dance. In a shopping center parking lot, kids [...]

Tucked into the northwest corner of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Cades Cove is one of very few places in the entire national park system where nature and human history mingle. Cherokees were the first to discover this relatively flat valley between mountains; they camped in the Cove for weeks or months at a time, [...]

Lil stood with eyes lowered and hands demurely clasped as spectators filed into the Meeting House. When everyone was seated on the simple wooden benches running down either side of the hall, she looked up and began to sing: “Welcome, welcome, one and all.”
One of several interpretive guides at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Lil [...]

If I wanted to stuff my face with Karamel Korn and funnel cakes, have my photo taken while sitting in the Dukes of Hazard General Lee car, play a round of putt putt golf in the world’s most interactive black light golf course, or attend any one of a dozen honky-tonk song and dance shows, [...]

Step inside a mall in San Diego and you might just as easily be walking through a Philadelphia shopping center. Likewise, many cities around the country are so similar that I often have to stop and remind myself where I am. But every once in a while I visit a city that stands out from [...]