Though I grew up in Michigan and have lived along Lake Michigan for most of my life, there's just something different about the U.P., something that draws you to it. The landscape, more varied, more green — more ethereal, somehow — makes that connection to nature feel that much stronger.
Read MoreIf you find yourself in the Midwest, there's a pretty good chance you won't need to look too hard to find a farmers market during the summer season. In rural and urban areas alike, these marketplaces are generally a fixture of the community, whether they pop up in parking lots or park pavilions on the weekend or if they have a more permanent location with fairly regular hours.
Read MoreWith rapidly-improving cell phone cameras and an easy place to share one's photos (i.e. Instagram), there are a lot of people out there claiming to be amateur photographers these days. But, even among that large pool of wannabes, it's still pretty easy to spot the real deal. When someone has the touch, it shows.
Read MoreSt. Louis probably isn't one of the first cities you think of when deciding where you might go on vacation in the U.S. It's close enough to Chicago and Nashville that you might just head to one of those places instead and think nothing of it. That would be fine, of course — those are great places to visit, too — but St. Louis can hold its own just as well.
Read MoreWhen it comes to Michigan's east and west coasts, there's really no contest in my estimation: the west coast, the one that hugs Lake Michigan for miles and miles, is the better coast, hands down. And of all the places you could visit along the west coast, you could do much, much worse than Grand Haven.
Read More“When we first got to the college, the afternoon that we got there the sun was setting and our rooftop overlooks the entire city of Rome. I remember we got up there and I looked over at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is literally right next door. I was blown away: ‘This is going to be our home? We’re going to live here?’ And somebody said, ‘This is your backyard for four years.’”
Read MoreWith thousands of cities and communities the world over, there's bound to be some places that bear the same name — people are only so original, after all. For example, in the United States alone, there are 31 cities named Franklin, 29 each named Clinton and Washington, and 28 named Arlington.
Read MoreNot everyone is afforded the opportunity to become a foreign exchange student, and even when the option exists, studying abroad just does not appeal to some people. But if you're one of those individuals out there thinking about expanding your cranium overseas and you wonder, among other things, what living with a host family might be like, you've come to the right place.
Read MoreIt's with an open mind that I scour the globe, looking for the most far-flung and unique places I could possibly, maybe, someday visit. And in that vein, I offer you a list of world capitals — some you may have heard of; others probably not — for the simple sake of putting them on your radar. Who knows, maybe you'll latch onto one of them and find yourself asking, "Why not?"
Read More
