Travel Bites | Daily Blender

Monterey County, California [dailyblender.com]

The Wines and Winds of Monterey County

Two lanes of paved road wind through the valleys near Monterey, agriculture and activity on every side, lettuces and vines. In late fall, harvest is still afoot…

Death and Company Denver [dailyblender.com]

48 Hours In… Where to Eat and Drink in Denver

Denver, that old Mile High City. Where it used to be an airport hub, or a stopover when traveling to Vail or Aspen, the Colorado capital has seen its interior corridor flourish…

Bourbon and Beyond: A Weekend in Louisville

There’s never been a debate in our house on how to pronounce Louisville. When I was a kid, my stepfather made frequent business trips south, guiding his Kentucky sales team on the best practices for selling snowblowers before the Midwest winter began.

Love and Layovers in Toronto

It was tough to sleep on the red-eye from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Toronto, Ontario. When I initially booked my tickets from Portland, Oregon, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the cheapest route put me through Canada, which I certainly didn’t mind. A short jump to Vancouver, a red-eye flight, and a day to play in Toronto before I boarded for Brazil.

Boise and Snake River Valley [dailyblender.com]

On Boise and Snake River Valley Wines

Aside from your relationship with potatoes, you hadn’t really crossed my mind over the years, your state little more than a hostage to the French fry existence. As it turns out, there’s more to you, with over 180 agricultural products, a top producer of Austrian winter peas, trout, barley, sugarbeets – and yes, potatoes. You also have a serious relationship with wine. Who knew?

Exploring Tri-Cities, Washington, and the Red Mountain AVA

My knowledge of the Tri-Cities area had been somewhere between the Hanford Site and the Kennewick Man over the last fifteen years of my Northwest residence. It seemed a flat, uninteresting corridor in the lower middle of Washington state with nothing but space to offer, overshadowed by the evergreen of Seattle further west.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | DAILYBLENDER.COM

Traveling to Brazil: Don’t Be Afraid of Rio de Janeiro

There wasn’t much English being tossed around on my flight from Canada to Brazil. Throughout the nearly-eleven-hour trip, I heard Portuguese, Spanish, French, German – but very few words I understood.

From Kona to Hilo: The Search for Pele on Hawaii’s Big Island

I hadn’t seen the Southern Cross in nearly twenty years. Back then, I was a junior in college, studying abroad for a semester along the southern coast of Australia, thousands of miles away from family and friends.

A New Year in Arizona: Exploring Mesa, Phoenix, and Tucson

There is something magical to the end of a year. It’s as if we’re given the opportunity for a do-over, to do away with another twelve months that may or may not have served its purpose.

Quick Spin Interview: Chef Greg Grohowski of Maui’s Hyatt Regency

Chef Greg Grohowski has his hands full managing the high volume kitchens of the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa. The Midwest native began as many chefs do, on the line through high school and college, cooking with family and friends along the way, apprenticing at the Tippecanoe Restaurant within the historic

Traveling By Train Aboard Canada’s Majestic Rocky Mountaineer

During the fourteen-hour, two-day trip from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Banff, Alberta, aboard the magnificent Rocky Mountaineer, I may have only taken my eyes off the window a handful of times.