USA by Rail | Jill Dutton – Jill Dutton | Travel Journalist: 🍄Eat Local + 🍷Wine/Spirits + Wellness + 🚆Train Expert ✈Next trip: Door County, Wisconsin

Locally Made Foodie Stops in Fredericksburg, Texas

Farm-to-table. Pick-your-own. What about locally made? Next time you visit Fredericksburg, Texas, plan to savor these locally-made favorites. Chocolat Specializing in liquid-center chocolates filled with spirits, wine, coffee, and fruit nectar, Chocolat is the sole American manufacturer using the European method which dates back nearly two centuries. Locally made and more than 28 years in business, Chocolat…

The Lavender Fields of Washington Island, Wisconsin

When Martine and Edgar Anderson moved to Washington Island as young retirees, they looked for a business in which to invest, but nothing seemed to suit. Martine, born in France, dreamed of one day owning a lavender farm. She felt that Washington Island shared similar characteristics with Provence, so Edgar did weather studies, took soil…

Surrender to the Moment

Although I’m a goal-oriented person, I have also found the importance of learning to release the need to control the outcome of situations. Acceptance, and surrendering to a situation has helped me overcome fears and phobias in the process. E.g. I can plan a trip and set it into motion, but I cannot control the…

Glamping experiences around the US for campers who hate roughing it

WHEN IT COMES TO CAMPING, you usually fall into one of two groups: either you love it or you hate it. Those who love it can’t wait to escape to nature, breathe fresh air, and partake in outdoor adventures. If you fall into the other camp, though, the thought of sleeping on the ground, fighting off insects,…

Get Your History on Tap

Liz Garibay Creates Authentic Tours to View History Through the Lens of Alcohol Many a successful business originated from a passion project. So what happens when you have two passions—that don’t necessarily seem like they go together—like drinking and history? In the case of Liz Garibay, you create History on Tap. Garibay blended her love…

The Speakeasy Makes a Comeback | Swordfish Tom’s

The term “speakeasy” is thrown about quite a bit these days. Odd, in a sense, because the meaning of the word represents Prohibition, when speakeasies were secret drinking places, hidden away, offering an illegal chance to partake. So how has the term suddenly become so popular again? Read Jill’s article in Old Liquors Magazine.

2018 Travel Schedule

Fredericksburg, TX | April 2-6 Experience the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and red poppies with a spring visit to the Texas Hill Country in Fredericksburg! This authentic Texas-German community, just an hour’s drive northwest of San Antonio, is renowned for its upscale boutiques and art galleries, burgeoning wine industry, upscale lodging, lush wildflower landscape, world-class museums,…

6 Places to Get Pickled in Ann Arbor, Michigan

This Food-Conscious City Embraces a Variety of Methods for Fermentation. Between the yogurt commercials promoting a flat belly to the numerous health claims made by physicians and holistic practitioners, you have no doubt heard about probiotics—or the “good” bacteria—found in fermented foods. Some research says that these good bacteria, particularly those in our gut, may…

Journey by Train to See West Virginia Up Close and Personal

West Virginia offers up a bounty of such intimacy. There’s the sweet beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, a quiet resilience to its people, and a chance to visit the past while watching its residents move surely to the future.

A Lesson in the History of Antique Barware

I learn so much on my travels. In Alexandria, Virginia, I was fortunate to get a lesson in antique barware and how you can tell what period a piece is from based on what was going on in the world at the time. Here, Victoria Vergason, owner of The Hour, shares some insights. Read the…

7 Things You Might Not Know About Traveling the USA by Rail on Amtrak

A friend on Facebook is getting ready to take a trip via Amtrak from Kansas City to Albuquerque. Never having ridden the train, she naturally had many questions. It reminded me that after three years taking several train trips per year, I had forgotten how many tips I had to learn by trial and error…

Ride the Train from Denver to Grand Junction on Amtrak’s California Zephyr: Colorado by Rail

Sometimes the mountains call to you. When they do, one way to experience their majesty is a train ride from Denver to Grand Junction, stopping in Winter Park and Glenwood Springs on the way. Departing Denver on Amtrak’s California Zephyr, you’ll slowly climb the Rocky Mountains to Winter Park. Then, from Winter Park to Glenwood…

A Saturday Morning in Kansas City

Spring is the perfect opportunity to get out and explore Kansas City. Thanks to the KC Streetcar, you can spend a Saturday morning with a trolley ride from Union Station to the City Market, enjoy brunch at The Farmhouse, a farm-to-table restaurant, walk and shop the City Market, then return to Union Station for a…

You Won’t Want to Miss These 4 Great Places to Eat in Winter Park

Winter Park is known for outstanding outdoor adventures–skiing, snow cats, snowmobiling, and more–but the food is the unsung hero.

Want Less Fear, More Joy? Take the Next Step

I stepped off the train into a blizzard. As I stood there trying to figure out where to go, I heard the conductor’s cry of All Aboard!, and knew I would soon be left to fend for myself. Yet fear never entered my consciousness. Instead, fully immersed in the moment and its requirements, I took the next step.

A Lesson in Breeding Mason Bees

It was a vibrant spring morning as Eliza, the owner of Best Kept Secret B&B in Glenwood Springs, CO, brought out containers filled with bamboo canes. Burrowed inside these canes were Mason bees, ready to be released from their cocoons. Kept in the refrigerator all winter to protect them from predators, and so the bees wouldn’t accidentally get…

Why Would I Go To New Orleans Alone?

A light rain started as I climbed through the window to the balcony of my room at the Hotel Maison de Ville in New Orleans. I felt like a teenager sneaking out after dark for a secret tryst. The air was thick with humidity and the rain broke some of the day’s heat, if only briefly. There was an overhang on the balcony, so I sat outside, feet propped on a table, drinking a café au lait and watching the revelers just one block over on Bourbon Street.

Train Travel: It’s All About The Journey

Life on the train is sleepy; it’s a casual pace that allows for reflection and connection to others. This leisurely pace provides a luxury I rarely enjoy–my biggest choice being whether I lay curled in my seat, gazing out the window, or go to the observation car and meet other travelers. I enjoy both options, but…

Solo Travel: The First Step is the Hardest

“I think I’m going to throw up.” It was 10 o’clock at night and we had just arrived at the train station. The nerves and excitement that got me through the days of planning and packing for this first journey of the USA by rail had turned to dread. My friend pulled into the circle…

Home Away From Home: From Hostels to Luxury Condos, Santa Fe, New Mexico Has An Exciting Array of Lodging Choices

Traveling solo is a lonely business, so part of my goal each trip is to meet as many local folks as well as fellow travelers as possible. Meeting new people takes away some of the loneliness of traveling solo, plus it creates a network of friends I might never have known. One way to meet…

9 Spectacular Places to Eat in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is renowned as a food-lovers heaven, with New Mexican cuisine leading as Archangel. The food is spicy, vibrant, flavorful and oh-so-delicious. The quality, whether New Mexican or standard American fare, is outstanding. Could it be the altitude? On my first visit in January, I commented to a friend that the salads tasted alive…

The best places to go apple picking in the US

THE SEASONAL CHANGE from summer to fall is a sensory event for many of us. After the heaviness of the summer heat, there’s a briskness in the air, a depth of colors, a crunch underfoot — and the anticipation of tasting the autumnal harvest: apples. Read Jill’s entire article on Matador Network.

Follow the Trail of Tears in Southeast Tennessee

I stood in front of the Memorial Wall, reading the names of the 2,535 Cherokee heads of household identified in the 1835 Census, the Henderson Roll, and then forced into removal along the Trail of Tears. The number of household members was listed too, so in all, of the 16,542 Cherokees identified for removal by…

Chattanooga Whiskey Co.’s “Vote Whiskey” Campaign Brings Whiskey Back Home

The Chattanooga Whiskey Co. rewrote century-old laws with their Vote Whiskey campaign to be able to distill Whiskey in their hometown. Pre-Prohibition, Chattanooga, Tennessee, was once one of the largest Whiskey-distilling cities in the nation with more than 30 distilleries in Chattanooga’s downtown area from 1866–1915. Although Prohibition was repealed in 1933, until 2009 only…

Eating Well in Kansas City

“Pick the very best cantaloupe for me. I want to go home and eat it immediately,” I said to the farmer. He sent me home with the assurance of a great cantaloupe. It cut and tasted like butter and I silently thanked him as I ate the warm cantaloupe at my kitchen counter. Personal touches…

Trends in Alcohol | Interview with a Liquor Broker

George Vesel knows spirits. The owner of Veselbev, a beverage brokerage since 2006, Vesel spent his entire adult life working in the spirits industry. His resume is impressive: managing partner of an award-winning restaurant, manager of a sales division for a wine and spirits distributor, and, now, liquor broker. When I heard about Vesel’s impressive…

The Ultimate Guide to West Palm Beach

West Palm Beach is one of the lesser-known of the three cities in the South Florida metropolitan area. Miami, is, well, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale has beaches and boats. West Palm Beach is a nice middle ground, with all the attractions of city life while also being home to a more down-to-earth community. Those of…

3 Days in Door County, Wisconsin-Itinerary

Day 1 Check-in Open Hearth Lodge. Start with Breakfast at the White Gull Inn—It could be a story from modern-day Silicon Valley: a middle-aged professional gives up his lucrative practice and moves to a quaint village to become an innkeeper. Except that it happened in 1896. Now owned by Jan and Andy Coulson, The White Gull…