USA

Touring Berea Kentucky

In central Kentucky, where the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains meet rolling bluegrass horse farms, lies bucolic Berea, an idyllic Appalachian arts and crafts centre. Hundreds of potters, painters, furniture makers, weavers and other artisans whose works are coveted throughout the country for their high quality are among this quiet town’s population of 10,000.

Asheville, North Carolina

The trees are bare, the ground is cold, the last of the leaves are on the ground. Winter is fully settled in our mountain peaks. Asheville, NC has been a popular tourist destination for many different reasons but I can’t remember ever hearing about the beauty of winter. It should be mentioned more as winter is a great time to visit!

Golf The Carolina’s

Chasing the little white ball around in the Carolina’s has never been better. Golf courses are featured each year in tournament and public play. Both north and south, the game is played almost year around from Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head, to Hatteras Island and Grandfather Mountain. The diversity is wide and the golfing is close to constant.

Mardi Gras New Orleans, Louisiana

Mardi Gras would be heaven without the multitudes of half-lit partygoers, but it also wouldn’t be Mardi Gras. Those who subscribe to the old maxim that ‘Hell is other people’, should stay far, far away. Celebrated by those of the ‘laissez les bons temps roulez’ (‘let the good times roll’) mentality, Mardi Gras is America’s biggest, liveliest and most show-stopping party.

Fort Mandan and the Lewis and Clark Trail Washburn, North Dakota

In mid-October 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark crossed into the North Dakota Territory on the first leg of their great expedition, directed by Thomas Jefferson to find “the most direct and practical water communication across the continent”. Travelling up the Missouri River, they arrived at the Mandan Indian villages of Mitutanka and Nuptadi, which were major trading centres for numerous Native tribes and European traders. Here, they spent the winter, building cabins and a palisade wall that they named Fort Mandan in honour of their hosts, who supplied them with food in exchange for goods.