Nancy Monson

Chase the most beautiful seasonal bloom in America.
Come spring, wildflowers start blooming like crazy, and gardens begin to open for the season in much of the northern tier of the United States.
This year, if you are taking a road trip from the south to the north, you can follow the Spacious Skies Campgrounds Spring Bloom Trail to experience wildflowers at their peaks of perfection. The 15-stop trail connects campgrounds between Georgia and Maine and has been tagged to coincide with the wild...

If you visit the South these days, you’ll inevitably see billboards for Buc-ee’s featuring a toothy beaver selling brisket, beef jerky, and gas. I never considered going near the place until a friend told me that Buc-ee’s brisket sandwich is amazing. Then, my nephew came back from a trip to visit a friend in Georgia, who immediately took him to neighboring Alabama to have lunch at Buc-ee’s. Lunch. At a gas station. Hmmm.
Intrigued, I made my first-ever stop at Buc-ee’s last year on a road tri...

Fried green tomatoes are a quintessential Southern appetizer. These brightly colored immature tomatoes are firm, tart and juicy, and are typically breaded and pan-fried. But there are so many variations that it’s hard to categorize them as just one thing. As a Northerner, I’d only ever heard of them in connection with the Fannie Flagg book and later the 1991 movie “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.” And I’d never tasted them. But over the past few years, I’ve made a point to orde...

Last September, when Betsy Green walked into Karen's Quilting Corner in Williamstown, Massachusetts and proudly displayed her "All New England Quilt Shop Hop" magazine filled with stamps, I was gobsmacked.
In just two weeks, Green had visited 56 of the 58 quilt shops participating in the event and had the stamps to prove it. Only two more shops remained in her quest, and she completed those soon after we met.
She had traveled from her home base in Manchester, New Hampshire to all around the G...

Living in a hot-weather climate can be wonderful in the winter. Northerners often envy Southerners and Arizonans basking in warm, sunny weather while they shiver in the cold and ice — and they may even flock to those states as snowbirds. But come summer, the two groups swap places, and those who live in southern states and Arizona typically yearn for cooler destinations.
"The heat and humidity in Texas in the summer are constant, and it doesn't cool down at night like it does in other places,...

Driving across America, you'll find buildings adorned with giant, colorful quilt blocks

By Nancy Monson

Cruising along a scenic rural road in the United States and Canada, you may increasingly find yourself passing buildings bearing colorful barn quilts — large wooden or aluminum painted quilt blocks (ranging from 4- to 8-feet square) mounted onto rustic structures like barns, chicken coops, sheds, fences and businesses.

Designs for these so-called barn quilts range from traditional geometric...

When you open your refrigerator, what catches your eye? Fresh, healthy foods…or highly processed, high-fat, high-sugar foods? Best: Front-load your refrigerator with easy-to-grab healthy foods and fresh ingredients that allow you to prepare nutritious meals. Here are some suggestions on what to keep and what to jettison from your fridge…

Searching for your roots to answer the ultimate questions about identity — who am I and where do I come from? — is a popular hobby. But it's easy to get stuck and discouraged in your search, even with the hints provided by Ancestry.com and other genealogy companies, or to discover that you've been led down the wrong path, which can be maddening considering how much time genealogy searches can take.
"Our librarians provide their services for free to all comers over the phone, via email and in ...

Spa resorts in Southern California are among the best in the world. And that makes good sense: SoCal is an epicenter of wellness and a major proponent of a balanced lifestyle.
Jump to:
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa
The Westin Carlsbad Resort & Spa
Miraval Life in Balance Spa at Park Hyatt Aviara
Hotel Del Coronado
La Quinta Resort & Club
Golden Door
If you’re looking to up your quotient of Zen, there’s no better destination than spa resorts in Southern California.
Six Spa Resorts in Southern Cal...

When I was a young adult, the thought of hiring a guide or going on a group tour was anathema to me. How uncool, I thought! How pedestrian. But once I got divorced and was traveling in my 50s and 60s, often solo and on complicated and exotic trips, I came to appreciate how wonderful it is to have a guide.
Case in point: On a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, our plane was delayed and my sister and I arrived at 1 am instead of 10:30 pm. Yet there was our driver Nelson waiting fo...

Utah’s Red Mountain Resort is the perfect low-key, take-off spot for exploring Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon.

Your adventure awaits. That’s the mantra of Red Mountain Resort, set in the dramatic red rock bluffs of Southwestern Utah. Though the resort includes a spa and salon, it’s very much a resort that caters to guests who are as keen to test their bodies’ limits as they are to receive treatments.

Is it time for a wellness vacation—one where you spend time destressing and focusing on your mental and physical well-being? According to recent research from the Global Wellness Institute, wellness travel is an estimated $816 billion market and is expected to explode to $1.1 trillion by 2025.

Mary Nimer of Brookfield, Connecticut, has helped with crowd control at the Super Bowl in Phoenix, walked a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and decorated floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.
This year, she has applied to be among the volunteers who decorate the White House for the holidays. A retired teacher, Nimer is living her best life by seeking out exciting, out-of-the-box volunteer positions at major events. Her motivation: "I enjo...

What happens if you use AI to plan your next vacation? The answer is not always good.
Artificial intelligence is not only taking over the internet, it’s making inroads in the travel planning industry. But is the information you get from free and paid AI tools like ChatGPT-4 and Bard and apps like Vacay, Trip Planner AI, Roam Around, and iPlan.ai reliable? Definitely no, says Heather Stimmler, an expat living in Paris who wrote Fodor’s France guides from 2005 to 2015 and has found that AI-gene...

Accruing credit card rewards is just one part of a cost-saving equation for travel. You also need a strategy for how to effectively use the rewards you earn. Here’s how to do that…
First, pick your destination. Rather than having points with 20 different programs, pick where you want to go—that will determine which rewards program to focus on. Example: Say you want to travel business class to Japan from the US. Choose a credit card that has the biggest sign-on bonus…the greatest opportunity f...