Hicksville Trailer Palace

Built by Los Angeles writer and director Morgan Higby Night, Hicksville was opened in April 2010 as a retreat for artists of any medium to get away and have a safe place to create & collaborate.

The motel came into existence as Morgan realized that people from any occupation or background might appreciate a place to go relax and enjoy the magic that is in and around Joshua Tree.

Each trailer has air & heat. They have a BBQ area you can use and Bistro area with a microwave, dishes, toaster as well. They have an indoor and outdoor shower. The bathroom is shared by all the small trailers. The New World & Sideshow have full baths.

Beauty & Essex Lounge

It might look like a dingy pawnshop on the outside, but this New York City storefront is hiding a grand secret. Hidden behind the wall covered in second-hand guitars, cases of antique jewelry, and moth eaten rugs, is one of the busiest bars on the lower east side. Beauty & Essex Lounge opened in 2011 behind the well staged 'Queen Pawn' facade. Its shabby blinking marquee and well-worn checkered floors have fooled more than one person, but it certainly hasn't stopped Beauty & Essex from becoming one of the most visited nightspots in all of the city. And if you can get past the shady-looking exterior, you'll know why. Once inside, you're surrounded by New York glamour at its best. Guests are taken through a door at the back of the pawnshop, and up an elaborate winding staircase and into a dining area lit with candles and an dramatic sky light in the center of the room. The entire restaurant has a mysterious feel, as if you've stumbled across a secret society in the middle of the city. Heck, they even have a woman in the bathroom pouring glasses of champagne for the ladies touching up their lipstick.

The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum

While Honolulu’s Bishop museum features several different exhibits ranging from Earth science to art, what really makes this museum unique is its collection of items of importance from the Hawai’ian people and their culture, which is unparalleled, and visiting the Bishop Museum means you are in Hawai’i, which is pretty excellent.

The Mission Inn

The Mission Inn, now known as The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, is a historic landmark hotel in downtown Riverside, California. Although a composite of many architectural styles, it is generally considered the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States. Mission Inn Hotel & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Winchester Mystery House

Winchester Mystery House is an extravagant maze of Victorian craftsmanship – marvelous, baffling, and eerily eccentric, to say the least. Tour guides must warn people not to stray from the group or they could be lost for hours! Countless questions come to mind as you wander through the mansion – such as, what was Mrs. Winchester thinking when she had a staircase built that descends seven steps and then rises eleven?

Some of the architectural oddities may have practical explanations. For example, the Switchback Staircase, which has seven flights with forty four steps, rises only about nine feet, since each step is just two inches high. Mrs. Winchester's arthritis was quite severe in her later years, and the stairway may have been designed to accommodate her disability.

The miles of twisting hallways are made even more intriguing by secret passageways in the walls. Mrs. Winchester traveled through her house in a roundabout fashion, supposedly to confuse any mischievous ghosts that might be following her.

Shanghai Tunnels

The "Portland Underground" tunnels, more popularly known as the "Shanghai Tunnels", were basements of buildings that connected to other buildings through brick and stone archways that were intersected with tunnels that connected under the streets, linking block to block. These "catacombs" or "tombs", as they were sometimes called, created a unique network of passages and thoroughfares that were used by unscrupulous individuals called "shanghaiiers" or "crimps", in addition to "white slavers" who grabbed women and sold them into prostitution.

These are educational tours of the infamous "Portland Underground" that focuses on the shanghai trade in the City of Portland that survived from 1850-1941, as well as "white slavery", prohibition, and even the turn-of-the-century history of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) labor movement in the Northwest. In addition, the early history of the Chinese is covered, along with the Japanese and the Gypsies. These tours are operated by the Cascade Geographic Society (CGS) and provide a unique glimpse back into the hidden (or buried) past of the "City of Roses".

The tour takes approximately an hour and a half, and participants are with a guide at all times. The tour-goers receive an above-ground orientation, and then the guide will lead participants into the "Portland Underground", where they will receive the majority of the historical and oral history about this infamous maritime practice that gave Portland a notorious reputation throughout the world. Tour participants must be able to handle stairs that lead to and from this hidden world. In addition, there will be dust, dirt, musty smells, and anything else that would be associated with this type of environment, so if you need a dust mask, please bring one. Also, at each station people will be required to stand for at least 15 minutes at a time in order to receive the necessary information. Also, the "Portland Underground" is constantly in transition as more and more sections are opened or restored, which is why some people have taken this tour several times.

Old Faithful Inn

This historic cabin facility is located near Old Faithful Inn and includes a one-story main lodge built in the 1920's featuring massive logs and stone pillars.

Tremendous views of the Old Faithful Geyser can be seen from the bakery and cafeteria-style food court. The large gift store is also located in the lodge. Basic cabins are equipped with or without bath and grouped nearby.The lobby of the hotel features a 65-foot ceiling, a massive rhyolite fireplace, and railings made of contorted lodgepole pine. Its incredibly large space can be experienced on many different levels and from many different vantage points. The visitor can stand in the middle of the lobby and look up at the exposed structure, or climb up a gnarled log staircase to one of the balconies and look up, down, or across. Wings were added to the hotel in 1915 and 1927, and today there are 327 rooms available to guests in this National Historic Landmark.

The rustic-style lodge, with log and wood shingle exterior is located adjacent to the world famous Old Faithful Geyser. The original part of the Inn, known as the "Old House" was completed in 1904 and includes an immense lobby with a huge stone fireplace.

The East and West Wings were added in the teens and the twenties, with many rooms having been remodeled in recent years. Guest accommodations include rooms with private and shared baths. Additionally, a full service restaurant, deli, gift store and interpretive tours are available at the Inn.

Kalaloch Creek Nature Trail

Tree Root Cave - This incredible tree is easily accessible on the beach at Kalaloch campground.  In fact there are quite a few amazing natural features in this area.

Kalaloch, meaning "a good place to land" in the Quinault language, has no shortage of natural areas to explore. The Pacific shoreline just below provides ample habitat for marine life: tide pools reveal crabs and sea urchins at low tide; sea otters float on the surface of submerged kelp beds; shorebirds nest on beaches; and whales and dolphins occasionally emerge offshore. Beyond the national park's 73 miles of coastline lie three national wildlife refuges and one marine sanctuary.

Near the campground and lodge, trails and steps descend about 40 ft. to the beach. There are several beaches, tide pools, scenic overlooks and trails to explore. The Kalaloch Creek Nature Trail is a mile-long walk through the forest along Kalaloch Creek, which drains into the ocean. There are accessible lookout points at Ruby Beach and Beach Trail 4.

Olympic National Park has much to explore, including temperate rain forests, ocean shores, sub-alpine mountains, lakes and more. The lush Hoh Rain Forest, as well as the towns of Queets, Quinault and Forks are within a 45-minute drive.

Cummins Falls State Park

Cummins Falls State Park is a 211 acre park located nine miles north of Cookeville on the Blackburn Fork State Scenic River. In the rolling hills of Jackson County where Putnam and Jackson counties meet, the stream gives way to a 75 foot drop.

This park is located in the Cordell Hull Watershed. The forest that borders the river includes a variety of oaks, beech, buckeye, sycamore and hemlock. Woodland plants include October’s lady tresses, star chickweed, liverleaf and Allegheny spurge. The property’s long forested streamside protects turkey, quail, eagles and other birds; soft-shell and other turtles; fox, mink, and myriad insects including damselflies and dragonflies.

Cummins Falls was named one of the top 10 best swimming holes in the United States in the “America’s Best Swimming Holes” article in Travel and Leisure magazine.  The article reads “It’s a hard-earned scramble to the bottom that involves hiking to the overlook, wading across the ankle-deep stream, climbing up to the ridge, and using a rope guide to walk yourself down to the water. This is not a swimming hole for lightweights. Translation: expect a younger crowd. But if you’re agile (and sure-footed), the descent into the cavernous pool is worth the effort."

Ramona Falls

The dazzling, picturesque Ramona Falls stands like a fountain centerpiece at the front of a wooded cathedral. The water appears as if from nowhere a hundred feet above you and fans out like a wedding veil to the creek bed below. As it trickles and ricochets off the basaltic rock-face, it gives it a glowing, almost phosphorescent appearance. This illusion is especially noticeable when the alder canopy allows the evening sun rays to pass through, like a spotlight on a great work of art. Its wooded setting provides a cool escape from the summer heat and is an obvious resting spot before turning around or heading to points beyond.

This is a popular location however. Not only do day-hikers from Portland visit the area, but backpackers traversing the Timberline Trail (or up nearby Bald Mountain or Yocum Ridge) will pass through here, often taking up camp in a nearby site. But don't let the crowds deter you.

On the one hand you wouldn't think to camp here because it's fairly close to the trailhead and is very popular, but there are a lot of places to camp in the vicinity.From Ramona Falls there are two trails - one goes West and the other Northwest. The Northwest immediately splits into two trails that are both going approximately Northwest.The West trail, within about 0.1 miles of the falls has several side trails going to campsites. These are probably the most used. You can get drinking water from below Ramona Falls.Keep going on the West trail about 0.4 miles to a junction, and then take the PCT South down to the river. In about 0.1 mile is a large flat area with a couple campsites. Go uphill on steep trail a short distance to Sandy Guard station and places to camp up there. Or, on the other side of the PCT there's a side trail that leads to some other campsites. Maybe this used to be a main trail? If you keep going a short distance more on the PCT there's a nice clear stream for drinking water.

Tunnel Falls

Tunnel Falls is the traditional turnaround spot for many on the Eagle Creek Trail, and it is indeed a splendid climax. Over the last thousand years, the falls have carved a majestic basin here, plunging 160 feet from towering basalt cliffs to the rushing creek-bed below. While this scene is impressive enough, the most bewildering aspect of the falls in the passageway behind them. Trail builders from the early 1900s blasted a tunnel behind the falls and then across the sheer rock face on their far side, making this area the slickest and perhaps, most precarious section of trail in the Columbia River Gorge. Looking downstream from the falls, you can see were the two forks of Eagle Creek converge, meeting at Grand Union Falls.

Please avoid the temptation to descend to the creek via the large slide on the near side, as so many have done before. Putting aside the obvious danger, the area is eroding before it's time, accelerating mother nature's intentions for the area.

Visitors to this area may choose to continue less than a half-mile ahead to the two-tiered, 200 foot Twister Falls (some guidebooks call it "Eagle Creek Falls"). It is well worth the minimal additional effort if time affords. It is difficult to see the full span of the cataract, but more impressive is the trail to it. Many have referred to this stretch as the "Vertigo Mile".

The Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls Hike is one of the most popular and magnificent trails in the Columbia River Gorge, and for good reason. You will literally lose count as you pass dozens of spectacular waterfalls through the lush temperate rain forests and tall basalt cliffs. You'll traverse passageways blasted out of the bedrock with dynamite, footbridges over bubbling streams, talus slopes, and unique geologic formations along your journey -- and that's just in the first 2 miles!

Garden of the Gods

It was August of 1859 when two surveyors started out from Denver City to begin a townsite, soon to be called Colorado City. While exploring nearby locations, they came upon a beautiful area of sandstone formations. M. S. Beach, who related this incident, suggested that it would be a "capital place for a beer garden" when the country grew up. His companion, Rufus Cable, a "young and poetic man", exclaimed, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the Gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods." It has been so called ever since.

Thorncrown Chapel

Nestled in a woodland setting, Thorncrown Chapel rises forty-eight feet into the Ozark sky. This magnificent wooden structure contains 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. It sits atop over 100 tons of native stone and colored flagstone, making it blend perfectly with its setting. The chapel's simple design and majestic beauty combine to make it what critics have called "one of the finest religious spaces of modern times."

On July 10, 1980 Thorncrown Chapel opened. Since then over six million people have visited this little chapel on the hillside. Thorncrown has won numerous architectural awards. It has been featured on television programs such as NBC Nightly News and the 700 Club. Almost every major magazine in the country has carried a story about the chapel including Time, Newsweek, and Parade.

Thorncrown Chapel is open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It is located on Highway 62 West three miles outside of Eureka Springs. There is no admission fee, but donations are accepted. Every tour group will receive a presentation telling the story of the chapel followed by an inspirational song by one of the Thorncrown musicians. There is ample parking for buses and RVs. So, while in the Ozarks, stop by what many have called one of the most beautiful and inspiring chapels in the world. It will be a visit you will not soon forget.

Glass Beach

Glass Beach is a beach in MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg, California that is abundant in sea glass created from years of dumping garbage into an area of coastline near the northern part of the town.

Hocking Hills State Park

Hocking Hills State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the Hocking Hills region of Hocking County, Ohio, United States; it is contiguous with the Hocking State Forest. Within the park are several spectacular features based around rock formations, including Old Man's Cave, a narrow, deep gorge featuring waterfalls; Rock House, a cliffed area with a rock shelter; Cantwell Cliffs, a broad gorge at the head of a hollow with a unique stone stairway; and Ash Cave, a large rock shelter with a small waterfall, and Cedar Falls, a larger waterfall south of Old Man's Cave.

Zion National Park, Utah

Emerald pool at Subway

The mystical journey through the Left Fork of North Creek involves route finding, plunging cautiously into chilly pools then sloshing, sometimes frantically, through frigid water over and through difficult obstacles. The narrow Subway section of this hike forces hikers through a unique tunnel sculpted by the Left Fork of North Creek. Churning water chisels the rock floor, forming shallow potholes that fill to the brim with frosty water. Silhouettes dance freely on multi-colored walls where only a trickle of sun light penetrates into the curved chamber of the Subway. Falling water echoes in the nature carved tunnel where dragonflies dart, frogs laze about and shimmering emerald pools tempt cold hikers to dawdle. Before long, the promise of daylight urges an exit to the warmth of the sun waiting outside the Subway. The canyon widens as hikers cross back and forth across the creek, making their way to the grueling uphill exit. For those that want a glimpse of the canyon, but choose to stay away from uncomfortable obstacles, explore the canyon from the bottom where thin sheets of glistening water cascade over mossy stair-step slivers of rock.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetary

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is a cemetery located on Bedford Street near the center of Concord, Massachusetts. The cemetery is the burial site of a number of famous Concordians, including some of the United States' greatest authors and thinkers, especially on a hill known as "Author's Ridge."









Famous Graves:

• The Alcott family, including Amos Bronson Alcott (Transcendentalist, philosopher, educator), Abby May (Wife of Amos Bronson Alcott), and their daughter Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women and others)
• Ephraim Wales Bull (inventor of the Concord Grape)
• Arthur R. Bethke (Concord Oil Owner, US Army Captain, Bethke Cancer Center)
• William Ellery Channing (Transcendentalist and poet)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalist and poet)
• Daniel Chester French (sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter and others)
• Sophia Hawthorne (wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne)
• George Frisbie Hoar (19th-century politician)
• Richard Marius (Reformation historian and Southern novelist)
• Ralph Munroe (yacht designer and pioneer of South Florida)
• Elizabeth Peabody (education reformer)
• Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (author and social reformer)
• Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalist, philosopher, and author)
• George Washington Wright (California's first representative in Congress)

Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Lower Lewis River Falls

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the oldest National Forests in the United States. Included as part of the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve in 1897, this area was set aside as the Columbia National Forest in 1908. It was renamed the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1949.

Whether you seek solitude, social activity, creative inspiration, wildlife, forest products or scenic beauty, you can find it in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We invite you to enjoy the many different aspects of your National Forest.

Located in southwest Washington State, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest now encompasses 1,312,000 acres and includes the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument established by Congress in 1982.


The Lewis River Valley will delight any explorer who comes looking for spectacular waterfalls surrounded by old-growth forest. This is an area packed with some of the most spectacular and interesting waterfalls on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Trails, ranging from easiest to most difficult, provide paths of discovery through this diverse landscape. Easy wheelchair accessible trails allow close approach to Big Creek, Curly Creek, Miller Creek and Lower Lewis River Falls. Other waterfalls are viewed from the Lewis River Trail, which follows the Lewis River for over 15 miles.

Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite

Winter is one of the most romantic times to visit Yosemite National Park where snow blankets the landscape and turns it into a picture postcard. Tenaya Lodge is just the place to spend time outdoors enjoying the winter playground and later in a cozy sanctuary with your special someone.


Kissed by natural beauty all around, Tenaya Lodge is the perfect place for a romantic California getaway. Pounding waterfalls, exhilarating hikes and starry Sierra nights. You'll be closer to nature and to each other. Touch the smooth, cool scrape of a trailside granite boulder, breathe in the sweet pine scent of a riverside forest. You'll engage every sense, including the sense of wonder, with romantic California getaways from Tenaya Lodge. Enjoy horse-drawn sleigh rides, a spa suite with jetted bath-tub, champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries, Ascent Spa bath kit, private dinner for two and rose-petal turn-down service.

Knife & Fork

According to the knife & fork website it “is a restaurant that minimizes its impact on the environment and maximizes its impact on local economy by sourcing nearly all ingredients and materials from extremely local growers and suppliers.

The menu offers only seasonal and sustainable dishes that reflect the traditions and culture of the mountains or North Carolina.”

The restaurant is run by a husband and wife team, Chef Nathan Allen and his spouse Wendy. They opened knife & fork restaurant in July of 2009 after both leaving careers in Los Angles. Chef Nate studied at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. He was on the opening culinary team of the James Beard Award winning Chef, Suzanne Goin, in her restaurant AOC (achieving “Most Popular Restaurant” – Los Angles/Zagat 2005-2006). He followed that up by working as a chef to many elite patrons for about five years. Wendy worked as a restaurant manager at high profile restaurants learning the ins and outs of the administrative side of managing a dining room.

Half of the dining room in knife & fork
Together they make an incredible team that covers all the bases. Both consistently refer to what they think the guest is looking for when they come to the restaurant. The guests don’t even have to come in the door to get a sense of a different style of restaurant. Wendy leaves several tables set without table cloth for those customers that feel more comfortable going without. Anticipating the guests’ needs and how they will dine doesn’t just happen. It comes with experience, knowledge, forethought and the willingness to work hard to make it happen for the guest. This team does it.

The two dishes I tried were fascinating studies in the use of local ingredients with a very few exceptions. Starting with a prosciutto wrapped rabbit livers skewered atop chili popcorn and pralines drizzled with reduced balsamic. The farmer who provides the rabbit provides all that he raises for knife & fork. I’m not the fondest of liver to begin with but the ingredients melded together to raise the bar for me. I could still taste the rich earthiness of the rabbit liver but it was rounded out by the prosciutto and balsamic. The pralines and chili popcorn added a sweet and spicy element to the dish to make it even more fascinating. When Chef was asked why he added a drizzle of olive oil to the plate. He said that he anticipated the diner to get just a little of the olive oil on each bite as we negotiate the bite and ingredients on the fork adding another hint of flavor.

The second dish was the crispy pulled pork with corn shoots and sautéed mustard greens and red Russian kale. This appeared more like a salad when it arrived with the pulled pork under the greens. The first item I tried was a corn shoot and it offered that sweet light corn profile that is so refreshing. The pork was prepared so that it was all crispy adding a nice texture to each bite. The greens added a bit of spice and the corn shoots gave their touch of sweetness giving the dish a more complete appeal for the senses.

In the two dishes the following ingredients were not from around these parts: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chili spice and prosciutto. Chef Nate almost seemed apologetic that he acquired the pork from about an hour away and the popcorn from South Carolina. There is a true farm to table mentality at knife & fork that is hard to come by even in this local food haven of Western North Carolina. Nate and Wendy take their business serious and their passion is obvious.

I highly recommend taking the time to visit knife & fork. There are just over 40 seats, they do take reservations and walk-ins and they are closed on Mondays. I understand the Sunday Brunch is wonderful but also very busy. It is much easier to get in during the week.