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From beaches to bike trails to breweries, the United States has something for everyone to explore. Hear from the locals themselves and discover the best attractions, places to eat, shopping and much more.
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Ask a Local: Texas Transcript
Houston, Texas, is one of the largest cities in the United States, and you know what we say, "Everything is bigger in Texas." But we're also the most diverse city in the United States, which may come as a surprise to some people. Here in Houston, we love our big hats, our big buckles, and our cowboy boots. You can get them all at the Houston Rodeo. It's a spectacle of all things Texas. You also get a sense of what Houston is really about in our people, but our food's where you can really get a taste of where everybody comes from. Take our Texas barbecue, which is what we're really known for. We have a little bit of a dry rub from the German community, a saucier mix from the African-American community, and our barbacoa from our Mexican community.
Check out this place called Corkscrew Barbecue. It's in a quaint neighborhood called Old Town Spring, and it looks like it's been frozen in time. The food is delicious. Another thing we're really, really known for is our Tex-Mex, which is like cowboy food with a little bit of a Mexican influence. You've get to check out El Real, which is the best Tex-Mex in town. While you're there, be sure you get the cheese enchilada. Then there's Tony's, which is an upscale, local favorite. The food is incredible. Where else are you get eat in front of a Rauschenberg? It's really interesting to see how different cultures come together. For example, folks from New Orleans brought over their love of crawfish. We really didn't have much crawfish in Houston before that, and now it's even making its way into some Asian dishes.
We actually have the largest Chinatown outside of California, and it's a lot of fun. Just walk around and try any dish from any culture in Asia. And the art. Houston is full of art. You can find art anywhere, in our museums, in our parks, on murals, in people's yards. I mean, it's everywhere. My favorite place to see art is a little bit off the beaten path, but you can get there, like everywhere, on METRORail. It's the Rothko Chapel. Houston is just a really neat place to visit, and it's really exciting to see how people from all over the world have come together to inspire each other, right in the heart of cowboy country. Y'all come see us.
Check out this place called Corkscrew Barbecue. It's in a quaint neighborhood called Old Town Spring, and it looks like it's been frozen in time. The food is delicious. Another thing we're really, really known for is our Tex-Mex, which is like cowboy food with a little bit of a Mexican influence. You've get to check out El Real, which is the best Tex-Mex in town. While you're there, be sure you get the cheese enchilada. Then there's Tony's, which is an upscale, local favorite. The food is incredible. Where else are you get eat in front of a Rauschenberg? It's really interesting to see how different cultures come together. For example, folks from New Orleans brought over their love of crawfish. We really didn't have much crawfish in Houston before that, and now it's even making its way into some Asian dishes.
We actually have the largest Chinatown outside of California, and it's a lot of fun. Just walk around and try any dish from any culture in Asia. And the art. Houston is full of art. You can find art anywhere, in our museums, in our parks, on murals, in people's yards. I mean, it's everywhere. My favorite place to see art is a little bit off the beaten path, but you can get there, like everywhere, on METRORail. It's the Rothko Chapel. Houston is just a really neat place to visit, and it's really exciting to see how people from all over the world have come together to inspire each other, right in the heart of cowboy country. Y'all come see us.
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Ask a Local: Ohio Transcript
Speaker 1: How many dad jokes can you tolerate? Anyway, uh…
Speaker 2: (laughs)
Speaker 1: We moved to Columbus in 2002, and we knew, like, this is going to be the place for us. We like all the people here. We like all the things to do.
Speaker 2: There was an energy here that it felt like it was really happening all around us, and that people were ready to really connect with other people.
Speaker 1: It was a big city, but it was a big city that was still kind of discovering itself. And that’s it… the secret to our success.
As we were getting to know Columbus, I found that we would discover all these cool places. I wanted to write down: Where was this little diner that we went to? Where’s this cool little place in this neighborhood? So, in 2007, I started a blog called “Breakfast with Nick.” I had enough of a following that people started emailing and asking for suggestions or they would recommend different places.
Speaker 3: Head down the street to the Book Loft, which is a bookstore.
Speaker 4: Scioto Mile is awesome to walk or jog down.
Speaker 3: Get ice cream at Jeni’s Splendid.
Speaker 2: When we first moved to Columbus, we really wanted to get to know the city organically, and so, we would walk around. And the way that Columbus is set up, it is welcoming and hospitable to people. It really makes it easy to walk almost every neighborhood in Columbus.
Speaker 1: One of our favorite phrases that a lot of people use is, they call it, “the biggest small town in America.” There’s a lot of layers to the city for a wide variety of interests. So, I mean, Columbus is very heavy on sports with the Ohio State football team here. We have professional hockey, we have professional baseball and soccer.
In terms of the arts scene, I feel like there’s this growing number of galleries and artists’ collectives.
If you’re really into international eats, you can find just about any world cuisine somewhere in Columbus.
It’s super family-friendly, so if you want things to do as a family, we have all these great attractions and cool little neighborhood parks to the science museum and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I think a classic day that we would have with the boys is…
Speaker 1: Oh right, three kids. I mean, lights of our lives.
Speaker 2: We would potentially go down and walk along the river, the Scioto Mile, or go and play in the fountains downtown. And then, we maybe head over to the Columbus Art Museum and check out their kids area.
Speaker 1: One of our favorite things about the art scene in Columbus is how it is very accessible. There’s a variety of mediums that we can engage with, whether it’s visual art or live music. There’s all these great festivals and activities.
Food in Columbus mirrors the way the city works in general in that I think we are this really good balance of tradition and innovation and that we love traditional stuff, but at the same time, we’re also experimental. We’re also innovative. And so it’s really wonderful that when you go out to eat and when you experience Columbus, that you can choose from one of those two things.
Speaker 5: We use some really awesome short rib that we slice across the bone, which we cook for two days.
Speaker 4: We do a house-made pastrami and house-made gravlax. They are fantastic.
Speaker 3: I recommend the morning bun to everybody. It’s very good.
Speaker 6: Oh man. My personal favorite donuts? I love the apple fritters.
Speaker 2: Columbus food doesn’t take itself too seriously. You want to have fun when you’re eating. You want to experience something new. And I feel like Columbus chefs are really great at that. Avishar is the chef at Service Bar. He is obsessed with chalupas and the gorditas.
Speaker 5: This is our cheesy brisket crunch. This has been our most popular menu item.
Speaker 2: Oh man, it’s delicious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think on the more innovative and experimental side of things, one of our favorites is The Table, which is in Short North. They’re a great example of modern restaurants. They talk about how they are sourced locally but inspired globally.
Speaker 2: And then there’s Veritas, which is in an old bank building, and is just an amazing place that really works a lot with molecular gastronomy. So, you can go in and have different takes on things that you might have had before.
Speaker 1: Another spot is called Katalina’s. It’s this delightfully quirky place. Their signature dish is pancake balls. They put dulce de leche or Nutella in them. It’s a really colorful place too.
Speaker 2: And we also love Fox in the Snow. They make an egg sandwich that anyone in Columbus will tell you is the absolute best egg sandwich that they’ve ever had.
Speaker 1: In terms of traditional places, one of our favorites is Buckeye Donuts, which is right across the street from the university. It’s run by the third generation of the family, and they still make all their donuts by hand. And the other crazy thing is that they’re open 24/7, 365 days a year. The owner has said he doesn’t know where the key is.
Another great traditional place is Tommy’s Diner. It’s like one of the quintessential examples of it. I love how it looks very much like an old-school American diner. It has this big wall of photos just inside the door of like all the famous people who have stopped by. That’s one of my goals, is to get my picture on his wall ‘cuz that’s when like you know that you’ve made it. Tommy, if you’re listening, please.
Speaker 2: I think one of the big jokes in Columbus is that it feels like every week there is a new brewery, which we think is the best problem in the world to have. These breweries are doing things like family days, or they have a patio with board games.
Speaker 1: They just want to be the place that is loved by the neighborhood, where they do cool events, produce really excellent food, excellent beer – where it’s just like the neighborhood hangout.
Speaker 2: I love how connected Columbus feels. There is a friendliness to it that makes you feel really included, and everyone seems to be very hospitable. To have a city like that is really special.
Speaker 2: (laughs)
Speaker 1: We moved to Columbus in 2002, and we knew, like, this is going to be the place for us. We like all the people here. We like all the things to do.
Speaker 2: There was an energy here that it felt like it was really happening all around us, and that people were ready to really connect with other people.
Speaker 1: It was a big city, but it was a big city that was still kind of discovering itself. And that’s it… the secret to our success.
As we were getting to know Columbus, I found that we would discover all these cool places. I wanted to write down: Where was this little diner that we went to? Where’s this cool little place in this neighborhood? So, in 2007, I started a blog called “Breakfast with Nick.” I had enough of a following that people started emailing and asking for suggestions or they would recommend different places.
Speaker 3: Head down the street to the Book Loft, which is a bookstore.
Speaker 4: Scioto Mile is awesome to walk or jog down.
Speaker 3: Get ice cream at Jeni’s Splendid.
Speaker 2: When we first moved to Columbus, we really wanted to get to know the city organically, and so, we would walk around. And the way that Columbus is set up, it is welcoming and hospitable to people. It really makes it easy to walk almost every neighborhood in Columbus.
Speaker 1: One of our favorite phrases that a lot of people use is, they call it, “the biggest small town in America.” There’s a lot of layers to the city for a wide variety of interests. So, I mean, Columbus is very heavy on sports with the Ohio State football team here. We have professional hockey, we have professional baseball and soccer.
In terms of the arts scene, I feel like there’s this growing number of galleries and artists’ collectives.
If you’re really into international eats, you can find just about any world cuisine somewhere in Columbus.
It’s super family-friendly, so if you want things to do as a family, we have all these great attractions and cool little neighborhood parks to the science museum and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I think a classic day that we would have with the boys is…
Speaker 1: Oh right, three kids. I mean, lights of our lives.
Speaker 2: We would potentially go down and walk along the river, the Scioto Mile, or go and play in the fountains downtown. And then, we maybe head over to the Columbus Art Museum and check out their kids area.
Speaker 1: One of our favorite things about the art scene in Columbus is how it is very accessible. There’s a variety of mediums that we can engage with, whether it’s visual art or live music. There’s all these great festivals and activities.
Food in Columbus mirrors the way the city works in general in that I think we are this really good balance of tradition and innovation and that we love traditional stuff, but at the same time, we’re also experimental. We’re also innovative. And so it’s really wonderful that when you go out to eat and when you experience Columbus, that you can choose from one of those two things.
Speaker 5: We use some really awesome short rib that we slice across the bone, which we cook for two days.
Speaker 4: We do a house-made pastrami and house-made gravlax. They are fantastic.
Speaker 3: I recommend the morning bun to everybody. It’s very good.
Speaker 6: Oh man. My personal favorite donuts? I love the apple fritters.
Speaker 2: Columbus food doesn’t take itself too seriously. You want to have fun when you’re eating. You want to experience something new. And I feel like Columbus chefs are really great at that. Avishar is the chef at Service Bar. He is obsessed with chalupas and the gorditas.
Speaker 5: This is our cheesy brisket crunch. This has been our most popular menu item.
Speaker 2: Oh man, it’s delicious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think on the more innovative and experimental side of things, one of our favorites is The Table, which is in Short North. They’re a great example of modern restaurants. They talk about how they are sourced locally but inspired globally.
Speaker 2: And then there’s Veritas, which is in an old bank building, and is just an amazing place that really works a lot with molecular gastronomy. So, you can go in and have different takes on things that you might have had before.
Speaker 1: Another spot is called Katalina’s. It’s this delightfully quirky place. Their signature dish is pancake balls. They put dulce de leche or Nutella in them. It’s a really colorful place too.
Speaker 2: And we also love Fox in the Snow. They make an egg sandwich that anyone in Columbus will tell you is the absolute best egg sandwich that they’ve ever had.
Speaker 1: In terms of traditional places, one of our favorites is Buckeye Donuts, which is right across the street from the university. It’s run by the third generation of the family, and they still make all their donuts by hand. And the other crazy thing is that they’re open 24/7, 365 days a year. The owner has said he doesn’t know where the key is.
Another great traditional place is Tommy’s Diner. It’s like one of the quintessential examples of it. I love how it looks very much like an old-school American diner. It has this big wall of photos just inside the door of like all the famous people who have stopped by. That’s one of my goals, is to get my picture on his wall ‘cuz that’s when like you know that you’ve made it. Tommy, if you’re listening, please.
Speaker 2: I think one of the big jokes in Columbus is that it feels like every week there is a new brewery, which we think is the best problem in the world to have. These breweries are doing things like family days, or they have a patio with board games.
Speaker 1: They just want to be the place that is loved by the neighborhood, where they do cool events, produce really excellent food, excellent beer – where it’s just like the neighborhood hangout.
Speaker 2: I love how connected Columbus feels. There is a friendliness to it that makes you feel really included, and everyone seems to be very hospitable. To have a city like that is really special.
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Ask a Local: North Carolina Transcript
Wilmington Speaker 1:
I've always loved the ocean. I’ve always loved the environment of the ocean. When I moved to Wilmington, one of the first things I did was get a surfboard and just went out into the ocean. Immediately fell in love with surfing. It was truly amazing, and it was almost like a spiritual thing for me – just wanted to stay in the ocean as long as possible.
I moved down to Wilmington to find a teaching job. And I decided I really liked it here and I didn't want to move away from Wilmington. Wilmington has a great small-town feel. It’s a place where everyone knows each other's names. And you get on the beach and it's not all the hustle and bustle of a big city.
Wilmington is one of the most historic towns in the United States, and you're going to go through all these historical homes that were built during the Civil War, past these old courthouses where movies are still filmed today. And you’re going to go past Wrightsville Beach, which in its own flavor, has this great history to it, lots of surfing. And then you can kind of come down into Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. That's more of the smaller town, not quite as touristy, but still has that real coastal community feel. We've got one of the greatest boardwalks in the country. We’ve got amusement rides, and if you have kids, they can go to the beach, they can go to the parks, they can go on the nature trails. They’ve got this endless amount of space to play.
Wilmington has one of the coolest nicknames; it’s called “Hollywood of the East,” and we have lots of different movies and TV shows that have been filmed here. There’s a lot of actors that stay in Wilmington that love it so much; some of them start their own acting camps. But it also kind of spawns off lots of different theatrical performances.
Wilmington Speaker 2:
As an actor, Wilmington is amazing in terms of its performing arts community. There are dinner theater productions, live music, poetry slams, karaoke nights, improvisation, live comedy events.
Wilmington Speaker 1:
And that also leads to great live music. Lots of actors perform in bands and we have a great live music scene that’s in Wilmington and on the beaches.
If you come to Carolina Beach, and you go nowhere else, you have to experience the Fat Pelican. It is literally one of the greatest dive bars in the world. You never know what you're going to find. Unique bar.
Wilmington has an amazing greenway system that is slowly being connected to all the islands, which is pretty cool. It's a really neat open space to be able to ride your bike clean across the whole county and to be able to experience all these magical areas.
Wilmington, Kure Beach, Carolina Beach – we all have amazing restaurants. We actually have world-renowned chefs that continue to come here, and it’s kind of one of those neat places where the fisherman still catch the fish and the oysters come locally. Britts Donuts is world-famous. It wins one of the top donuts every single year. People come from all over the country just to eat a donut. It’s the same donut; you’re only getting a glazed donut. It opens at 8:30; you should probably start lining up at 8 a.m. It’ll be a long line and one of the local secrets is you go and you sit at the counter, and you get either a hot chocolate or a cup of milk, and you can get your donuts without having to wait in line.
This is one of the best places in the world to learn to surf because it has such a long coastal area and sandy beaches and beautiful sandbars, which are perfect for small waves. And we have a huge coastline, so it spreads everybody out so you're not surfing through a million people, which is one of the reasons a lot of people want to come here to surf.
So, I have probably one of the most unique non-profits in the country. It’s based on using the ocean as a healing factor. And we take many different people with disabilities into the ocean to have that peaceful moment, to catch those waves, and then they feel that energy and it gets into them and then they just want it again and again and again and again.
One of the things that I think makes this coastal community one of the greatest communities, possibly in the world, is this beach floor mat. And what it is, is it’s a mat that lays on the sand and it allows someone in a regular wheelchair to come down onto the beach and it gives true independence.
In Wilmington, you have this amazing historical town blended with the coastal community. There’s endless amounts of things to do, always kind of exciting things happening, and you can go stick your toes in the sand and get in the ocean and just enjoy it.
Raleigh Speaker:
We talk to a lot of guests here who are visiting and the common phrase is that, “I don't know what it is about this place, but I really love it here.” My friend and I had a couple of friends in Raleigh that were part of the music scene here and I just really had this like sense of longing to be here, and it just felt like a really great place to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And turns out, I just wanted to stay in Raleigh so, here I am.
I’ve just always loved food and always been fascinated by it. And I became a chef because I owned a restaurant. Raleigh is this unlikely culinary epicenter. And I think the role of the farmers market can’t be underestimated. We have a very large farmers market about a mile-and-a-half or two from downtown. Then we have international immigration communities, and so that makes somebody who is into food have access to a bunch of ingredients that they might just read about in Saveur that month.
Our businesses just happen to be housed in one building, but we have events like at least three or four nights a week, and when we opened this rendition of Kings, having a place for bands, it was really important to me for them to have a great experience when they came through on tour. Then we also have comedy and we do jazz improv downstairs at Neptunes.
So, what makes Raleigh a tourist destination? What we have is a lot of creative endeavors. We have great museums. They get really great national exhibits and then all of the restaurants surrounding that. Van Nolintha and his sister, Vanvisa, they are from Laos and opened Bida Manda down the street.
Van Nolintha:
Welcome to Bida Manda. We are one of the first Laotian restaurants in the United States. Bida Manda [are the] Sanscript words for “father” and “mother.” So it’s very special to have the parent’s portraits greeting our friends and family and neighbors into this space.
Raleigh Speaker:
And then they opened a brewery, Bhavana. And they have a flower shop and a little bookstore. And that sounds completely disconnected, but it’s not. Ashley Christensen, the owner of Poole’s Diner, just won outstanding chef in the nation, and I think she really figured out that connection between bringing people together to cook, bringing people together to eat and then bringing people together to give.
ALTA Bread is a phenomenal bakery. They source their own whole-grain wheat and mill their own flour. They’re not open every single morning, but when they are, they pretty much sell out of stuff. You can’t not go there. Across the street or I guess catty-corner from CAM is one of the older-newer restaurants in Raleigh called Humble Pie. Retail, oh God, we have Raleigh Denim, who are doing amazing things with fabric and exploring the textile history of North Carolina. Yeah, I mean that's just like in this four-block radius. That’s pretty crazy, right?
So, there's a new boutique hotel in Raleigh called guest house that’s owned by Matt and Nichole who are this amazing couple that have just the best sense of design and hospitality. In the way they’ve renovated it, it has maintained the original story of the family that used to live there. It was owned by the first African American mail carrier and the way they've built it out, yeah, it's a wonderful place to stay.
Raleigh creates this general culture of creativity and potential. That is the thing that has, like, really made this place be as special as it is. The more the city grows with people doing all of these independent projects that are becoming the landscape, I think that that is going to be the thing that makes our city grow in a very thoughtful and creative way.
I've always loved the ocean. I’ve always loved the environment of the ocean. When I moved to Wilmington, one of the first things I did was get a surfboard and just went out into the ocean. Immediately fell in love with surfing. It was truly amazing, and it was almost like a spiritual thing for me – just wanted to stay in the ocean as long as possible.
I moved down to Wilmington to find a teaching job. And I decided I really liked it here and I didn't want to move away from Wilmington. Wilmington has a great small-town feel. It’s a place where everyone knows each other's names. And you get on the beach and it's not all the hustle and bustle of a big city.
Wilmington is one of the most historic towns in the United States, and you're going to go through all these historical homes that were built during the Civil War, past these old courthouses where movies are still filmed today. And you’re going to go past Wrightsville Beach, which in its own flavor, has this great history to it, lots of surfing. And then you can kind of come down into Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. That's more of the smaller town, not quite as touristy, but still has that real coastal community feel. We've got one of the greatest boardwalks in the country. We’ve got amusement rides, and if you have kids, they can go to the beach, they can go to the parks, they can go on the nature trails. They’ve got this endless amount of space to play.
Wilmington has one of the coolest nicknames; it’s called “Hollywood of the East,” and we have lots of different movies and TV shows that have been filmed here. There’s a lot of actors that stay in Wilmington that love it so much; some of them start their own acting camps. But it also kind of spawns off lots of different theatrical performances.
Wilmington Speaker 2:
As an actor, Wilmington is amazing in terms of its performing arts community. There are dinner theater productions, live music, poetry slams, karaoke nights, improvisation, live comedy events.
Wilmington Speaker 1:
And that also leads to great live music. Lots of actors perform in bands and we have a great live music scene that’s in Wilmington and on the beaches.
If you come to Carolina Beach, and you go nowhere else, you have to experience the Fat Pelican. It is literally one of the greatest dive bars in the world. You never know what you're going to find. Unique bar.
Wilmington has an amazing greenway system that is slowly being connected to all the islands, which is pretty cool. It's a really neat open space to be able to ride your bike clean across the whole county and to be able to experience all these magical areas.
Wilmington, Kure Beach, Carolina Beach – we all have amazing restaurants. We actually have world-renowned chefs that continue to come here, and it’s kind of one of those neat places where the fisherman still catch the fish and the oysters come locally. Britts Donuts is world-famous. It wins one of the top donuts every single year. People come from all over the country just to eat a donut. It’s the same donut; you’re only getting a glazed donut. It opens at 8:30; you should probably start lining up at 8 a.m. It’ll be a long line and one of the local secrets is you go and you sit at the counter, and you get either a hot chocolate or a cup of milk, and you can get your donuts without having to wait in line.
This is one of the best places in the world to learn to surf because it has such a long coastal area and sandy beaches and beautiful sandbars, which are perfect for small waves. And we have a huge coastline, so it spreads everybody out so you're not surfing through a million people, which is one of the reasons a lot of people want to come here to surf.
So, I have probably one of the most unique non-profits in the country. It’s based on using the ocean as a healing factor. And we take many different people with disabilities into the ocean to have that peaceful moment, to catch those waves, and then they feel that energy and it gets into them and then they just want it again and again and again and again.
One of the things that I think makes this coastal community one of the greatest communities, possibly in the world, is this beach floor mat. And what it is, is it’s a mat that lays on the sand and it allows someone in a regular wheelchair to come down onto the beach and it gives true independence.
In Wilmington, you have this amazing historical town blended with the coastal community. There’s endless amounts of things to do, always kind of exciting things happening, and you can go stick your toes in the sand and get in the ocean and just enjoy it.
Raleigh Speaker:
We talk to a lot of guests here who are visiting and the common phrase is that, “I don't know what it is about this place, but I really love it here.” My friend and I had a couple of friends in Raleigh that were part of the music scene here and I just really had this like sense of longing to be here, and it just felt like a really great place to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And turns out, I just wanted to stay in Raleigh so, here I am.
I’ve just always loved food and always been fascinated by it. And I became a chef because I owned a restaurant. Raleigh is this unlikely culinary epicenter. And I think the role of the farmers market can’t be underestimated. We have a very large farmers market about a mile-and-a-half or two from downtown. Then we have international immigration communities, and so that makes somebody who is into food have access to a bunch of ingredients that they might just read about in Saveur that month.
Our businesses just happen to be housed in one building, but we have events like at least three or four nights a week, and when we opened this rendition of Kings, having a place for bands, it was really important to me for them to have a great experience when they came through on tour. Then we also have comedy and we do jazz improv downstairs at Neptunes.
So, what makes Raleigh a tourist destination? What we have is a lot of creative endeavors. We have great museums. They get really great national exhibits and then all of the restaurants surrounding that. Van Nolintha and his sister, Vanvisa, they are from Laos and opened Bida Manda down the street.
Van Nolintha:
Welcome to Bida Manda. We are one of the first Laotian restaurants in the United States. Bida Manda [are the] Sanscript words for “father” and “mother.” So it’s very special to have the parent’s portraits greeting our friends and family and neighbors into this space.
Raleigh Speaker:
And then they opened a brewery, Bhavana. And they have a flower shop and a little bookstore. And that sounds completely disconnected, but it’s not. Ashley Christensen, the owner of Poole’s Diner, just won outstanding chef in the nation, and I think she really figured out that connection between bringing people together to cook, bringing people together to eat and then bringing people together to give.
ALTA Bread is a phenomenal bakery. They source their own whole-grain wheat and mill their own flour. They’re not open every single morning, but when they are, they pretty much sell out of stuff. You can’t not go there. Across the street or I guess catty-corner from CAM is one of the older-newer restaurants in Raleigh called Humble Pie. Retail, oh God, we have Raleigh Denim, who are doing amazing things with fabric and exploring the textile history of North Carolina. Yeah, I mean that's just like in this four-block radius. That’s pretty crazy, right?
So, there's a new boutique hotel in Raleigh called guest house that’s owned by Matt and Nichole who are this amazing couple that have just the best sense of design and hospitality. In the way they’ve renovated it, it has maintained the original story of the family that used to live there. It was owned by the first African American mail carrier and the way they've built it out, yeah, it's a wonderful place to stay.
Raleigh creates this general culture of creativity and potential. That is the thing that has, like, really made this place be as special as it is. The more the city grows with people doing all of these independent projects that are becoming the landscape, I think that that is going to be the thing that makes our city grow in a very thoughtful and creative way.
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Ask a Local: Pennsylvania Transcript
Philadelphia Speaker:
OK, we have the cheesesteaks, we have the soft pretzels. I mean, you already know that we have the Liberty Bell, but Mural Arts Philadelphia is so unique. It has made this city the Mural Capital of the World. That is amazing. In a city of neighborhoods, each mural tells a story of the people that live there and the history that surrounds them. And of course, murals like this is something you want to see.
My favorite thing about this city is that I can park one place and then walk to my destination. It is insanely cool how I can find my favorite coffee shops, little gems that I’ve never even seen before. And of course, you can see all these different places that are quite “Instagrammable.”
If you go a little bit, not too far, from Center City, you can see Wissahickon Valley Park. Stone brick bridges, magical forests, the creek, barn – there’s so many different things you can do there. Take a walk, take a hike, bring your dog, bring a friend. It is the most beautiful place in Philadelphia.
Welcome to my Philadelphia.
Brian Bossuyt:
Growing up here I always felt like I was in a playground. There was always something to do outside. You know, you could go play at one of the ski resorts, skiing or snowboarding; go outside and ride your bike somewhere; enjoy one of the lakes; go rafting on the river.
Going out on Lake Wallenpaupack, water skiing or Jet-Skiing – just getting out really and enjoying all the things that nature has to offer. But it’s really something when you’re walking on some of our hiking trails or in our state parks and you come across a waterfall that you weren’t expecting.
One of the craziest things you can do in the Pocono Mountains is drive a racecar, and from experience, I can tell you it’s an awesome experience. Here, you get to drive it on a three-turn track called the Tricky Triangle. It’s something you’re never gonna forget. It’s awesome. You’re behind a racecar, you’re doing top speeds, and when you’re done, you’re just like, “Holy Cow, I just drove a racecar.”
Zip lining in the Pocono Mountains is a breathtaking experience, and I really recommend it, zipping down the line from the top of Camelback Mountain all the way to the bottom. And it’s something that you’re going to enjoy and remember for the rest of your life.
One of the great things that’s new to the Pocono Mountains the last few years is indoor water parks, so you can come to the Poconos and never worry about the weather because you have those great amenities as well.
Jim Thorpe is known as Little Switzerland. It’s crafted after that era of time when the town was pristine, and you feel like you’re stepping back in time.
Another great place is Honesdale. When you walk down the Main Street of that town and you can see that it’s still the same picturesque town that it was way back then and it’s just this great small-town feel, that you really get a piece of Americana.
And we are only a few hours from New York City and Philadelphia, so we recommend renting a car and coming here and really enjoying the outdoors. We have some great roadways and you’re going to see breathtaking scenery throughout the year, as well as just getting out and seeing the different things we have to offer.
OK, we have the cheesesteaks, we have the soft pretzels. I mean, you already know that we have the Liberty Bell, but Mural Arts Philadelphia is so unique. It has made this city the Mural Capital of the World. That is amazing. In a city of neighborhoods, each mural tells a story of the people that live there and the history that surrounds them. And of course, murals like this is something you want to see.
My favorite thing about this city is that I can park one place and then walk to my destination. It is insanely cool how I can find my favorite coffee shops, little gems that I’ve never even seen before. And of course, you can see all these different places that are quite “Instagrammable.”
If you go a little bit, not too far, from Center City, you can see Wissahickon Valley Park. Stone brick bridges, magical forests, the creek, barn – there’s so many different things you can do there. Take a walk, take a hike, bring your dog, bring a friend. It is the most beautiful place in Philadelphia.
Welcome to my Philadelphia.
Brian Bossuyt:
Growing up here I always felt like I was in a playground. There was always something to do outside. You know, you could go play at one of the ski resorts, skiing or snowboarding; go outside and ride your bike somewhere; enjoy one of the lakes; go rafting on the river.
Going out on Lake Wallenpaupack, water skiing or Jet-Skiing – just getting out really and enjoying all the things that nature has to offer. But it’s really something when you’re walking on some of our hiking trails or in our state parks and you come across a waterfall that you weren’t expecting.
One of the craziest things you can do in the Pocono Mountains is drive a racecar, and from experience, I can tell you it’s an awesome experience. Here, you get to drive it on a three-turn track called the Tricky Triangle. It’s something you’re never gonna forget. It’s awesome. You’re behind a racecar, you’re doing top speeds, and when you’re done, you’re just like, “Holy Cow, I just drove a racecar.”
Zip lining in the Pocono Mountains is a breathtaking experience, and I really recommend it, zipping down the line from the top of Camelback Mountain all the way to the bottom. And it’s something that you’re going to enjoy and remember for the rest of your life.
One of the great things that’s new to the Pocono Mountains the last few years is indoor water parks, so you can come to the Poconos and never worry about the weather because you have those great amenities as well.
Jim Thorpe is known as Little Switzerland. It’s crafted after that era of time when the town was pristine, and you feel like you’re stepping back in time.
Another great place is Honesdale. When you walk down the Main Street of that town and you can see that it’s still the same picturesque town that it was way back then and it’s just this great small-town feel, that you really get a piece of Americana.
And we are only a few hours from New York City and Philadelphia, so we recommend renting a car and coming here and really enjoying the outdoors. We have some great roadways and you’re going to see breathtaking scenery throughout the year, as well as just getting out and seeing the different things we have to offer.
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Ask a Local: New Jersey Transcript
Elizabeth Bakley:
Cape May is an architect’s dream and a vacationer’s paradise. The first thing you should do when you get here: Go down to the beach, put your feet in the water, feel that soft sand and just enjoy the peace and quiet of being in Cape May.
To take a walk down the streets of Cape May is like walking into a Charles Dickens novel. It’s a really romantic, historic experience.
In 1878, there was a great fire. When they rebuilt, it was during the Victorian era, so that’s why you see a lot of the Victorian-style homes throughout the city. Places like the Physick Estate or the Southern Mansion provide guided tours for anyone who’s interested in seeing what the inside of these beautiful homes look like.
If you’re only here for a day or two, I definitely recommend getting on a boat, get out in that back bay, get out in the ocean and see the Cape May area from a different perspective.
The fishing industry in Cape May has sustained this area for a very long period of time and still does. What we catch in those back bays and in the ocean, you can find right in those local restaurants fresh and served daily.
The Washington Street Mall is the heart of Cape May. What I like to do is get a coffee, walk down that brick walkway of the mall, window shop, just take a deep breath, take it all in and really just enjoy that downtown area.
Because Cape May is a peninsula you have various opportunities to get out and see the wildlife. During your stay in Cape May, you can also pop up to Stone Harbor. Stone Harbor Point gives you an opportunity to see Stone Harbor the way that it used to be from a beach perspective. It’s a conservation area that helps preserve the land for the animals. You can go right up to the Wetlands Institute and have an opportunity to feel some of these animals to learn more about them. They have a great educational program there at the Wetlands.
If you’re into architecture, if you’re into great food, if you’re in for fun and a good time, come see us in Cape May.
Alessia Aron:
Jersey City is definitely urban with a small-town feel. We have some of the best views of the New York City skyline, so the best way to experience them is to take a stroll along the waterfront.
There’s always something happening downtown. Coming out of the Grove Street PATH Station, you walk out into this pedestrian plaza and you’re gonna hear live music, a farmer’s market going on.
If you’re hungry, we have amazing food. One of my favorites downtown is Razza. You’re gonna get incredible pizza, but get there early because a line forms when they open.
In the heart of Journal Square, you’re gonna find a little pocket we call “Little India.” You’ll find a ton of Indian grocery stores, Indian places to eat; you can just kinda feel like you’re in India when you’re there.
One of the highlights of Jersey City has got be the Liberty Science Center. It’s an interactive science museum. It’s great for kids and adults. It’s a ton of fun to spend half a day there with the whole family.
Corgi Spirits is Jersey City’s only distillery and the first one to open since prohibition. It kinda has this library feel inside where you can taste their gin, their vodka, their whiskey – and they make some really fantastic cocktails as well.
Our neighbor to the north is Hoboken, where Frank Sinatra is from. It’s definitely gonna have a more of a cute, quaint feel. You’re gonna walk down Washington and just see a ton of bars, restaurants, cafes. One of the places people really like to stop in is Carlo’s Bakery, which is featured on Cake Boss.
Jersey City has one of the best mural programs in the country. We have local and international artists who are showcasing their gorgeous artwork. When you’re seeing this art, you’re getting a sense of the community, and that is something that makes Jersey City really special.
We really embrace diversity here. I like making other people feel welcome and I hope that people get the same experience when they come and visit Jersey City.
Cape May is an architect’s dream and a vacationer’s paradise. The first thing you should do when you get here: Go down to the beach, put your feet in the water, feel that soft sand and just enjoy the peace and quiet of being in Cape May.
To take a walk down the streets of Cape May is like walking into a Charles Dickens novel. It’s a really romantic, historic experience.
In 1878, there was a great fire. When they rebuilt, it was during the Victorian era, so that’s why you see a lot of the Victorian-style homes throughout the city. Places like the Physick Estate or the Southern Mansion provide guided tours for anyone who’s interested in seeing what the inside of these beautiful homes look like.
If you’re only here for a day or two, I definitely recommend getting on a boat, get out in that back bay, get out in the ocean and see the Cape May area from a different perspective.
The fishing industry in Cape May has sustained this area for a very long period of time and still does. What we catch in those back bays and in the ocean, you can find right in those local restaurants fresh and served daily.
The Washington Street Mall is the heart of Cape May. What I like to do is get a coffee, walk down that brick walkway of the mall, window shop, just take a deep breath, take it all in and really just enjoy that downtown area.
Because Cape May is a peninsula you have various opportunities to get out and see the wildlife. During your stay in Cape May, you can also pop up to Stone Harbor. Stone Harbor Point gives you an opportunity to see Stone Harbor the way that it used to be from a beach perspective. It’s a conservation area that helps preserve the land for the animals. You can go right up to the Wetlands Institute and have an opportunity to feel some of these animals to learn more about them. They have a great educational program there at the Wetlands.
If you’re into architecture, if you’re into great food, if you’re in for fun and a good time, come see us in Cape May.
Alessia Aron:
Jersey City is definitely urban with a small-town feel. We have some of the best views of the New York City skyline, so the best way to experience them is to take a stroll along the waterfront.
There’s always something happening downtown. Coming out of the Grove Street PATH Station, you walk out into this pedestrian plaza and you’re gonna hear live music, a farmer’s market going on.
If you’re hungry, we have amazing food. One of my favorites downtown is Razza. You’re gonna get incredible pizza, but get there early because a line forms when they open.
In the heart of Journal Square, you’re gonna find a little pocket we call “Little India.” You’ll find a ton of Indian grocery stores, Indian places to eat; you can just kinda feel like you’re in India when you’re there.
One of the highlights of Jersey City has got be the Liberty Science Center. It’s an interactive science museum. It’s great for kids and adults. It’s a ton of fun to spend half a day there with the whole family.
Corgi Spirits is Jersey City’s only distillery and the first one to open since prohibition. It kinda has this library feel inside where you can taste their gin, their vodka, their whiskey – and they make some really fantastic cocktails as well.
Our neighbor to the north is Hoboken, where Frank Sinatra is from. It’s definitely gonna have a more of a cute, quaint feel. You’re gonna walk down Washington and just see a ton of bars, restaurants, cafes. One of the places people really like to stop in is Carlo’s Bakery, which is featured on Cake Boss.
Jersey City has one of the best mural programs in the country. We have local and international artists who are showcasing their gorgeous artwork. When you’re seeing this art, you’re getting a sense of the community, and that is something that makes Jersey City really special.
We really embrace diversity here. I like making other people feel welcome and I hope that people get the same experience when they come and visit Jersey City.
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Ask a Local: Delaware Transcript
Captain Steve Savidge:
Rehoboth Beach is great for families. The boardwalk in Rehoboth is a mile long. It’s a great place to take a walk. You can shop; there’s plenty of things for the kids to do.
A perfect day on the beach for me would be to get there early before the crowds arrive, get a little swimming in, get a little sun, and then go to one of the amazing restaurants there for lunch.
Dogfish Head brewery got started here in Rehoboth in the early ’90s. They have a restaurant, store and a small brewery there still.
Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach are all very close in proximity. Rehoboth is more of a family-oriented restaurant scene. Dewey is more of the party, the bar scene. And Lewes is more of a historical town. Lewes has a lot of historical sights. There is a museum from the origination of Lewes called the Zwaanendael Museum. There’s a historic lightship that’s docked in the canal.
Cape Henlopen State Park is almost a 1-mile-square area between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. It is one of three kind of rare dune habitats that are in the United States. The trails at Cape Henlopen are the best way to really experience the park. We have elevated platforms so that you can actually walk through the dunes and the wetlands. My favorite activity at Cape Henlopen is to fish. We have a surf-fishing beach so you can get a permit to drive out on the beach and actively engage in fishing.
The Fort Miles Museum & Historical Area is what is left of the original Fort Miles that was built during World War II. We have fire control towers at Fort Miles and Cape Henlopen. One of the fire control towers is open and you can actually climb up it and get an amazing view of the park and the town of Lewes.
If you’re here just for a day or two, I would recommend walking on the boardwalk, walking on the beach, watching the sunrise first thing in the morning and eating out.
Lauren Weaver:
Well, the unique thing about Bethany Beach is that it’s family. My grandfather vacationed here; my father vacationed here as a boy. And there’s just such a timeless tradition that you have in Bethany Beach.
One of the coolest things that you can do here is take a wildlife paddle. We have a really unique ecosystem that is host to birds from all over the world. The inland bays ecological system is unreal. So, we have the horseshoe crab, which is the symbol of Delaware. We have the largest population outside of Japan of horseshoe crabs.
The beach culture here is a fun mix of vacationers and year-round people that love the beach. When you love a sunrise or the smell of the ocean and the breeze and the sand, it’s just something that everyone gets excited for.
The boardwalk in Bethany Beach is really unique. There’s no real loud neon signs coming at you. It’s just a real fun family feel. I think nobody leaves without a box of fudge or a box of taffies to take home and show off that you were down at the shore.
Fenwick Island State Park is on the narrows in between Bethany and the town of Fenwick Island, and you have oceanfront and bayside, so you can go and have a beautiful day on the beach, or you can cross the street and have a day in a stand-up paddle or a kayak, and get the best of both worlds: the ocean and the bay.
The Shipwreck Museum, which is in Fenwick Island, has been there since Dale Clifton found his first coin. He decided that he wanted to create a museum to tell a little bit of the story about the unique history and shipwrecks all up and down the coast of the Atlantic and some of the treasures heading up into the Delaware Bay.
The Assawoman preservation area used to be farmland that has been given over for a wildlife refuge. It’s a really beautiful area. They have observation towers, so you can get a view of the marshes and the birding nurseries.
Bethany Beach is beautiful. It is quaint, it is small, it is friendly – all the things that people come to the beach for in the summer.
Rehoboth Beach is great for families. The boardwalk in Rehoboth is a mile long. It’s a great place to take a walk. You can shop; there’s plenty of things for the kids to do.
A perfect day on the beach for me would be to get there early before the crowds arrive, get a little swimming in, get a little sun, and then go to one of the amazing restaurants there for lunch.
Dogfish Head brewery got started here in Rehoboth in the early ’90s. They have a restaurant, store and a small brewery there still.
Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach are all very close in proximity. Rehoboth is more of a family-oriented restaurant scene. Dewey is more of the party, the bar scene. And Lewes is more of a historical town. Lewes has a lot of historical sights. There is a museum from the origination of Lewes called the Zwaanendael Museum. There’s a historic lightship that’s docked in the canal.
Cape Henlopen State Park is almost a 1-mile-square area between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. It is one of three kind of rare dune habitats that are in the United States. The trails at Cape Henlopen are the best way to really experience the park. We have elevated platforms so that you can actually walk through the dunes and the wetlands. My favorite activity at Cape Henlopen is to fish. We have a surf-fishing beach so you can get a permit to drive out on the beach and actively engage in fishing.
The Fort Miles Museum & Historical Area is what is left of the original Fort Miles that was built during World War II. We have fire control towers at Fort Miles and Cape Henlopen. One of the fire control towers is open and you can actually climb up it and get an amazing view of the park and the town of Lewes.
If you’re here just for a day or two, I would recommend walking on the boardwalk, walking on the beach, watching the sunrise first thing in the morning and eating out.
Lauren Weaver:
Well, the unique thing about Bethany Beach is that it’s family. My grandfather vacationed here; my father vacationed here as a boy. And there’s just such a timeless tradition that you have in Bethany Beach.
One of the coolest things that you can do here is take a wildlife paddle. We have a really unique ecosystem that is host to birds from all over the world. The inland bays ecological system is unreal. So, we have the horseshoe crab, which is the symbol of Delaware. We have the largest population outside of Japan of horseshoe crabs.
The beach culture here is a fun mix of vacationers and year-round people that love the beach. When you love a sunrise or the smell of the ocean and the breeze and the sand, it’s just something that everyone gets excited for.
The boardwalk in Bethany Beach is really unique. There’s no real loud neon signs coming at you. It’s just a real fun family feel. I think nobody leaves without a box of fudge or a box of taffies to take home and show off that you were down at the shore.
Fenwick Island State Park is on the narrows in between Bethany and the town of Fenwick Island, and you have oceanfront and bayside, so you can go and have a beautiful day on the beach, or you can cross the street and have a day in a stand-up paddle or a kayak, and get the best of both worlds: the ocean and the bay.
The Shipwreck Museum, which is in Fenwick Island, has been there since Dale Clifton found his first coin. He decided that he wanted to create a museum to tell a little bit of the story about the unique history and shipwrecks all up and down the coast of the Atlantic and some of the treasures heading up into the Delaware Bay.
The Assawoman preservation area used to be farmland that has been given over for a wildlife refuge. It’s a really beautiful area. They have observation towers, so you can get a view of the marshes and the birding nurseries.
Bethany Beach is beautiful. It is quaint, it is small, it is friendly – all the things that people come to the beach for in the summer.
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Ask a Local: Kentucky Transcript
Ryan Rogers:
There’s a lot of different ways to say Louisville. You could say Lou-ee-ville, you could say Louis-ville, Lou-i-ville. It’s Lou-uh-vul, Louisville.
Only in a city like Louisville, Kentucky, can you turn a two-minute horse race into a two-week party – and that is the Kentucky Derby. Mint Julep is like the classic Derby cocktail. We’re really gonna bring out our bowties; our big, giant hats; and then, ultimately, the Run for the Roses, the fastest two minutes in sports.
You want to check out Churchill Downs, and if they don’t have a race going on, you always have an opportunity to tour the track or check out the Kentucky Derby Museum, a testament to all the great horses that won the Derby previously.
I really recommend you that you visit one of our Kentucky bourbon distilleries. We have an entire Main Street here in Louisville that we call Whiskey Row. One of my favorite distilleries to check out is the Evan Williams distillery. They do a really cool tour and tasting, and they talk about their history. The Old Forester Distillery, they’re really dedicated to making all their Old Forester product and distilling it here on Whiskey Row.
Louisville has a really exciting culinary scene. One of my favorite restaurants is Proof on Main at the 21c Hotel. Chef Jonathan Searle gets ingredients coming in fresh from farmers and puts them on a menu in a very seasonal way. Red Hog’s a really cool restaurant. They’ve combined kind of the best things of a local artisanal butcher shop with a restaurant and bar. Royals Hot Chicken focuses on great fried chicken paired with classic southern sides as well.
Over the past 30 years, Louisville has done a really exciting job of turning our riverfront into a really great, usable space. It also connects Louisville to our Louisville Wharf, where you can find the Belle of Louisville, as well as the Mary M. Miller steamboat. You can take out on a dinner cruise or just a daytime cruise.
The Louisville Mega Cavern is actually not a cave; it’s a former limestone mine, and it’s a really cool place to go and explore and visit. They’ve got an underground zip line; it might be the only underground zipline in the world.
Louisville, let it roll through your mouth – Louisville.
Anne Hardy:
I love Lexington because it is absolutely gorgeous. We are surrounded by the most amazing natural beauty, and it has a lot of the amenities still with the kind of southern small-town charm.
The sights and sounds of horse country are gorgeous rolling hills, green grass; the smells are heavenly. A typical horse country tour is never really typical because every day on a farm is a little bit different. So, you get to choose what kind of experience you want.
Lexington is unique because it is the epicenter of thoroughbred world. Keeneland is the premier thoroughbred racecourse in the United States, maybe the world. It really is one of the most amazing locations for anyone who is interested in thoroughbred racing, or even if you’re not, because you just hear the pounding of the hooves and the screaming of the crowd – and it is so exciting.
The neighborhoods of Lexington are so fun to walk around. Thursday Night Live is the party where everyone goes after work. Grab a cocktail, listen to music, experience downtown and also be on our historic Courthouse Square.
Smithtown Seafood is your quintessential pub, fish and chips, location, and you can walk right into the West Sixth Brewery, put an order in for your beer, get your fish and chips, and then you’ve got a West Sixth pint waiting on you. I love it.
Windy Corner Market is an absolute gem, right out in the middle of horse country, and you get to experience true Kentucky southern cooking.
Whether you were born here or you’re a transplant, you learn to love the bourbon and appreciate it. There are lots of great bars around and different ways to introduce you to it if you’ve never had it before.
At the Pepper Campus, you will find a hodgepodge of really fun and unique things to do. It is actually an old bourbon distilling operation that for many years sat vacant and has been completely revitalized, and it is now a center for fun attractions. So, if you want ice cream, you’ve got it; local pizza, same thing. If you want to elevate your experience a little bit, Middle Fork is a great spot. So, it’s just a really fun thing to see it come back together because it once was a really vibrant part of Lexington, and now it is again and still incorporating that bourbon heritage that we have.
Welcome to Lexington!
There’s a lot of different ways to say Louisville. You could say Lou-ee-ville, you could say Louis-ville, Lou-i-ville. It’s Lou-uh-vul, Louisville.
Only in a city like Louisville, Kentucky, can you turn a two-minute horse race into a two-week party – and that is the Kentucky Derby. Mint Julep is like the classic Derby cocktail. We’re really gonna bring out our bowties; our big, giant hats; and then, ultimately, the Run for the Roses, the fastest two minutes in sports.
You want to check out Churchill Downs, and if they don’t have a race going on, you always have an opportunity to tour the track or check out the Kentucky Derby Museum, a testament to all the great horses that won the Derby previously.
I really recommend you that you visit one of our Kentucky bourbon distilleries. We have an entire Main Street here in Louisville that we call Whiskey Row. One of my favorite distilleries to check out is the Evan Williams distillery. They do a really cool tour and tasting, and they talk about their history. The Old Forester Distillery, they’re really dedicated to making all their Old Forester product and distilling it here on Whiskey Row.
Louisville has a really exciting culinary scene. One of my favorite restaurants is Proof on Main at the 21c Hotel. Chef Jonathan Searle gets ingredients coming in fresh from farmers and puts them on a menu in a very seasonal way. Red Hog’s a really cool restaurant. They’ve combined kind of the best things of a local artisanal butcher shop with a restaurant and bar. Royals Hot Chicken focuses on great fried chicken paired with classic southern sides as well.
Over the past 30 years, Louisville has done a really exciting job of turning our riverfront into a really great, usable space. It also connects Louisville to our Louisville Wharf, where you can find the Belle of Louisville, as well as the Mary M. Miller steamboat. You can take out on a dinner cruise or just a daytime cruise.
The Louisville Mega Cavern is actually not a cave; it’s a former limestone mine, and it’s a really cool place to go and explore and visit. They’ve got an underground zip line; it might be the only underground zipline in the world.
Louisville, let it roll through your mouth – Louisville.
Anne Hardy:
I love Lexington because it is absolutely gorgeous. We are surrounded by the most amazing natural beauty, and it has a lot of the amenities still with the kind of southern small-town charm.
The sights and sounds of horse country are gorgeous rolling hills, green grass; the smells are heavenly. A typical horse country tour is never really typical because every day on a farm is a little bit different. So, you get to choose what kind of experience you want.
Lexington is unique because it is the epicenter of thoroughbred world. Keeneland is the premier thoroughbred racecourse in the United States, maybe the world. It really is one of the most amazing locations for anyone who is interested in thoroughbred racing, or even if you’re not, because you just hear the pounding of the hooves and the screaming of the crowd – and it is so exciting.
The neighborhoods of Lexington are so fun to walk around. Thursday Night Live is the party where everyone goes after work. Grab a cocktail, listen to music, experience downtown and also be on our historic Courthouse Square.
Smithtown Seafood is your quintessential pub, fish and chips, location, and you can walk right into the West Sixth Brewery, put an order in for your beer, get your fish and chips, and then you’ve got a West Sixth pint waiting on you. I love it.
Windy Corner Market is an absolute gem, right out in the middle of horse country, and you get to experience true Kentucky southern cooking.
Whether you were born here or you’re a transplant, you learn to love the bourbon and appreciate it. There are lots of great bars around and different ways to introduce you to it if you’ve never had it before.
At the Pepper Campus, you will find a hodgepodge of really fun and unique things to do. It is actually an old bourbon distilling operation that for many years sat vacant and has been completely revitalized, and it is now a center for fun attractions. So, if you want ice cream, you’ve got it; local pizza, same thing. If you want to elevate your experience a little bit, Middle Fork is a great spot. So, it’s just a really fun thing to see it come back together because it once was a really vibrant part of Lexington, and now it is again and still incorporating that bourbon heritage that we have.
Welcome to Lexington!
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Ask a Local: American Samoa Transcript
Sandra Lutu:
I love Pago Pago because it’s my home. American Samoa is located in the South Pacific below the equator. It’s the farthest and southernmost U.S. territory. As you drive along the coast, all the way through to the Pago Pago Bay, the water is everything. It’s just really, really beautiful; you see it.
Tutuila and the harbor is, like, something you can’t find anywhere else – the most beautiful, natural harbor in the world.
You’ve gotta enjoy the ocean. Go snorkeling. See the island from the harbor. And you can see the majestic beauty of being in this beautiful bay. You’ve gotta enjoy the World War II artifacts that we have. It’s a short hike up at Blunts Point.
Umu is how we traditionally cook our food. It’s like our outside oven. It’s right on the ground and then it’s covered with hot rocks. The rocks are heated up and then you put food in, and it bakes in there. We bake breadfruit, we bake taro, we bake chicken.
If you want to experience the umu here in American Samoa, the best place to start is Tisa’s Barefoot Bar. They do an excellent job.
Sadie’s by the Sea is a good café. It’s probably the most ideal place for a beautiful view of the bay.
Going to the national park in American Samoa is a great experience. One of the most unique things about our national park are the indigenous plants and species that live there.
Rainmaker Mountain, as legend tells it, is actually a person. When I grew up, I knew the Rainmaker Mountain as Pioa because that’s his name. If you look at the top of the mountain, it looks like a man that’s laying down facing up. If a cloud touches Rainmaker Mountain, you can guarantee it will rain.
I like the views, the landscapes; it’s just so, so beautiful. I think it’s breathtaking. I think it’s mesmerizing. It just makes me proud to be part of American Samoa.
I love Pago Pago because it’s my home. American Samoa is located in the South Pacific below the equator. It’s the farthest and southernmost U.S. territory. As you drive along the coast, all the way through to the Pago Pago Bay, the water is everything. It’s just really, really beautiful; you see it.
Tutuila and the harbor is, like, something you can’t find anywhere else – the most beautiful, natural harbor in the world.
You’ve gotta enjoy the ocean. Go snorkeling. See the island from the harbor. And you can see the majestic beauty of being in this beautiful bay. You’ve gotta enjoy the World War II artifacts that we have. It’s a short hike up at Blunts Point.
Umu is how we traditionally cook our food. It’s like our outside oven. It’s right on the ground and then it’s covered with hot rocks. The rocks are heated up and then you put food in, and it bakes in there. We bake breadfruit, we bake taro, we bake chicken.
If you want to experience the umu here in American Samoa, the best place to start is Tisa’s Barefoot Bar. They do an excellent job.
Sadie’s by the Sea is a good café. It’s probably the most ideal place for a beautiful view of the bay.
Going to the national park in American Samoa is a great experience. One of the most unique things about our national park are the indigenous plants and species that live there.
Rainmaker Mountain, as legend tells it, is actually a person. When I grew up, I knew the Rainmaker Mountain as Pioa because that’s his name. If you look at the top of the mountain, it looks like a man that’s laying down facing up. If a cloud touches Rainmaker Mountain, you can guarantee it will rain.
I like the views, the landscapes; it’s just so, so beautiful. I think it’s breathtaking. I think it’s mesmerizing. It just makes me proud to be part of American Samoa.
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Ask a Local: Utah Transcript
Alexander Ortega:
I think that the first thing that people notice about Salt Lake City is how wide the streets are. It’s funny because that actually comes from the urban planning from the first pioneers. It has a nice kind of refreshing quality.
Downtown Salt Lake City is always buzzing. And so, whether it’s people bar hopping or going to great restaurants, it’s always fun to just kind of walk around.
At the center of Salt Lake City is the LDS temple and around that is Temple Square. Temple Square is actually the most visited attraction in Utah. It’s the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and it’s where you can see the iconic Salt Lake Temple. It covers 35 acres with museums, attractions and beautiful gardens. For a really special treat though, go during Christmas time. You can see their gardens are strung up with Christmas lights. It really is an amazing site to behold.
9th and 9th is a hip neighborhood with all kinds of unique shops, restaurants and cafes. Catch a show at the Tower Theater. It’s a historic theater that is also a Sundance Film Festival venue every winter. If you’re looking for high-quality, fashion-forward clothing, I would definitely recommend going to the Stockist at 9th and 9th.
UMOCA is the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. And so, you can find local and national and international artists whose work pushes the boundaries of what art can be and offers a lot of conceptual underpinning for visual artwork, performance art and more.
You’ve got to visit the Utah Museum of Natural History. Utah is one of the world’s richest areas for dinosaur fossils and the museum has tons of amazing dinosaur skeletal displays. They’re really cool, interactive exhibits, and they show everything from like minerals and metals to flora and fauna. It’s really just a great place to explore.
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. It’s an amazing place for nature and wildlife viewing. And if you really want to see some stunning sights, head to Antelope Island. It’s a wildlife preserve on the Great Salt Lake where you can see bison, raptors, coyotes and antelope.
To me what’s unique about Salt Lake City is its offering of art and culture with a community that really cares about each other.
Victor Cooper:
Kanab is a small Southern Utah town surrounded by gigantic landscapes. The town is only about 4,500 people. It’s much more laid-back, and a lot of people like that when they come to visit – that it is such a chill, chill area. And then they get out in nature and they’re just overwhelmed.
My favorite thing to do in Kanab is just to get out and hike and explore, whether it’s a national park or just gorgeous natural features. You have Zion National Park to our west, Bryce Canyon National Park to our north.
Zion National Park truly is a one-of-a-kind experience. It is breathtaking. Some of the highest sandstone cliffs in the world, and when you’re in it, you really kind of feel small in the universe.
The word that best describes Bryce Canyon National Park would be “hoodoos.” And hoodoos are pillars of rock that stick up from the canyon floor and it is so spectacular and so unique.
Hog Canyon is one of my most fun places to go. Riding ATVs is just exciting. You have just trails that are flat and are more scenic. You have trails that are very rocky and really challenge your skills as a driver. And you have everything in between.
The Mansard Petroglyph site is really a wonderful feature located just basically here in Kanab. And riding your ATV to it enables you to see thousand-year-old petroglyphs.
It’s really an incredible sight to see Coral Pink Sand Dunes when the sun’s out. You have the blue sky and that pinkish-red sand. It’s almost like the camera can’t process the color. But it’s a sweeping and endless landscape of just gorgeous, smooth lines. And then when the wind blows, it creates these little funnels. It’s truly, truly amazing.
Moqui Cave is a fun and different place for all visitors to go. It’s a real cave, and in the back, they have various gems and things like that that are lit under black light and it really is fun. You don’t want to miss the dinosaur tracks when you go to Moqui Cave. These are from three-toed dinosaurs that lived millions and millions of years ago.
After a long day of hiking or riding ATVs, it’s nice to come into Kanab and have a great meal at one of our great restaurants. The Rocking V is the perfect place to have a meal. Fabulous food, casual atmosphere, great service.
One thing I think a lot of our guests really like about coming to Kanab is kind of a slower pace. Nature kind of imposes its will on you and everything. People who are used to running around at a fast pace tend to, I think, slow down and want to look at things and take the time to see things more carefully when you’re here.
I think that the first thing that people notice about Salt Lake City is how wide the streets are. It’s funny because that actually comes from the urban planning from the first pioneers. It has a nice kind of refreshing quality.
Downtown Salt Lake City is always buzzing. And so, whether it’s people bar hopping or going to great restaurants, it’s always fun to just kind of walk around.
At the center of Salt Lake City is the LDS temple and around that is Temple Square. Temple Square is actually the most visited attraction in Utah. It’s the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and it’s where you can see the iconic Salt Lake Temple. It covers 35 acres with museums, attractions and beautiful gardens. For a really special treat though, go during Christmas time. You can see their gardens are strung up with Christmas lights. It really is an amazing site to behold.
9th and 9th is a hip neighborhood with all kinds of unique shops, restaurants and cafes. Catch a show at the Tower Theater. It’s a historic theater that is also a Sundance Film Festival venue every winter. If you’re looking for high-quality, fashion-forward clothing, I would definitely recommend going to the Stockist at 9th and 9th.
UMOCA is the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. And so, you can find local and national and international artists whose work pushes the boundaries of what art can be and offers a lot of conceptual underpinning for visual artwork, performance art and more.
You’ve got to visit the Utah Museum of Natural History. Utah is one of the world’s richest areas for dinosaur fossils and the museum has tons of amazing dinosaur skeletal displays. They’re really cool, interactive exhibits, and they show everything from like minerals and metals to flora and fauna. It’s really just a great place to explore.
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. It’s an amazing place for nature and wildlife viewing. And if you really want to see some stunning sights, head to Antelope Island. It’s a wildlife preserve on the Great Salt Lake where you can see bison, raptors, coyotes and antelope.
To me what’s unique about Salt Lake City is its offering of art and culture with a community that really cares about each other.
Victor Cooper:
Kanab is a small Southern Utah town surrounded by gigantic landscapes. The town is only about 4,500 people. It’s much more laid-back, and a lot of people like that when they come to visit – that it is such a chill, chill area. And then they get out in nature and they’re just overwhelmed.
My favorite thing to do in Kanab is just to get out and hike and explore, whether it’s a national park or just gorgeous natural features. You have Zion National Park to our west, Bryce Canyon National Park to our north.
Zion National Park truly is a one-of-a-kind experience. It is breathtaking. Some of the highest sandstone cliffs in the world, and when you’re in it, you really kind of feel small in the universe.
The word that best describes Bryce Canyon National Park would be “hoodoos.” And hoodoos are pillars of rock that stick up from the canyon floor and it is so spectacular and so unique.
Hog Canyon is one of my most fun places to go. Riding ATVs is just exciting. You have just trails that are flat and are more scenic. You have trails that are very rocky and really challenge your skills as a driver. And you have everything in between.
The Mansard Petroglyph site is really a wonderful feature located just basically here in Kanab. And riding your ATV to it enables you to see thousand-year-old petroglyphs.
It’s really an incredible sight to see Coral Pink Sand Dunes when the sun’s out. You have the blue sky and that pinkish-red sand. It’s almost like the camera can’t process the color. But it’s a sweeping and endless landscape of just gorgeous, smooth lines. And then when the wind blows, it creates these little funnels. It’s truly, truly amazing.
Moqui Cave is a fun and different place for all visitors to go. It’s a real cave, and in the back, they have various gems and things like that that are lit under black light and it really is fun. You don’t want to miss the dinosaur tracks when you go to Moqui Cave. These are from three-toed dinosaurs that lived millions and millions of years ago.
After a long day of hiking or riding ATVs, it’s nice to come into Kanab and have a great meal at one of our great restaurants. The Rocking V is the perfect place to have a meal. Fabulous food, casual atmosphere, great service.
One thing I think a lot of our guests really like about coming to Kanab is kind of a slower pace. Nature kind of imposes its will on you and everything. People who are used to running around at a fast pace tend to, I think, slow down and want to look at things and take the time to see things more carefully when you’re here.
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Ask a Local: Hawaii Transcript
Emma Wo:
Honolulu is so unique because it’s a cosmopolitan city; you have the beautiful buildings and city skyline. But you also have some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, parks, hikes. It kind of has a combination of everything. It’s green and lush. It’s just a bustling city with so much great energy.
If you only had a couple of days here, I would definitely say, “Head straight to Waikiki.” Waikiki Beach is an iconic surfing spot. The waves are amazing, especially for beginners. You can actually rent a surfboard, you can rent a paddleboard, or you can even canoe-surf, which is a really cool experience.
One of the most amazing places to visit is the Iolani Palace. One of my favorite rooms to visit is the Throne Room, which has two thrones that were made for King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani.
Foster Botanical Garden is located right near downtown Honolulu, and it’s a really nice escape. The garden itself is 14 acres, and you can see an amazing collection of mature trees and tropical plants.
Right next to Foster Botanical Garden is the Kuan Yin Temple, which is actually Honolulu’s oldest temple. It’s a really ornate Chinese Buddhist temple.
I love to go and stroll down Nuuanu Avenue, see a lot of the different art galleries, eat lunch and maybe shop some of the boutiques as well.
I love Honolulu because it is a melting pot of so many different cultures. The food is unreal, the art is incredible, and I just think you’re never going to find another place quite like it.
Andrew Hara:
My very favorite thing about Hilo is the accessibility to nature. You can step out of your door, and in five minutes, you’re in the middle of a remote rainforest.
I love Rainbow Falls because it’s the icon of Hilo. During a certain time of the year, a rainbow appears. When you’re at ‘Akaka Falls, you’re under this beautiful forest and in front of you, these falls that pretty much fall almost forever, and at the end, you just see this mixture of mist and water and air. It’s just a really timeless moment.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is about 45 minutes away from Hilo. What you can expect to see there is a very large caldera, which was formed thousands of years before us. You have different areas of volcanic landscape that go down to the ocean. It’s just amazing.
Lili’uokalani Gardens is one of the largest Japanese gardens in the nation. It’s got these beautiful archways. The front lawn is Hilo Bay and exquisite.
When you go into downtown Hilo, you’ll notice all these multi-colored buildings. A lot of these buildings have been around for about 100 years or so. I think downtown Hilo feels untouched.
Café 100 is a cool spot. My grandfather founded it 73 years ago. One of the best things you can get at Café 100 is the Loco Moco: a bed of rice, a hamburger patty, a little bit of gravy, and you got an egg any way that you want it.
Two Ladies Kitchen is a mochi confectionary shop. It’s one of the most popular mochi places in the nation. People come here from all around the world to try this delicious, chewy, beautiful, handmade mochi. It’s just so good.
There is a feeling of authenticity that Hilo is not trying to be anything it’s not supposed to be. It is just Hilo, and there’s a pride in that. It’s beautiful.
Honolulu is so unique because it’s a cosmopolitan city; you have the beautiful buildings and city skyline. But you also have some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, parks, hikes. It kind of has a combination of everything. It’s green and lush. It’s just a bustling city with so much great energy.
If you only had a couple of days here, I would definitely say, “Head straight to Waikiki.” Waikiki Beach is an iconic surfing spot. The waves are amazing, especially for beginners. You can actually rent a surfboard, you can rent a paddleboard, or you can even canoe-surf, which is a really cool experience.
One of the most amazing places to visit is the Iolani Palace. One of my favorite rooms to visit is the Throne Room, which has two thrones that were made for King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani.
Foster Botanical Garden is located right near downtown Honolulu, and it’s a really nice escape. The garden itself is 14 acres, and you can see an amazing collection of mature trees and tropical plants.
Right next to Foster Botanical Garden is the Kuan Yin Temple, which is actually Honolulu’s oldest temple. It’s a really ornate Chinese Buddhist temple.
I love to go and stroll down Nuuanu Avenue, see a lot of the different art galleries, eat lunch and maybe shop some of the boutiques as well.
I love Honolulu because it is a melting pot of so many different cultures. The food is unreal, the art is incredible, and I just think you’re never going to find another place quite like it.
Andrew Hara:
My very favorite thing about Hilo is the accessibility to nature. You can step out of your door, and in five minutes, you’re in the middle of a remote rainforest.
I love Rainbow Falls because it’s the icon of Hilo. During a certain time of the year, a rainbow appears. When you’re at ‘Akaka Falls, you’re under this beautiful forest and in front of you, these falls that pretty much fall almost forever, and at the end, you just see this mixture of mist and water and air. It’s just a really timeless moment.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is about 45 minutes away from Hilo. What you can expect to see there is a very large caldera, which was formed thousands of years before us. You have different areas of volcanic landscape that go down to the ocean. It’s just amazing.
Lili’uokalani Gardens is one of the largest Japanese gardens in the nation. It’s got these beautiful archways. The front lawn is Hilo Bay and exquisite.
When you go into downtown Hilo, you’ll notice all these multi-colored buildings. A lot of these buildings have been around for about 100 years or so. I think downtown Hilo feels untouched.
Café 100 is a cool spot. My grandfather founded it 73 years ago. One of the best things you can get at Café 100 is the Loco Moco: a bed of rice, a hamburger patty, a little bit of gravy, and you got an egg any way that you want it.
Two Ladies Kitchen is a mochi confectionary shop. It’s one of the most popular mochi places in the nation. People come here from all around the world to try this delicious, chewy, beautiful, handmade mochi. It’s just so good.
There is a feeling of authenticity that Hilo is not trying to be anything it’s not supposed to be. It is just Hilo, and there’s a pride in that. It’s beautiful.
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Ask a Local: New Hampshire Transcript
Portsmouth Speaker:
I love New Hampshire. It's got so much to offer, whether you’re interested in history or looking to get out into nature, or you want to experience culture or the arts. I grew up in the country on a dairy farm actually, so for me, Portsmouth was the big city. I remember coming with my parents to Portsmouth to come see a show, see a gallery. And it was always such an amazing experience.
I always wanted to be a performer. I love everything about the stage. The spotlight, the audience – there’s just something magical about transporting people to a different place. After college, I wanted a life in the arts. And knowing that Portsmouth had that is what attracted me here. There are people making their living as artists and they've got this cultural life beyond just their day-to-day jobs. Here at the Music Hall where I work, we have performances year-round. In the summertime, there's always something good going on at Prescott Park. There are producing houses like Seacoast Rep and the Players Ring. There's just always something going on.
I have to say, everyone here has a creative practice of some sort. Take for example Kristina Logan. She's a world-renowned bead maker. Her work’s in the Smithsonian, and she lived right next door to me. And then you've got all of these chefs who come here to take advantage of the fresh seafood and the locally grown produce, and it's really made Portsmouth a culinary destination. Actually, we call it a “little big city” because there’s just so much happening in this little place. We’re an hour outside of Boston. We’ve really got everything from a historic downtown with the best food to these amazing beaches where, to be honest, the water’s not always that warm, but they're still a great place to explore.
In addition to the sandy beaches, there are also these great wooded beaches. They’re perfect for kayaking. You can try New Castle Common; it’s one of my favorite spots. You’ve got the playground and you can go fishing there. It's just wonderful.
Portsmouth used to be kind of a gritty place, between the shipyard and the working port, not to mention the brothels. But in the ’70s and ’80s, a lot of those industrial buildings got to turn into lofts and studios spaces, and artists from all over New England started moving in.
Alongside the artists moving in, we started to get some really great restaurants. It started as just a trickle, but now we've got more restaurant seats than residents and we’re a culinary destination. On that note, you should definitely try the lobster rolls and oysters while you're here. You've got to go see Matt Louis who's recreating traditional American recipes at his restaurant, Moxy. And go see Jack Blalock. He opened one of the original riverfront restaurants, the Old Ferry Landing. And he’s actually the mayor now.
Jack Blalock:
Yep, I’m also the mayor. So, this is my other job at City Hall. Fun fact: I was actually born a few offices down the hall back when this was Portsmouth Hospital.
Portsmouth Speaker:
Yeah, once you’re here for a couple of days, you'll see a lot of the same characters around town. It’s called “the city of the open door,” and everyone's really friendly. You can't help but feel welcome. Come by the coffee shops if you want to meet the locals. We also have some great cafes. Mayor Jack will probably be there with a book, and it’s a great place to meet some new friends and find someone to recommend your next dinner spot. Like I said, you'll see a lot of familiar faces.
Then, you might want to sit out and watch the working port. But definitely don't miss one of the great performances while you're in town. Check out the beaches. Take out a kayak. And then head to the White Mountains for nature like you've never seen.
White Mountains Speaker:
I started coming to the White Mountains when I was a little kid. I think I was probably about 7 or 8 the first time. My parents would bring me out here and I remember just walking around and exploring nature. I was kind of a lonely kid when I was here, I think a little homesick, and it was really comforting out here. I actually didn't realize the impact that it had on me until years later. I was living in the city and going through a divorce. Sometimes that kind of pain I think, brings you back and makes you want that original source of comfort that you knew. So, I found myself back in the White Mountains.
I spent some time on the trails. I camped and walked, and I just started to heal. And then I decided to stay. Now I volunteer as an Alpine Steward with the Appalachian Mountain Club. Our job is to help other people connect with the outdoors and with nature, to teach people to be good environmental stewards, so that we can protect the trails and keep them in good working order for years to come.
I think when people think of the White Mountains, they think about Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeast. In the winter, Mount Washington is formidable. It’s so high, it actually has its own climate and weather station. You can go to the top of Mount Washington by train or by the Auto Road in the summertime. Mount Washington is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges. There's 48 4,000-footer peaks that people like to hike in the area. But there's actually a lot more to the White Mountains than that.
A lot of people come up here to climb and hike and ski. But there's also lots of valleys and forests and beautiful lake areas to explore. We actually have some of the best climbing in the world. Cannon Cliff in particular is renowned. But if climbing is not your thing, you can also take a tram up Cannon Mountain to get some great views of Franconia Ridge.
You can really be as connected with nature as you want here. There are remote trail cabins across the mountains that you can stay in. Or you can try one of the old resorts that were built in the 1800s. They're pretty impressive. And I need to get down there more often, but there's also the Lakes region, which is beautiful. We also have this scenic drive; we call it the Kanc. It connects you with a lot of cute towns like Lincoln and North Conway. North Conway has a five-and-dime and a general store, and it's really close to the village of Jackson.
I’ve always liked Jackson; it has a small-town vibe and it's really iconic. In Jackson, you'll find all these great inns and taverns. The Wildcat Inn has been there forever. They do a pasta night and it's a great way to meet the locals. There's also this breakfast place called Yesterdays. They have amazing pancakes, and that’s also where you’ll find the regulars. And if you're here in the winter, go to Nestlenook Farms, where you can go snowshoeing and drink hot cocoa out by the frozen pond. In the winter, you can also go on a horse-drawn sleigh ride. It's just a magical place and what could be better than sharing that?
I love New Hampshire. It's got so much to offer, whether you’re interested in history or looking to get out into nature, or you want to experience culture or the arts. I grew up in the country on a dairy farm actually, so for me, Portsmouth was the big city. I remember coming with my parents to Portsmouth to come see a show, see a gallery. And it was always such an amazing experience.
I always wanted to be a performer. I love everything about the stage. The spotlight, the audience – there’s just something magical about transporting people to a different place. After college, I wanted a life in the arts. And knowing that Portsmouth had that is what attracted me here. There are people making their living as artists and they've got this cultural life beyond just their day-to-day jobs. Here at the Music Hall where I work, we have performances year-round. In the summertime, there's always something good going on at Prescott Park. There are producing houses like Seacoast Rep and the Players Ring. There's just always something going on.
I have to say, everyone here has a creative practice of some sort. Take for example Kristina Logan. She's a world-renowned bead maker. Her work’s in the Smithsonian, and she lived right next door to me. And then you've got all of these chefs who come here to take advantage of the fresh seafood and the locally grown produce, and it's really made Portsmouth a culinary destination. Actually, we call it a “little big city” because there’s just so much happening in this little place. We’re an hour outside of Boston. We’ve really got everything from a historic downtown with the best food to these amazing beaches where, to be honest, the water’s not always that warm, but they're still a great place to explore.
In addition to the sandy beaches, there are also these great wooded beaches. They’re perfect for kayaking. You can try New Castle Common; it’s one of my favorite spots. You’ve got the playground and you can go fishing there. It's just wonderful.
Portsmouth used to be kind of a gritty place, between the shipyard and the working port, not to mention the brothels. But in the ’70s and ’80s, a lot of those industrial buildings got to turn into lofts and studios spaces, and artists from all over New England started moving in.
Alongside the artists moving in, we started to get some really great restaurants. It started as just a trickle, but now we've got more restaurant seats than residents and we’re a culinary destination. On that note, you should definitely try the lobster rolls and oysters while you're here. You've got to go see Matt Louis who's recreating traditional American recipes at his restaurant, Moxy. And go see Jack Blalock. He opened one of the original riverfront restaurants, the Old Ferry Landing. And he’s actually the mayor now.
Jack Blalock:
Yep, I’m also the mayor. So, this is my other job at City Hall. Fun fact: I was actually born a few offices down the hall back when this was Portsmouth Hospital.
Portsmouth Speaker:
Yeah, once you’re here for a couple of days, you'll see a lot of the same characters around town. It’s called “the city of the open door,” and everyone's really friendly. You can't help but feel welcome. Come by the coffee shops if you want to meet the locals. We also have some great cafes. Mayor Jack will probably be there with a book, and it’s a great place to meet some new friends and find someone to recommend your next dinner spot. Like I said, you'll see a lot of familiar faces.
Then, you might want to sit out and watch the working port. But definitely don't miss one of the great performances while you're in town. Check out the beaches. Take out a kayak. And then head to the White Mountains for nature like you've never seen.
White Mountains Speaker:
I started coming to the White Mountains when I was a little kid. I think I was probably about 7 or 8 the first time. My parents would bring me out here and I remember just walking around and exploring nature. I was kind of a lonely kid when I was here, I think a little homesick, and it was really comforting out here. I actually didn't realize the impact that it had on me until years later. I was living in the city and going through a divorce. Sometimes that kind of pain I think, brings you back and makes you want that original source of comfort that you knew. So, I found myself back in the White Mountains.
I spent some time on the trails. I camped and walked, and I just started to heal. And then I decided to stay. Now I volunteer as an Alpine Steward with the Appalachian Mountain Club. Our job is to help other people connect with the outdoors and with nature, to teach people to be good environmental stewards, so that we can protect the trails and keep them in good working order for years to come.
I think when people think of the White Mountains, they think about Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeast. In the winter, Mount Washington is formidable. It’s so high, it actually has its own climate and weather station. You can go to the top of Mount Washington by train or by the Auto Road in the summertime. Mount Washington is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges. There's 48 4,000-footer peaks that people like to hike in the area. But there's actually a lot more to the White Mountains than that.
A lot of people come up here to climb and hike and ski. But there's also lots of valleys and forests and beautiful lake areas to explore. We actually have some of the best climbing in the world. Cannon Cliff in particular is renowned. But if climbing is not your thing, you can also take a tram up Cannon Mountain to get some great views of Franconia Ridge.
You can really be as connected with nature as you want here. There are remote trail cabins across the mountains that you can stay in. Or you can try one of the old resorts that were built in the 1800s. They're pretty impressive. And I need to get down there more often, but there's also the Lakes region, which is beautiful. We also have this scenic drive; we call it the Kanc. It connects you with a lot of cute towns like Lincoln and North Conway. North Conway has a five-and-dime and a general store, and it's really close to the village of Jackson.
I’ve always liked Jackson; it has a small-town vibe and it's really iconic. In Jackson, you'll find all these great inns and taverns. The Wildcat Inn has been there forever. They do a pasta night and it's a great way to meet the locals. There's also this breakfast place called Yesterdays. They have amazing pancakes, and that’s also where you’ll find the regulars. And if you're here in the winter, go to Nestlenook Farms, where you can go snowshoeing and drink hot cocoa out by the frozen pond. In the winter, you can also go on a horse-drawn sleigh ride. It's just a magical place and what could be better than sharing that?
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Ask a Local: Northern Mariana Islands Transcript
Gordon Ichihara Marciano:
Hafa Adai and Tirow. It’s like saying, “Aloha!”
We use that as our way to say, “This is who we are, and we’re excited that you’re here.”
We’re about three hours away from Japan, and we’re on the North Pacific right above the equator.
You’ll see the Chamorro culture, and then you’ll see also the Carolinian culture.
When you get to Saipan, pretty much, it is the main capital of the Commonwealth of Northern Islands.
The Grotto was considered one of the best places for diving. It opens up to outside where you’re looking at all these cliffs.
I always recommend that you got to go see our Managaha because it’s the conservation area. So when you’re swimming there in Managaha, you think you’d be in an aquarium.
If you want to visit historical, then you got to go visit the World War II sites. These are the invasion beaches. There is the World War II snorkeling tour. You’ll see, sticking out of the water, three Sherman tanks.
We also have beautiful coral gardens to just swim over all these corals.
Ina’s Kitchen – young Chamorro chef that’s fusioning our own local cuisine. One of my favorites there is the Titiyas with fish. It looks like a taco.
When you want really quiet, then you got to go to Rota. Very serene.
The features of each island – Rota, Tinian and Saipan – have a different flavor and tastes and sights of it. We want our guests to learn about our culture and also our language, so we can share the Hafa Adai spirit when we are together.
Hafa Adai and Tirow. It’s like saying, “Aloha!”
We use that as our way to say, “This is who we are, and we’re excited that you’re here.”
We’re about three hours away from Japan, and we’re on the North Pacific right above the equator.
You’ll see the Chamorro culture, and then you’ll see also the Carolinian culture.
When you get to Saipan, pretty much, it is the main capital of the Commonwealth of Northern Islands.
The Grotto was considered one of the best places for diving. It opens up to outside where you’re looking at all these cliffs.
I always recommend that you got to go see our Managaha because it’s the conservation area. So when you’re swimming there in Managaha, you think you’d be in an aquarium.
If you want to visit historical, then you got to go visit the World War II sites. These are the invasion beaches. There is the World War II snorkeling tour. You’ll see, sticking out of the water, three Sherman tanks.
We also have beautiful coral gardens to just swim over all these corals.
Ina’s Kitchen – young Chamorro chef that’s fusioning our own local cuisine. One of my favorites there is the Titiyas with fish. It looks like a taco.
When you want really quiet, then you got to go to Rota. Very serene.
The features of each island – Rota, Tinian and Saipan – have a different flavor and tastes and sights of it. We want our guests to learn about our culture and also our language, so we can share the Hafa Adai spirit when we are together.
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Ask a Local: New Mexico Transcript
Jesse Herron:
Oh yeah, it’s a quirky little city.
Mike Silva:
Albu-quirky.
Jesse Herron:
Albu-quirky.
So, Albuquerque, if you’ve never seen it, it’s a great southwest city. In downtown Albuquerque, you have the only intersection of Route 66 and Route 66. It’s right at 4th Street and Central Avenue. So, on every traffic light, you have the Route 66 road sign in all four directions, the only one of its kind in the country.
Mike Silva:
Old Town Plaza, it’s the heartbeat of the city. It’s where our city began back 1706. In order to get the true Old Town Albuquerque experience, you need to get out and wherever you see a sidewalk or an alley that looks like it leads to nowhere, you need to go down that sidewalk or alley because it’s back there where you will find some of the great patios in Old Town, or you will find hidden chapels in Old Town or you will find great little restaurants or cafes.
Nob Hill was our first suburb. Today, Nob Hill is where the locals hang out. There’s great restaurants, tremendous nightlife in the area, there’s breweries in the area, it’s open later and it’s nestled right along the mother road of Route 66.
Jesse Herron:
What is New Mexican food? It is a combination of Native American, Spanish food, Mexican food, but the one thing that separates New Mexican food from anything else is red and green chile. And we put that chile on just about everything.
To our east, we have the amazing Sandia Mountains. At the base of the mountains at the Sandias, you have the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway. It goes from roughly 6,500 feet above sea level all the way to the very top, and you have these amazing views. You see the city, you see the Bosque and the forest and the river. To the west, you’ll find the Petroglyph National Monument, and out there, you will see pictographs that were carved into the volcanic rock by some of the earliest people in Albuquerque.
Mike Silva:
The Native American history and culture in New Mexico is amazing. There are 19 pueblos in our state, and the Indian Public Cultural Center will give you the breakdown on all 19 pueblos. And on the weekends, they have live Native American dances, something that you may have seen on TV, but to see in person is a whole ’nother thing.
Jesse Herron:
So, Albuquerque is home to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. So, imagine as the sun comes up with the Sandia Mountains to the east, you’re at the Balloon Fiesta Park on the launch field, with a couple hundred thousand people, and then these amazing hot air balloons are all lifting off in waves – 500, 600 at a time. And then in the evenings, we have something called the balloon glow.
Mike Silva:
Yeah, the balloon glows are fantastic, and they’ll do a countdown and then shout out “all burn” or “all glow,” and all the balloons light up, and it’s just, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, honestly.
George Rivera:
Be-pu-wa-ve. Welcome from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The most unique thing about Santa Fe is its Native American population. The culture is such a big part of what Santa Fe is today.
There’s quite a few museums that focus in on Native American culture and art. The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum is downtown off the plaza. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is on Museum Hill. Both of those focus on the local Native American culture, as well as the nationwide Native American culture.
Canyon Road is one of the unique art districts in town. From the moment you get on it surrounded by galleries all the way up the street, I recommend walking it. On Canyon Road, you’ll find a lot of modern art. You’ll also find some very traditional Native American art.
The Santa Fe Plaza goes back to the early 1600s. Today, it’s an international attraction for bands, arts and crafts events, plays, lots of shopping.
Turquoise has been mined here for hundreds of years by the Pueblo Indians. The best jewelers in the world are gathered around here.
My favorite thing to do in Santa Fe is either ride my bike in the hills and in the city or go for a run in the trails that are surrounding Santa Fe. You smell this very unique smell of the pinyon trees and the pines, and you’re brushing up against the yuccas on the trail.
Santa Fe also has the Nambe Falls really close, where’s there’s great fishing in the lake and hiking up to the waterfalls, just a very nice spot to be.
The Dale Ball Trails are on the east side of Santa Fe, and you’re in the foothill of the Rocky Mountains. So, it’s a really gorgeous place and it’s not too difficult.
Santa Fe is one of the best-known restaurant cities. Coyote Café is one of the iconic restaurants in Santa Fe.
Pueblo architecture is fascinating. Many of the early architectural houses that are still found in the surrounding mesas around the pueblos are caves that were carved out the soft volcanic stone that’s there.
So, the region adapted that look and made a very conscious effort in keeping it and many people that do landscape paintings come, and they can read the landscape with their eyes with such clarity and so that’s what ends up showing up in their paintings.
I’ve been an artist most of my life and traveled around the world, and this is where I like to live and where I like to be. This is one of the great art cities in the country.
Oh yeah, it’s a quirky little city.
Mike Silva:
Albu-quirky.
Jesse Herron:
Albu-quirky.
So, Albuquerque, if you’ve never seen it, it’s a great southwest city. In downtown Albuquerque, you have the only intersection of Route 66 and Route 66. It’s right at 4th Street and Central Avenue. So, on every traffic light, you have the Route 66 road sign in all four directions, the only one of its kind in the country.
Mike Silva:
Old Town Plaza, it’s the heartbeat of the city. It’s where our city began back 1706. In order to get the true Old Town Albuquerque experience, you need to get out and wherever you see a sidewalk or an alley that looks like it leads to nowhere, you need to go down that sidewalk or alley because it’s back there where you will find some of the great patios in Old Town, or you will find hidden chapels in Old Town or you will find great little restaurants or cafes.
Nob Hill was our first suburb. Today, Nob Hill is where the locals hang out. There’s great restaurants, tremendous nightlife in the area, there’s breweries in the area, it’s open later and it’s nestled right along the mother road of Route 66.
Jesse Herron:
What is New Mexican food? It is a combination of Native American, Spanish food, Mexican food, but the one thing that separates New Mexican food from anything else is red and green chile. And we put that chile on just about everything.
To our east, we have the amazing Sandia Mountains. At the base of the mountains at the Sandias, you have the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway. It goes from roughly 6,500 feet above sea level all the way to the very top, and you have these amazing views. You see the city, you see the Bosque and the forest and the river. To the west, you’ll find the Petroglyph National Monument, and out there, you will see pictographs that were carved into the volcanic rock by some of the earliest people in Albuquerque.
Mike Silva:
The Native American history and culture in New Mexico is amazing. There are 19 pueblos in our state, and the Indian Public Cultural Center will give you the breakdown on all 19 pueblos. And on the weekends, they have live Native American dances, something that you may have seen on TV, but to see in person is a whole ’nother thing.
Jesse Herron:
So, Albuquerque is home to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. So, imagine as the sun comes up with the Sandia Mountains to the east, you’re at the Balloon Fiesta Park on the launch field, with a couple hundred thousand people, and then these amazing hot air balloons are all lifting off in waves – 500, 600 at a time. And then in the evenings, we have something called the balloon glow.
Mike Silva:
Yeah, the balloon glows are fantastic, and they’ll do a countdown and then shout out “all burn” or “all glow,” and all the balloons light up, and it’s just, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, honestly.
George Rivera:
Be-pu-wa-ve. Welcome from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The most unique thing about Santa Fe is its Native American population. The culture is such a big part of what Santa Fe is today.
There’s quite a few museums that focus in on Native American culture and art. The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum is downtown off the plaza. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is on Museum Hill. Both of those focus on the local Native American culture, as well as the nationwide Native American culture.
Canyon Road is one of the unique art districts in town. From the moment you get on it surrounded by galleries all the way up the street, I recommend walking it. On Canyon Road, you’ll find a lot of modern art. You’ll also find some very traditional Native American art.
The Santa Fe Plaza goes back to the early 1600s. Today, it’s an international attraction for bands, arts and crafts events, plays, lots of shopping.
Turquoise has been mined here for hundreds of years by the Pueblo Indians. The best jewelers in the world are gathered around here.
My favorite thing to do in Santa Fe is either ride my bike in the hills and in the city or go for a run in the trails that are surrounding Santa Fe. You smell this very unique smell of the pinyon trees and the pines, and you’re brushing up against the yuccas on the trail.
Santa Fe also has the Nambe Falls really close, where’s there’s great fishing in the lake and hiking up to the waterfalls, just a very nice spot to be.
The Dale Ball Trails are on the east side of Santa Fe, and you’re in the foothill of the Rocky Mountains. So, it’s a really gorgeous place and it’s not too difficult.
Santa Fe is one of the best-known restaurant cities. Coyote Café is one of the iconic restaurants in Santa Fe.
Pueblo architecture is fascinating. Many of the early architectural houses that are still found in the surrounding mesas around the pueblos are caves that were carved out the soft volcanic stone that’s there.
So, the region adapted that look and made a very conscious effort in keeping it and many people that do landscape paintings come, and they can read the landscape with their eyes with such clarity and so that’s what ends up showing up in their paintings.
I’ve been an artist most of my life and traveled around the world, and this is where I like to live and where I like to be. This is one of the great art cities in the country.
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Ask a Local: Iowa Transcript
Kevin Scharpf:
We are located right on the river, and so when you’re coming in, you’re surrounded by a lot of prairie land and it’s super flat, so as you approach Dubuque, you’re not sure what you’re gonna get. And when you enter and see the beautiful river and the bluffs and all the different hills that we have, it’s very breathtaking. The Mississippi Riverwalk offers the perfect daytime setting to take your family and see all the sites and views that we have to offer while you’re walking along the Mississippi.
We have a lot of amazing things that we’ve preserved. You can check out the Shot Tower. There’s the Julien Dubuque Monument. One of the first things that you’re definitely gonna want to check out when you get in to Dubuque is the Fourth Street Elevator. It is steepest and shortest elevator in the world. It’s gonna give you your first real overlook of how special Dubuque is and how special the Mississippi is to us.
The Millwork District is very, very old, and it was the producer of windows and different wood working. To know 10 years ago, the Millwork District was just this abandoned area is crazy. To know where we are today is something really special and something that I think Dubuque should be very proud of.
My restaurant is located right in the heart of the Millwork District. Brazen is a modern American restaurant that doesn’t focus on cuisine, more so technique. It’s kinda fun because it’s almost theatrical. You don’t expect what you’re going to get on your plate.
7 Hills is definitely another must-try when you’re in the Millwork District. It’s a local brewery that offers incredible food, great beer and a food hall setting. And what’s better than just being able to go enjoy yourself with good friends?
If you come in the summer, you’re gonna catch us right in the heart of our Farmers Market. There’s nothing better than taking a stroll down Iowa Street and seeing so many unique booths, but what’s more rad is how many farmers we actually have in this community that come together to show their product and how proud they are.
Dubuque is just incredible with its sightseeing, with everything it has to offer. I couldn’t be happier anywhere else.
Quinton McClain:
I think the hike to the top of Mount Trashmore is very unique. From 150 years ago, it’s this old dump that’s been turned into kind of like a hiking and trail destination. You know, It’s kind of a silly thing to some people, but I think it’s a great asset to the city. You wouldn’t even know – it’s just a big grassy, green hill at this point.
Ana Escalante McClain:
It kind of holds a special place of heart of Cedar Rapidians.
Quinton McClain:
But it’s beautiful. The view from the top is pretty, pretty amazing. You see the river going past. You see all the bridges. You get a really a beautiful scope of the areas that we’re talking about.
It’s kind of fun just to walk up and down especially when there’s festivals; the street is closed. It’s really fun to cross from Czech Village over the bridge and go to the Newbo neighborhood – sitting on the bridge for a minute just kind of like looking around at the beautiful scenery
I would say the most unique thing would be our connection to the Czech and Slovak heritage here. You should visit the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library because the immigrant home they have there that they preserved is a really wonderful glimpse into the past of what the people immigrating here would have lived in, the housewares they would have had, how a family would have lived in, you know like, a 400- or 500-square-foot house.
Ana Escalante McClain:
It really celebrates a culture of immigration that we’ve had here in this area.
Quinton McClain:
That history has kind of developed the way the neighborhoods look, the way the housing looks, to some extent the food.
Ana Escalante McClain:
I think it’s a beacon of something that Cedar Rapids should feel very proud that we’re the host of a National Museum.
Quinton McClain:
So, the Indian Creek Nature Center is a place that is near and dear to our hearts. To get a little glimpse of what Iowa looked like a few hundred years ago is pretty fascinating. It’s a wonderful space. You kinda commune with nature but also like enjoy nature with other people.
Ana Escalante McClain:
I think the pace of life is a little bit slower than in big cities, which is nice. Like you get to have a little bit of a breather, but you can also enjoy the things a big city has to offer. The energy that you feel in this community, it’s something that I haven’t felt elsewhere.
We are located right on the river, and so when you’re coming in, you’re surrounded by a lot of prairie land and it’s super flat, so as you approach Dubuque, you’re not sure what you’re gonna get. And when you enter and see the beautiful river and the bluffs and all the different hills that we have, it’s very breathtaking. The Mississippi Riverwalk offers the perfect daytime setting to take your family and see all the sites and views that we have to offer while you’re walking along the Mississippi.
We have a lot of amazing things that we’ve preserved. You can check out the Shot Tower. There’s the Julien Dubuque Monument. One of the first things that you’re definitely gonna want to check out when you get in to Dubuque is the Fourth Street Elevator. It is steepest and shortest elevator in the world. It’s gonna give you your first real overlook of how special Dubuque is and how special the Mississippi is to us.
The Millwork District is very, very old, and it was the producer of windows and different wood working. To know 10 years ago, the Millwork District was just this abandoned area is crazy. To know where we are today is something really special and something that I think Dubuque should be very proud of.
My restaurant is located right in the heart of the Millwork District. Brazen is a modern American restaurant that doesn’t focus on cuisine, more so technique. It’s kinda fun because it’s almost theatrical. You don’t expect what you’re going to get on your plate.
7 Hills is definitely another must-try when you’re in the Millwork District. It’s a local brewery that offers incredible food, great beer and a food hall setting. And what’s better than just being able to go enjoy yourself with good friends?
If you come in the summer, you’re gonna catch us right in the heart of our Farmers Market. There’s nothing better than taking a stroll down Iowa Street and seeing so many unique booths, but what’s more rad is how many farmers we actually have in this community that come together to show their product and how proud they are.
Dubuque is just incredible with its sightseeing, with everything it has to offer. I couldn’t be happier anywhere else.
Quinton McClain:
I think the hike to the top of Mount Trashmore is very unique. From 150 years ago, it’s this old dump that’s been turned into kind of like a hiking and trail destination. You know, It’s kind of a silly thing to some people, but I think it’s a great asset to the city. You wouldn’t even know – it’s just a big grassy, green hill at this point.
Ana Escalante McClain:
It kind of holds a special place of heart of Cedar Rapidians.
Quinton McClain:
But it’s beautiful. The view from the top is pretty, pretty amazing. You see the river going past. You see all the bridges. You get a really a beautiful scope of the areas that we’re talking about.
It’s kind of fun just to walk up and down especially when there’s festivals; the street is closed. It’s really fun to cross from Czech Village over the bridge and go to the Newbo neighborhood – sitting on the bridge for a minute just kind of like looking around at the beautiful scenery
I would say the most unique thing would be our connection to the Czech and Slovak heritage here. You should visit the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library because the immigrant home they have there that they preserved is a really wonderful glimpse into the past of what the people immigrating here would have lived in, the housewares they would have had, how a family would have lived in, you know like, a 400- or 500-square-foot house.
Ana Escalante McClain:
It really celebrates a culture of immigration that we’ve had here in this area.
Quinton McClain:
That history has kind of developed the way the neighborhoods look, the way the housing looks, to some extent the food.
Ana Escalante McClain:
I think it’s a beacon of something that Cedar Rapids should feel very proud that we’re the host of a National Museum.
Quinton McClain:
So, the Indian Creek Nature Center is a place that is near and dear to our hearts. To get a little glimpse of what Iowa looked like a few hundred years ago is pretty fascinating. It’s a wonderful space. You kinda commune with nature but also like enjoy nature with other people.
Ana Escalante McClain:
I think the pace of life is a little bit slower than in big cities, which is nice. Like you get to have a little bit of a breather, but you can also enjoy the things a big city has to offer. The energy that you feel in this community, it’s something that I haven’t felt elsewhere.
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Ask a Local: Guam Transcript
Hila’an San Nicolas:
There’s definitely a lot here to do on Guam. Half of the island is volcanic, and the other half is limestone. We have a lot of rolling hills, waterfalls, beaches.
Tumon Bay – that’s like the city on Guam. You wanna shop. You wanna eat. You wanna drink. You wanna dance. You wanna party. You wanna swim, snorkel. It’s all there.
I like to surf. Also, I love hiking. There’s a lot of ancestral sites here.
You can come to this place, called Hila’an. It’s one of the last pristine, undeveloped beaches.
There’s a place called the Shark’s Pit. It’s a blue hole within the reef that’s really great for snorkeling.
This place also features one of Guam’s very last jungle ponds. It’s called the Lost Pond. It’s really great.
I strongly suggest you check out Gadao's Cave. It’s a really easy hike, and at the end, there’s this awesome cave with these thousands-of-years-old cave paintings that were supposedly done by a legendary chief whose name was Gadao.
Valley of the Latte is easily one of my favorite attractions. It’s this reconstructed ancient village on the bank of a river. They greet you in the native language, and they do some chants, and they do a blessing for you. They also do traditional canoe making, and you get to ride them.
Another great outing is Chamorro Village, which is Guam’s night market. They’ve got some fire dancing; they’ve got some chanting. You can get some necklaces, much like what I’m wearing here.
Naturally, me being Chamorro, I’m going to recommend a Chamorro restaurant, Meskla Chamorro Fusion Bistro. One thing I think you should definitely try is the deep-fried parrotfish. Also, finadene and dinanche – a sauce to give it a little extra kick.
You can get caught up with the history here. Throughout Guam’s history, different people came and left bits and pieces of their culture here. Eventually, we adapted it all and it became part of life on Guam. It’s definitely a cultural mixture that is very unique and can only be found in one place in the world.
There’s definitely a lot here to do on Guam. Half of the island is volcanic, and the other half is limestone. We have a lot of rolling hills, waterfalls, beaches.
Tumon Bay – that’s like the city on Guam. You wanna shop. You wanna eat. You wanna drink. You wanna dance. You wanna party. You wanna swim, snorkel. It’s all there.
I like to surf. Also, I love hiking. There’s a lot of ancestral sites here.
You can come to this place, called Hila’an. It’s one of the last pristine, undeveloped beaches.
There’s a place called the Shark’s Pit. It’s a blue hole within the reef that’s really great for snorkeling.
This place also features one of Guam’s very last jungle ponds. It’s called the Lost Pond. It’s really great.
I strongly suggest you check out Gadao's Cave. It’s a really easy hike, and at the end, there’s this awesome cave with these thousands-of-years-old cave paintings that were supposedly done by a legendary chief whose name was Gadao.
Valley of the Latte is easily one of my favorite attractions. It’s this reconstructed ancient village on the bank of a river. They greet you in the native language, and they do some chants, and they do a blessing for you. They also do traditional canoe making, and you get to ride them.
Another great outing is Chamorro Village, which is Guam’s night market. They’ve got some fire dancing; they’ve got some chanting. You can get some necklaces, much like what I’m wearing here.
Naturally, me being Chamorro, I’m going to recommend a Chamorro restaurant, Meskla Chamorro Fusion Bistro. One thing I think you should definitely try is the deep-fried parrotfish. Also, finadene and dinanche – a sauce to give it a little extra kick.
You can get caught up with the history here. Throughout Guam’s history, different people came and left bits and pieces of their culture here. Eventually, we adapted it all and it became part of life on Guam. It’s definitely a cultural mixture that is very unique and can only be found in one place in the world.
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Ask a Local: Connecticut Transcript
Colin Caplan:
Well, my favorite thing to do in town is to basically go out and to explore a lot of the beautiful scenes such as the parks, Yale University and just kind of take it all in.
Yale University takes over the downtown. It’s like an entire medieval city here. A city within a city.
New Haven has some of the best modern architecture within walking distance. So, the Beinecke
Rare Book Library is one of the largest rare book libraries in the world. It is a cube. It is sitting on four piers. It is literally held up by the walls, which are a truss. Beinecke’s windows are actually one-inch thick marble slabs that allow just enough opaque light so that they don’t damage the books inside and they end up creating this amazing effect of very dim light.
The Yale University Art Gallery is one of the world’s best art galleries with a mixture of so many different styles. They have sculpture galleries, they have ancient, they have modern. And all the while, you’re walking through masterpieces itself.
There’s a phenomenon in New Haven: People come from around the country and around the world to eat pizza. People will have pizza in the morning at Frank Pepe’s and then wait for the afternoon to have dinner at Sally’s Apizza.
People sometimes ask me: “How do you pronounce this New Haven style pizza (Apizza) spelled with an ‘A’ in the beginning.” It’s an old word and we say: “A-beats”.
One of my favorite things to do in New Haven is to also get out of the center city and see some of the amazing outdoor spots that are here.
I would recommend going to Lighthouse Point Park with an amazing connection to the water and a view of New Haven from that vantage point.
East Rock Park has some of the best views of New Haven. You get on top of the city and you’re able to see over and across the skyline.
I love New Haven because it’s full of passionate people, great places to see, amazing food and probably some of the best outdoor excursions that you can get in a small city like this.
Peggy Roberts:
If you’ve never come to Mystic before, what you’ll see when you get here is kind of a romantic-looking 1800s town, a seafaring town where there would have been whaling ships back in the day.
There’s also a very quaint downtown and a very iconic bascule bridge. It connects the Stonington part of Mystic with the Groton part of Mystic. You see big boats and little boats and people wave as they’re going by. And it’s just a really great experience to sit in the park and watch all this happen.
Mystic Seaport Museum is the largest nautical museum in the country. It has all kinds of historic boats. You can experience what it was like to be in a whaling town back in the 1800s. There is the last wooden whaling ship in existence; it’s the Charles W. Morgan. You can board it; you can experience what it was like to be in one of those little bunks and how it must have been to be on those ships for years at a time.
At the aquarium, you can see all kinds of animals. The beluga whales are really the favorite, biggest draw for the aquarium. They’re right inside the front door and there are three of them right now, and the one that seems to get the most attention is Juno. He’s a young adult male who comes right up to the window. One thing you don’t want to miss if you go to the aquarium is having an encounter with some of the animals there. It’s well worth the time.
One of the few things that would not be in a guide is the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center. It’s got hiking trails that connect some of the bigger attractions like the aquarium and the seaport. And you can walk around back there and see all of the nature that we have here in Mystic. There’s even owls. It’s all really cool.
One of my favorite places to have dinner or a drink is Red 36, which is located right on the river in Mystic. And it’s kind of a hidden gem because it’s behind a marina but it is phenomenal. The food is great there and the location can’t be beat.
If you take a walk down the main street of Mystic on any given day, you’re going to step back in time. It’s kind of a little romantic feeling because the buildings are older; they’re very well restored.
On the must-see list is Olde Mistick Village. It’s a small town that’s made in the image of the 1700s. It has all kinds of shops, gift shops, places to eat. I love grabbing a drink on Sunday Funday at the Jealous Monk in their beer garden.
We also have some craft food artisans. One of them is Sticky Situations, where you can get local honey, bee pollen and you can taste it.
Mystic Knotwork is a retail store where you can go and buy different crafts made with nautical knots.
Mystic has long been – in addition to being a nautical community – it was also an artist’s colony. So that’s why the craftsmen like Mystic Knotwork are so important to this community.
You don’t want to miss the really quaint charm of a New England village. It’s a great place.
Well, my favorite thing to do in town is to basically go out and to explore a lot of the beautiful scenes such as the parks, Yale University and just kind of take it all in.
Yale University takes over the downtown. It’s like an entire medieval city here. A city within a city.
New Haven has some of the best modern architecture within walking distance. So, the Beinecke
Rare Book Library is one of the largest rare book libraries in the world. It is a cube. It is sitting on four piers. It is literally held up by the walls, which are a truss. Beinecke’s windows are actually one-inch thick marble slabs that allow just enough opaque light so that they don’t damage the books inside and they end up creating this amazing effect of very dim light.
The Yale University Art Gallery is one of the world’s best art galleries with a mixture of so many different styles. They have sculpture galleries, they have ancient, they have modern. And all the while, you’re walking through masterpieces itself.
There’s a phenomenon in New Haven: People come from around the country and around the world to eat pizza. People will have pizza in the morning at Frank Pepe’s and then wait for the afternoon to have dinner at Sally’s Apizza.
People sometimes ask me: “How do you pronounce this New Haven style pizza (Apizza) spelled with an ‘A’ in the beginning.” It’s an old word and we say: “A-beats”.
One of my favorite things to do in New Haven is to also get out of the center city and see some of the amazing outdoor spots that are here.
I would recommend going to Lighthouse Point Park with an amazing connection to the water and a view of New Haven from that vantage point.
East Rock Park has some of the best views of New Haven. You get on top of the city and you’re able to see over and across the skyline.
I love New Haven because it’s full of passionate people, great places to see, amazing food and probably some of the best outdoor excursions that you can get in a small city like this.
Peggy Roberts:
If you’ve never come to Mystic before, what you’ll see when you get here is kind of a romantic-looking 1800s town, a seafaring town where there would have been whaling ships back in the day.
There’s also a very quaint downtown and a very iconic bascule bridge. It connects the Stonington part of Mystic with the Groton part of Mystic. You see big boats and little boats and people wave as they’re going by. And it’s just a really great experience to sit in the park and watch all this happen.
Mystic Seaport Museum is the largest nautical museum in the country. It has all kinds of historic boats. You can experience what it was like to be in a whaling town back in the 1800s. There is the last wooden whaling ship in existence; it’s the Charles W. Morgan. You can board it; you can experience what it was like to be in one of those little bunks and how it must have been to be on those ships for years at a time.
At the aquarium, you can see all kinds of animals. The beluga whales are really the favorite, biggest draw for the aquarium. They’re right inside the front door and there are three of them right now, and the one that seems to get the most attention is Juno. He’s a young adult male who comes right up to the window. One thing you don’t want to miss if you go to the aquarium is having an encounter with some of the animals there. It’s well worth the time.
One of the few things that would not be in a guide is the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center. It’s got hiking trails that connect some of the bigger attractions like the aquarium and the seaport. And you can walk around back there and see all of the nature that we have here in Mystic. There’s even owls. It’s all really cool.
One of my favorite places to have dinner or a drink is Red 36, which is located right on the river in Mystic. And it’s kind of a hidden gem because it’s behind a marina but it is phenomenal. The food is great there and the location can’t be beat.
If you take a walk down the main street of Mystic on any given day, you’re going to step back in time. It’s kind of a little romantic feeling because the buildings are older; they’re very well restored.
On the must-see list is Olde Mistick Village. It’s a small town that’s made in the image of the 1700s. It has all kinds of shops, gift shops, places to eat. I love grabbing a drink on Sunday Funday at the Jealous Monk in their beer garden.
We also have some craft food artisans. One of them is Sticky Situations, where you can get local honey, bee pollen and you can taste it.
Mystic Knotwork is a retail store where you can go and buy different crafts made with nautical knots.
Mystic has long been – in addition to being a nautical community – it was also an artist’s colony. So that’s why the craftsmen like Mystic Knotwork are so important to this community.
You don’t want to miss the really quaint charm of a New England village. It’s a great place.
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Ask a Local: West Virginia Transcript
Charleston Speaker:
Charleston, I think, has the best of two worlds. It's a town of around 50,000 people, and yet, you have that feeling of friendliness of a small town. I love it downtown; there’s a couple of streets, particularly Capitol Street, which has restaurants, bookstore, ice cream parlor. And it looks like the typical downtown of small-town America and that's the way it functions. But it has a big performing arts center and a symphony and a show like Mountain Stage – and a whole lot of things like that. My favorite thing, and the reason I’m still here 47 years later, has to do with the people and the style of life. It’s not uncommon to see people on their porches getting together. Neighbors come over with their friends, have a drink and just have a good time.
Another great thing about Charleston – this is true about a lot of West Virginia but Charleston being the biggest city – is that you don't have to go very far. Really very quickly out of Charleston, you're into what other people would say, this is like the deep forest, the woods. But what strikes you immediately when you get out of town is like, “Wow, this is beautiful.”
This state is a wonderful place for the outdoor sports like fishing and hunting and rafting. I have spent a lot of time rafting through the New River Gorge, and you go over, you know, class two, three, four rapids, sometimes even more but with guides. But people come from all over the world to do it. Some of the best water rafting in the world.
The river runs right through Charleston. I could fish right on the Kanawha River that runs through Charleston. Often, I see boats out there fishing. But then you can go to smaller rivers and streams and fish for different kinds of fish, from bass to trout.
West Virginia, because of the way the geography works, people went around it, but very early, they took the rivers. So, it made it a little bit isolated, and it was one of the last places where interstate highways were built. So it, in a way, it preserves some of the old culture and I think it’s a big advantage.
Everybody knows about the outdoors in West Virginia. It’s well known for being beautiful. You know, “Take Me Home Country Roads” – that's something that everybody knows. What everybody doesn't know is that this place is a wonderful music source. And not just one kind. Yes, we have some of the best old-time Appalachian music in the world, no question about that. It's here, it's always been here and we love it. The same goes for bluegrass and country music. That's what you would think. But there's a whole lot more than that. It's live; people love live music, they love to go hear live music. It's a great reason to come here and spend a few days.
I came to West Virginia in 1972, and I was invited to do a program called Musician in Residence from the National Endowment for the Arts. The fact that West Virginia supported that program shows you how important the arts are to the folks who live here.
FestivALL Charleston was started by some people who wanted to do something different to show off the town. We have some great venues from a big performing arts center and a civic center down to little theaters and bars. And during FestivALL, all of this stuff is going on. It brings in artists from elsewhere: national, international artists and then it also showcases local people who are really good but who you may never have heard of. But if you come here, you'll be surprised how great they are. It's a great time to come to Charleston.
Then, of course, there’s Mountain Stage, which I helped found almost 40 years ago now. We welcome on the stage live performances of music of all types – international music, regional music, local music. If it's really good, then we want to have it on the show and it's probably been on the show sometime over the years.
The Empty Glass is a place where they have live original music every night, particularly after Mountain Stage. We go over there, and you get something very, very special, which is many times, artists you’ve seen perform at Mountain State get up and sing with other artists from the show or with the house band, and they do songs that they wouldn't usually do. They're only doing it because they're having fun and want to do it, and everybody has a great time.
If you love music and you love to hear music live, Charleston is a fantastic place to visit. You will hear some great music in an intimate setting in a way that probably would be difficult to find anywhere else.
Wheeling Speaker 1:
So, Wheeling’s called “the Friendly City,” and when you come to Wheeling, you're definitely going to meet friendly people who are open and happy to share their stories with you. And I think that's what's so beautiful about this community, is the people’s desire to share the experiences that they’ve had and their view of the city and the world.
Wheeling Speaker 2:
You’re standing in front of the most important man in West Virginia. History was made here.
Wheeling Speaker 1:
Wheeling has a lot of great history that you can see when you’re walking around through town. I moved back to Wheeling to help restore the Capitol Theater. And during that process it became really clear how great the community is here. This desire to bring back these historic sites that are meaningful to people who live here, the stories that they had and the things that they’ve seen in those places.
During the industrialization of our country, this is the place where nearly everything was made. You know, it’s said that you can get everything here including the kitchen sink. And that theme and that heritage is what ties people together today here in Wheeling.
So, there are a lot of arts and crafts that still exist from those industries, particularly ceramics and pottery and glass blowing. And there’s a lot of steel being re-incorporated into art as well and as a major steel producer for a number of years, it's great to see that brought into the arts. One place that you’ll see the steel is with Bob Villamagna’s work. He's a tin collage artist, and he’s very highly regarded in the art world here in West Virginia and has won the West Virginia Artist of the Year several times.
Center Market is a great part of Wheeling. There's a lot going on there. There's breweries and restaurants and shops, and it's also where you'll find staples like Coleman's Fish.
Alright here it is, it’s awesome. Fried fish, Wonder Bread; that's it right there. People actually get these shipped to them when they move away.
Wheeling has a great history of people making a mark on the city in different ways. One of those ways is with Oglebay Park. You can just see where these philanthropists and industrialists really were committed to the community and wanted to leave a legacy here. Like here at Oglebay Park, which was built in the 1800s as a working farm by Earl Oglebay who was a shipping industrialist. But he wanted to create a farm that was more efficient and would compete with European farms for efficiency.
The other thing that you’ve got to see when you’re here in Wheeling is the Wheeling Suspension Bridge. Built in 1849, it was the longest suspension bridge span at the time and was critical to westward expansion because before that, you’d have to get to the Ohio River and take a ferry across. Now you can take other forms of transportation across the bridge and continue westward. You got to walk across it because the experience is unlike anything else. It’s got a steel bottom, so you can see through to the Ohio River, and it sways a little bit, and you’ve got to get out into the middle and take a selfie.
So then you’ve got some unique things to Wheeling like its square pizza that's cooked first and then cold cheese is added to the top. There's a couple different competing institutions here that make it different ways, and so there's a little bit of a divide here locally. So, you’ve got DiCarlo’s in downtown and Patsy's Pizza in Elm Grove. The experience at both is pretty different too. At the downtown DiCarlo's, you’re going to call or walk in and get a number, and then they're going to call you in that order. At Patsy’s, you’re going to call in and get a number, then you’re going to walk in and realize there's really no order at all. One number is called and the next number might be, you know, a number before it, or way after it. It’s kind of a wild experience.
Also, the way in which you eat it is different too. Arguably the best way to eat Patsy’s is to walk outside and eat it in the parking lot while the cheese is still cold and melting. Whereas at the downtown DiCarlo's, you want to grab it, kind of walk down to Heritage Port and just kind of take in the scenery there at the Ohio River and enjoy the views and enjoy a Wheeling staple.
You’ll also see, when walking through Wheeling, that there's a lot of things going on creatively. There's a new gallery and events for people to showcase their work and to bring the community together, like Clientele in East Wheeling or at the Artisan Center or with the YWCA doing some really interesting events like Hip-Hop: A Black-Tie Affair or The Art of Inclusion, which is really about bringing the community together and using art to do that.
One of my favorite places is a little place just outside of town and they're known for their burgers and a great selection of craft beers. It’s just a great time, just getting outside the city, hanging out with some friends, and I definitely recommend it while you're here. It's one of Wheeling's best kept secrets.
Charleston, I think, has the best of two worlds. It's a town of around 50,000 people, and yet, you have that feeling of friendliness of a small town. I love it downtown; there’s a couple of streets, particularly Capitol Street, which has restaurants, bookstore, ice cream parlor. And it looks like the typical downtown of small-town America and that's the way it functions. But it has a big performing arts center and a symphony and a show like Mountain Stage – and a whole lot of things like that. My favorite thing, and the reason I’m still here 47 years later, has to do with the people and the style of life. It’s not uncommon to see people on their porches getting together. Neighbors come over with their friends, have a drink and just have a good time.
Another great thing about Charleston – this is true about a lot of West Virginia but Charleston being the biggest city – is that you don't have to go very far. Really very quickly out of Charleston, you're into what other people would say, this is like the deep forest, the woods. But what strikes you immediately when you get out of town is like, “Wow, this is beautiful.”
This state is a wonderful place for the outdoor sports like fishing and hunting and rafting. I have spent a lot of time rafting through the New River Gorge, and you go over, you know, class two, three, four rapids, sometimes even more but with guides. But people come from all over the world to do it. Some of the best water rafting in the world.
The river runs right through Charleston. I could fish right on the Kanawha River that runs through Charleston. Often, I see boats out there fishing. But then you can go to smaller rivers and streams and fish for different kinds of fish, from bass to trout.
West Virginia, because of the way the geography works, people went around it, but very early, they took the rivers. So, it made it a little bit isolated, and it was one of the last places where interstate highways were built. So it, in a way, it preserves some of the old culture and I think it’s a big advantage.
Everybody knows about the outdoors in West Virginia. It’s well known for being beautiful. You know, “Take Me Home Country Roads” – that's something that everybody knows. What everybody doesn't know is that this place is a wonderful music source. And not just one kind. Yes, we have some of the best old-time Appalachian music in the world, no question about that. It's here, it's always been here and we love it. The same goes for bluegrass and country music. That's what you would think. But there's a whole lot more than that. It's live; people love live music, they love to go hear live music. It's a great reason to come here and spend a few days.
I came to West Virginia in 1972, and I was invited to do a program called Musician in Residence from the National Endowment for the Arts. The fact that West Virginia supported that program shows you how important the arts are to the folks who live here.
FestivALL Charleston was started by some people who wanted to do something different to show off the town. We have some great venues from a big performing arts center and a civic center down to little theaters and bars. And during FestivALL, all of this stuff is going on. It brings in artists from elsewhere: national, international artists and then it also showcases local people who are really good but who you may never have heard of. But if you come here, you'll be surprised how great they are. It's a great time to come to Charleston.
Then, of course, there’s Mountain Stage, which I helped found almost 40 years ago now. We welcome on the stage live performances of music of all types – international music, regional music, local music. If it's really good, then we want to have it on the show and it's probably been on the show sometime over the years.
The Empty Glass is a place where they have live original music every night, particularly after Mountain Stage. We go over there, and you get something very, very special, which is many times, artists you’ve seen perform at Mountain State get up and sing with other artists from the show or with the house band, and they do songs that they wouldn't usually do. They're only doing it because they're having fun and want to do it, and everybody has a great time.
If you love music and you love to hear music live, Charleston is a fantastic place to visit. You will hear some great music in an intimate setting in a way that probably would be difficult to find anywhere else.
Wheeling Speaker 1:
So, Wheeling’s called “the Friendly City,” and when you come to Wheeling, you're definitely going to meet friendly people who are open and happy to share their stories with you. And I think that's what's so beautiful about this community, is the people’s desire to share the experiences that they’ve had and their view of the city and the world.
Wheeling Speaker 2:
You’re standing in front of the most important man in West Virginia. History was made here.
Wheeling Speaker 1:
Wheeling has a lot of great history that you can see when you’re walking around through town. I moved back to Wheeling to help restore the Capitol Theater. And during that process it became really clear how great the community is here. This desire to bring back these historic sites that are meaningful to people who live here, the stories that they had and the things that they’ve seen in those places.
During the industrialization of our country, this is the place where nearly everything was made. You know, it’s said that you can get everything here including the kitchen sink. And that theme and that heritage is what ties people together today here in Wheeling.
So, there are a lot of arts and crafts that still exist from those industries, particularly ceramics and pottery and glass blowing. And there’s a lot of steel being re-incorporated into art as well and as a major steel producer for a number of years, it's great to see that brought into the arts. One place that you’ll see the steel is with Bob Villamagna’s work. He's a tin collage artist, and he’s very highly regarded in the art world here in West Virginia and has won the West Virginia Artist of the Year several times.
Center Market is a great part of Wheeling. There's a lot going on there. There's breweries and restaurants and shops, and it's also where you'll find staples like Coleman's Fish.
Alright here it is, it’s awesome. Fried fish, Wonder Bread; that's it right there. People actually get these shipped to them when they move away.
Wheeling has a great history of people making a mark on the city in different ways. One of those ways is with Oglebay Park. You can just see where these philanthropists and industrialists really were committed to the community and wanted to leave a legacy here. Like here at Oglebay Park, which was built in the 1800s as a working farm by Earl Oglebay who was a shipping industrialist. But he wanted to create a farm that was more efficient and would compete with European farms for efficiency.
The other thing that you’ve got to see when you’re here in Wheeling is the Wheeling Suspension Bridge. Built in 1849, it was the longest suspension bridge span at the time and was critical to westward expansion because before that, you’d have to get to the Ohio River and take a ferry across. Now you can take other forms of transportation across the bridge and continue westward. You got to walk across it because the experience is unlike anything else. It’s got a steel bottom, so you can see through to the Ohio River, and it sways a little bit, and you’ve got to get out into the middle and take a selfie.
So then you’ve got some unique things to Wheeling like its square pizza that's cooked first and then cold cheese is added to the top. There's a couple different competing institutions here that make it different ways, and so there's a little bit of a divide here locally. So, you’ve got DiCarlo’s in downtown and Patsy's Pizza in Elm Grove. The experience at both is pretty different too. At the downtown DiCarlo's, you’re going to call or walk in and get a number, and then they're going to call you in that order. At Patsy’s, you’re going to call in and get a number, then you’re going to walk in and realize there's really no order at all. One number is called and the next number might be, you know, a number before it, or way after it. It’s kind of a wild experience.
Also, the way in which you eat it is different too. Arguably the best way to eat Patsy’s is to walk outside and eat it in the parking lot while the cheese is still cold and melting. Whereas at the downtown DiCarlo's, you want to grab it, kind of walk down to Heritage Port and just kind of take in the scenery there at the Ohio River and enjoy the views and enjoy a Wheeling staple.
You’ll also see, when walking through Wheeling, that there's a lot of things going on creatively. There's a new gallery and events for people to showcase their work and to bring the community together, like Clientele in East Wheeling or at the Artisan Center or with the YWCA doing some really interesting events like Hip-Hop: A Black-Tie Affair or The Art of Inclusion, which is really about bringing the community together and using art to do that.
One of my favorite places is a little place just outside of town and they're known for their burgers and a great selection of craft beers. It’s just a great time, just getting outside the city, hanging out with some friends, and I definitely recommend it while you're here. It's one of Wheeling's best kept secrets.
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Ask a Local: Indiana Transcript
Bloomington Speaker 1:
I think Indiana is one of those places that people forget about. They forget it’s on the map and they’re like, “Where is it? Oh, below Michigan. Is that where it is?”
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Well, and not being from Indiana, I definitely didn’t ever consider Indiana part of the Midwest, and it tuns out that Indiana is pretty much the heartland of the Midwest.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
We love it here.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Yeah, Bloomington is full of creative energy. There’s tons of young entrepreneurs. A lot of our friends have started businesses around the same time that we did.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
I think there’s like, Bloomington has this great mix of – it’s very productive but it’s also really fun. It’s a great place to go waterskiing, fishing.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Fishing.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
Fishing?
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Bass’in.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
Bass’in.
Both Bloomington speakers:
Yep.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Any direction you go, 10 minutes out of town and you’re in either the water or the woods. There’s a great motorcycle community. Like, everybody’s on their motorcycles.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
There’s a moped club. They’re adorable. Here in Bloomington, the bike culture is really special. Every spring, we have the Little 500 and it’s a highly competitive, really cool race. And there’s a party all around campus and all around the actual race itself. And then in the fall, we have the Hilly Hundred, which is more of like a road bike in the country type of thing.
Indiana University brings in a really diverse group of international students. And, we actually have a really large population of Tibetan monks, the largest outside of Tibet. So that’s cool.
And then back in downtown Bloomington, there are so many things to do. There’s cute shops, there’s great restaurants. Specifically, there’s Hopscotch Coffee that’s two blocks from the square. And then there’s the Uptown that’s just right there. They have great cocktails as well.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
There’s Fourth Street, which has all the international restaurants.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
I would say one really classic institution of Bloomington is Nick’s English Hut. It just has a certain charm. People who went to college here 60 years ago, they come back, they go to Nick’s.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
And then there’s the music scene. There’s several venues in town and there’s live music all year.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
And then in addition to that, there’s the Jacobs School of Music, which, you know, is just down the street on campus. Oh, if you hit karaoke on a night when music students are there, it’s like the best show you can get in Bloomington.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
It’s insane.
And there’s several festivals that happen throughout the year.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
The Granfalloon is a celebration of Kurt Vonnegut, who is from Indianapolis. And every year, we have a celebration and there’s a concert that happens and it happens to be this evening.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
And then there’s the record label in town.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
They’re truly like this international gift and they’re whole reason why we’re getting live music all year-round.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Secretly is not only involved in the music side but works really hard to make art really accessible for people. I mean, I feel like Bloomington, my stress level is less here. And in such a beautiful place that’s unexpected and it seems like a little secret.
Indianapolis Speaker:
When you think about Indianapolis, then you think about vibrancy, you think about art, you think about people, you think about our downtown, you think about sports. We’ve got a rich sports history. Sports are our thing. But what you might not know is that Indianapolis has an artistic legacy, which is why I’m here.
For a while, it seemed like we were giving much of our attention to fine visual artists. So, think painting and sculpting. There’s this whole other scene that hadn’t been given that much attention to, and I thought, “Molly, you’re in Indianapolis. If there’s a place where you can start that or do that, it’s here.”
That’s Anne Dancing by Julene Opie. I got to help put her there.
Here in Indianapolis, we have this very rich and deep music history and jazz history where Duke Ellington got his start, Wes Montgomery got his start, Madam Walker built her theater. She was the first female self-made millionaire in our country. Had her theater built in Indianapolis and was kind of the Rockefeller and the support system for many of our jazz musicians, many artists and many businesses on Indiana Avenue. So, it’s kind of like we’ve circled back and said: “Oh my gosh, duh, why are we not celebrating performing artists? Why are we not engaging hip-hop artists and dancers and elevating them to the place that we’ve done for our visual artists?”
We have our big institutions here in Indianapolis. We have the ISO, our symphonic orchestra; the Children's Museum, which is the biggest in the world. We also have these kind of collective and art incubation spaces and then gallery spaces as well.
We have Deckademic’s here, which is Indianapolis' first and only DJ school. I was actually in a DJ battle and I won one of the rounds. I was really proud – one round. I got kicked out after that.
We are second in the country in our number of public art memorials. You have to go by Monument Circle. There's this massive 280-foot soldiers and sailors monument. It’s kind of the epicenter of our city – best place to have lunch in the summer, right on the steps of the monument. And then we have our murals like the Mari Evans mural, the Kurt Vonnegut mural, the jazz musicians’ mural that points to Indiana Avenue.
So, music-wise, you can kind of find anything that you’d like here. We’ve got the old-school jazz clubs like AJ's and the Chatterbox. But then there's kind of this new music scene happening in Fountain Square that Hi-Fi's really leading the charge on. Hi-Fi is this really nice but also somehow gritty space and always consistently amazing bands.
I love our spoken word scene here. We have some of the most amazing and prolific spoken word artists. And you also have your coffee shops, like there's always writers and artists around, and there might even be a poetry pop-up in one of those.
Then there’s the foodie scene. Restaurant-wise, we are blowing up right now. Beholder is killing it. Milktooth is amazing. Turchetti’s just opened and I'm really excited to try it; it’s a sandwich shop. So, we've got the food scene on lock.
Indianapolis feels very eager. It feels like we want ideas, it feels like we're very welcoming of all types of people and all types of perspectives. You can have a conversation with anybody you'd like to here. We stay true to our core and tell that story in a very surprising and artistic way. Art kind of sparks emotion between humans. It’s the universal language, right? It's like love, whether it's through song or whether it's through a painting. And what would life be like without that? We've got this kind of sports thing covered and it's amazing, but if people could think about Indiana and think about Indianapolis and know it is one that's rich in history and arts and storytelling, then there's just much more to discover.
I think Indiana is one of those places that people forget about. They forget it’s on the map and they’re like, “Where is it? Oh, below Michigan. Is that where it is?”
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Well, and not being from Indiana, I definitely didn’t ever consider Indiana part of the Midwest, and it tuns out that Indiana is pretty much the heartland of the Midwest.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
We love it here.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Yeah, Bloomington is full of creative energy. There’s tons of young entrepreneurs. A lot of our friends have started businesses around the same time that we did.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
I think there’s like, Bloomington has this great mix of – it’s very productive but it’s also really fun. It’s a great place to go waterskiing, fishing.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Fishing.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
Fishing?
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Bass’in.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
Bass’in.
Both Bloomington speakers:
Yep.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Any direction you go, 10 minutes out of town and you’re in either the water or the woods. There’s a great motorcycle community. Like, everybody’s on their motorcycles.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
There’s a moped club. They’re adorable. Here in Bloomington, the bike culture is really special. Every spring, we have the Little 500 and it’s a highly competitive, really cool race. And there’s a party all around campus and all around the actual race itself. And then in the fall, we have the Hilly Hundred, which is more of like a road bike in the country type of thing.
Indiana University brings in a really diverse group of international students. And, we actually have a really large population of Tibetan monks, the largest outside of Tibet. So that’s cool.
And then back in downtown Bloomington, there are so many things to do. There’s cute shops, there’s great restaurants. Specifically, there’s Hopscotch Coffee that’s two blocks from the square. And then there’s the Uptown that’s just right there. They have great cocktails as well.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
There’s Fourth Street, which has all the international restaurants.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
I would say one really classic institution of Bloomington is Nick’s English Hut. It just has a certain charm. People who went to college here 60 years ago, they come back, they go to Nick’s.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
And then there’s the music scene. There’s several venues in town and there’s live music all year.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
And then in addition to that, there’s the Jacobs School of Music, which, you know, is just down the street on campus. Oh, if you hit karaoke on a night when music students are there, it’s like the best show you can get in Bloomington.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
It’s insane.
And there’s several festivals that happen throughout the year.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
The Granfalloon is a celebration of Kurt Vonnegut, who is from Indianapolis. And every year, we have a celebration and there’s a concert that happens and it happens to be this evening.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
And then there’s the record label in town.
Bloomington Speaker 1:
They’re truly like this international gift and they’re whole reason why we’re getting live music all year-round.
Bloomington Speaker 2:
Secretly is not only involved in the music side but works really hard to make art really accessible for people. I mean, I feel like Bloomington, my stress level is less here. And in such a beautiful place that’s unexpected and it seems like a little secret.
Indianapolis Speaker:
When you think about Indianapolis, then you think about vibrancy, you think about art, you think about people, you think about our downtown, you think about sports. We’ve got a rich sports history. Sports are our thing. But what you might not know is that Indianapolis has an artistic legacy, which is why I’m here.
For a while, it seemed like we were giving much of our attention to fine visual artists. So, think painting and sculpting. There’s this whole other scene that hadn’t been given that much attention to, and I thought, “Molly, you’re in Indianapolis. If there’s a place where you can start that or do that, it’s here.”
That’s Anne Dancing by Julene Opie. I got to help put her there.
Here in Indianapolis, we have this very rich and deep music history and jazz history where Duke Ellington got his start, Wes Montgomery got his start, Madam Walker built her theater. She was the first female self-made millionaire in our country. Had her theater built in Indianapolis and was kind of the Rockefeller and the support system for many of our jazz musicians, many artists and many businesses on Indiana Avenue. So, it’s kind of like we’ve circled back and said: “Oh my gosh, duh, why are we not celebrating performing artists? Why are we not engaging hip-hop artists and dancers and elevating them to the place that we’ve done for our visual artists?”
We have our big institutions here in Indianapolis. We have the ISO, our symphonic orchestra; the Children's Museum, which is the biggest in the world. We also have these kind of collective and art incubation spaces and then gallery spaces as well.
We have Deckademic’s here, which is Indianapolis' first and only DJ school. I was actually in a DJ battle and I won one of the rounds. I was really proud – one round. I got kicked out after that.
We are second in the country in our number of public art memorials. You have to go by Monument Circle. There's this massive 280-foot soldiers and sailors monument. It’s kind of the epicenter of our city – best place to have lunch in the summer, right on the steps of the monument. And then we have our murals like the Mari Evans mural, the Kurt Vonnegut mural, the jazz musicians’ mural that points to Indiana Avenue.
So, music-wise, you can kind of find anything that you’d like here. We’ve got the old-school jazz clubs like AJ's and the Chatterbox. But then there's kind of this new music scene happening in Fountain Square that Hi-Fi's really leading the charge on. Hi-Fi is this really nice but also somehow gritty space and always consistently amazing bands.
I love our spoken word scene here. We have some of the most amazing and prolific spoken word artists. And you also have your coffee shops, like there's always writers and artists around, and there might even be a poetry pop-up in one of those.
Then there’s the foodie scene. Restaurant-wise, we are blowing up right now. Beholder is killing it. Milktooth is amazing. Turchetti’s just opened and I'm really excited to try it; it’s a sandwich shop. So, we've got the food scene on lock.
Indianapolis feels very eager. It feels like we want ideas, it feels like we're very welcoming of all types of people and all types of perspectives. You can have a conversation with anybody you'd like to here. We stay true to our core and tell that story in a very surprising and artistic way. Art kind of sparks emotion between humans. It’s the universal language, right? It's like love, whether it's through song or whether it's through a painting. And what would life be like without that? We've got this kind of sports thing covered and it's amazing, but if people could think about Indiana and think about Indianapolis and know it is one that's rich in history and arts and storytelling, then there's just much more to discover.
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Ask a Local: Rhode Island Transcript
Nora Eschenheimer:
Newport, Rhode Island, is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Not only because I’m born and raised here, but Newport is this gorgeous walking town. It’s right on the water. You can’t go anywhere without having a spectacular view of something.
Cliff Walk is one of the most popular destinations in Newport. It’s a gorgeous walk that takes you along the water with all the gorgeous mansions on one side and a dramatic view of the ocean on the other.
The beautiful mansions that you’re going to see here in Newport originally weren’t considered mansions. These were the summer cottages of the Gilded Age if you can imagine. Back then, these were really only meant to be lived in for a couple months out of the year. They were all modeled after European architecture. Rosecliff mansion is one of the most beautiful. The inside of the mansion is equally as breathtaking. It really gives you a glimpse into how people lived back at the turn of the century.
When you visit this place, you have to get out on the water, and the best way to do that is to jump on one of the many tour boats here in Newport. The best boat you can go out on is this really neat classic motor yacht called the Rum Runner II. This boat was built in 1929 specifically for the purpose of running alcohol during Prohibition. Now you can go out on this boat and enjoy a cocktail and look at all of these gorgeous mansions from the waterfront.
Easton’s Beach is a really great place to check out because it’s actually walking distance from sort of the heart of Newport. You can really just walk from Bannister’s and Bowen’s Wharf up and down Memorial Boulevard and you’re there. So, whenever I got to Easton’s Beach, the reason for it is because, not only do I want to go put my toes in the water, but also because they have twin lobster rolls. So, it’s two lobster rolls for a very economic price. This is definitely the place to grab them.
Newport does seafood in every way you can imagine, but we’re best known for our lobster rolls, for clam chowder and for stuffies, but what’s also really neat and sort of surprising is that we have a vineyard here in Newport. It’s called Newport Vineyards. The restaurant is gorgeous. Everything over there is incredible.
Newport, Rhode Island – definitely a place to check out if you want to go to the beaches, if you want to relax, if you want to go grab a cocktail on the water. The reason Newport was so popular is because of its location. So, it’s smack dab in between New York and Boston, so it’s always been a popular destination for that reason.
Rosanna Ortiz:
I love Providence because Providence provides that big city feel with a small, intimate camaraderie.
So, RISD, which is the Rhode Island School of Design, is located here right in Providence, and they have a RISD Museum, which is open to the public. And anyone can come and view wonderful, curated masterpieces from students to alumni to some pretty historical artists. I think it’s one of the best kept secrets in the New England area, specifically Rhode Island.
One of my favorite places in this city is Benefit Street. Now I have a little bit of a love with supernatural tales and Benefit Street is known to be one of the most haunted streets in America. Outside of the whole ghost culture of Benefit Street, it is a beautiful street to take a very long walk. There are a ton of historic houses, beautiful colonial houses on Benefit Street.
I have to say one of the cooler things to do here in this city is definitely WaterFire. There’s not very many places that you can visit where you can go and walk around with a ton of people viewing a huge basin and river that is lit on fire. And you can walk through all of these wonderful vignettes and installations.
Even when WaterFire is not happening in the city, you can take a gondola ride during the spring and summer months and early fall through Waterplace Park, which is gorgeous during the day because you go through our big Waterplace towers and you can look up and you get all the scenery, and you see a lot of the city of Providence when you take a gondola ride.
My most favorite thing to do in this city is really taking advantage of our amazing restaurant scene. We have a great Italian community here in Providence, Rhode Island. I’m sure you’ve heard of Federal Hill – huge Italian community with amazing Italian restaurants.
Sarto has great Italian fusion food and their menu changes with every season. Sarto is located in the G building, which is right downtown in Providence, and after you eat at Sarto, you can actually go up to the G rooftop and enjoy a beautiful view of the iconic Superman building and have an after-dinner cocktail.
Knead Doughnuts is probably the best donut shop in Providence and Rhode Island. They definitely have a donut for everyone’s palate.
I love the different communities that we have here, and especially for a visitor who’s visiting our town, I can guarantee you that if you come and sit at a bar, you will meet a local who is full of knowledge about this great city.
Newport, Rhode Island, is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Not only because I’m born and raised here, but Newport is this gorgeous walking town. It’s right on the water. You can’t go anywhere without having a spectacular view of something.
Cliff Walk is one of the most popular destinations in Newport. It’s a gorgeous walk that takes you along the water with all the gorgeous mansions on one side and a dramatic view of the ocean on the other.
The beautiful mansions that you’re going to see here in Newport originally weren’t considered mansions. These were the summer cottages of the Gilded Age if you can imagine. Back then, these were really only meant to be lived in for a couple months out of the year. They were all modeled after European architecture. Rosecliff mansion is one of the most beautiful. The inside of the mansion is equally as breathtaking. It really gives you a glimpse into how people lived back at the turn of the century.
When you visit this place, you have to get out on the water, and the best way to do that is to jump on one of the many tour boats here in Newport. The best boat you can go out on is this really neat classic motor yacht called the Rum Runner II. This boat was built in 1929 specifically for the purpose of running alcohol during Prohibition. Now you can go out on this boat and enjoy a cocktail and look at all of these gorgeous mansions from the waterfront.
Easton’s Beach is a really great place to check out because it’s actually walking distance from sort of the heart of Newport. You can really just walk from Bannister’s and Bowen’s Wharf up and down Memorial Boulevard and you’re there. So, whenever I got to Easton’s Beach, the reason for it is because, not only do I want to go put my toes in the water, but also because they have twin lobster rolls. So, it’s two lobster rolls for a very economic price. This is definitely the place to grab them.
Newport does seafood in every way you can imagine, but we’re best known for our lobster rolls, for clam chowder and for stuffies, but what’s also really neat and sort of surprising is that we have a vineyard here in Newport. It’s called Newport Vineyards. The restaurant is gorgeous. Everything over there is incredible.
Newport, Rhode Island – definitely a place to check out if you want to go to the beaches, if you want to relax, if you want to go grab a cocktail on the water. The reason Newport was so popular is because of its location. So, it’s smack dab in between New York and Boston, so it’s always been a popular destination for that reason.
Rosanna Ortiz:
I love Providence because Providence provides that big city feel with a small, intimate camaraderie.
So, RISD, which is the Rhode Island School of Design, is located here right in Providence, and they have a RISD Museum, which is open to the public. And anyone can come and view wonderful, curated masterpieces from students to alumni to some pretty historical artists. I think it’s one of the best kept secrets in the New England area, specifically Rhode Island.
One of my favorite places in this city is Benefit Street. Now I have a little bit of a love with supernatural tales and Benefit Street is known to be one of the most haunted streets in America. Outside of the whole ghost culture of Benefit Street, it is a beautiful street to take a very long walk. There are a ton of historic houses, beautiful colonial houses on Benefit Street.
I have to say one of the cooler things to do here in this city is definitely WaterFire. There’s not very many places that you can visit where you can go and walk around with a ton of people viewing a huge basin and river that is lit on fire. And you can walk through all of these wonderful vignettes and installations.
Even when WaterFire is not happening in the city, you can take a gondola ride during the spring and summer months and early fall through Waterplace Park, which is gorgeous during the day because you go through our big Waterplace towers and you can look up and you get all the scenery, and you see a lot of the city of Providence when you take a gondola ride.
My most favorite thing to do in this city is really taking advantage of our amazing restaurant scene. We have a great Italian community here in Providence, Rhode Island. I’m sure you’ve heard of Federal Hill – huge Italian community with amazing Italian restaurants.
Sarto has great Italian fusion food and their menu changes with every season. Sarto is located in the G building, which is right downtown in Providence, and after you eat at Sarto, you can actually go up to the G rooftop and enjoy a beautiful view of the iconic Superman building and have an after-dinner cocktail.
Knead Doughnuts is probably the best donut shop in Providence and Rhode Island. They definitely have a donut for everyone’s palate.
I love the different communities that we have here, and especially for a visitor who’s visiting our town, I can guarantee you that if you come and sit at a bar, you will meet a local who is full of knowledge about this great city.
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Ask a Local: North Dakota Transcript
Matt Schanandore:
The most unique thing about Bismarck-Mandan is the river. The Missouri River has been part of the communities for centuries, and it’s such a diverse community built around the river.
Both Bismarck and Mandan on either side of the river, we’ve got our flat farmlands on the east part of the city to our luscious hills overlooking the Missouri Valley area.
My favorite thing to do is get out on our trails. I do a lot of trail running here in the park, and it’s great to get out there and enjoy a great morning on the trails – biking, running, hiking.
If you’re looking for a unique place to sample one of North Dakota’s best brews, you can check out downtown Mandan’s Dialectic Brewing. It’s a great hole-in-the-wall place where you can meet friends, have a great evening and really taste some of the down-to-earth, home brews that are coming about.
The Bismarck Art Alley is something new that has come to downtown Bismarck. You’re gonna find art that’s featured from some of the local Native American artists as well as some of our more modern artists found right here in Bismarck.
One of the great things about Bismarck and Mandan is Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. You can learn about the history and culture from the Mandan Indians that lived at the On-A-Slant Village to Custer and his men that lived at Fort Abraham Lincoln. But most importantly, you can get out on out our trails and really see the landscape that North Dakota has to offer. Climb the infantry post blockhouses and look out over the Missouri River from north to south and see one of the last free-flowing stretches of the Missouri River that splits the wonderful communities of Bismarck and Mandan.
If you’re visiting in September, check out the United Tribes International Powwow. It’s a great showcase of the diverse Native American culture that we have right here in North Dakota and throughout the region – some of the best dancers, drum groups and local Native American crafts that you can find.
Visit Downtown Bismarck. We have wonderful eateries, shops to check out. You can spend a whole day down there for excellent cuisine, as well as a really good cup of coffee.
If you want a place to relax and enjoy some of the great cultural aspects of a community, Bismarck-Mandan is where you want to do that.
The most unique thing about Bismarck-Mandan is the river. The Missouri River has been part of the communities for centuries, and it’s such a diverse community built around the river.
Both Bismarck and Mandan on either side of the river, we’ve got our flat farmlands on the east part of the city to our luscious hills overlooking the Missouri Valley area.
My favorite thing to do is get out on our trails. I do a lot of trail running here in the park, and it’s great to get out there and enjoy a great morning on the trails – biking, running, hiking.
If you’re looking for a unique place to sample one of North Dakota’s best brews, you can check out downtown Mandan’s Dialectic Brewing. It’s a great hole-in-the-wall place where you can meet friends, have a great evening and really taste some of the down-to-earth, home brews that are coming about.
The Bismarck Art Alley is something new that has come to downtown Bismarck. You’re gonna find art that’s featured from some of the local Native American artists as well as some of our more modern artists found right here in Bismarck.
One of the great things about Bismarck and Mandan is Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. You can learn about the history and culture from the Mandan Indians that lived at the On-A-Slant Village to Custer and his men that lived at Fort Abraham Lincoln. But most importantly, you can get out on out our trails and really see the landscape that North Dakota has to offer. Climb the infantry post blockhouses and look out over the Missouri River from north to south and see one of the last free-flowing stretches of the Missouri River that splits the wonderful communities of Bismarck and Mandan.
If you’re visiting in September, check out the United Tribes International Powwow. It’s a great showcase of the diverse Native American culture that we have right here in North Dakota and throughout the region – some of the best dancers, drum groups and local Native American crafts that you can find.
Visit Downtown Bismarck. We have wonderful eateries, shops to check out. You can spend a whole day down there for excellent cuisine, as well as a really good cup of coffee.
If you want a place to relax and enjoy some of the great cultural aspects of a community, Bismarck-Mandan is where you want to do that.
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Ask a Local: Washington D.C. Transcript
Morgan West:
D.C. is so beautiful – it’s marble buildings and it’s neighborhood sidewalks and, of course, we’re surrounded by water.
D.C. is an incredible place to visit if you love history. The National Mall is actually a national park, and it’s home to Smithsonian museums, monuments and memorials. Air and Space Museum has spacecraft and airplanes, and it’s just such a fun place to spend a day. I remember growing up and getting space ice cream when we would go there from the gift shop.
The Hirshhorn has an incredible sculpture garden that’s just so wonderful to walk through, and they have rotating exhibitions from contemporary artists from around the world.
You, of course, have to spend time on the National Mall, but it’s so important to get out into the neighborhoods as well. 18th Street is the main artery through Adams Morgan: lots of little shops, lots of restaurants. It’s a great place to have brunch or grab coffee.
The Line Hotel is located in the heart of Adams Morgan. The hotel is built inside a 110-year-old neoclassical church. So, there are touches from the church throughout. The hotel is definitely a hub for artists and creatives and locals and travelers alike.
A Rake's Progress is such a special place to eat, especially if you’re visiting. They source only from Mid-Atlantic farms and farmers, so really, the menu has such a true sense of place.
Meeps is a little vintage shop on 18th Street. It’s a costume shop. You can get kind of every day, kind of, 80s and 90s vintage wear. It’s so much fun. It’s a must-stop when you’re in the neighborhood.
Lots of movies have been filmed in D.C. from Broadcast News in the Dupont neighborhood to, of course, the Exorcist and Exorcist steps in Georgetown.
Georgetown is visually quintessential D.C. So, beautiful architecture, lots of gorgeous homes and it’s just such a beautiful place to spend an afternoon.
H Street Northeast is such an incredible, vibrant neighborhood. Maketto and Turning Natural are both my go-to spots on 8th Street.
One of the things that makes D.C. so beautiful is that it is surrounded by water. We have the Anacostia River, we have the Potomac River, and there are waterfronts in all different neighborhoods throughout the city.
The Wharf has really beautiful waterfront views. It’s a great place to walk around, to catch a show at the Anthem. It’s just a great place to spend an evening.
Kith and Kin is absolutely delicious. It is an Afro-Caribbean restaurant by hometown Chef Kwame Onwuachi.
I love D.C. so much. The same reason that it’s great to live here is the same reason that it’s incredible to travel and visit. D.C. is a global and international city that actually has the charm of a small town.
D.C. is so beautiful – it’s marble buildings and it’s neighborhood sidewalks and, of course, we’re surrounded by water.
D.C. is an incredible place to visit if you love history. The National Mall is actually a national park, and it’s home to Smithsonian museums, monuments and memorials. Air and Space Museum has spacecraft and airplanes, and it’s just such a fun place to spend a day. I remember growing up and getting space ice cream when we would go there from the gift shop.
The Hirshhorn has an incredible sculpture garden that’s just so wonderful to walk through, and they have rotating exhibitions from contemporary artists from around the world.
You, of course, have to spend time on the National Mall, but it’s so important to get out into the neighborhoods as well. 18th Street is the main artery through Adams Morgan: lots of little shops, lots of restaurants. It’s a great place to have brunch or grab coffee.
The Line Hotel is located in the heart of Adams Morgan. The hotel is built inside a 110-year-old neoclassical church. So, there are touches from the church throughout. The hotel is definitely a hub for artists and creatives and locals and travelers alike.
A Rake's Progress is such a special place to eat, especially if you’re visiting. They source only from Mid-Atlantic farms and farmers, so really, the menu has such a true sense of place.
Meeps is a little vintage shop on 18th Street. It’s a costume shop. You can get kind of every day, kind of, 80s and 90s vintage wear. It’s so much fun. It’s a must-stop when you’re in the neighborhood.
Lots of movies have been filmed in D.C. from Broadcast News in the Dupont neighborhood to, of course, the Exorcist and Exorcist steps in Georgetown.
Georgetown is visually quintessential D.C. So, beautiful architecture, lots of gorgeous homes and it’s just such a beautiful place to spend an afternoon.
H Street Northeast is such an incredible, vibrant neighborhood. Maketto and Turning Natural are both my go-to spots on 8th Street.
One of the things that makes D.C. so beautiful is that it is surrounded by water. We have the Anacostia River, we have the Potomac River, and there are waterfronts in all different neighborhoods throughout the city.
The Wharf has really beautiful waterfront views. It’s a great place to walk around, to catch a show at the Anthem. It’s just a great place to spend an evening.
Kith and Kin is absolutely delicious. It is an Afro-Caribbean restaurant by hometown Chef Kwame Onwuachi.
I love D.C. so much. The same reason that it’s great to live here is the same reason that it’s incredible to travel and visit. D.C. is a global and international city that actually has the charm of a small town.