Salt Lake City: Ski City, USA
by Vicki Hoefling Andersen

Mammoth Food
by Yvette Cardozo

Magical Times in Utah
Skiing Salt Lake's Fab Four by Lee Juillerat

Salt Lake City averages about five feet of snow a year, but if you’re headed to Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon, those ski areas get eight times that amount. A great option is utilizing the Utah Transit Authority system, whose network of ski buses allows you to stay in Salt Lake City with its extensive range of accommodations, dining, shopping and other services, and easily explore the Cottonwood resorts: Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude.

In Gin The Third, the 20 herbs and fruits include cucumber, rose hips and petals, fennel, finger root, elder berries, vanilla beans, orange peel, anise. I COULD taste them. All of them, melding into a fruity, herbal something behind a good gin taste. And this was at 9,000 feet (Mammoth Lake’s elevation). Imagine what this would taste like with ALL of my taste buds engaged at sea level (people lose 30 percent of their ability to taste at high altitude, which is why airplane food is over-salted).

In 1869, an Army soldier prospecting for silver in Little Cottonwood Canyon literally struck gold and founded the Emma Mine, one of the largest producers of silver ore in the Wasatch Range. Likewise, the resort is named after the Snowbird mining claim. At its peak, 8,000 people lived and worked in narrow Little Cottonwood Canyon. The original town was later destroyed by a series of avalanches.

Whistler-Blackcomb: A Love Story
by Larry Turner

There's More To Cuba Than Havana
by Brad Hathaway

Fascinating people from all over the world visit Whistler. I rode lifts with Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, South and Central Americans, Europeans (especially Brits, Germans and French), Australians, Canadians, Asians, South Africans, Kiwis—the Globe comes to Whistler.

I first discovered the power of Vincent van Gogh's painting when I visited Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum in 2004. That event led me to research and write an historical novel, Findng Vincent, to capture the essence of his art, family, and acquaintances throughthe last years of his life in France.

Perhaps it is because the word Cuba isn't even in the name of Spanish-American War—fought on Cuban soil over issues including Cuban independence—that tour guides and tour directories rarely speak of it. On our visit, we never heard Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders mentioned.

Glass Above Water: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas
by Susan Cohn

Away is Home
The ultimate Hawaii road trip with your family
by Christopher Elliott

Dale Chihuly's Seattle Museum "Garden and Glass"by Lynn Rosen

Bentonville, Arkansas is the world headquarters of Wal-Mart and the hometown of Wal-Mart heir and philanthropist Alice Walton, a life-long art lover. So, when Ms. Walton decided to create a museum dedicated to American art and artists, it was natural that she should choose as its site a wooded ravine that she knew from her childhood.

When you think of the ultimate Hawaii road trip, places like Waikiki, Pearl Harbor and the Dole Plantation probably come to mind -- all of which are on the most-visited island, Oahu. That's just lazy journalism, which is why I headed to another Hawaiian Island with my family. And then, to raise the level of difficulty a little more, I went to the other side of the island.

Lynn Rosen takes us through the Chihuly Garden and Glass which showcases one of the Pacific Northwest's iconic artists - Dale Chihuly. The Glasshouse, home to an enormous glass flower sculpture inside, is flanked by his huge Sun sculpture in front of the cathedral-like conservatory.

Who we are: For brief bios on the writers who form this Pacific Northwest collective, please click here.