Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland is a Frankenmuth landmark - and a holiday legend
Know anyone who collects nutcrackers? They'll go crazy!
Just how holiday crazy are you? Chances are, even if you think you are a Christmas-a-holic you'll still find Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan a little overwhelming. Bronner's has the distinction of being the largest Christmas store in the world, taking up about five and a half football fields. This is a place that is all Christmas, all the time. But is it more madness than magic? Here's what it's like to dive into the depths of a winter wonderland.
Hampton, Virginia's annual Blackbeard Festival would bring out the adventure in anyone!
I'm not a very adventurous girl and it's safe to say I don't go out of my way to hang out with a particularly adventurous crowd. Nope, it's safe and sedate all the way for me. The very opposite of what a swash buckling, grog swilling, plank walking pirate would do! So with the hopes of catching some of their infectious enthusiasm, I headed to Hampton, Virginia to participate in the annual Blackbeard Festival and become a pirate for the day.
Often just called the Hampton pirate festival, I think Blackbeard himself would be proud the city. Hampton is the ideal place to get into the spirit of things, as the region played host to the infamous pirate Blackbeard's final stand in 1718. When four girls converged on Whitewater Village, we had recipes for cookies - and fun!
My recipes sheets might be stained and tattered but I'm so glad I've hung onto them for all these years.
What do you think happens when four women, who haven't let their hair down in a long time, get together for a weekend retreat with no men allowed? There's a wee bit of wine, a heaping serving of gossip, and a whole lotta food! Add in a gorgeous cottage in the pristine setting of the Ottawa Valley and you have a recipe for adventure and fun (and hopefully not too much mischief)! I was eager to add my own kind of recipe into this mix - of the gooey, indulgent, Christmas cooking kind - and was keen to share some festive treats with my girlfriends.
When Harrisburg and Hershey fight for chocolate dominance, we all win!
Three flavors of homemade ice cream - including chocolate! - at 231 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
It's the job of a travel blogger to shine a light on the unsung and overlooked gems of the world and it's a job I take seriously - especially when it comes to chocolate. Really, what kind of person would I be if I didn't dedicate myself entirely to the cause? And in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the plight of chocolate is most grave indeed. Overshadowed by the cocoa scented air of their sister city, Hersey, it almost felt that the chocolate desserts of Harrisburg NEEDED me there to tell their story. One delicious mouthful at a time.
Of course, I have nothing against Hersey per se - in fact, it's quite the opposite. And if one day I am duty bound to tour a chocolate factory, soak in a chocolate spa, and drink chocolate cocktails, I'm sure I'll muster my strength and rise to the occasion. But there's only so much heroism that can fit into a weekend escape and I was proud to dedicate my Herculean efforts to Harrisburg. The tiny village of Ville-sur-Haine carries a huge WWI memory: The final moments of Canadian George Price.
The George Price footbridge spans the canal Price crossed from Havre to Ville-Sur-Haine in 1918.
The Belgian village of Ville-sur-Haine has yet to make it into any travel guides. It has no entries on TripAdvisor and evenWikipedia gives it less than a dozen lines. In short, this is a village you don't stumble upon by accident. It's an ordinary place filled with ordinary people - whose ordinary lives were at center of the storm throughout the First World War. I couldn't help but think that every farm, every house we passed had been an unwilling host for so much suffering.
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