By RICH GRANT Feb. 22 marks the birthday of United States’ very first president, George Washington, a stately man renowned for his honesty, integrity and idealistic vision of democracy. But while much is known about Washington in his later years, it was during his earlier life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – the site which would eventually become the new nation’s first
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By RICH GRANT Every month, almost a million vehicles travel the 100 miles on Interstate 70 between Denver and Vail, Colorado. They zoom past gorgeous Rocky Mountain scenery at speeds up to 75 mph, burrow through the highest auto tunnel in North America, and switch back their way over the two-mile-high Vail Pass. But those in the know, slow
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By RICH GRANT WELLINGTON – The Lonely Planet travel guide books once called Wellington the “coolest capital city in the world,” an accolade the town loved so much, they made it their official slogan. And why not? New Zealand’s capital city is a pretty cool place, and the 300,000 people who live here know it. More than a quarter of
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BY RICH GRANT They say that no one buildings cities like Prague anymore, but that’s not quite true. Most of the gorgeous baroque, “Old Europe” city you see in the heart of Dresden, Germany, today is brand new, even though it appears to look centuries old. From medieval-looking back alleys to grand cathedrals, from an impressive baroque opera house to
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS An estimated 800,000 visitors — about 20 percent of whom will be international tourists — are expected to attend the 2020 carnival festival in the Yucatan capital of Mérida, said the city’s director of economic development and tourism, Eduardo Seijo Solis, during a press conference on Monday, Jan. 20. Headlining the festival will be the internationally acclaimed
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The Sacramento Union, the best newspaper on the West Coast, sent Mark Twain to the Sandwich Islands (as Hawaii was then called) and agreed to pay $20 for every letter or story he sent back
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By RICH GRANT With 25 million visitors a year, New York’s Central Park is the most popular green space in the United States – and the most recognizable. More than 200 films have been shot here. From romantic “Annie Hall” to blood-ridden “Death Wish,” from tender “Love Story” to brutal “Fatal Attraction,” Central Park is one of the biggest Hollywood
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By RICARDO CASTILLO 2020 News Forecasts An old adage used to say that someday news would travel so fast that we would know the facts about a news item even before it happened. I’ve got news for you; that’s no longer an adage. Hence, here’s a vague glimpse of the shape of news to come in Mexico during 2020, which
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BY RICH GRANT If Golden, Colorado, had put together just a little more money in 1869, it would have become the most famous city in the Rocky Mountains. The town was in a race against Denver to build Colorado’s first railroad. Golden was the capital of the Colorado Territory; Denver was an upstart – a frontier town of saloons and
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By RICH GRANT People who have never been to Indianapolis and assume it is just another dying, dull, rust- and corn-belt Midwest city could not be more mistaken. Indy is amazingly sophisticated, and getting better by the day. Indy’s very walkable downtown is green (with 350 acres of parks, rivers, tree-lined boulevards and canals), European (with impressive monuments and murals),
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