Cam Scoggins
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Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
Tucked along the vibrant shores of Waikiki in Oahu, Hawaii, Duke Kahanamoku Beach is a sun-soaked paradise named after the legendary Hawaiian surfer and Olympian. Crowned the #1 beach in America by Dr. Beach, this pristine stretch boasts soft golden sands, gentle turquoise waves, and stunning views of Diamond Head. Perfect for families, swimmers, and…
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Climbing Mount Baldhead with My Son: 303 Steps, a Cold War Radar Tower, and the Story of Saugatuck
Some hikes are about the view. This one was about the two of us getting to the top of Mount Mount Baldhead(aka Mt. Baldy) together. The day before we made our climb, my wife Deedie was at the base of the stairs and watched a 92-year-old woman make the entire climb with a little help…
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The Day Rock ‘n’ Roll Got a Home: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Opens in Cleveland
On September 1, 1995, a glass pyramid rising out of the shore of Lake Erie officially opened its doors, and Cleveland, Ohio became the permanent home of rock ‘n’ roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s dedication ceremony that day kicked off a Labor Day weekend celebration that the city had been chasing for…
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Helen, Georgia’s Oktoberfest: America’s Longest-Running Bavarian Party
by Dow ScogginsTucked into the Blue Ridge foothills of North Georgia, the little town of Helen throws a party every fall that outlasts every other Oktoberfest in the country. What began as a scrappy reinvention of a fading lumber town has grown into a two-month celebration of polka, pretzels, and beer — and it’s been…
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Join the 60th Annual Oktoberfest in Hamilton, Ohio
Long before “Oktoberfest” became a marketing gimmick slapped on every pumpkin-spice-adjacent beer release, the Liberty Home German Society in Hamilton, Ohio was already doing the real thing. This weekend they’re celebrating their 60th annual Oktoberfest, making it one of the longest continuously running Oktoberfest celebrations in the entire United States — older than the Super…
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Best Places to See Manatees in the Wild in Florida
There’s something almost magical about spotting a manatee — these slow-motion “sea cows” drift through warm coastal waters like they’ve got nowhere to be and all day to get there. Once hunted nearly to extinction, manatees have made a real comeback thanks to protected refuges, springs, and lagoons across Florida, Belize, and Mexico. Grab your…
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Explore Ohio’s Best Corn Mazes This Fall
Ohio takes its corn seriously, and every fall the state’s farms turn thousands of acres of it into some of the best amateur cartography in the country. From pop-culture tributes cut into eight-acre cornfields to a maze shaped like the entire state of Ohio, these mazes are proof that getting delightfully lost is one of…
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The 25 Biggest College Football Stadiums in America (And What Makes Each One Wonderfully Insane)
Forget the pros for a second. No NFL stadium on earth can match the sheer, unhinged devotion packed into a college football Saturday. These aren’t just stadiums — they’re small cities that materialize eight or nine times a year, complete with their own traffic jams, tailgate economies, and 100,000 people who will lose their minds…
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Whitewater Memorial State Park: A Perfect Family Paddle in Liberty, Indiana
Cam and I made the short drive to Whitewater Memorial State Park in Indiana for a Labor Day weekend adventure at Whitewater Lake. What a beautiful little lake — quiet enough that we only counted a handful of other boats out on the water and a few families scattered along the beach. It was a…
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Top 10 Oldest Oktoberfest Celebrations in the USA
Long before “Oktoberfest” became a marketing buzzword slapped on every brewery’s fall menu, a handful of American towns were already tapping kegs, firing up polka bands, and squeezing into lederhosen every autumn. Some started as chamber-of-commerce publicity stunts, others as pure German-immigrant homesickness, but all of them have outlasted fads, recessions, and at least one…
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Niagara Falls State Park – America’s First State Park
Long before Yosemite became a national park, before Congress had even settled on what a “state park” should look like, New York did something no state had ever done before: in 1885, it used the power of government to save a piece of jaw-dropping scenery purely because it was beautiful. That single decision created Niagara…