Since 1950, This Pennsylvania Candy Shop Has Been Making Chocolate by Hand, but Its Future Was Once Uncertain
Five feet of floodwater can destroy a lot, but it cannot destroy a legacy. In Pennsylvania, a candy shop has been making chocolate by hand since 1950.
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This Oregon Stone Landmark Was Built For Travelers To Stop And Admire The Columbia River Gorge
Back in 1918, one of the fanciest rest stops in America sat 733 feet above a river. It had marble floors, stained glass, and a domed rotunda. Some folks even teased it as a very...
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10 Fall Sweet Spots In Virginia We’d Go Out Of Our Way To Try This Season
One of the fall bakeries I'm most excited about in Virginia is named after a 1954 Ford pickup truck. I love that an old red truck inspired a shop now famous for cakes and pies.
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Two Marine Veterans Help Run This Virginia Steakhouse, And Giving Back To Fellow Service Members Is Part Of Their Mission
Steaks aged for up to 70 days, plus a team that treats helping fellow service members as part of the job? That combo got my attention fast, and I bet it grabs yours too.
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12 New Jersey Places Built Around Someone’s Very Specific Obsession
Someone in this state built more than eight miles of model train track and wound it through a three-story building. Nobody asked him to.
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Maryland Has a Used Bookstore With a Name So Strange You’ll Want to Step Inside
The logo on this bookshop's sign shows a real aunt, pictured in her youth. Her book collection helped launch the whole store. That's...
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Hundreds of Carousel Horses Inspired the Decor at This Unusual California Chinese Restaurant
Carousel horses peek from the corners of a round building beside a desert highway, their painted eyes watching diners twirl pan-fried noodles and Kung Pao Chicken. A neon sign...
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This Ohio Restaurant Serves Family-Style Fried Chicken and Bottomless Sides Inside an 1860s Schoolhouse
I confess I almost drove right past it, thinking it was just another old brick building on a country road in southwest Ohio. Then I smelled fried chicken and noticed a parking...
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Opened In 1929, This Oklahoma Theater Still Dazzles Audiences With Its Wurlitzer Pipe Organ
You might roll past a plain stretch of old Main Street in northeast Oklahoma and never guess what waits behind one carved front door. Step inside, though, and the air turns cool,...
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Famous for Its Oversized Scoops, This California Ice Cream Shop Was Saved by a $2.3 Million Sale
Giant scoops that spill over the rim and demand a plan for sharing before the first bite. California has an ice cream shop famous for exactly that, and it has been scooping since...
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You Can Step Into A Re-Created Logging Camp At This Unexpected Minnesota Attraction
A lumberjack camp from the year 1900 still runs on rules like no fighting, with costumed crews ready to explain why. The cook shack, bunkhouse, and blacksmith shop all feel lived...
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This New Jersey Museum Preserves The Airport Where WWII Fighter Pilots Trained Before Heading Overseas
In 1941, the U.S. government named one small airfield America's First Defense Airport. That title still sounds like something out of a movie, and it belongs to a spot in South...
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What Started With 350 Plastic Pumpkins in South Carolina Now Includes Races With Homemade Coffins
Cheap plastic pumpkin buckets started it all. Three hundred and fifty of them, hung by hopeful folks in a small South Carolina town who just wanted a little holiday spirit.
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Just 26 Years Old, a Former Employee Bought This Nearly 100-Year-Old California Deli With Her Mother
Slicing salami and wrapping sandwiches behind a deli counter, a young worker never guessed she might own the whole place one day. Then her mother stepped in, and together they...
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Alabama Has a Museum Where You Can Step Into the Legacy of the State’s Only Federally Recognized Native Tribe
A museum does not need a giant dinosaur to surprise anyone. Sometimes a basket will do it. Or a piece of pottery. Or a stack...
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A Former Celebrity Chef Protégé Now Runs The Kitchen At This Virginia Steakhouse Known For Prime Beef
The chef running this steakhouse kitchen spent three years climbing from line cook to sous chef under a famous TV chef. That training now shows up on plates of Prime Certified...
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Virginia Beach Property Owners Fought To Keep The Public Off This Stretch Of Shoreline, And The Dispute Reached The State Supreme Court
A pile of sand pumped from a dredged inlet ended up in front of the Supreme Court of Virginia. That alone made me stop scrolling. Beach...
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When a California Grocery Store Faced Closure After Nearly 50 Years, a Former Google CEO Stepped In
Oranges and neighborhood trust do not usually make headlines, but this California story did. A small market that had served its community for fifty years was about to lock its...
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You Can Sleep In An 1896 Missouri Victorian With Feather Beds And Mississippi River Views
A lumber baron's son built this house in 1896, and you can still sleep under its roof tonight. The oak, cherry, and mahogany woodwork he chose is still right there.
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Nearly 20 Years After a Devastating Fire, This Pennsylvania Bakery’s Famous Name Made a Comeback
Cinnamon and smoke should not share the same memory. In Pennsylvania, they do. A devastating fire swept through a beloved bakery...
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This Minnesota Deli Makes It Easy To Bring Home A Taste Of Eastern Europe
A James Beard Foundation award went to a family sausage shop started by two Ukrainian refugees. That shop is still owned by the same family today. I love that kind of staying power.
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This Massive Go-Kart Track in Alabama Will Take You on an Exhilarating Fun Ride
There is always one person who says, “I am just here for fun.” Watch the scoreboard. This Alabama indoor track has a way of turning casual outings into very serious racing...
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Somewhere In This Packed Oklahoma Game Shop Sits The Console You Begged For As A Kid
Some stores look like nothing from the street, and then you open the door and lose an entire afternoon. That is the kind of surprise waiting in one crowded Oklahoma shop where...
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Starting Work at Age 5, This Pennsylvania Man Helped Build a Grocery Business With Over 5,000 Italian Products
Five years old is an age for playgrounds and cartoons, not for stocking shelves and learning the grocery trade. But one Pennsylvania man began working at that age, and the business...
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Overtourism Is Totally Destroying Our Beloved Indiana Bridge Vacation Routes
More than 2 million people squeeze into one rural county for a ten-day festival about wooden bridges. That's not a typo. It's...
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Some Folks Swear This West Virginia Fabric Shop Turns One Spool Of Thread Into A Whole Afternoon
Over 7,000 bolts of quilt fabric sit under one roof, and the building used to be a dairy. That alone made me stop and stare at my screen.
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This Massive 7-Day-A-Week Indiana Indoor Flea Market Warehouse Takes Over 3 Hours To Fully Walk
One shopper said it took literally three hours to get through this place. Three hours, and that was just walking the booths, not hauling home a dresser.
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The Cheeseburgers At This Century-Old No-Frills Indiana Diner Are Voted Best In Region
Old English cheese melts over a hand-formed patty of more than a quarter pound of lean beef. That is the cheeseburger this diner has built its name on, and it is cooked to order...
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11 Missouri Restaurants Where Generous Portions And Homemade Food Still Come First
A Missouri restaurant tosses hot dinner rolls across the dining room, and diners catch them midair. I love that detail so much. It...
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Back When Dinner Cost $1.50, This South Carolina Seafood Restaurant Was Already Serving Families
Back when dinner cost a dollar and fifty cents, cars had fins and televisions were brand new. Picture a seafood platter piled high with fried fish, hushpuppies, and coleslaw, served...
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This Texas Restaurant Serves Authentic Palestinian Food Worth Driving Across Town For
Fried chicken dusted with sumac once landed a nod from Southern Living, and it comes from a Middle Eastern kitchen. Honestly, that combo alone made me instantly hungry.
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Over A Million Lights Wrap The Old Mill Town Of Chickasha Every Christmas, And Families Stroll It For Free
I only planned to stop for gas and a cup of cocoa on a cold December drive through Oklahoma. Then the sky over a quiet park started glowing like someone had spilled a jar of stars...
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Five Kinds of Meat, 11 Pounds of Pizza, and Just One Hour to Finish It at This Georgia Pizzeria
Eleven pounds of pizza and one hour to finish it sounds less like dinner and more like a dare. Georgia has a pizzeria that hands teams a timer, a partner, and a pie heavier than...
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Here’s Where West Virginia’s Tallest Waterfall Drops Through A Mossy Canyon In Fayette County
An entire river, not a creek or a trickle, tumbles over a rocky ledge just a couple of miles after it's born. That river forms when two famous rivers meet, and it starts working...
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Oregon Has A Harbor So Small That Its Name Sounds Like A Joke
The whole harbor covers about six acres, and boats reach it through a rocky channel roughly 50 feet wide. That's narrower than some backyard pools are long. Captains still thread...
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This Underrated Ohio Seafood Buffet Serves Crab, Crawfish, And Sushi At Dinner For One All-You-Can-Eat Price
I walked past a plain strip mall storefront assuming it was just another lunch stop, and I was wrong in the best possible way. This Ohio seafood buffet hides crab legs, whole crawfish,...
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Unlimited Pizza Comes With Go-Karts And Laser Tag At This Oklahoma Family Fun Spot
We only stopped because the kids were hungry and the parking lot looked big enough to hold half of Oklahoma. Inside, the smell of hot pizza hit first, then the hum of engines and...
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Whole Families Once Lived in An Abandoned Coal Mining Town Now In Ruins in West Virginia
Eight hundred and twenty-one wooden steps drop down a mountainside to reach what's left of this old coal operation. Then, of course, you climb every single one of them back up.
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This Texas Farm Market Sells Fresh Eggs, Local Produce, And Goods Straight From The Countryside
Sam Houston once ate a wedding supper at this farmhouse in 1841. He reportedly declared that the eating doings were first rate. That...
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Some Of Oklahoma’s Best Chicken Fried Steak Hides Inside These 6 Small-Town Gas Stations
I only pulled over for gas and a bathroom break, but the smell of hot gravy stopped me cold at the door. Twenty minutes later, I was staring at a chicken fried steak bigger than...
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Every Single Treat On The Menu Is Gluten-Free At This Oklahoma Cottage Bakery
I went looking for a cinnamon roll I could actually eat and ended up finding a whole kitchen full of them. Out on a quiet country road in Oklahoma, a small home bakery is turning...
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From Lakeside Strolls To Steep Climbs, These 8 Oklahoma Trails Show Off Fall
Some of the best fall color in Oklahoma hides at the end of a short gravel road you almost skipped. You pull over expecting a quick leg stretch, and an hour later you are standing...
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Before The Interstate Came Through, Travelers Slept At This Hawks Nest Overlook Lodge Above New River
Ospreys once crowded a rocky cliff high above a roaring West Virginia river, and old-timers called them fish hawks. The birds moved on long ago.
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Retirees Get A Quiet River Town, Brick Sidewalks And Cheap Rent In This City in West Virginia
A shiny, red-eyed winged creature stands guard over one of the calmest downtowns in West Virginia. Nobody seems worried. In fact,...
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A Texas Restaurant Brings The Flavors Of Istanbul To Life With Authentic Turkish Food And Generous Portions
One platter on this menu is built for two people and carries chicken kebab, beef kebab, gyro, and Turkish meatballs all at once. That's not dinner.
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This Enormous Oklahoma Flea Market Fills A Whole Saturday With Treasure Hunting
I only meant to grab a coffee and poke around for twenty minutes, maybe find an old sign for the garage. Three hours later I was still wandering aisle after aisle, holding a bag...
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The Oldest Oil Field Town In West Virginia Once Had A Bank Built For Overnight Millionaires
In 1898, a sleepy river town of about 600 people suddenly had roughly 7,000. Oil had gushed from a nearby hollow, and fortunes reportedly showed up faster than the mail.
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This Missouri Steakhouse Serves A Massive 64-Ounce Bone-In Prime Rib
Sixty-four ounces of bone-in prime rib. That's four pounds of beef on one plate, and the menu says you can't split it. I can't...
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This Texas Bookstore Is Packed With Amazing Books And Hidden Finds That Could Keep Readers Busy For Hours
A bookstore that took its name from Fahrenheit 451 sounds like a dare. Then you learn it fills 40,000 square feet across two levels.
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A Little Taste Of Switzerland Comes With Chocolates And Pastries At This Missouri Café
A Swiss pastry chef once wrote and published a recipe book to help pay for his dream of opening a chocolate shop. That book was called Schweizer Konfect, and the dream worked.
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This New Jersey House Turns Its Front Yard Into A Walk-Through Halloween Nightmare
A skeleton dinner party is set up on someone's front lawn, and nobody seems to be leaving. The guests have been sitting there for years.
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9 West Virginia Spots Where Pinto Beans And Coffee Still Feel Like 1965
Ask for pinto beans in a lot of West Virginia diners, and the menu may call them brown beans instead. Same humble bean, different name, and folks here know exactly what you mean.
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A Tiny New Jersey Bread Shop Grew Into One Of The State’s Most Beloved Italian Bakeries
The family matriarch reportedly started her bakery mornings around 4 AM, long before most customers were awake. Most of us can't even find our car keys at that hour.
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Indiana’s Best-Kept Road Trip Secret: A Free 90-Minute Tram Tour Through A Massive 4.5 Million Sq-Ft Automotive Plant
Thousands of pickup truck parts hang from a ceiling here, frozen in midair like a giant exploded diagram. A six-person team spent six months building that display.
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This Hidden Indiana Fall Escape Has So Few Crowds You Will Feel It Is A Secret
A waterfall here actually bulges outward instead of falling straight down. It's called a convex cascade, and I can't stop thinking about how odd and wonderful that sounds.
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This Missouri Discount Grocery Makes Stocking The Freezer Feel Like Finding A Bargain
Frozen scallops at a discount grocery. Buy one, get one deals that sometimes cost just a dollar for the second item. That combo...
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This Texas Restaurant Brings Sushi, Hibachi, And Asian Favorites Together For An All-You-Can-Eat Feast
Snow crab legs, hibachi steak, salmon sashimi, and crème brûlée can all land on the same table in one meal. Nobody hands you a bill per plate either.
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This Oregon Bakery Specializes In A Classic Treat That Deserves More Attention Than It Gets
A great-grandmother's shortbread recipe from Edinburgh, Scotland, is still being baked in small batches today. It traveled across an ocean and landed in a cozy Oregon shop. I love...
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This Missouri Tortilla Bakery Won A James Beard Award For Outstanding Bakery
A tortilla shop with a three-ingredient corn recipe won the 2023 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bakery. Corn, lime, and water. That's...
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