My Family Travels | Latest Articles
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We Found An Authentic New York Pizza Slice Right Here In New Hampshire, Surprisingly

You do not expect to find New York style pizza in New Hampshire, and that is a reasonable assumption to make. But you would be wrong.

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The Massive Western Maryland Country Store Where You Can Lose An Entire Afternoon

Country stores are supposed to be small. A quick stop for a snack or a few essentials. But this Western Maryland spot is different....

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Down A Quiet New Jersey Road Is An Orchard With More Than 100 Years Of History

Listen, I have been to a lot of farms, but this one feels different. A New Jersey orchard where the apple trees have been...

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10 South Carolina Places Where Nature Is Slowly Taking Back Pieces of the State’s Industrial Past

Old stone walls losing an argument with sweetgum roots and water rushing over dams that no longer power anything, that is the kind of quiet I keep chasing across South Carolina....

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This Oregon Cafe Is Serving Up Authentic Portuguese Breakfast That Tastes Like a Trip to Lisbon

You don't need a plane ticket to taste the flavors of Portugal. This Oregon cafe brings Lisbon to your table with a breakfast menu that feels like a discovery. The dishes are simple,...

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A Suspension Bridge Hangs Along Three Miles Of Shaded Trails At This Oklahoma Nature Park

The wooden planks bounce a little as you step onto the bridge. It hangs over a ravine in a suburban park, a surprise you do not expect to find in the middle of town.

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Bald Eagles And More Than 300 Bird Species Can Be Spotted Along This Ten-Mile Missouri Wildlife Drive

A wall of honking snow geese so loud you laugh out loud in your own car. That is the first thing that hits you on the gravel loop at a Missouri wildlife refuge, a place where the...

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This No-Fuss West Virginia Restaurant Serves Spaghetti Locals Savor Slowly, Bite By Bite

Some of the best meals in West Virginia hide behind plain storefronts you might drive right past. Tucked near the capitol, one little Italian spot has been simmering the same red...

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Step Into The 1800s At This Beautifully Preserved New Jersey Stagecoach Stop

The floorboards creak under your feet, and the walls hold stories from the late 1700s. This stagecoach stop was constructed...

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This West Virginia Humane Society Gives Homeless Dogs and Cats a Real Second Chance at a Home

Tucked along a quiet road in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle sits a place that most folks drive right past without a second thought. Behind its modest doors, though, lives a...

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One of California’s Most Famous Route 66 Signs Still Glows Where a Desert Motel Once Welcomed Travelers

That big boomerang sign rose out of the California desert flatness like something the heat had dreamed up, and I spotted it miles off, floating above the shimmer long before I...

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Alabama’s Most Scenic Water Shortcut: The 40-Minute Island Day Trip You Need to Take

The engine shuts off. The seagulls get louder. Your car is still technically in the middle of a road trip, except the road...

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11 Minnesota Places That Prove the Midwest Can Be Seriously Weird

The Midwest has a reputation for being polite, predictable, and full of casseroles. But dig a little deeper, and Minnesota reveals a delightfully strange side.

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10 Virginia Amish Restaurants Serving The Kind Of Old Fashioned Cooking Worth Sitting Down For

Amish cooking is not about trends or fancy plating. It is about hearty meals, fresh ingredients, and recipes that have been passed down for generations.

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This Charming Virginia Town Near The Appalachian Trail Feels Made For A Mountain Getaway

Some towns are made for passing through. You stop for gas, grab a snack, and keep moving. This Virginia town is not one of those...

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Few Markets Feel As Old-School As This Nearly Century-Old New Jersey Butcher Shop

You know a place is the real deal when it has been around for nearly a century and still feels like it belongs to another time. This...

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9 Texas Hill Country Fabric Shops Packed With Trims, Notions, And Bolts You Cannot Find Online

Scrolling online will only get you so far. You cannot feel the texture of a cotton, match the color of a thread, or discover a trim you did not know existed until you see it in...

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This Amish country pretzel shop in Lancaster twists every one by hand

Some of the best food in Pennsylvania hides in plain sight, tucked into a busy market where you might just walk right past it. Picture a small counter where dough gets twisted...

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This California Roadside Attraction Has Been Making Travelers Question Gravity Since 1949

The air smelled like damp bark and old wood when I pulled off a California highway expecting a quick stretch of the legs and maybe a photo with a big wooden statue. What I got...

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This Oregon Christmas Store Is A Year-Round Tradition, Even When It Is 80 Degrees Outside

Feeling festive in the middle of summer heat sounds unlikely almost anywhere else. This Oregon store makes it happen anyway, running its entire operation like December never actually...

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More Than A Dozen Scratch-Made Pie Flavors Fill The Case At This Oklahoma Bakery

A glass case glows with the promise of something sweet. Towering meringue pies stand next to fruit-filled classics. A glossy...

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This Missouri Restaurant Is Built Into A Massive Rock Cliff With The Stone Wall Exposed Inside

The road curved, the trees opened up, and there it was: a low building tucked right under a giant rock ledge, with train tracks running out front and a creek slipping past just...

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This New Jersey Arts Center Was A Family Farm That Became A Creative Oasis For All Ages

You would never guess it from the outside. A 176-acre farm that once raised chickens turned into a creative oasis for thousands of people.

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A Victorian Georgia Mansion Escaped Demolition and Came Back With a Restaurant Beneath It

Creamy yellow brick and a pointed slate roof rose above a Georgia street like the mansion owned the whole block, and I slowed down to stare the first time I spotted it.

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The Ultimate Indiana Roadside Pit Stop: A 1950s Chrome Diner with Car-Themed Mini-Golf and Free Coffee

The scorecard says 3. The person holding it says 12. Nobody is willing to discuss the discrepancy. That is one way an ordinary...

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This Hidden Indiana Chapel Looks Exactly Like a Postcard From the European Countryside

A postcard from Europe would probably look less convincing. There is the stone chapel. The wooded hill. The tiny rise in the...

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This Quiet Virginia Overlook Opens Onto An Endless Sea Of Blue Ridge Mountains

You park the car, walk a few steps, and then the ground drops away. The view opens up into an endless sea of Blue Ridge Mountains, ridge after ridge fading into the distance.

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This Small Town Virginia Ice Cream Shop Has The Strangest Fall Flavors You’ll Ever Try

You expect pumpkin spice in the fall. Maybe apple cider. But maple bacon? Sweet corn and blackberry?

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This Texas Greenhouse Café Turns Brunch Into A Garden Escape Led By An Acclaimed Chef

Brunch among the plants. That is the appeal of this Texas greenhouse café. Sunlight pours in through the glass ceiling, the...

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This Georgia Restaurant Started With No Stove, So Hot Meals Had to Arrive by Taxi

Fried chicken and a taxi story, that is what I came for and what I left with from that Georgia spot. Back in 1947, two brothers opened a tiny 30-seat restaurant with no stove and...

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A Georgia Hotel Room Has Been Tied to One Ghost Story for Decades, and Guests Can Still Book It

Wide old planks creaked like they were trying to tell me something the first time I walked into that Savannah hotel, and I had come for the squares and the Spanish moss.

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This Oregon Trail Leads To Gorgeous Fall Foliage And Late September Is The Perfect Time To Go

Fall foliage usually means driving hours toward somewhere crowded and photographed to death. This Oregon trail offers something better, color without the chaos most leaf peeping...

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A South Carolina Town Was Burned and Abandoned in 1781, but Its Star-Shaped Fort Still Survives

More than a thousand acres of quiet green fields in South Carolina hold one of the strangest survivors of the Revolutionary War, and I pulled off the highway expecting a small...

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This Small Indiana Town Is Widely Considered the Ultimate Capital of Autumn Colors

The leaves are not helping with navigation. Every road looks good. Every ridge looks better. Every bend reveals another wall...

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11 Beloved West Virginia Farmers Markets Where $35 Buys More Than You’d Ever Expect

There's a certain thrill in pulling up to a modest little market in West Virginia and walking out with your arms so full you can barely find your keys. A single crumpled bill can...

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10 Middle-of-Nowhere Alabama Barbecue Joints Worth Every Drop of Gas

The gas gauge is getting nervous. The passengers are getting nervous. The driver keeps saying, “It has to be up here somewhere.”...

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This Cozy Alabama European-Style Patisserie Bakes Croissants So Flaky You’d Swear You Were in Paris

The croissant leaves evidence. A few flakes on the plate. A few on your shirt. At least one somehow ends up in the keyboard...

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This Quiet Virginia Coastal Town Has The Best Early Fall Oysters

Fall in Virginia brings cooler weather, changing leaves, and something else worth celebrating. Oysters. The waters along the...

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A 1920s Ohio Freighter Became a House Perched Above Lake Erie Instead of Ending Up as Scrap

A white block of steel and portholes sat perched on a cliff above Lake Erie in Ohio, and from the deck of a ferry, my brain took a second to catch up.

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Enjoy Lakeside Dining With Unforgettable Views At This Beautiful Maryland Hideaway You’ll Want to Keep Secret

There is something wonderfully unfair about a restaurant where the scenery makes it difficult to pay proper attention to the food. This Maryland lakeside hideaway combines dinner...

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An Ohio Quarry Once Supplied Stone for a Growing City, and Its Abandoned Kilns Still Stand in the Woods

A gravel road in Ohio led to a sandstone wall taller than a house, and I pulled in expecting a quick walk in the woods. I...

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This Quiet West Virginia Town Lets Retirees Live Comfortably On A Social Security Check Alone

Some of the best places to grow older aren't the ones splashed across glossy retirement brochures. Tucked into the mountains of West Virginia sits a small county seat where a monthly...

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This Charming French Bakery In Minnesota Serves Pastries That Taste Like Paris

Real French pastries rarely turn up outside major cities, let alone somewhere unexpected like this. Yet here they are, buttery and precise, tasting like something pulled straight...

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Families pack this Pittsburgh sandwich shop for fries piled inside the bun

Some places surprise you the moment you take your first bite, and this spot in Pennsylvania does exactly that. Picture a sandwich stuffed with meat, melted cheese, tangy coleslaw,...

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This Texas Theater Still Glows Beneath A Giant Neon Sign From The Golden Age Of Movies

Modern movie theaters are very good at reclining seats and enormous soda cups, but they rarely greet you with a towering neon sign that looks like the evening should require a...

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West Virginia Locals Line Up At This Hole-In-The-Wall Spot For What They Swear Is The Best Breakfast In The State

Some of the best meals in West Virginia hide in the places you'd drive right past without a second look. Tucked into a corner most folks don't expect, there's a little breakfast...

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A Texas Trail Winds Through A Forest Where Some Trees Are More Than 100 Feet Tall

Texas is not always the first place people picture when somebody says “towering forest,” which makes walking beneath trees higher than a ten-story building feel like a pretty...

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6 Pennsylvania creameries where you watch the cows before your cone

There's something magical about eating ice cream just steps from the animals that made it possible. All across Pennsylvania, tucked between rolling pastures and weathered barns,...

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West Virginia Locals Keep Driving Across The State For The Golden Hash Browns At This No-Frills Diner

Some cravings sneak up on you when you least expect them, and in West Virginia there's one dish that has folks planning whole road trips just to get a plate. Tucked off the interstate,...

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This Gigantic West Virginia Vintage Store Lets $45 Fill Your Whole Backseat With Treasures

Some of the best places in West Virginia hide behind small, humble storefronts that give you no clue about the wonders waiting inside. Picture a modest little shop that keeps unfolding,...

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7 Things Only True West Virginians Know That Go Way Beyond Knowing Country Roads

Everybody can hum along to that famous song about country roads, but real West Virginians carry a whole treasure chest of knowledge that outsiders never quite catch. From a lunch...

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One Of Texas’ Most Old Fashioned Butcher Shops Also Happens To Make A Seriously Fresh Burger

Buying burger meat from a butcher shop is sensible. Having the butcher skip a few steps and cook the burger for you is considerably more efficient.

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This Oklahoma Greenhouse Packs 2,100 Square Feet With Cacti And Succulents

Step through the door and the air shifts, dryer and warmer, like a sudden trip to the desert. Thousands of spiky silhouettes stretch across two thousand square feet, a living collection...

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11 New Jersey Markets Hiding Surprisingly Serious Bakery Counters

The bakery counters that sneak up on you are always the best ones. Across New Jersey, there are markets that look ordinary...

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This West Virginia Wildlife Refuge Hides Dozens of WWII TNT Bunkers Where Mothman Sightings Began

Some places in West Virginia look quiet on the surface, then quietly knock the wind out of you once you start walking. Picture a stretch of farmland and swamp where grass-covered...

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Few Hikers Talk About This Rugged New Jersey Forest Near The State Line

Most hikers stick to the well-known trails. They miss this place entirely. A 2,000-acre forest in New Jersey that is accessible...

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This Family-Owned Indiana Specialty Store Is A Massive BBQ Equipment & Grilling Supply Paradise

Someone comes in for barbecue sauce. Thirty minutes later, they are comparing smokers. Then thermometers. Then grilling tools.

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This Indiana Amish Country Discount Grocery Has Become A Go-To Spot For Thrifty Families

“Do we need that?” “No.” “Are we getting it?” Obviously. That conversation could happen several times during one shopping trip here.

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Only Three Graves Sit Inside This Tiny Oklahoma Cemetery On The Former 101 Ranch

A hilltop overlooking a river holds the final resting place of just three people. That is all that remains of a burial ground meant for hundreds.

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10 Upcoming Fall Festivals In Minnesota You’ll Want On Your Calendar

Marking a calendar early makes fall feel like it's already arrived, and a handful of festivals across Minnesota this year justify getting excited that soon.

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