Take a Walk with Birkenstock

Driving through the Midwest you encounter giant wind turbines, taller than the Statue of Liberty, pumping electricity into the grid. One hundred years ago, and even more ubiquitous, were the smalle...

The town of Winterset, Iowa is part of greater metropolitan Des Moines. However, with a population around 5,300 people, the town definitely has a rural feel to it. The farmland surrounding the to...

In the words of Georgia O'Keeffe, Palo Duro Canyon "is a burning, seething cauldron, filled with light and color." It is most certainly hot in the summertime, an extra 10 degrees hotter than tem...

The large, glossy, black Chihuahuan raven in our photo is a bit of an interloper, a tourist like us humans in White Sands National Park. The raven is a common site throughout the desert Southwes...

Last week we featured the lobby and hallways of DC's historic Willard Hotel. This week we are off to the magical city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, home to art galleries, fabulous restaurants, scenery,...

The historic columns of the Willard Hotel are now decked out in holiday cheer. There has been a hotel at this location since 1816. Rightly so, due to its location being just a 15-minute walk to t...

A Cloister is a covered walkway or open arcade surrounding a courtyard.  Enclosed within the perimeter walls, the cloister and courtyard are a controlled introspective environment. In a monastery,...

Last week our Take a Walk with Birkenstock series took us to the Estancia Basin in New Mexico and the ruins of the pueblo town Quarai. This week we will take a visual tour of Gran Quivira. At an...

Where is your favorite spot?   One of my favorite spots is the 4th row center seat in the Post Playhouse at Fort Robinson State Park in Nebraska's Panhandle. For decades, we have had the pleas...