Great Plains Gallivanting
The sky in Lubbock sprawls from horizon to horizon, soaring overhead like the sandhill cranes that pass through twice a year.
Telling the South Texas Story
The freight courier and ox-drawn cart in the entryway of the new Robert J. and Helen C.
What’s Cooking?
Since I began taking cooking classes a few years ago, I’ve learned how to finely dice an onion with a few strategic knife cuts, how to use a pillowcase as a makeshift salad spinner, and how Elizabethan chefs relied on fleetÂfooted canines called turnspit dogs to power their rotating barbecue spits.
Love and Lammes
Austin’s 125-year-old Lammes Candies cranks out about a quarter-million pounds of mouth-watering chocolates each year using ingredients such as peanuts, cashews, roasted almonds, carÂamel, orange peels, peppermints, and habanero peppers.
What’s New at the Pearl
When we first reported on the redevelopment of San Antonio’s former Pearl Brewery site in 2010, the 22-acre complex-at the northernmost navigable point of the San Antonio River-was beginning to fill in with shops, restaurants, and activiÂties ranging from a weekly farmer’s market to cooking classes at the new Texas campus of the Culinary Institute of America.
Life Returns to the Chisos High Country
Wow, That’s Neat!
It’s no secret that Dallas prefers big, bold, and flashy diversions. The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science answers the call, while also mixing in a healthy dose of education and innovation.
Raising the Bar on Chocolate
Chocolate has become synonymous with the month of February. Like the Aztec Emperor MontÂezuma, who is said to have drunk more than 50 cups of liquid chocolate daily for its aphrodisiacal properties, those looking to express sweet sentiments or celebrate love have long extolled chocolate in its many forms.
Hotel Settles, built by one oil boom, could flourish in another
With the recent reopening of the Hotel Settles in Big Spring, I couldn’t help but wonder about the viability of such a hotel in the remote West Texas town.
Salvaged from decay, historic Hotel Settles reopens in Big Spring
If you’ve driven through Big Spring in the past few weeks, you probably noticed the red neon Hotel Settles sign, shining like a beacon over the city and the surrounding West Texas plains.
Galaxy Quest
The summit of Mount Locke, home to McDonald Observatory, pokes into a particularly isolated patch of the rural West Texas sky, making it a very dark place to be on a moonless night.
Where’s Martha? (Marfa)
This exchange happens often, and because I actually worked to build tourism in Marfa, it still surprises me that many folks—especially Texans—don’t know about Marfa. After all, it’s mentioned regularly in The New York Times as well as in countless international publications. Marfa is a regular stop for art pilgrims and patrons from all over the world, and the town serves as a getaway for celebrities and experienced travelers.
