Exciting to find hieroglyphics on rock cliffs and caves, witnessing life through the eyes of people wandering and wondering eons ago.

That’s art telling a story of life observed and life lived. Photography and newspaper pages today carry on the urge to share explorations and experiences. Blogs do too.

The Tifton Gazette and I published 33 Celebrate Life with Travel stories in 2011, hoping our readers might find inspiration to connect with people elsewhere, and some specifics how to go about that.

Cities, resorts, scenic byways, nations and regions are easy to find, but discovery is harder. What’s behind the obvious? How does this place connect to my life? Will being here open new insights?

That’s what we tried to do all year long, and our 2012 agenda promises new outlooks, both bold and comforting.

I trust you and the tourism pros at convention and visitor bureaus to figure out the basics. My mission is adding new dimensions for both of us.

Here are mini essence-of-place recaps of some famous and some “who-knew” surprising destinations; find full stories on my web page and in the Tifton Gazette archives.    

Follow my trail as you can.

Oklahoma City

www.VisitOKC.com

Creativity’s exploding in Oklahoma City, a dynamic community rejoicing in its attractions and happily designing and funding more.

Downtown parks, gardens and walking trails, riverfront boathouses and water sports, water taxis and a renovated 1890s Army post now a bustling entertainment district called Bricktown.

Heritage matters here too, and the local claim to understand America’s character isn’t overstated when you go to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the memorial to the 1995 federal building bombing.

Cattle and cowboys, fine cuisine and the festival called Red Earth engaging the 67 Native American tribes living nearby — a few of many good reasons to visit.

Raleigh, N.C.

www.visitRaleigh.com

Eating and art are superb in Raleigh, and so are music, history and science.  Live music is easy to find in this North Carolina city with performances in 85 venues, large and small, with some of them always engaged.

A blockbuster grand opening April 20-21, 2012 will spin the Daily Planet into circulation, a creative, interactive science-based environmental center connected to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Eat bean-to-bar chocolate at Escazu, one of maybe 25 artisan chocolatiers in America who actually select their cacao bean suppliers and hand-process every other step to create bars, bonbons and hot chocolate.

Next door have lunch at Market, cuisine so fresh that local honeybees are buzzing on the roof.

Colorado’s

Southwest

www.mesaverdecountry.com

Ancestral Puebloan people in America’s west recognized home: that’s the space between earth and  sky. Spend some time in Mesa Verde National Park to know that yourself.

Cortez is the nearby town, brimming with farms, gardens, orchards and ranches, each one connecting me to the ancestral people who lived in these canyons, mesas, mountains and rolling sage plains a thousand years ago.

Launch your visit at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores to best understand this land National Geographic calls “Enchanting landscapes, enduring people.”

www.VisitMontrose.com

Contemplating the eons of time, and my place in them, is how I started a visit in southwest Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Montrose is the nearby community, a good base camp for day trips to Telluride, Durango and Crested Butte.

 Cliffs that are 1.8 billion years old are the source of astonishment on a National Park pontoon boat tour along the Gunnison River.

Access the Black Canyon two ways—South Rim and its fine visitor center from Montrose and North Rim from Delta County, including the charming tiny community Paonia.

California Trio

www.VisitCalifornia.com

San Francisco on the north and Santa Barbara on the south with a spectacular driving trip in between on the central California coast.

Take the Magic Bus in San Francisco, no matter what your memories of the ‘60s; this is professional theater, documentary, history. The only psychedelic part is the painting on the bus.

Take a boat on the Bay too; I sailed the triple-decker Red and White fleet under the Golden Gate Bridge and up close to Alcatraz. Where to sleep? Consider the boutique Hotel Rex near Union Square; 94 rooms, 1930s style with bikes in the lobby to borrow.

Soaring mountains and Pacific beaches bookend lovely Santa Barbara, a city of whitewashed buildings and red tile roofs.

After driving along the coast and inland a bit to see vast farms and vineyards, walking all over this pretty city suited me fine.

There’s even an urban walking wine trail, plus art museum, grand theaters and a handsome Spanish Moorish courthouse.

I stayed in the pleasant Bath Street Inn, and I visited the Canary Hotel, one of the Leading Small Hotels of the World.

To linger along the coast between these two cities, overnight in Pacific Grove and in San Luis Obispo, considered the happiest town in North America.

The Hearst Castle in San Simeon mixes huge big-vista views with close up art treasures. Surprising the depth of sights here.

Alabama Options

 www.huntsville.org

Huntsville is fueled by more than rocket power and Space Camp.  Local philanthropy and love of community show up all over, creating museums, theater, gardens and fine cuisine.

Some trace Huntsville’s local zeal for grand things to the 1950s when German scientists were moved to these rolling hills. Brilliant rocket science and high caliber music, dance, theater and art ensued, and endured.

$3 million renovated a 1900s textile mill now spectacular theater and dance hall. Fortune 500 claims 300 international hi-tech companies here.

www.gulfshores.com

Gulf Coast Alabama sports 32 miles of sandy white beaches and 130 miles of the national scenic byway.    

Meandering dropped me in Fairhope, a little city so charming and confident it was named Utopia in 1894.  Enjoy flowery parks and curbs, architecturally interesting neighborhoods and drive just three miles or so to dine, stroll or stay in the Grand Hotel in Point Clear.

I highly recommend a stop in Foley for the Railroad Museum and Magnolia Springs, population perhaps 600, to stroll under live oak canopied streets and overnight in the 1897 Bed and Breakfast.

    

Quebec City,

Canada

www.quebecregion.com

www.hoteldeglace-canada.com

A balmy 23 degrees it stayed in my room at the Ice Hotel in Quebec City; zero outside.

Four-foot thick snow walls carved with designs of butterflies, frogs, mountains and flowers in 36 sleeping rooms and beds of ice to accommodate 88 people.  This is no igloo but a sumptuous hotel, in its own way.

Fur pelts on ice chairs; Nordic sleeping bag delivered at bedtime. Lessons available on proper zipping up.

Before bed: drinks in the bar in ice glasses and body warming in the sauna and hot tub.

One night was fine but several days are needed to experience the Quebec Winter Carnival on the Plains of Abraham.

Dog sled racing, ice sliding, human foosball, zip line, ice carving competitions with gigantic sculpture, entertainment, grand food and drink and people watching.  

Mexico for Day of the Dead

www.festivaldevidaymuerte.com

The underworld was my destination for Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico’s Riviera Maya. I left behind my familiar Halloween heritage, as well as All Saints Day, to seek some truths others hold dear.

This trip included the dearly departed, in cemeteries where families gather in the city and the jungle for Dia de los Muertos, and in festivals such as Xcaret, and in archeological sites with Mayan guides.

People embracing ancient traditions of their ancestors, and inviting travelers like me to have a look, to feel a new spirit. This is a trip to consider the first of November.