Andy Murdock

Songs and places: How do they become linked in our travel memories? The Statesider’s Andy Murdock looks back at the songs he connects to specific places and times.

Celebrating 100 years of A&W Root Beer in California, founded in Lodi in 1919.

If you’ve ever spent too much time on a long flight staring at an in-flight magazine, tracing the arcing lines of a route map, dreaming of the destinations you could potentially fly to, this is the article for you.

The places that hit peak beauty at the chilliest times of year are at their best for a short length of time. So grab your parka, embrace the chill and be one of the few to see these rare moments of winter wonder.

In 1864, Gold Rush millionaire Samuel Brannan had train tracks laid up the Napa Valley, in hopes of luring locals and travelers north from San Francisco to his new Calistoga spa resort. At first, his bright idea went over like a bottle of flat champagne.

California has more than twice as many guitar makers as any other state. That’s good news for guitar players, woodworkers or anyone who’s simply curious to see how things are made, because many of these guitar makers are happy to show you their craft up close, from the traditional art to how California continues to shape the way the world sees and plays guitars.

Why do we feel more adventurous, more outgoing, more like your true selves when we travel? Alex Leviton wonders why we’ve convinced ourselves that we can’t tap into those feelings closer to home.

I was thrilled to get to work with Impossible Foods again this year on their 2019 Impact Report. Their in-house design team knocked it out of the park.

Ready for a botanical adventure you won’t forget? From vast sweeps of color to brief bursts of brilliance, take your pick from these prime flower-spotting destinations across America.

Many rural towns in California once had small Chinatowns; Locke is unique in that it’s nothing but Chinatown.

Teens. OMG. What on earth is going on inside their brains to make them act so, well, like crazy teenagers?

The USA: Land of 1000 pies. Also: Chasing Mardi Gras Indians, gas station grub, and America’s music cities. Also, pie.

If you browse through lists of the most popular family destinations, you might notice a few patterns: many are purely kid-focused and you’d be excused for not being able to tell some of them apart. But popularity isn’t everything.

Everybody and their brother’s barber seems to have an idea about where you should go in 2019. How do you make sense of “Best of” lists?