by Susan E. Frost



You may have heard that my hometown (and Oregon's biggest city, with 500,000 people and 1.6 million in the metro area) has more than a whiff of cool about it these days. True enough, but what I like even more -- and what clinches the deal for many visitors -- is its scenery, greenery, and water everywhere, in fountains, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Fall foliage season is, to my taste, the most beautiful time…

Montana is cowboy country, pardner, and cowboys -- and of course cowgirls -- wake up hungry. You, too, will rise and take a shine at breakfast to to these luscious buttermilk flapjacks.



The Resort at Paws Up serves food that will satisfy the Western outlaw in you. Occupying miles of untamed wilderness in Montana's Blackfoot Valley, Paws Up goes way beyond the usual dude ranch, offering modern, spacious lodgings…

by Barbara Ramsay Orr…