LIfestyle

My grandma always included sauerkraut on our holiday table even though she was the only one who ate it.

Once the Thanksgiving bird is gone, it’s time to go see the holiday lights.

Holiday revelers can enjoy the spirits of St. Nick when two Christmas-themed pop-up bars open in The Triangle.

Art aficionados have been freaking out (in a good way) over NCMA’s newest exhibition featuring iconic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, which debuted in October.

At Thanksgiving, durable paper plates can prevent a holiday disaster.

No more marathon road trips or flights taken just to get a passport renewed in time.

A few weeks ago, I helped with my granddaughter’s nighttime routine. It always starts the same way: she selects four books from her impressive library, hops in my lap and follows my narration.

Recent cancer treatment isn’t stopping Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her scheduled appearance in Raleigh in September.

Taken with tiny houses but unsure what it’s like to live in one? Try it out for a weekend at River and Twine, the world’s largest tiny house hotel.

The African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh and Wake County is an annual celebration of art, culture, food, music and dance held Labor Day weekend.

It can be challenging to be fashionable, especially if you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint and looking for…

Travel writer Jason Frye knows North Carolina, a state he fell in love with during vacations when he was growing up in West Virginia. He’s written several guidebooks about the Tar Heel State and his two latest are “Moon North Carolina: With Great Smoky Mountains” and “Moon North Carolina Coast: With the Outer Banks.”

To get there, drive west from Atlanta or south from Memphis through the flat, rich alluvial plain in Mississippi. Start your immersion at Tunica’s Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center, built in a circa-1895 train depot.

My introduction to chitlins was at the The Big Dinner sponsored by Washington County Sheriff Harvey Tackett. A friend later drove me miles up river to the ’Coon Hunters Ball, featuring turtle soup, squirrel stew, venison and oh-so-tender broiled rattlesnake.

I hopped off the Southern Crescent from UVA, hurried to my Great Aunt Bolling Spalding’s funeral and fell in with other embarrassed latecomers walking behind her casket at the cathedral door. A distinguished, somehow familiar gentleman nodded. At the cemetery, my father introduced: “Meet your cousin, Walker Percy.”

My seventh grade English teacher’s homework assignment was one sentence by William Faulkner. Simple, right? It carried on for five pages – and the rest of my life. I lose myself in its tumescent portrayal of the taming of the Mississippi Delta. Start here, with “Big Woods,” an assemblage of Faulkner’s hunting stories.

Thanks to B.B. King’s relentless touring schedule – appearing in 342 shows in 1956 – he was known worldwide as “The King of the Blues.” He reworked a 1951 blues song, “The Thrill is Gone,” lifting it to a Grammy award in 1970.

Opened in 1945 when there were not many other African-American-owned businesses in Indianola, Club Ebony has succeeded through three owners and decades of legendary music.

Before 1895, Dockery Plantation was, like much of the Delta at the time, a swampy tangle of gum and cypress trees, panthers, wolves and mosquitoes.

When the Grammy board searched for the most appropriate location to build its first museum outside L.A., they could have chosen many places. Their verdict: Mississippi Delta.

Listen carefully in the juke joints, restaurants or the impressive interactive museums in Tunica, Cleveland, Clarksdale and Indianola, and you’re bound to hear fans talking about their love of the blues – many with international accents.

Working as newspaper reporters in 1978 in Greenville, Mississippi, David Saltz and I jumped on a last-minute media invite to…

Somewhere over the rainbow, near Beech Mountain resort, Oz lovers can head off to see the wizard during Land of Oz’s Journey with Dorothy.

Cleanse your palate and prepare to sample spirits from over 40 different distillers at the Spirits of NC Festival on June 15.

Escape the urban jungle for the serene forest of Eno River State Park, a 3,900-acre refuge with secluded trails and soothing sounds of the river for which it’s named.

Over 50 food trucks and beer vendors from near and far will make their way to Fayetteville Street for the Downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo on June 9.

Many in our society are focusing on making their lives greener. But for some, the concept seems so vast that it’s hard to understand the lingo.

While you may think of camping sites, lodges and cabins for park accommodations, some offer lodging a bit more out-of-the box. We recently stayed in a 1970s barrel cabin in Unicoi State Park in North Georgia, so named because it’s shaped like a giant barrel.

Places that are fun for you can be stressful for your dog. The sights, sounds and smells are unfamiliar, which can cause anxiety for your pet.

I hadn’t seen a $2 bill for years when I noticed schoolmate Rip Black tipping with them. Having loved them since attending its 1976 re-introduction, I adopted Rip’s paean to Mr. Jefferson, tipping with them since. I gave one to an Uber driver recently – he stared at it, announcing, “This one’s going in the wallet!”