Mike and I fell in love with afternoon tea during our trip to London. Since then, we'll occasionally treat ourselves to a fancy tea like our Valentine's Day splurge at The Mad Hatter, but usually we have our tea at home on Sunday afternoons. Mike boils a pot of water in our electric kettle and we each pick out a tea bag from our vast selection.

Usually I see St. Cloud from the window of my car: I have a friend who lives in central Minnesota, and I drive through St. Cloud whenever I'm heading there for a visit. Sometimes we meet for lunch in St. Cloud, since it's roughly halfway. Obviously, there's a lot more to St. Cloud than what I've been able to experience via drive throughs and lunch dates...

Your weekly CSA box was loaded with tasty-looking produce: tomatoes and zucchini, cauliflower and kale, cucumbers and corn. The plan was to eat your produce while it was at peak freshness. But then life happened: you had to work late, the kids had a soccer tournament, your sister invited you over for pizza. Now your crisper is filled with vegetables that are a little...

Over the years, I've made plenty of trips to the St. Croix Valley for picnics and hiking in Interstate State Park, a paddle boat river cruise on the St. Croix River, and a knitting retreat that included a wine tasting at Chateau St. Croix Winery. Taylors Falls, Minnesota and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin are less than an hour from my home in the northern Twin Cities suburbs, so it's the perfect distance for a day trip.

I love local ice cream shops. I try to seek them out whenever I travel—Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn, Chaeban Ice Cream in Winnipeg, The Pearl Ice Cream Parlor in La Crosse, Lappert's Ice Cream in Hawaii. At home, I tend to stick with a handful of favorites. After all, ice cream season in Minnesota is short, and if I'm treating myself, I want to make sure it will...

Janesville's tagline is "Wisconsin's Great Outside." It makes sense: the area has hundreds of acres of parks, miles of trails, and an award-winning botanical garden. However, on a recent visit to Janesville I was also delighted to discover a burgeoning local food and drinks scene, a historic house museum with a link to presidential history, and a cozy bed and...