You hear the word orchid, what comes to mind? Beautiful flow­ers­from warm, trop­i­cal islands? A plant grown in a hot­house, to be used as a cor­sage? Springtime in Missouri? Yes, Missouri. All three of those thoughts are cor­rect, but let’s not stop there. How about vanilla ice cream? The vanilla bean, used as a fla­vor­ing in many of your favorite foods, is the fruit from an orchid plant; rum is often fla­vored by the pods of another orchid species; and the tuber­ous roots of many orchids are edi­ble (they taste like potatoes).

Using the occa­sion of a fam­ily reunion as an excuse, we decided to plan a fam­ily vaca­tion with cen­tral Arkansas’ dia­mond and quartz mines as our focus. Our trip would include a stay at some rus­tic cab­ins along the Caddo River and a trip to his­toric Hot Springs, Arkansas.

When Confederate General Sterling Price marched 12,000 troops into what became known as the Battle of Westport, he had no idea the ground he was cov­er­ing would some­day be among the most-visited parts of mod­ern day-Kansas City.

But those of us 156 years removed from the “Gettysburg of the West” can dou­bly enjoy retrac­ing the steps of those who fought in the October 1864 skir­mish by not only reliv­ing his­tory, but also by expe­ri­enc­ing some of Kansas City’s most pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion neigh­bor­hoods along the Battle of Westport dri­ving tour.

Around Missouri, out­door fun is mul­ti­plied by the dozens of unique fairs and fes­ti­vals sched­uled to take place in the com­ing months, so, no mat­ter where you live — or are vis­it­ing — in Missouri, you’ll surely find an event to your lik­ing. We’ve got sto­ry­telling events, fes­ti­vals with an inter­na­tional flair, and plenty of good food and drink. So put away your snow boots and grab your ten­nis shoes, it’s time to stroll through Missouri’s fes­ti­val landscape.

What con­sti­tutes “the best?” Well, like a lot of things, it depends on whom you ask. So, the Missouri Division of Tourism recently con­ducted an infor­mal Facebook poll where they asked their fans to tell them where to find things like “the best” of every­thing, from best cheese­burg­ers to best scenic drives.