LAS VEGAS - Skeptics think the National Hockey League rolled the dice and took a big gamble by putting a franchise — the Golden Knights — in this town where betting was the only contact sport in the past. Locals, however, disagree. In fact, many say the NHL’s success in Las Vegas is a sure bet.

LAS VEGAS - The glass elevator rises slowly into the nighttime sky and the neon Vegas skyline spreads out in all directions like a giant glittering rainbow quilt.

BIG ISLAND, HAWAII - “It is interesting that people give me praise for what I do,” confessed Dawn Marie. “I feel more like a piano that’s being played and not that I’m actually the music or the player.”

SAN ANTONIO, TX - I’m lured to a spot in this handsome Southwest Texas city by a dark-eyed beauty who promises to give me access to “CIA secrets.”

KANAB, UT - This is a two-stoplight town with a population of just over 4,000, which may not sound like much reason to visit. Until, that is, you consider its location in what’s called the Golden Circle just outside Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.

WHEELING, WV - From my mountain-top vantage point outside the charming Oglebay Resort and Conference Centre, I watch the smoky morning mist slowly rise from the belly of the lush valley below.

FISH CREEK, WIS - “Explore the Door” is a catchy phrase that lures travellers to a narrow strip of land 150-kilometres-long and 35-kilometres-wide north of Green Bay, Wis., called Door County Peninsula.

PORTLAND - This city might be best known as America’s craft beer capital but anybody who’s visited this hip Oregon city where man buns, flannel shirts and funky doughnuts reign, will know it for something different — its food carts.

TABERNASH, CO. - There seemed no end to it. A forest dense and vast, as old as time itself, stretching to the feet of the imposing Rocky Mountains before these daunting volcanic creations declared this domain to be theirs and forged an impassable border.

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, CA. - This quaint coastal enclave, which is celebrating its centennial this year, is a town of many mysteries and quirks.