When William Gilliland began his development of North Country lands in 1765, he gave his own name to Willsboro. That first settlement marked the farthest point of navigability from Lake Champlain on the Bouquet River.

Other cultures besides those of ancient Egypt preserved bodies, writes columnist Richard Frost, but Egyptian mummification was unique for its painstaking process.

By 1940, Vermont had its first single chair lift, says travel writer Richard Frost. In 1954 came the first Poma lift (at Suicide Six), and in 1969, at Killington, the inaugural six-person gondola. Meanwhile, Trapp Family Lodge began its reign as a cross-country ski mecca. The now-ubiquitous snowboard also had its beginnings in the Green Mountain State.

Travel writer Richard Frost and his wife, Marty, had never dreamed they'd enjoy searching out tarantulas in the dark of an Amazon rainforest night. Yet we became mesmerized by the quickness and maternal instincts of both the large brown tarantulas and smaller pink-toed ones.

The 287-acre preserve in Saranac also features a clubhouse, open-air lean-to, bunkhouse, stage, outhouses and, writes columnist Richard Frost, the New Land Trust Tree Identification Trail, a Girl Scout Silver Award project completed by Hannah Racette during the fall of 2009.

Travel writer Richard Frost can't imagine a better place to start such an excursion than at L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine. Long a destination point for outdoor devotees, he says, Bean offers not only gift potential but an opportunity to fill any gaps one might have in travel equipment and clothing.

The newly expanded Silas Wright House museum in Canton is a good place to explore the heritage of the area, says travel writer Richard Frost.

The 20-odd miles along Route 28 from Raquette Lake to Old Forge offer plenty of options for a wonderful weekend, says travel writer Richard Frost.

In 1875, the first railroad bridge was built to span the gorge in Quechee, Vt., writes columnist Richard Frost. Its completion was commemorated with four brass bands and 3,000 onlookers.

There are many geologic wonders to behold in Ithaca, travel writer Richard Frost says, from the Museum of the Earth to Buttermilk Falls State Park.

A first glimpse of Machu Picchu can prove overwhelming. One looks out at a complex of stone buildings, multitudinous grassy terraces, staircases that descend the entire extent of the village, and a rugged mountain named Huaynu Picchu solemnly guarding the entire scene.

Mabee Farm on the Mohawk River west of Schenectady has its roots in a fur trading post set up there in 1670.

The Rockwell-Harmon Cottage serves as a tourist information center and art gallery in this town on the Hudson River, says columnist Richard Frost. There's a very pretty park behind the center. Sited nicely just upstream from Rockwell Falls, it's the kind of place where you'd like to linger and perhaps read and reflect.

The site chosen for the New York Public Library was Croton Reservoir, then the city's water supply, writes columnist Richard Frost about his tour of the Fifth Avenue facility. A wide promenade surrounded the 50-foot-high reservoir, built when 42nd Street was well north of the city limits. Tearing the complex down took 500 men about two years.

Preserved as Hubbardton Battlefield State Historic Site, this one-time battleground now couldn't be more peaceful, says Travel Writer Richard Frost.