Hectic schedules and stressful careers make spa vacations a sought-after commodity for many travelers.

The Natural Science Center of Greensboro offers enough to easily fill a morning or afternoon.

If you're a first-timer on Maui, Hawaii's second-largest island, the guidebooks can help with the official checklist: sunrise at the Haleakala volcano. Snorkeling at Black Rock. Paddle-boarding off the coast in Lahaina.

family travel:  A blizzard of opportunity awaits families eager to learn something new this season. Here are five suggestions:

We packed up our snowshoe equipment along with our energetic Labrador, and drove off from our cabin on St. Froid Lake to enjoy the free community trails at the 10th Mountain Ski Club in Fort Kent, Maine.

Dale Earnhardt's record-setting seven championships, Richard Petty's remarkable 200th victory, and the first checkered flags in NASCAR's premier series for such drivers as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., all happened while the sport's primary sponsor was the R.

Thanks to a space mission bearing his name, Johannes Kepler recently returned to the news 400 years after his first discoveries about the universe.

For vacationers who want to take their furry family members along for an active getaway, options do exist. Here are a handful of Fido-friendly ways to enjoy a winter getaway with the entire family.