Carol Pucci

MERIDA, Mexico -- A man in a white tank top, black drawstring shorts and flip flops drags a beat-up bike from the front room of an abandoned house on a wide boulevard lined with mansions.

For 30 pesos, less than $3, the rusted, one-speed "Cherry"-brand bike is mine for the next two hours.

I pedal along the Paseo Montejo, passing pastel-colored mansions, once the homes of wealthy plantation owners, now the headquarters for banks, insurance companies and car dealerships.

A group of children plays a game of Twister on the sidewalk. Others join an impromptu art class, dipping their fingers into jars of paint set out on card tables in the street.

CANNON BEACH, Ore. -- If someone were to write a book about the weather in Cannon Beach, it would be part mystery, part thriller, part summer romance.

A fleece vest and scarf were all I needed on a recent brisk afternoon as I sat on the Oregon beach, snacking on fresh crab and white wine.

Twelve hours later, the rain was coming down in slanted sheets. I took cover inside Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters, where a sign on the door warned against high winds. No one bothered taking off their hats and parkas.

KITSAP PENINSULA -- Fuel up on a breakfast of quiche made with local duck eggs.

Walk along a boardwalk through forested wetlands.

Meet the artist whose work appears on Costco's smoked-salmon boxes, and the fireman who transformed a city landfill into a waterside bonsai garden.

Before shipyards and shopping malls, farming and logging dominated the central Kitsap Peninsula, an arm of fertile land and maritime communities west of Seattle across Puget Sound.

The pioneer spirit lives on among enterprising locals, drawing inspiration from the past to put a modern s