Lit.

A Rose by any other name.

Newport, RI – Waves lap at the shore with the caress of a saxophone.

We’re spending the night at the historic Rose Island Lighthouse, and the Newport Jazz Festival is in full swing across the bay. I had never thought of Common as jazz.

Constructed in 1870, the lighthouse is part of a 17-acre island comprising the remains of Fort Hamilton, which was first built during the revolutionary war in the late 1700s. Throughout the years, its bunkers and bomb-proof barracks have also served as munition depots and as quarantine for cholera patients.

Today, many of the structures across the island are in disrepair and used as a refuge for the countless birds nesting nearby.

View from above.

Double-crested cormorants jackknife into the waves, resurfacing great distances away with silver squiggles trapped in their beaks. Seagulls the size of small dogs caw their pleasure at the musical accompaniment across the bay, while a canoe see-saws on the break after a speedboat passes.

The property, accessible only by boat, is a museum by day, but offers overnight stays.

With the day’s visitors gone, I climb the lighthouse tower, prying myself through the tiny door to the widow’s walk. There are no storms to watch today, just an opportunity to embrace the panorama – views of blue peppered by sailboats cutting into the sea breeze.

Night falls, and there are six of us alone on the island. In a lighthouse.

What an incredible experience.

Rhode Trip.

Ochre Court.

Newport, RI – Perched atop a cliff, the path winds through more than a century of history. The water, precipitously below, sparkles like jewels tossed into the sea.

On the other side, tall manicured hedges hide mansions behind a tuxedo of leaves, polka-dotted by clumps of flowers.

But they don’t hide too much.

The palazzos and chateaux along Newport’s historic cliff walk must have also been meant to be seen. Rockefellers, Dukes and Vanderbilts: this was a veritable who’s who of the industrial revolution in America.

And I will walk...

One can only imagine the gilded parties.

The 3.5-mile cliff walk gives the public right-of-passage, despite stepping through private property. Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t always come without disputes, but it's a must-do if you're ever in Newport.

Massive stone houses stand dressed in Romanesque columns, ornate archways and sculpted iron gates. The Breakers, a neo-Italian Renaissance palazzo built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II at the turn of the century, boasts 70 rooms and looms over the pathway.

It's easy to forget these were just summer homes.

History Rocks.

Thanksgiving.

Plymouth, MA – A pantheon stands by the water, concealing what is likely the best-known rock in America.

No, not the Beach Boys.

The year 1620 has been chiselled into what otherwise appears to be an ordinary boulder the size of a small bench. It sits in the mud, a gnarled scar from a previous attempt to move it snarling back at you.

Tourists gawk, peering over the railing as a ranger tells a version of a story of Plymouth Rock that directly contradicts the one on the sign not 10 feet away.

Such is often the way with lore.

Somehow, I had never been here. And yet, I think I may have been more excited by visiting Lobster Hut and finally getting a lobster roll.

Hop To It.

Aligned.

Worcester, MA – After a morning spent alternately dropping into, and climbing out of, New York’s green crevasses, we’ve fallen into a lineup that snakes around a parking lot.

Intentionally.

A constant stream of people toting flats of candy-coloured cans flows in the opposite direction. Many of the more ambitious have come prepared with trolleys – and apparently, deep pockets. They sport craft brewery t-shirts from around the world, seemingly trying to one-up each other with the most obscure, or the most sought-after.

Despite being an almost two-hour wait, it’s apparently actually a quiet day at Treehouse Brewing Company.

The only quiet spot at Treehouse that day.

As one of the top-rated breweries in the world – and one that doesn’t distribute beyond these lineups – I’d imagine they’ll also be selling many t-shirts, in addition to the coveted cans.

The sun is in full bloom against an utterly blue slate, so the minutes melt away.

Typical brewery aromas like wort blend with citrus notes, which makes sense given Treehouse is particularly known for its juicy, hoppy beers. The Adirondack chairs framing the garden sit empty, however, as it’s a can-only day.

There are too many people here for them to efficiently let the taproom flow.

An oddly efficient 90 minutes later, however, we have our own flat – a rattling rainbow of treats we carry past the hyphenated line of eager patrons still filling out their checklists.

It'll be worth their wait.

Vitals:

• Time: 12 hours
• Distance: 932 kms
• Weather: Sunny and hot
• Province/States: Ontario, New York, Massachusetts
• Wildlife: None

Hard to DisCERN.

ALICE in Wonderland.

St Genis-Pouilly, France — We press our individualized keys to the instrument panel and step, one-by-one, into a tight glass box, waiting for the light to go green and for the door to close behind us with a thud.

And for the one in front to open.

The security system at CERN is very sensitive, rejecting me several times before spitting me out the other side. Today, we're excused from retina scans.

Bobbing along in blue hardhats, we drop 100 metres into the Earth, where scientists are trying to better understand how the universe formed, what it's made of and how it works.

Watch out for collisions.

Frankly, physics and philosophy have always tended to be my downfall, twisting my brain into another dimension. So, it goes without saying that theoretical physics flies by me at the speed of the particles that race around the accelerator here. That said, there was still no way I was going to pass up this opportunity to take a field trip to the birthplace of the world wide web and home to the discovery of the Higgs boson.

We started at the ALICE experiment, learning about quark-gluon plasma and how scientists used the equipment to recreate conditions that existed one millisecond after the Big Bang. Eventually, they hope to get to an n of zero.

How does this thing handle in the corners?

By smashing heavy ions at nearly the speed of light, the 2012 experiment produced the highest human-made temperature (5.5 trillion Kelvin) in the universe.

We've had the extremely unique opportunity to descend into the Large Hadron Collider itself, which is very rarely open to the public. Most scientists, we're told, can't even get in. It helps that we know people, and that it will be shut for two years for a facelift.

Physically, it's just a 27-kilometre-long circular tunnel lined with pipes and instruments. More practically, however, it's where discovery of the Higgs boson and other breakthroughs have been made possible. It's a scientific juggernaut.

And a giant (faster-than-a) bullet train for particles.

It's a humble, yet humbling place.

Feeling Vine.

Ric-o-la!

Cully, Switzerland — We're handed a wine glass, a map and three tokens for local food

And sent on our way.

The wine-making village of Cully has shut down for us tonight, leaving us to wander the jagged streets and taste the vintners' wares. There are 10 wineries for us to visit as many times as we'd like.

It's possible the streets get more jagged as the night grows fuller.

At the base of hills in full leaf, we wander between stone houses sporting brightly painted shutters. Most were built between the 16th and 19th centuries.

A man tosses a Swiss flag into the air and catches it with a crack as three alphorns fill the air with a low moan.

A grape time was had by all.

The region is striped by stone terraces set into the steep hills of the Lavaux vineyard terraces, which make for a face full of braces. At more than 800 hectares, it's the largest contiguous vineyard region in Switzerland, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. Many of the terraces date back to the 11th century.

It's a panorama beyond compare: vineyards falling into Lake Geneva with the snow-capped French Alps standing with puffed chest before us. It's hard to imagine photo-editing technology hasn't been applied to real life. It's that breathtaking.

At the end of the night, a thank-you bag. In it, a bottle of wine for the road.

What a tremendous evening.

Awake, A Walk.

Roamin'.

Lausanne, Switzerland —The 37-degree heat has brought out the tropical aromas of coconut sunscreen and cigars.

And not much in the way of bathing suits.

For some reason, I've decided to take the 80-minute walk to the Swiss Tech Convention Center to pick up my conference badge. There is, of course, a train that goes directly there.

What's the adventure in that?

Being Europe, I literally stumble across the ruins of the ancient Roman village of Lousonna. Its foundations have been reduced to scattered grey teeth laid out in lines.

Even on a Monday afternoon, Lake Geneva is packed with sun-seekers, skaters carving up the half-pipe and jagged-abbed beach volleyball players. Others have brought cases of beer and baguette.

Everyone seems to be escaping their saunas-for-homes.

Preferring to be like the swans basking along the water's edge, very little moves quickly in this heat.

Except the swarms of tiny flies that emerge in a Danse Macabre around my face.

It's too hot to swat them away.