As bloggers, it’s only fitting that we look back at our most popular posts (listed below) and remind ourselves of the best places we have seen this year.  So, here are our best — followed by what we hope to see and share with you in 2014.

Most Clicked Posts of 2013

Number Three:

“Puhleeze” butter my biscuits in Knoxville at the International Biscuit Festival  — The lowly biscuit takes center stage at this springtime event receiving national attention.  Combine the one-ticket grazing privilege with booths of local vendors and a food writer’s conference, and you have a Knoxville hit that just keeps on growing!

Erin Donovan, Biscuit Festival Queen

Number Two:

Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop: New sweet shop in Bearden! — Lines are still long for this shop open only since November, and owners have converted one of their cupcake venues to a second shop just for pies!  Oh, my!

Owners Meredith and Scott Layton of Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop

Number One: 

Books and Buttercream at the Great Cake Bake — Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the beneficiary of this wildly popular fund raiser held each year at UT’s Neyland Stadium. The 2014 event (slated for February 22) has area bakers already thinking of what book-themed cake creations can top those of last year!

Alexander of Alexander’s Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Favorite Places of 2013

From The Bund in Shanghai to The Palouse in Eastern Washington, we’ve been fortunate to have traveled, looked, photographed, and sampled the goods in well-traveled and seldom-traveled places this year: a great life — and we’re grateful for it!  Here are some of our faves.

Looking Ahead to 2014

Although we have no definite plans for travel in the coming year, we have some ideas for what we’d like to see and share with readers.

• More shots of Idaho, perhaps some of the resorts we’ve missed and the coveted farmland of The Palouse in the snow! (Three more trips are in my future, thanks to work with Discovery Education.)
• Visits to places and events in Knoxville.  Since the top three visited posts have focused on our hometown, we “get it.”  So, look for coverage of what’s new and what’s most visited in and around our great city.
• Posts from our Viking River Cruise to Russia.  With the Olympics in Russia this year, look for our take on St. Petersburg and Moscow with points in between.
• Serendipitous posts — who knows where we’ll choose to go or what we’ll see.  But if we can work it in, our Bucket Short List includes Portland, Oregon, and maybe even Alaska.  Stay tuned.

Our wish for you, our readers, is for good health, happiness, and experiences that enrich your life, no matter where you travel!  Thanks to each and every one of you for making us part of your reading pleasure!

Happy New Year!