MIAMI - You know your backyard has really arrived when the new Philippe Starck-designed hotel and the hostel about 10 blocks north get serious national ink.

MIAMI - Summer is when the stream of tourists to South Florida slows, deterred by hot, wet weather and the threat of hurricanes. It's when rates at beachfront hotels plummet, spas and restaurants offer special deals, traffic eases and locals can enjoy discount staycations.

What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is an interview with someone who lives in a spot you may want to visit.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - With Grand Rapids' craft beer scene getting barrel-fulls of national and international attention, several of my pals and I decided to put the city's breweries to the test.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - In July 1863, the 2,400 residents of Gettysburg had little time to prepare for 170,000 Confederate and Union soldiers who advanced on the town. The soldiers clashed in a three-day battle that would paint its streets and pastoral farmlands crimson in the bloodiest encounter of the Civil War.

BIG SKY, Mont. - This place is absurdly misnamed. That's not a complaint, but it does require an asterisk.

TUCSON, Ariz. - For the past decade, I've headed to Arizona in midwinter to visit family and catch a respite from cold weather. Each year, as I leave its warm, dry air to return to my snowy home, I'm told, "You really should come when the desert is in bloom. It's spectacular."

The traffic on H-1, a Hawaiian interstate that connects with no other state, is still horrendous.

TULSA, Okla. - The woman in the wheelchair and headphones is watching pictures go by and hearing a narrator speak about a place and a moment long ago.

In Sweden, unique hostels spring from old quarters:

STOCKHOLM - I seemed to be flowing amid a river of wildflowers.