By MARYLYNNE PITZ, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After years of writing feverishly, Charles Dickens desperately needed a break from his demanding schedule and money to finance a year abroad.

England's best-known author hoped "A Christmas Carol," a tale about ghosts haunting the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, would be his ticket to a yearlong Italian vacation for him, his wife, five children and servants.

LAUGHLINTOWN, Pa. - Terry Coyne sowed the seeds for her new floral and gift shop while working as a nutrition researcher for 13 years at the University of Pittsburgh during the late '80s and 1990s.

Amaryllis and colorful Cape primroses, which are members of the African violet family, crowded her office, thriving behind floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that faced east.

Along the Mason-Dixon Line, travelers can still see some of the gorgeous vistas Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon enjoyed in the 18th century.

At night, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon studied the movement of stars and made endless, complex calculations. Their clever combination of astronomy and surveying resulted in the Mason-Dixon Line, a 325-mile border through the wilderness of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

Abraham Lincoln greeted the public at the White House on New Year's Day of 1863, the same day he freed slaves who lived in states still controlled by the Confederacy during the Civil War.

If you'd like to dip into presidential history and taste a variety of wines, the Monticello Wine Trail is a great destination with 22 wineries.
There's a gorgeous new bed-and-breakfast eight miles from Barboursville Vineyards and just one mile from Montpelier, the home of James Madison that was recently restored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Thomas Jefferson brimmed with optimism about his countrymen's prospects for producing wine worthy of a crystal glass.

During World War II, Americans launched a variety of volunteer efforts. Children participated in competitive scrap metal drives and helped their parents plant victory gardens while motorists planned errands to conserve the rationed gasoline.

You've poured antifreeze in your car, installed storm windows and had your furnace serviced. But have you winterized Fido for these frosty days?
It's only fair that your four-footed friends enjoy frolicking in the ice and snow, too.

To wring the most wear out of what cash-strapped consumers own, people are visiting auto mechanics, cobblers, tailors and computer-repair experts as they haven't in years.
When autumn arrived, Anita Fagnilli, a tailor at Master Tailors in Upper St. Clair, Pa., for the past 16 years, noticed that regular customers came in with clothes they already owned.