• Each state has its own signature sandwich, from a grilled cheese to something called a Jucy Lucy.
• Indiana claims to have the best pork tenderloin sandwich in the nation.
• Illinois is known for the Horseshoe, an open-face sandwich topped with fries and cheese sauce.

If you’re heading out on a road trip this fall or holiday season, why not try a famous local sandwich?

In honor of National Sandwich Day on November 3, Business Insider found the most famous local sandwiches in every state, and while some may be up for debate, every sandwich on this list is worth trying at least once.

Plus, with grocery prices rising and restaurant entrées facing potential price hikes, sandwiches, which are often among the least expensive items on the menu, could be a more affordable option.

These are America’s most famous local sandwiches, from a classic grilled cheese to something called a Horseshoe.

ALABAMA: A chicken sandwich with white barbecue sauce

Alabama’s famous white barbecue sauce — invented by a pitmaster in Decatur, Alabama, in the 1920s before becoming a popular choice across the state — is creamy and tangy, made with mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, and ground black pepper.

ALASKA: A wild Alaskan salmon sandwich

Alaska’s salmon is said to be the freshest, pinkest salmon around. The state is the top producer of wild salmon in the world.

ARIZONA: Frybread tacos

Also known as “Navajo tacos,” these are popular in Arizona. The fried dough is topped with traditional taco fillings like meat, beans, and cheese.

ARKANSAS: A deep-fried catfish sandwich

Caught locally and tucked between two buttered buns, the deep-fried catfish sandwich is best paired with a side of fries and slaw.

CALIFORNIA: An avocado club sandwich

Though the famed French Dip originated in this sunny state, California is best known for its avocados. Try one of California’s fresh avocado club sandwiches to see why.

COLORADO: A Denver sandwich

You’ve heard of the Denver omelet, but have you heard of the Denver sandwich? It’s a traditional Denver omelet filled with diced ham, onions, and green bell peppers, and then stuck between pieces of toast. Extra points if you add ham and hash browns.

CONNECTICUT: A Connecticut hamburger

Connecticut is known for its non-traditional hamburgers, which are served on white toast with a choice of onion, tomato, or cheese, but no condiments. Try one at Louis’ Lunch in New Haven.

DELAWARE: A soft-shell fried crab sandwich

Anyone visiting this seafood-obsessed state should try a soft-shell fried crab sandwich topped with coleslaw and leafy greens.

FLORIDA: A Cuban sandwich

The Sunshine State is known for its Cuban sandwich, which features generous portions of ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on two slices of Cuban bread.

GEORGIA: A fried chicken sandwich

Those visiting Georgia — the original home of Chick-fil-A — should partake in a classic fried chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and spicy mayo.

HAWAII: A Kālua-style pork sandwich

Kālua-style pork is common fare at most luaus, but the slow-roasted and shredded meat is also amazing on sandwiches. Try yours with pineapple coleslaw for an extra Hawaiian punch.

IDAHO: The “Meat Your Maker” sandwich

The Best Sandwich Shack in Idaho really lives up to its name. Locals swear by the “Meat Your Maker” — a combo of steak, Italian sausage, bacon, and more.

ILLINOIS: A Horseshoe sandwich

Illinois is known for an open-faced sandwich called the Horseshoe, made with thick-sliced toasted bread, your choice of meat, and topped with french fries and a secret cheese sauce.

INDIANA: A Hoosier sandwich

Indiana claims to have the best pork tenderloin in the nation. Put it to the test by tasting a Hoosier sandwich, or a breaded tenderloin on bread.

Purists insist on trying it with only a few dill pickles and some mustard, but you can also get it with lettuce, tomato, and other fixings.

IOWA: A Tavern or “loose meat” sandwich

It’s made with unseasoned ground beef, sauteed onions, and sometimes topped with pickles, ketchup, or mustard on a bun.

KANSAS: “Runza” or “bierocks”

“Runza” or “bierocks” are a bun-shaped bread pocket filled with beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. The recipe was spread by German immigrants to the Midwest.

KENTUCKY: A Hot Brown sandwich

It consists of an open-faced sandwich with turkey and bacon covered in cheesy Mornay sauce and baked or broiled until the sauce begins to brown.

LOUISIANA: A po’boy

The classic po’boy is made with French bread and roast beef or fried seafood. A “dressed” po’boy has lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, onions, and hot or regular mustard.

MAINE: A lobster roll

What else would you order in Maine but a classic lobster roll? Served on a lightly grilled bun and filled with steamed and buttered lobster, these sandwiches taste like summer.

MARYLAND: A crab-cake sandwich

You can find some of America’s freshest crabs in Maryland. Try a crab cake sandwich on a buttered bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion.

MASSACHUSETTS: A Fluffernutter

If you’ve never tried the Fluffernutter sammie, you’re missing out.

It’s made with soft white bread topped with peanut butter and marshmallow Fluff, which was invented by Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts.

MICHIGAN: A corned beef sandwich

Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor is known for its corned beef sandwiches, especially the Oswald’s Mile High, which is made with corned beef and yellow mustard on double-baked, hand-sliced Jewish rye bread.

MINNESOTA: A Jucy Lucy

Though the war over which restaurant invented it continues, Minnesota is the official home of the Jucy Lucy — a burger cooked with cheese on the inside that oozes out at the first bite.

MISSISSIPPI: A pig-ear sandwich

It consists of two tender pig ears served on a small bun with mustard, slaw, and hot sauce.

MISSOURI: A Gerber sandwich

Feast on Missouri’s famous Gerber, an open-faced sandwich with French bread, garlic butter, ham, provolone, and paprika, and then perfectly toasted.

MONTANA: A PB&J with huckleberry jam

Montana is known for its huckleberries, which grow in the wild during the summer and fall seasons. Try its famous huckleberry jam for a delicious PB&J.

NEBRASKA: A Reuben

It’s made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing, and is best served on rye bread.

NEVADA: A Heart Attack Grill burger

Some variations contain five burger patties with bacon and, of course, a side of fries.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: A fried ham and cheese Monte Cristo drizzled with syrup

One of the proudest accomplishments of this state is its delicious maple syrup. Order a fried ham and cheese Monte Cristo drizzled with it for the ultimate breakfast sammie.

NEW JERSEY: A Jersey breakfast sandwich

Stop by any Garden State diner and try the signature Jersey breakfast sandwich. It’s thick-cut Taylor ham (or pork roll) with egg and American cheese on a hard Kaiser roll or bagel.

NEW MEXICO: A green chile cheeseburger

A cheeseburger is one thing, but a green chile cheeseburger takes it to a whole other level. This state’s signature vegetable adds a major kick to this classic American dish.

NEW YORK: A pastrami sandwich on rye

There’s nothing more NYC than a pastrami sandwich from Katz’s Delicatessen in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The famous deli, which opened its doors in 1888, is one of the city’s oldest delis and arguably the most famous deli in the country. 

Scores of celebrities and politicians have frequented the restaurant over the years, and it was even featured in the classic 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally.”

Katz’s is where the iconic “I’ll have what she’s having” scene took place.

NORTH CAROLINA: A pulled-pork sandwich

Just like Hawaii, one of North Carolina’s best sandwiches is pulled pork, but make sure to smother it in a tangy, vinegar-based barbecue sauce.

NORTH DAKOTA: Smørbrød

This state’s huge Scandinavian population loves their Smørbrød, a classic open-faced sandwich commonly made with rye bread, roast beef, Gravlax (a type of salmon), butter, lettuce, Jarlsberg cheese, pickled herring, hard-boiled eggs, honey mustard, or cucumber.

OHIO: A Polish boy

Not to be confused with Louisiana’s po’ boy, Ohio’s Polish boy is a sausage sandwich native to Cleveland. It has a link of kielbasa covered with a layer of french fries, barbecue or hot sauce, and coleslaw, all on a bun.

OKLAHOMA: A chicken-fried steak sandwich

What’s better than chicken-fried steak? That same breaded and fried steak on a hamburger bun with your choice of condiments.

OREGON: A falafel pita

Portland is known for its delicious vegan food. Falafel pitas, in particular, are a popular choice, packed to the brim with veggies and hummus.

PENNSYLVANIA: A Philly cheesesteak

The state’s most famous food by far is the classic Philly cheesesteak.

Thinly cut steak handsomely topped with cheese on a roll is delicious by itself, but don’t be afraid to add sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms, mayonnaise, hot sauce, salt, pepper, or ketchup.

RHODE ISLAND: A Dynamite sandwich

This tiny state is home to a very big sandwich. The Dynamite, which hails from Woonsocket, is a sloppy Joe burger made with onions, bell peppers, and celery. Be careful — it is spicy.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A tuna melt

People say the tuna melt was born in 1965 in South Carolina at the Woolworth’s lunch counter. Head there and see for yourself why this simple delicacy is a Charleston classic.

SOUTH DAKOTA: A walleye sandwich

South Dakota’s walleye is next level, so it’s no surprise that the state is known for its walleye sandwiches. When the flaky fish is fried to perfection, it will melt in your mouth.

TENNESSEE: A Fluffernutter

Sink your teeth into Elvis Presley’s favorite sandwich, made with peanut butter, banana, and bacon. Just be careful — the mix of salty, sweet, and savory is highly addictive.

TEXAS: A brisket sandwich

Barbecue brisket is Texas’s national dish, so try yours on some hardy, homemade bread with or without onions and bell peppers.

UTAH: A pastrami burger

When in Utah, it’s perfectly acceptable to dig into a burger topped with a quarter-pound of thin-sliced pastrami.

“Pastrami burgers,” which originated at Crown Burgers in Salt Lake City, are slathered with a Thousand Island-style sauce as well as tomatoes, shaved lettuce, and onions.

VERMONT: A Vermonter

The “Vermonter” takes advantage of its state’s freshest ingredients, like turkey, ham, Vermont cheddar cheese, green apples, and honey mustard.

VIRGINIA: A grilled ham and cheese

There’s almost nothing more classic than a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and Virginia is known for its excellent cheeses and succulent ham.

WASHINGTON: Bánh mì

Due to its large Vietnamese community, Seattle is home to some of the best bánh mì sandwiches in America.

The inexpensive staple is usually made with pate, bright, crunchy vegetable slaw, fish sauce, and sliced jalapeño pepper or fresh cilantro.

WASHINGTON, DC: A chili half-smoke

Stop into Ben’s Chili Bowl and order a chili half-smoke, a half-pork, half-beef smoked sausage served on a warm steamed bun with mustard, onions, and spicy homemade chili sauce.

WEST VIRGINIA: An apple and turkey sandwich

Make a delicious apple and turkey sandwich with West Virginia’s Golden Delicious apples. Cheese and apples sound like a weird combo, but it’s worth it.

WISCONSIN: A sausage roll or brat bun

This Midwestern state has a large German immigrant population, so it’s no surprise that its most famous sandwich contains classic bratwurst. Eat the sausage roll topped with mustard, sauerkraut, and cheese curds — another thing for which Wisconsin is well-known.

WYOMING: A bison meatball sandwich

Wide-open Wyoming is where the buffalo roam … and occasionally appear on menus. Try a bison meatball sandwich when you’re here to taste the state’s most famous meat.

• My husband and I had identical triplets in our 40s, which shocked us both.
• Caring for triplets without the help of a village can be challenging, especially when you’re older.
• Our past struggles with infertility make us grateful that we have three healthy children.

“Are you their grandmother?”

When I was growing up, I hated this question. My mother was 40 when she adopted me and my twin sister. She kept her grey hair short so it was an honest, if not cringeworthy, mistake.

You might think I’d start my family earlier to avoid a similar situation, but I had big dreams. I moved from Texas to New York City to attend theater school. During that time, I was cast in a terrible Shakespeare play where I met David, a handsome British tennis coach, and we fell in love. We headed to Hollywood, where my screenwriting and novel career took off. Nine years later, David and I were married, and I got pregnant right away. At 33, it seemed like the perfect age to start our family.

Unfortunately, I had a miscarriage. Then, after a year with no baby luck, we saw a fertility doctor. This resulted in another year of tests that culminated in my unexplained infertility diagnosis.

At 36, I began IVF treatment. We had a few setbacks with another loss and COVID. We decided to undergo one more round of IVF, and then we’d reevaluate our next steps. To our surprise, our five-year fertility journey and that last embryo resulted in the surprise of a lifetime: Not one. Not two. But three babies. Identical triplets.

I was 41 when they were born. David was 49. I’d been worried about being too old to be a mom to one child. Now I needed the energy for three.

While we love our girls more than anything, there are benefits and drawbacks to being older parents that are often overlooked.

We’re glad we lived our young-adult lives well

My husband and I spent our 20s and 30s going to the best restaurants and bars, traveling, and enjoying a carefree life with plenty of disposable income. I’m grateful for that time.

These days, things are quite different. We work a lot to afford our larger family, and weekends consist of trips to Costco, playgrounds, and birthday parties. We love it because we’re not longing for something else and are able to be fully present, enjoying our fun and not-so-fun parenting adventures.

Time has given us the gift of patience

Being older has allowed us to develop patience that we may not have had at the beginning of our relationship. By the time the triplets arrived, we’d endured career and mental health challenges and buried at least one parent.

Having triplet preemies who needed us 24/7 or navigating level-ten meltdowns because a banana wasn’t peeled correctly felt not easy, but manageable.

Most days, we remind ourselves to laugh and remember the chaos won’t last forever.

The kids are testing our stamina

Before kids, I wrote TV scripts during the day and books at night, which convinced me I’d be a pro at managing sleepless nights. It turns out I didn’t factor in all my pre-baby naps and the 10 hours of sleep I was typically getting.

My husband was equally delusional. “As long as I get 10 to 11 hours of sleep a night, I’ll be fine,” he once said to me. Yes, I still make fun of him for that, but we’ve both struggled with exhaustion that hasn’t let up even four years later (our daughters are very early risers!)

While we may not have the energy of 20- or 30-somethings (or the sleep score to match), we’ve found that our enthusiasm for being parents more than makes up for it.

Our village doesn’t have many residents

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Unfortunately, both of our parents are gone, and the family we do have works full-time or lives across the country. We’ve had to pay to build our own village of incredible nannies and sitters. We would love to have a larger support system, but we’ve never regretted our decision to wait until we had our children.

There is no perfect timeline for becoming a parent. At 41, I still felt unprepared when the girls were born. The only way to really know if you’re ready is to dive in and expect the unexpected, even if that turns out to be identical triplets.

• I tore my Achilles tendon while playing pickleball.
• I joined a club that includes Klay Thompson and Jayson Tatum, Al Gore, and Brad Pitt.
• I reached out to Sterling K. Brown on Instagram and surprisingly he replied with advice.

I heard the pop first. It sounded like a pickleball thwacking off a paddle, precisely what I was intending to do when I exploded from the set position and backpedaled to return our opponent’s smash.

The pain came next. Like I’d been shot in the lower part of my right calf. As I crumpled to the court, the arch of my foot throbbing in pain, I yelled to my doubles partner, “Shooter?!”

He ran over, his face ashen.

“There’s no shooter, dude,” he said calmly, but with concern. “I’m pretty sure that sound came from inside your leg.”

I had torn my Achilles tendon

At that moment, there on the cold concrete behind our local high school, I knew deep down that a lifelong fear of mine had just become reality: I had torn my Achilles tendon. Subsequent visits to sports medicine and podiatry experts confirmed my sinking suspicion. I had surgery to repair the injury 11 days later.

This makes me the newest member of an elite association that also includes hoopsters like Klay Thompson and Jayson Tatum, former vice president Al Gore, and actor Brad Pitt. I like to call our gang the Achilles Repair Club.

Affiliation with this supergroup is no joke. Every comrade must grapple with a six to nine-month recovery. Physical therapy is a must. In my case, I can’t drive until Thanksgiving.

To put it mildly, the Achilles gang is a fellowship I never expected to join.

It’s been humbling

This isn’t the first time I’ve found myself in this situation. Over the past five years, I’ve unexpectedly added several other groups to the resume: The Divorce Club, the Single Dad Club, and the Pre-diabetes Club, to name a few.

The experiences have been a mashup of surreal, frustrating, humbling, and empowering. Every time, I’ve found comfort in seeking out knowledge, sympathy, and kinship.

Take the Divorce Club, for example. Like hundreds of thousands of other Americans, I became a card-carrying member of this one during the pandemic. I thought I’d grow old with my wife; the reality of ending a 17-year marriage left me flummoxed and feeling totally adrift.

Thankfully, a psychologist friend was running a weekly online support group for people like me, and connecting with this ragtag raft of recent divorcees provided the perspective and to get me through.

I joined the Single Dad Club during the same stretch as a solo father to three girls. At first the transition was totally overwhelming; every night I’d ask myself, “How the hell am I going to do this?” A mix of library books and bar nights with buddies in the same boat helped me recognize I wasn’t alone — and that I was far more capable than I ever understood.

Years later, after a blood test revealed that my A1C levels were escalating, I found myself a rookie in the Pre-diabetes Club, with the welcome gift of a drug named Metformin. This one was a little tougher for me to wrap my head around; no matter how many Google searches I did, no matter how many academic articles I could read, inching closer to diabetes as I hurtled toward 50 felt scary and inexorably tied to my own mortality.

I DMed an actor for advice

Fast-forward to my induction into the Achilles Repair Club. The night before my surgery, I lay awake in bed, scrolling the AchillesRupture subreddit and not-so-quietly freaking out about the procedure and what would be my first encounter with general anesthesia.

I remembered how much personal connections had helped me manage unexpected challenges in the past, and remembered reading about how Sterling K. Brown showed up at this year’s Emmy Awards on a knee-scooter after an Achilles injury of his own. So I slid into the actor’s DMs and sent him solidarity and best wishes for the months ahead.

Two days later, while I groggily recuperated on the couch, I received a response.

“Sending them right back to you, Matt,” wrote the star of “Paradise, Washington Black,” and “This Is Us.” “The journey is not easy…but it ain’t forever either! Ask for the help that you need (as I tell myself the same thing)!”

Today a printout of this note hangs on the corkboard in my bedroom, a constant inspiration for the months ahead.

Sometimes it seems bizarre to become a card-carrying member of a club you never expected to join. And sometimes, even when you least expect it, feeling like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself is exactly what you need to overcome adversity and slay the day.

• Elon Musk criticized Sam Altman over the OpenAI CEO’s online posts about an attempt to cancel a Tesla Roadster reservation.
• Altman posted screenshots showing he requested a refund for the order, but the email bounced back.
• Musk said Altman received his refund within 24 hours.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going tit-for-tat. At the center of their latest online beef is the OpenAI CEO’s reservation for Tesla’s long-delayed Roadster.

Musk took to his social media platform, X, on Saturday to criticize Altman for posting screenshots earlier in the week that showed his attempt to cancel his Roadster order.

“A tale in three acts,” Altman earlier posted, sharing a screenshot of an email from July 2018, confirming a $45,000 payment to reserve the next-generation Tesla Roadster. Additional screenshots Altman posted showed the OpenAI CEO requesting a $50,000 refund and receiving a bounce-back email.

“I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait,” Altman posted on Thursday.

The Tesla CEO said Altman was only telling part of the story — and that he had already received a refund.

“And you forgot to mention act 4, where this issue was fixed and you received a refund within 24 hours. But that is in your nature,” Musk wrote.

Representatives for Tesla and Altman did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

When Musk first unveiled Tesla’s new Roadster in 2017, he said it “will be the fastest production car ever made, period.”

However, the vehicle has experienced delays and has not yet entered production, being listed as “design development” in the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report. Popular YouTuber MKBHD has also said he canceled one of his Tesla Roadster reservations due to the long wait.

During a Friday appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Musk said the coming vehicle would include “crazy technology.”

“If you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that,” Musk said.

Musk said his team is “getting close” to unveiling the latest version of the Roadster, saying the product demo would be “unforgettable.”

Altman and Musk keep bumping heads

Altman and Musk can’t seem to stop trading barbs — both on social media and in the courtroom.

Musk was a cofounder and early financial backer of OpenAI, though he left the company’s board in 2018 and has become critical of Altman’s leadership.

“OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it “Open” AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft. Not what I intended at all,” Musk wrote in a 2023 tweet.

One year later, Musk filed a lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, accusing the startup of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. Musk’s legal team later filed an injunction against OpenAI to prevent it from becoming a for-profit company, which a spokesperson for OpenAI described as “utterly without merit.”

OpenAI has also posted what it said were Musk’s emails from his earlier involvement with the company, indicating that he previously pushed for OpenAI to merge with Tesla.

Earlier this week, OpenAI said it finished restructuring its operations, which now include its nonprofit division — OpenAI Foundation — overseeing a new public benefit corporation called OpenAI Group PBC.

• Melanie Copeland was laid off from her real estate job in 2017 at the age of 37.
• She and her husband built a tiny home to scale back their lifestyle and make their money go further.
• They knew little about DIY, but the steep learning curve led them to become professional handymen.

This story is based on an interview with Melanie Copeland, 45, of Buckingham County, Virginia, the author of “Trailblazing Tiny: A Guide to Breaking Free.” Copeland runs a handyman business with her husband, John, 46. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband, John, and I had been considering moving into a tiny home for a few years before we finally did so in February 2018.

The popularity of tiny homes on wheels was significantly smaller than it is now, and it was challenging to find a wealth of information on blogs and social media platforms, such as YouTube.

Still, we did our research and due diligence because the idea appealed to us so much.

We’d always been pretty minimalist people, and even when we “lived big” while renting a two-storey house in Charlottesville, Virginia, we didn’t own a lot of stuff.

The catalyst was being laid off

But I’d work the entire week in a busy, full-time job, ranging from financial and legal editing to real estate, only to spend at least one day cleaning the place and doing laundry on weekends.

There wasn’t much time for John and me to have fun and enjoy ourselves because we were tethered to our property.

So, when I was suddenly laid off by my realty agency in December 2017, it seemed like the perfect time to downsize.

There is no way we would have been able to afford the project without an interest-free loan from my mother. She lent us the money for our $27,000 contract with the Incredible Tiny Homes company in Tennessee.

It included a meeting with a designer who advised us on aspects such as window placement. The price included materials, not labor.

We had never been DIYers

During a weeklong workshop, John, my mother-in-law, a friend, a volunteer, and I lived in a bunkhouse at the company’s warehouse in Inca, where we built the tiny house ourselves. They provided us with three meals a day.

A supervisor demonstrated how to operate the equipment and tools, such as the saws. A plumber and an electrician came in to comply with safety regulations. But the rest of it was up to us. We cut the wood, put up the walls, and laid the floor.

John and I had never been DIYers, so it was a steep learning curve.

Luckily, I’m naturally inclined toward mechanics. My sister was usually the one throwing the doll’s tea party when we were little, while I was playing with blocks and Erector sets.

The workshop was completely hands-on, and although we made mistakes at times, we eventually figured out the spacing and how the pieces are put together. By the seventh day, before the hauler arrived to take our 144 square foot home to Virginia, we knew it wasn’t rocket science.

We lived in a friend’s backyard and at a campground before obtaining a farm loan and purchasing a 1.07-acre plot of land for $16,000 in 2000. It was relatively cheap because it had a burned-down house on it, and we had to clear the debris.

I didn’t want to be nose to the grindstone

John and I put our life and soul into the property. We taught ourselves how to paint, stain, and do polyurethane and finishing work. We made some frustrating mistakes, but we learned and continued to learn.

We now know how to fix everything in our home because we built it ourselves and understand its components. You could call it skill-building.

I took another real estate job in 2019, but quit around the same time we closed on our new land. I didn’t want to be nose to the grindstone anymore.

John reached the same conclusion in 2023 when he left his position as the manager of a parking garage. By then, we’d figured out that we could live in the tiny home for less than $300 a month, including the land payment, tax, insurance, and power bills.

Then, in 2024, we decided to leverage our newly proven DIY abilities and launch our own business. We make and fix things for other people now.

We rely on word of mouth

We’ve worked on a few tiny homes and shed conversions. But it’s mostly regular houses. We just finished staining a huge deck, and I built a custom bookcase inside a beautiful, 18th-century house.

We have no marketing budget and rely on word of mouth. Last year’s income from the handyman business was $80,000, and we’re on target to make $100,00 by the end of the year.

Building our 18ft by 8ft tiny home opened up a whole new world for us, and one of the best parts is being our own boss.

• My favorite vacation destination in the US is the island town of Key West, Florida.
• Though I’ve visited several times, I never tire of the island’s natural beauty and local history
• The relaxed island vibes make it seem ideal for retirement. I plan to one day call Key West home.

On the first cruise I ever took, I happened to be pregnant and terribly sick. However, a switch seemed to flip when we arrived at the island of Key West, Florida.

The sky and waters were a stunning blue, and the weather was lovely and mild. Suddenly, I felt better — and that feeling persisted as my husband and I explored the southernmost city in Florida.

Though being sick on a cruise ship wasn’t ideal, I’m grateful the experience introduced me to what’s still my favorite vacation destination years later.

In fact, we love the city so much that we now hope to retire there.

It’s easy to understand why Key West is such a popular travel destination

Key West welcomes about a million visitors a year, which is no surprise given it’s a popular stop on cruises and it has an international airport.

The city has a lot to offer tourists, and when I travel, I seek to indulge my love of both history and nature. Key West has plenty of both

The Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum enchants with the island’s rich history of shipwreck salvage operations, which date back centuries.

Mallory Square, the city’s historic waterfront plaza, serves as an outdoor market where visitors can check out local artisans, entertainers, and food vendors.

It’s also where dozens of people gather each night for the island’s Sunset Celebration. Yes, the sunsets in Key West are that spectacular.

On our first visit alone, we took in the island’s gorgeous beaches and stopped by for a photo at the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States.

We were also mesmerized by the inhabitants of the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, which has dozens of species of colorful birds and butterflies.

Finally, we took a tour of the Hemingway Home, a museum established in author Ernest Hemingway’s former Key West house, and were absolutely charmed by the location’s famed polydactyl cats.

The culinary scene is great, too

Key West’s food and beverage scene is impressive, and the island is especially famous for desserts and drinks made from its eponymous Key limes.

Coincidentally, Key-lime pie and Key limeade were the first foods I could enjoy without experiencing morning sickness, so they have an especially dear place in my heart.

Key West has multitudes to offer on a savory front, too, especially when it comes to seafood.

Though it’s native to the area, queen conch is no longer allowed to be harvested in Florida due to decades of overfishing. However, it’s still imported and is a staple, as locals in the area specialize in preparing conch and do it very well.

Briny and sweet, conch is used in fritters, chowders, salads, and ceviche.

Don’t worry if seafood isn’t your thing, as Key West’s Gulf Coast locale means you’ll also find tasty Caribbean and Cuban fare here.

Key West feels worth rediscovering over and over again

My husband and I have been to Key West several times since that first visit. On our next trip there, we’ll be celebrating our oldest son’s 18th birthday.

It’s hard to believe the cause of that morning sickness will soon be an adult, but I can think of no place more fitting to celebrate his life.

I know it won’t be our last trip to Key West, either. My husband and I have a goal to make the island our permanent home one day.

In my opinion, ocean breezes, local history, a distinctive culinary scene, and unique attractions make the island an ideal place to live out one’s twilight years.

However, we’re still raising our kids in Houston — a city we love just as much as Key West — and plan to stay put until they finish their education.

Until then, we’re looking forward to enjoying brief pockets of “living on island time” on our vacations.