What makes a vacation truly memorable? There may be a reliable formula, at least for younger people.

A poll of 2,000 travelers between 18 and 34 identified some of their favorite ingredients.

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COURTNEY LAMDIN for Seven Days

Published May 17, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

The founders of Whetstone Beer in Brattleboro have always been fond of public parks. For the brewery’s 10th anniversary last summer, the company rebranded with a motif that mimics the iconic national park travel posters that were created during the New Deal era to ramp up tourism.

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It’s only fitting, then, that Whetstone’s newest project honors the natural spaces in its own backyard. The company plans to brew two limited-edition beers each year that are inspired by Vermont state parks. Dubbed Pints for Parks and launched this month, the project will funnel $1 from every draft beer or four-pack sold to Vermont Parks Forever, a nonprofit that fundraises for park improvements and provides free visitor passes to underserved communities.

A man who attempted to summit the highest mountains in England, Scotland, and Wales to raise money for charity has now completed the challenge—with a refrigerator strapped to his back.

The 38-year-old former soldier Michael Copeland conquered the three peaks challenge in just under 24 hours to raise money for the mental health charity Mind.

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He started with the Scottish peak Ben Nevis at 6:54 AM last Saturday before scaling Scafell Pike in the Lake District, and then Snowdon in Wales with just 10 minutes to spare.

The daredevil had to overcome grueling weather conditions including heavy rain, snow, and 40mph winds. He ended up running downhill with the fridge from the summit of Snowdon to complete the challenge just in time.

“The whole challenge felt like a movie with the changing weather conditions… 30-40mph winds as we were going up Snowdon so it almost felt like a grown adult was trying to push me over,” he said.

A handful of walnuts three times a week is enough to boost attention and brain growth in secondary school kids, according to a new study of students in Spain.

The nuts contain a type of omega-3 oil that is particularly beneficial to growing brains.

Scientists who studied 700 kids aged 11-16 found the cognitive development and psychological maturation increased in those that ate the nuts regularly.

Students from 12 different schools in Barcelona were randomly divided into two groups. A control group, which received no intervention of any kind and the experimental group, which received packages containing 30 grams of walnut kernels that they were told to consume every day for a period of six months.

The research team from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, found the benefits even in those who only ate them 100 times in the 182 days.

Walnuts are rich in alpha-linolenic fatty acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 that plays a fundamental role in brain development—especially at this life stage when kids’ bodies are changing a lot as they grow.

“Adolescence is a time of great biological changes,” said Principal investigator Dr. Jordi Julvez from the IISPV.

“Neurons that are well nourished with this type of fatty acids will be able to grow and form new, stronger synapses.”

They also found an increase in functions relating to fluid intelligence, which is less influenced by learning. It is inherent to the person’s biology.

“We assessed (fluid intelligence) with increasingly complex tests, such as having adolescents figure out what pattern a row of letters followed,” explained Dr. Julvez.

While there have been previous studies on the effect of nuts on our health, the impact of their consumption at such a critical stage for cognitive development as adolescence has never been examined.

Ariadna Pinar, a doctoral student from IISPV and first author of the study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, said their findings demonstrate that following a healthy diet is as important as maintaining these habits over time.

“Adolescence is a period of great brain development and complex behaviors that requires a significant amount of energy and nutrients.

“If boys and girls would heed these recommendations and actually eat a handful of walnuts a day, or at least three times a week, they would notice many substantial improvements in cognitive abilities and it would help them face the challenges of adolescence and entering adulthood.”

The Foo Fighters frontman reportedly spent 16 hours at Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission last week, rocking up at around midnight on Wednesday (February 22) with an overnight bag and an enormous meat smoker in tow.