The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But there are far more thrilling ways to get where you want to go. This is the luxurious time of year to veer off the expected path -- to meander, sashay, loop the loop. To wander the world (or your local state fair). Linger over lunch (or an ice pop). Get a contact high from a sunset (or a transcendent novel). Think of the ideas on the following as your starting block for the season, and dive in headfirst.

19. Fête Bastille Day
Check out the parades and regatta in La Nouvelle-Orléans.
Taste wines, eat French food, and snap a selfie with a 43-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower at the 36th annual Bastille Days celebration, from July 13 to 16 in Milwaukee.
Join the crowd yelling, “Let them eat Tastykakes!” outside the Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, where there’s a historical re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille, and thousands of the local treats are thrown from the ramparts.

21. Go spelunking.
Explore the longest known cave system in the world, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave.
22. Learn what the heck a helictite is in the Caverns of Sonora, in Texas.
23. Kayak the seaside Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island, in California.
24. Take a 45-minute boat ride along the Colorado River to the Moab Music Festival’s August 31 Grotto concert...
... which happens in an acoustically excellent natural concert hall created by a red-stone cave.
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