It was freezing and we wanted to get away. But we had committed to our regular summer weeks in the cabin and didn’t want to sell off the kids’ college funds to hit a beach. The solution: a tagalong trip.

Charles Tilton had cash. Lots of it. His Gold Rush fortune paid for bridges, a new Town Hall, and public statuary throughout the hamlet named in his family’s honor. So when the wealthy benefactor wanted a memento of his trip to Rome in 1881, a mere postcard or souvenir ashtray wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, Tilton built a colossal memorial arch atop a 150-foot-high peak in close eyeshot of his grand mansion. Inspired by the Arch of Titus, the Concord granite monument overlooking downtown Tilton soars more than five stories high. Tilton dedicated the structure to his ancestors and hoped that, in contrast to its Roman counterpart, his arch would commemorate peace, not war.

People come to Orlando’s theme parks looking for a range of experiences from space travel to safaris to superheroic adventures. The one thing they probably don’t come for, especially during school vacation week, is sustained peace and quiet. But that’s a key part of what Discovery Cove delivers with its SeaVenture experience.

Discovery Cove is a SeaWorld sister resort (another sibling is Aquatica) where the illusion they’re selling is natural tropical paradise and marine wildlife sanctuary meets back-to-basics water park. The grounds are lush and manicured to rival the grand hotels of Hawaii. There’s a lazy river that winds around a good portion of the park’s 30 acres, including through an aviary where birds will eat out of your hand if you like.

Beautifully written and directed, HBO’s “Behind the Candelabra” doesn’t quite fit into the biopic genre — simply because it is so good.

Beneath the outlandish costumes, showy personality, and high-watt smile, Liberace was a real person.

At 66, David Stromeyer came to the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord with his work gloves. And he wasn’t just pitching in. He led the crew.

Asian pop music like 2004’s “Tri-Angle,” by Korean boy band TVXQ has been borrowing from the Boston-based chamber orchestra’s minatory opening theme.

“What Maisie Knew,” a modern-dress adaptation of the 1897 Henry James novel, is about the erosion of innocence entirely from the point of view of a 6-year-old girl.

Creative, colorful, and unexpectedly wise, “The Painting” is the latest offshore animation to show to kids burned out on computer-generated Hollywood toons.

Vin Diesel and the “Fast & Furious” handlers seem eager to assert how they’ve molded a series of installments into, yep, a saga, complete with twisty continuity.

Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s unconventional and enthralling documentary is about a New Bedford-based fish trawler in the North Atlantic.

Blue Sky Studios’ fantastical great-outdoors adventure needs to engage us far more powerfully for that hyperbolic title to fit.

Does the new documentary “Venus and Serena” pull back the curtain on who Venus and Serena Williams are and what drives them? Not so much.

“At Any Price” is worth seeing for Quaid tearing into his most complex role in years: Henry Whipple, an Iowa farmer, seed salesman for an agribusiness giant, and a hollow man.

Fans of “Midnight’s Children” will tell you there’s magic in the pages of Salman Rushdie’s novel.