My friend C. reports that the shop was closed at the time when she visited but otherwise remains in business! phew!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Easton’s CarmelCorn Shop lives on!
Filed under Uncategorized
Roanoke Island in Outer banks – maybe it’s fate?
So when I googled “quaint, historic, duck, outer banks” (or something like that) to find a place to stay with our English friends, google sent me to some sweet cottages in Manteo on Roanoke Island, which as fate would have it turns out to be the site of The Lost Colony – a 16th century colony of 117 Brits that disappeared mysteriously. So perhaps this is the perfect place to visit with our British friends (a little re-colonizing perhaps) or not?
Filed under North Carolina, Uncategorized
getting to manhattan from Newark airport
There are he low-cost, low-stress, low-impact way to Newark Liberty.
There are now direct flights from Des Moines to Newark Airport and it doesn’t look too taxing (or expensive – if you skip the cab) to get to Manhattan from Newark. Haven’t been to that airport since the 1980s when I used to fly – okay this will date me – People’s Express.
Here’s the scoop on the AirTrain:
Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, AirTrain provides easy connections to NJ Transit and the rail lines that run on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line. AirTrain also offers a simple way for passengers to get to and from Manhattan and points north, or Philadelphia and points south. It also connects passengers to airline terminals, rental car facilities, hotel shuttles and central parking lots. Best of all, you never have to worry about traffic conditions.
Filed under New York City, Uncategorized
New Francesca’s, Pittsburgh Building in Chicago
Comfortable temps and sunshine in Chicago. We had a nice dinner at a new offshoot of Francesca’s on Chestnut downtown near Watertower Place – i was hoping for pasta bolognese but had pasta vongole (with clams and mussels which was good.) Yesterday I met my stepdaughter at the Pittsfield Building on Wabash, which has an ornate well-maintained arcade with an original old-fashioned lunch counter. We ate in the four-five story atrium of the building. Nothing fancy but good tuna salad and grilled cheese and breakfast served much of the day. Worth another visit – if only to look more at the building’s ornamentation.
Filed under Chicago, Uncategorized
vivace pizza, biking along the rillito trail near St. Phillips square Plaza, chopped (now choice greens) and zin burger
It was cold last Wednesday so we braved a bike ride along the wash near St. Phillips Plaza at Campbell and River, riding west. Nice level ride but it was cold riding into the wind. For lunch we ate at the former Chopped, now Choice Greens, or some such. As good as ever. That night we ate at Zin Burger – big juicy rare burger but pricey. Tuesday night, we had a good meal – pizza and salad at Vivace Pizza (in st. Phillips Plaza) Best part of Tucson: Being with my dad!
Filed under Arizona, Tucson, Uncategorized
Other highlights along Highway 6 east through Grinnell, Brooklyn and Homestead Iowa!
During our next road trip along Highway 6 in central Iowa, I must remember to check out:
In Grinnell, Relish, an interesting-looking restaurant in a spruced up old Victorian house at 4th and Park. Apparently it’s brand new and touts its “local foods, global flavors.” Word has it you can find out the name of the farmer who raised the cow you’re eating… (During our visit last Saturday, we had very good coffee and cappuccino in town at Saints Rest coffee. Near closing time at 5 p.m. the nice kid working behind the counter offered coffee on the house.)
In Brooklyn, (Iowa), the Brooklyn Pharmacy building – which appears to be a good antique shop – and SkyDive Iowa– an outfit just outside town with the catchy phone number 522-JUMP.
In Marengo, we found a new antique shop that was open at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night – it’s called Country Arts and Antiques and had some cool stuff including art by local farmers and an ancient leather steamer trunk.
We also drove along the quaint main drag of the small village of Homestead, in the Amana Colonies, which had more tourist draws than I remembered from visits long ago, including an inn, b&b, cider mill and restaurant.
Filed under Iowa, Uncategorized
a few St. Louis ideas
A few St. Louis ideas, by request:
– The last two times I went, we spent most of our time around Wash U. and went to a Cardinals game.
– I went to the old garden district one very hot sweltering day for lunch.
– then there’s the arch of course. and a new-ish downtown sculpture garden near by.
– The beer garden (Busch beer) we went to was at Grant’s Farm but doesn’t appear to be open until april: http://www.grantsfarm.com/TheBauernhof.htm
– fun fact re The Hill neighborhood (italian) in St. Louis (which I haven’t been to):
“It’s so crowded nobody goes there anymore.” This was said by Yogi Berra about Ruggeri’s (a Hill neighborhood restaurant) where he and Joe Garagiola had worked as waiters, which had become so popular that his old friends couldn’t get in anymore.
Filed under Missouri, Uncategorized
2012 hot spots: Bocas del Toro and Dominican Republic’s Samana Pennisula
I was surprised to see two fairly obscure places we’ve visited on the NYTimes Travel sections list of 45 places to go in 2012. But I have to agree with them:
#1 was Panama including Panama City and Bocas del Toro. Lower down the list was Las Terrenas, a village on the Samaná Peninsula, Dominican Republic (although no mention of the cool, low-key place where we stayed in 1990 or thereabouts: “The Hotel Tropic Banana” in Las Terrenas, which I gather from my googling is still there – although place seems more built up than when we visited.)
Below are the details.
1. Panama
Go for the canal. Stay for everything else.
It’s been 12 years since Panama regained control of its canal, and the country’s economy is booming. Cranes stalk the skyline of the capital, Panama City, where high-rises sprout one after the next and immigrants arrive daily from around the world. Among those who have landed en masse in recent years are American expatriates and investors, who have banked on Panamanian real estate by building hotels and buying retirement homes. The passage of the United States-Panama free trade agreement in October is expected to accelerate this international exchange of people and dollars (the countries use the same currency).
Among the notable development projects is the Panama Canal itself, which is in the early stages of a multibillion-dollar expansion. The project will widen and deepen the existing canal and add two locks, doubling the canal’s cargo capacity. For those who want to see the waterway as it was originally designed, now is the time. The expansion is expected to be completed by 2014, the canal’s 100-year anniversary.
Other high-profile projects include the construction of three firsts: The Panamera, the first Waldorf Astoria hotel in Latin America (set to open in June 2012); the Trump Ocean Club, the region’s tallest building, which opened last summer; and Frank Gehry’s first Latin American design, the BioMuseo, a natural history museum scheduled to open in early 2013. Even Panama City’s famously dilapidated historic quarter, Casco Viejo, has been transformed. The neighborhood, a tangle of narrow streets, centuries-old houses and neo-colonial government buildings, was designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 1997 and is now a trendy arts district with galleries, coffeehouses, street musicians and some of the city’s most stylish restaurants and boutique hotels.
Across the isthmus, on Panama’s Caribbean coast, the Bocas del Toro archipelago has become a popular stop on the backpacker circuit, with snorkeling and zip lining by day and raucous night life after dark. FREDA MOON
2) Samaná Peninsula, Dominican Republic (although no mention of the cool, low-key place where we stayed in 1990 or thereabouts: “The Hotel Tropic Banana” in Las Terrenas.)
Unspoiled beaches, but not for long.
For years, the Samaná Peninsula on the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic was one of the Caribbean’s remaining natural holdouts, largely untouched because of its remote location. But an international airport, El Catey, built near the peninsula’s base a few years ago and, more recently, a highway that shortened the drive from Santo Domingo to two hours from five, are bringing new development.
Balcones del Atláantico, a RockResort that opened last May in the village of Las Terrenas, is the newest luxury resort on the peninsula. Its 86 two- and three-bedroom villas start at $500 a night, supplying a cushy base from which to explore ecotourism. The Peninsula House, a plantation-style estate with just six suites from $580 a night, was named a 2011 Grand Award winner by Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report. And Auberge Resort’s’ Casa Tropicalia , with 44 beachfront suites and an open-air spa on Samaná Bay, is to open in 2014.
There are plenty of off-resort attractions, too. Just last month, Bravaro Runners, an adventure tour operator, opened a new zip-line tour consisting of 20 platforms and 10 zip-lines.
Go now, before the crowds arrive. MICHELLE HIGGINS
Filed under Dominican Republic, Panama, Uncategorized
Next likely travel adventure: Peru
When we were in Hawaii, a fellow traveler at a b&B asked us what are next trip would be? We told him, wherever our son studies abroad next year, most likely Chile. Now our son says he’s taking his semester abroad this fall – and wants to go to….Peru. So Peru it is.
Yet again, it’s a place I know little about so I’m starting to collect some string – including these bits culled from VBT’s catalog of walking and biking tours:
– Itinerary: Fly to cusco/transfer to Sacred Valley/Oilantaytambo – Pisac Ruins/Moray Terrarces/Maras/Cuyuni Community/trek Machu Picchu, Cusco, Tambomachay/Puka Pukara/Sacsayhuaman…
– Machu Picchu view from the sun gate. stay at Inkaterra, trek Inca trail or ride Vistadome narrow gauge rail.
– Urubamba Valley
– Sacred Valley/Oilantaytambo (stay at Casa Andina PC Valle sagrado)
– Pisac
– Inca Trail
– Cusco – stay at Casa andina Private Collection Cuso
-Cuyuni market; Colonia Cusco, a UNESCO world Heritage Site, sampling chica (native corn beer) and Andean weaving.
– Lima – Ramada costa Del Sol Lima (day room)
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On Valencia in the Mission District of San Francisco
So we walk into a cheese bar (Mission Cheese) in the Mission District of San Francisco and there, sitting the bar, is the owner/operator of The Cheese Shop, a cheese and wine bar that just opened in my neighborhood in Des Moines. I had just been telling my friend S. about it. How strange is that? Apparently there is a “good food” event going on here – a trade show for foodies – so maybe that’s why he is here. We said hello and wen toff to our respective cheese plates.
Also on or near Valencia Street, we visited Paxton Gate gift shop, Bi-Rite Creamery (for ice cream), Cafe Tartine. We also walked past an old favorite, Delfine pizza.
Yesterday, we went to the Ferry Building for the farmer’s market and strolled by the stalls inside. Produce is far pricier than my friend’s neighborhood farmers market near the Sunset district ($3.50 vs. $1 for a pound of satsumas ) but can’t beat the scenery (overlooking the bay vs. a mall parking lot.) Next stop, Potrero Hill area – had coffee, popped in and out of various shop including Christopher’s book shop (where I got an advance copy of a new nonfiction book I’ve wanted for $1.) Also walked down the Vallejo steps in North Beach – beautiful.
Filed under San Francisco, Uncategorized
