October 11, 2011 · 10:41 pm

Zingerman’s and other Ann Arbor Highlights

Nice 36 Hours story in the NYTimes last Sunday on the penultimate college town, Ann Arbor, Mi. (Go Blue!) Zingerman’s deli gets a nod, as well it should. Other highlights and things to explore when next passing through:

Nickel’s Arcade for upscale shopping and coffee at Comet Coffee

Hill Auditorium for visiting top-notch theater, dance and classical music concerts

Mark’s Carts – ethnic food carts in a courtyard on Washington Street between first and Ashley streets.

Angelo’s – for breakfast, then off to the Farmer’s market.

The Ark – famous folk house now known for world music too apparently.

Pacific rim  for pan-Asian food

Logan for wild boar Bolognese (hmmm)

Frita Batidos for cuban food

Cafe Zola for french, italian and turkish food

 

–

Leave a comment

Filed under Michigan

Tagged as ,

October 10, 2011 · 11:40 pm

now for a little self-promotion…hot off the press: The New York Times, 36 Hours: 150 Weekends

A New Yorker cartoon recently summed up the typical contents of a blog that it’s: 1/3 how to sew, knit, cook, whatever, 1/3 kvetching of one variety or another and 1/3 self-promotion. Or some such.

With this blog, I’ve tried not to do much of any of that. But hey, what’s wrong with a little self- promotion – especially when, sadly, I won’t earn anything else  from the re-publication of two of my stories for the NYTimes  in an upcoming 774- page coffee table travel book.

So be on the look out for  The New York Times, 36 hours: 150 weekends in the USA and Canada which should be available in November I’m told and includes my stories on Oak Park (Illinois) and on Iowa’s Coast (yes, coast – along the Mississippi).  They’ve been updated since they ran several years ago – but not entirely by me.

Here’s some promo material:

The 740-page book includes the Times’ top 150 travel destinations, from cities and towns to natural wonders across America. Practical recommendations for the over 600 restaurants and 450 hotels is inside with color-coded tabs and ribbons to bookmark favorite cities in each region. Nearly 1,000 photos, most of them from The New York Times archive made it in, making it small enough to throw in your suitcase but big enough to enjoy from your favorite reading chair. The new illustrations by Times illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli of Milan, Italy look fantastic, and includes easy-to-reference indexes and detailed city-by-city maps,.  This will be TASCHEN America’s top title of the year.
 

The New York Times, 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the USA & Canada
Hardcover, 16.8 x 24 cm (6.6 x 9.4 in.), 744 pages
EUR 29.99 | USD 39.99 | GBP 24.99 | JPY 5900.00

The best of the USA & Canada: The highly acclaimed New York Times travel feature finally available in one updated volume

Leave a comment

Filed under guidebook, Illinois, Iowa

Tagged as , , , ,

October 8, 2011 · 7:46 pm

Yes we can…bike in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

I found a place that has half day and full day bike tours through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park – for $99 vs. $129 per person. Kinda pricey but includes bike rental and some other handy things like a guide and sag wagon. More details below and at: info@bikevolcano.com

The next question is if we can just rent a bike – and not take the tour….

 

BIKE VOLCANO SUMMIT TOUR SPECIALBIKE VOLCANO SUMMIT TOUR SPECIAL – {Half Day Tour}

Our Summit Tour Special is the perfect way to be introduced to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The short duration of this tour allows you ample time to explore other beautiful areas of the Big Island of Hawai’i.
{10am – 1pm daily; 1pm – 4pm b.o.d.}

 

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK & WINE TASTING BIKE TOURBIKE HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK & WINE TASTING – Full Day Tour

A day tour of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park followed by an optional wine tasting session at the Volcano Winery.

{10am – 3pm daily}

 

Leave a comment

Filed under biking, Hawaii

Tagged as

October 7, 2011 · 7:20 pm

Following in my parents’ tire treds – in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

I often end up going places – from the Dordogne region of France to Grafton, Vermont and Columbus, Indiana (an unlikely architectural hotspot) – because my parents went before me.   I  am driven not only by vague memories of their travel tales but because I inherited their tastes and sensibilities (if not their budget.)

Soooo, when I was trying to figure out where to go in Hawaii, the main reason I  settled on visiting the Big Island and its Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park  is a vague memory of my parents’ story about riding a bike into a dormant volcano there. Sure enough, here’s my dad’s  recollection of  that trip – which makes me want to go all the more…and on a bike! (Note to self: find out if/where we can rent bikes at the national park.)

We did a bike trip around the big island many moons ago. There is one road that circles the island at the high level…it goes thru several kinds of climate from rain forest to barren lava beds. We would stay at hotels near the water, ride up the big hill to get to the road, ride down to have lunch by the water, ride up again and then ride till the end of the day and come back to the water. The only change was when we got to the volcano where we stayed overnight in the hotel right next to the volcano mouth. Some hardy soles actually rode their bike up the hill but mom and I opted for a sag-wagon ride. In the morning we could then walk out onto the volcano which still had some small smoking holes. The next morning was the culmination of the trip. We rode our bikes down the mountain, coasting for almost 2 hours without peddling once. The final miles were down the route of the Ironman marathon, which was run uphill in the opposite direction. There was a town near the base of the volcano that was famous for being the home of the hippies…more pot smoke came up from the town than from the volcano. Don’t neglect buying macadamia nuts while you are there…they are the single most caloric food possible. Also, the Kona coffee is a major tasting.

My dad adds:  It was an organized bike trip, either VBT or another like it.While there I bought a tee shirt that said I did the Iron Man…people looked at me differently when I wore it. Same result as when I wore the Ragbrai jacket.

Leave a comment

Filed under biking, Hawaii

Tagged as , ,

October 6, 2011 · 11:20 pm

Where to stay on Hawaii’s Big Island: can the mags/books/websites be trusted?

So I’m elbow deep in thick guidebooks trying to figure out the best (my “”best” definition: the most interesting/authentic, least expensive/resort/chain-like) place to stay on Hawaii’s Big Island and fine myself torn about two B&Bs in Volcano, Hawaii (right by the National Volcano Park).

I’ve gone to the websites for each and watched the videos and slide shows and scanned the maps and read the testimonials. I’ve looked at one room after another, even one B&B’ s  floor plans. Does it really make a difference if the proprietor was born and raised in Volcano – or a relatively recent transplant from Oklahoma?  Do I care that one serves a hot breakfast, the other a cold; one serves organic fruit, the other fruit not billed as organic? And to think I used to just travel without booking a place to stay – let alone the absolutely perfect place to stay, whose every crevice I am familiar with in advance.

This researching also raises the question of whether to trust the opinion of various travel magazines and guidebooks.  Having written for both, I sometimes wonder what their criteria is for choosing “the 25 best” or “the 10 places we love” etc.  (A recent example – Forbes Magazine recently selected the Des Moines neighborhood I live in as one of America’s 12 prettiest. It’s nice enough but one of the top 12? Looking closer, I saw that a Des Moines magazine editor helped do the picking.)

Back to Hawaii: B&B#1  appears to be the darling of the travel mags (two have given it a major thumbs up) and it is the cheapest. But judging from the websites of each, it  looks rather drab compared to B&B #2 which is more cheerfully decorated, gets respectful reviews in two guidebooks (as does B&B #1) ,  has its share of local “Best of” awards, and was selected as a stopover by a respected walking tour company. True it’s $70 more a night, which one guidebook says is a “con” because it’s overpriced for the area.  But I may just have to go with my gut on this one.

Leave a comment

Filed under guidebook, Hawaii, LODGING

Tagged as , ,

October 5, 2011 · 7:35 pm

Walking the Big Island in Hawaii

I’m starting to think we should visit the Big Island during our trip to Hawaii in January, which will start with a conference in Honolulu.  I’ve gotten some suggestions from VBT’s walking tours catalog – including visiting Pu’uhonua o Hanaunau,  Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hamakua Coast/Wilamea/Anna’s Ranch , Kohala Coast, Hilo and staying at: Kilauea Lodge, Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Hapuna Beach Prince Resort.

Any other suggestions welcome!

2 Comments

Filed under Hawaii, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

October 4, 2011 · 10:37 pm

Daring to ride a bicycle on Iowa’s county roads – Chichaqua Trail east of Des Moines

You can get very spoiled riding bikes on Iowa’s trails – no cars to worry about except at infrequent intersections with usually pokey gravel roads. But yesterday – in part because one of our favorite trails, the (unpronounceable) 20-mile Chichaqua Valley Trail from Bondurant to Baxter, east of Des Moines,  is partially closed – we decided to try riding on a few county roads paralleling the trail.

It helped that the roads we were (S52 and F24)  were chosen by the Iowa Bike Coalition as good – and included as part of a recommended loop on their new biking map that I recently picked up for $2.50 at a bike shop in Des Moines.  On a gorgeous fall Sunday, the two-lane roads were mostly quiet – but every once in awhile a car or truck would come up from behind and scare the be-Jesus out of us. My husband was particularly worried about combines and grain trucks – since it’s harvest time.

The roads were very hilly – so a challenge to ride from that standpoint too – with visibility limited. When I could banish my fear of approaching cars, riding the country roads was fun – you get a really different feel for the countryside than on the trails where you are more insulated and your view more restricted. You’re riding in the middle of the corn field rather than on the edge of it, if that makes sense.

Anyway, by the time we got to the small town of Mingo on county roads we were very ready to return to the safety of a trail – and we gladly hopped on the Chichaqua Trail, riding  south to Valeria, where the trail was closed thru to Bondurant, due to damage caused by flooding last year.  We had the trail from Valeria to Baxter (via Mingo and Ira) almost to ourselves – about a 10 mile stretch – because, I’m guessing, 1)  people think the trail is completely closed and 2) the High Trestle Trail has become so popular that it’s siphoning off riders on the the Chichaqua Trail.

The weather was a balmy 75 degrees or so and the trees and light were in their autumnal glory – we rode through tunnels of trees changing color, our tires crunching on fallen leaves, the sun making shadows that dappled the path, gliding past fields of browning corn and golding soybeans, past the occasional combine harvesting away or tractor in the distance making hay bales. Iowa in its glory.

Leave a comment

Filed under bike trails, Iowa

Tagged as , , ,

October 2, 2011 · 3:02 pm

A b&b in Minneapolis – stick with tried and true or try something new?

We visit Minneapolis every couple of years and have had very good luck  staying at Evelo’s bed & breakfast, a low-key but charming house in a good location near the Walker Art Center. But for our next trip in late October, we’re toying with the idea of staying somewhere else – the Wales House near the U of Minnesota campus, in part because it may be available when Evelo’s is not and also just to try something new (always a temptation.)

Leave a comment

Filed under Minneapolis

Tagged as

September 30, 2011 · 7:02 pm

A way to step foot inside one of my favorite new Chicago buildings – the Aqua building

I have long admired Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Building – ever since we glided by it on an Chicago Architectural Foundation boat tour along the Chicago River several years ago. Now comes word that I can get to see it up close and personal when the new Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel opens on 11/1/11 at 221 North Columbus Drive. The hotel will take up 18 floors of Gang’s 81-story tower with its distinctive white wavy-gravy balconies. By the by, I learned in an interview with Gang in the NYT that those  smooth white curved-floor balconies, irregularly shaped to create the rippled effect,  are not only for cool effect  but cool purpose – to produce energy savings. Each balcony doubles as solar shade for the room or apartment below – and interrupt the breezes whipping off the lake so balconies on higher floors are feasible. Not for nothing did Gang,a Chicago native,  recently receive a MacArthur genius award.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Chicago

Tagged as , , ,

September 29, 2011 · 1:10 am

Hints for Hawaii

Time to start gathering string for our trip to Hawaii in January. YES!

A friend emailed from there the other day with these suggestions: this is my fifth time here. I love it. Oahu, Maui and the Big Island are my favorites. Lots to see on Oahu: Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, North Shore where the waves are much bigger, Dole plantation. You will have a blast. Stay as long as you can because it’s a long flight. We are on Kauai, Maui and Oahu on this 10-day trip. Aloha!

Also read in AAA magazine that it’s possible to find low key interesting b&Bs on the Big Island for about $150 a night. I’d love to find something akin to Panama’s laid-back hippish Bocas Del Toro in Hawaii.

Leave a comment

Filed under Hawaii

Tagged as ,