November 15, 2010 · 7:50 pm

Baltimore art scene

Baltimore is one of those cities I collect travel info on since I may actually return there sometime (for work.) So here’s some suggestions from the NYTimes on the art scene in Station North, an arts district near Penn Station, the city’s railway hub (which itself sounds like it’s worth seeing):

Metro Gallery, 1700 North Charles st.

Joe Squared, 133 West North Avenue, serving great pizza (one with bacon and clams, yum), plus has exhibitions and live music.

The Charles Cinema, 1711 North Charles street – longtime artsy film house.

Tapas Teatro, 1711 North Charles – Iberian-influenced tapas including asparagus w/Serrano ham (my brother just returned from Spain and raved about the ham there – and Gaudi buildings!) and crab/spinach in sherry cream sauce (which would probably kill me but sounds delicious.) Plus rare wines like Txakoli from the Basque region.

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November 14, 2010 · 3:42 pm

Northwestern University – around and about

We’ve been at Northwestern off and on this weekend to see our son during parents’ weekend and to, alas, watch Iowa lose, narrowly, to Northwestern’s football team. A few finds:

– Not bad sushi at the student union

– Very good hot chocolate and an enormous tuna melt sandwich at Clark’s – an unassuming good-value coffee shop on Clark street near campus. Great place to warm up after you’ve been sitting in the rain and cold watching two teams of young men bang into each other for hours while middle-aged men shout nasty words from the stands.

– We followed Northwestern’s instructions and didn’t bring our car – and were glad of it. The El took us directly, if not swiftly, to Evanston. Free shuttle buses (the buses were labeled “Positive Connections”)  arrived quickly to transport us from campus to the field which was so much smaller than Iowa’s (or Michigan’s) – really a treat. Our seats were in the 11th row so we could see the football game just yards away, up close and personal. It was like being at a high school game.

– Earlier in the trip, we went to Nightwood in the Pilsen neighborhood which alas was disappointing. My $15 hamburger – the least expensive thing on the menu – arrived medium rare (I ordered and was promised rare). I sent it back and the new one was about the same. (At which point, I split it with my brother – who didn’t eat most of his chicken because it was undercooked.) Too bad because there were good things about the place – a very attentive waiter, welcoming ambiance, some good entrees and hors d’oeuvres, tasty deserts (including a free one the waiter brought me as “a gift” because of the hamburger problem.)

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November 13, 2010 · 1:08 am

Return to Andersonville (Chicago)

We didn’t get a chance to explore Andersonville after dinner last night so we returned this afternoon and glad we did. Lots of interesting design stores – mostly furniture but also clothing and odd ball “repurposing” shops that take old typewriters and TV and do amazing new things with them. The store Transistor specializes in this and the guy working there was a good host, showing us how these crazy electronic instruments that some artist/musician made up work and make sometimes horrifying noises. Also liked to the Scout that restores old furniture and The White Attic, which does the same thing with furniture that is so familiar from my childhood but looks somehow new.

Wish we’d had more time to wander – really liked the Alamo Shoes there too. The space felt like the shoestore of my youth but with  a much better selection!

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November 12, 2010 · 3:55 pm

Andersonville at last – Chicago

Finally made it to Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood last night- unexpectedly. The restaurant my sister had booked for a family gathering was there – didn’t realize this until we were trying to figure out what neighborhood we were in and lo  and behold, there were Andersonville signs on the lampposts. The restaurant was good – anteprima. My cousin S’s entree was my favorite  – the carbonara with wonderfully crisp, crunchy, salty bacon. Ymmm. Also very good was the chocolate mouse type dessert. Nice ambiance – rustic, low-key, lots of gay couples. Reasonable prices.

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November 10, 2010 · 9:45 pm

Chicago Architecture Foundation/Aqua building

I’ve been recommending things to do/see in Chicago to friends and family and realize I neglected to blog about my visit last September to the Chicago Architecture Foundation, near the Art Institute on South Michigan Ave. Several interesting tours leave from the place – and it has one of the best gift shops I’ve come across anywhere, full of great stuff on architecture and design – especially clever architecture T-shirts. Also forgot to mention one of my new favorite buildings in chicago – the Aqua Tower by Jeanne Gang. I was mesmerized by it a few years ago when I spotted it during a Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour. The New Yorker gave it a thumbs up too recently. see :
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger

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November 7, 2010 · 4:20 pm

Other issues when picking a hotel in a foreign land…beyond cost and location

Other issues beyond the more pedestrian ones of cost and location when trying to pick, from a great distance (say the distance between Des Moines, Iowa and Boquete, Panama),  a hotel/inn/B&B to stay at in a foreign country:

– SIZE  – Is it a better bet to stay somewhere with 16 rooms then somewhere with one room? Or three rooms? That’s the options we’re looking at for the moment in Boquete.

– AMBIANCE – Do we want the relatively bustling-with-people-and-activity “eco-lodge” or the secluded inn that bills itself as perfect for honeymooners (which we are not)?

– AUTHENTICITY – Do we want the hotel that seems to be run by locals rather than the inn run by expats who have set up shop in paradise? Do we want  the perhaps more authentic experience of staying at a hotel where we have to struggle to communicate (thanks to our inability to speak the local language) or the relative ease and comfort of staying with hosts who speak our language? Do we want to be travelers or tourists?

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November 4, 2010 · 11:13 pm

Perplexing frequent flyer miles

I made the mistake of looking at my frequent flyer airline miles today and quickly got overwhelmed. Apparently I have gobs of miles that are going to expire next year. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since I can’t remember the last time I used miles to purchase a free ticket – I’d pretty much given up because they are seldom of use when I really need them (during holidays etc.) and I’ve begun to rely much more on the Capital One miles, which are much more use-able and easy-to-use. Of course, I decided to see if I could use my American miles for my ticket to Panama City in February but found the process so cumbersome I quickly gave up. It looked like the only way I could use them was by flying in a completely inconvenient way that involved spending the night in Miami. Don’t think so.

Plan B: I’m going to look more closely at the NYTimes Practical Traveler story I saved from last Sunday “Swapping Miles for chocolate” to find other ways to use these darned miles. Word has it I can now use my American Miles to book car rentals and hotel stays. And Delta will let me exchange miles for gift cards to places like the Gap and Lands End. I did use some spare miles recently to get a six-month subscription to People Magazine, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and now miss now that my time is up) and I gave away some other miles to charity.

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November 3, 2010 · 9:21 pm

More Detroit hotspots – pt. 2

I forgot to mention another NYT story in its fall 2010  T magazine about Detroit – this one about “artists in residence” in some struggling Motor City neighborhoods.  It likened the city to a modern-day Rome. um, not exactly.  But here are more suggestions of things to do, places to see:

Restaurants – Atlas Global Bistro, 3111 Woodward Ave!; The Cass Cafe, 4620 Cass Ave; El Barzon (Mexican-Italian?) 3710 Junction STreet; Russell Street Deli, 2465 Russell Street.

Museums/Galleries: The Butcher’s Daughter, 22747 Woodward Ave.; Detroit Institute of Arts (duh); G.R. N’Namdi Gallery; Heidelberg Project – between Mt. Elliott and Ellery streets heidelberg.org; Lemberg Gallery, 23271 Woodward Ave., Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 4454 Woodward; Paul Kotula Projects, 23244 Woodward; Susanne Hilberry Gallery, 700 Livernois. Sad not to see my parent’s gallery, The Rubiner Gallery, in the list but it’s been closed for many years after a long run in suburban Detroit.

Hotels: The Inn on Ferry Street.

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November 2, 2010 · 10:30 pm

More Detroit hotspots

The NYTimes seems to be promoting Detroit as a tourist destination these days and why not. Here’s some suggestions from their latest travel piece on the Motor City:

– Roast – “Detroit’s most talked about restaurant”…..

– Rub BBQ Pub – with a sandwich named after local boy gone rocker Ted Nugent

– Detroit Beer Company – behind the Opera House beer. And my favorite beer name “People Mover Porter” – with chocolate tones.

– Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Take off the first name and it feels like the good old days. or the bad old days. take your pick but nice to see this place open again after a $200 million renovation. What’s next – the downtown Hudson’s???

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November 2, 2010 · 12:07 am

Boquete, Panama – where to stay

This tends to happen – I narrow down our choice of lodging to two options, then am completely torn on which to pick.  And I’m left parsing guidebook descriptions and over-analyzing website photos. My choices in Boquete boil down to two places – one a little more upscale and expensive than the other.  Do we go for the small inn – only three bungalows spread out across a six-acre coffee farm – for $145 per night, with gorgeous grounds or the larger livelier less-secluded eco-lodge/old farm-house w/16 room on a 500-acre coffee farm-  for $99 a night, not quite as gorgeous grounds but still stunning views, with more people around and an on-site nature guide? Oh and one more thing – we’re running up against the non-refundable deposit issue. With the inn, if we have to cancel we’re out $145 (our first night’s stay); the other place doesn’t have that kind of penalty.

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