My stepdaughter is heading to Memphis and beyond this spring on a road trip and I’m full of suggestions for what to do, where to eat and stay – thanks to a great road trip my son and I took in 2008 that I dubbed the “baseball, blues, and BBQ tour” based on my son’s interests, which helped determine our stops in St Louis, Memphis and Clarksdale, Mississippi.
So stay tuned Emma and all…..I’m going to dig out my journal and get you some specifics!
Filed under Memphis, Mississippi
One of these days I’m going to stay in Phoenix when we land at the airport there and explore the city (rather than jumping immediately in a rental car and heading to Tucson, where we visit my dad). We’ve poked around Scottsdale a bit but Phoenix has always seemed more interesting yet challenging to explore. And when we do stay in Phoenix, I must remember to take a copy of the NYTimes story “Reviving Phoenix through Art” in today’s paper that talks about a once rundown downtown area that is now an arts district. In addition to several galleries, there is the Downtown Phoenix Public Market which sounds great – with vendors selling everything from produce to herbal remedies. The Asian tapas (“asian tapas?”) restaurant Sens also sounds worth a visit.
Fate (or chance or destiny?) has taken me to some unexpected places, sometimes repeatedly, and one of them is Greensburg, Kansas – a small town (pop. 1000) in the state’s windy west that was almost blown off the map in 2007 by a brutal tornado that killed eleven people and destroyed most of the town. (An event that ironically put Greensburg on the map.)
In the past 23 years, I have driven through Greensburg oh, maybe, 23 times, during our annual trips to visit my in-laws who live about an hour west in the even smaller wind-swept town of Wright, Ks. (pop. about 100) near Dodge City. Until the tornado struck, one of my favorite parts of our Kansas trip was going through Greensburg, driving under – if my memory serves me correctly – an almost hand-written sign blowing in the wind over State Highway 54 (US 400) that read: “BIG WELL.” With an arrow pointing due south.
I did visit the Big Well (aka “the world’s largest hand-dug well”….32 feet wide and 109 feet deep) at least once and don’t remember it being that Big a Deal. But that Big Sign – way cool! Something about its no-nonsense, no frills, bluntness struck me as classic Kansas. It is what it is.
But after the tornado – which blew the sign to God knows where – the sign never reappeared.
So I was pleased to read in a front page Wall Street Journal story yesterday (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703906204575027323116293074.html) that the Big Well may soon be an even bigger tourist attraction – as Greensburg continues its valiant efforts to recover from a tornado whose devastation – flattened buildings, chewed-up trees, piles of random rubble – I’ve seen firsthand.
Apparently Greensburg is emerging as an eco-tourism hotspot ( environmentalists including Leo DeCaprio are helping to resurrect Greensburg as a “green city” ….geddit?) – and the city has plans to develop a $3 million Big Well museum, contracting with big shot New York museum designers.
Good for them. I just hope they remember to string up that Big Sign again. (And maintain some of that low-key, quirky, Kansas charm.)
Filed under Kansas, Kansas misc, On the road
With yet another weather event upon us (today it’s a blizzard, last week an ice storm), I am yet again dreaming of escape. So an email from my sister’s in-laws in Portland, Oregon with travel suggestions for our trip there in March was very welcome.
She recommends:
In Portland:
Hotel deLuxe (more than Lucia or Ace);
Restaurants in North east Portland: – Tabla Bistro (serves “natural wines”); Spints Alehouse (full disclosure – new place opened by my sister’s relatives.)
other Portland restaurants: Clyde Common, Giorgios,
Neighborhoods to explore: Hawthorne Street – more restaurants there – Castagna (gourmet) and Cafe Castagna; Fleur-de-Sel;
To see: rose gardens
In Newport (on the coast): Saffron Salmon restaurant! Stroll along main street to see everything from art galleries to fish being gutted. Aquarium – must visit, and for a great view of coast north of Newport: stop off the road is Cape Foul Weather. Love it!
D just returned from a business trip to Seattle (where I last visited 20 years ago during our honeymoon). He didn’t get that much time to explore (given the biz obligations and the persistent albeit unsurprising rain) but offers a few suggestions about hotels, dining and sightseeing:
– He stayed at the Seattle Hilton – which was “fine but sort of disjointed in design with the lobby on the 14th floor and rooms just above. Appeared to be offices below.” Also you had to put your room key in the elevator control panel to gain entry to the floor where you room was and if you weren’t fast enough on the draw you had to go all the way to the top (perhaps 40 floors) and come back down. Ultra-secure but a hassle.
– On the dining front, beyond the many catered affairs, D reports eating well at The Ale House downtown near the Pike Street Market, a “very solid” brew pub with fresh seafood” (good mahi mahi and crab cakes made with the local Dungeness crab) and range of local beers (Alaskan Amber was good.) Also dined at “Purple Cafe” downtown, on tuna (the local stuff, not the kind in a can, needless to say), a selection of local cheeses and a mini steak frites appetizer.
– Sightseeing suggestions: Don’t miss the stunning new Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas. (D didn’t have a chance to go in but the library was impressive from the outside) and the Columbia Club on the top of the Bank of America building with a fantastic view of Puget Sound. Club may be private….Another great view was atop of the Seattle Hilton where you could watch the ferries arrive.
P.S. I apologize if some of you looked on this blog and found the exciting entry “Test” with nothing following. And then later found this entry gone. I was indeed testing to see if the functions to subscribe to this blog by RSS or via email work – alas they don’t seem to work for anyone but me. ugh. So I’ll be working on that….Another option is to get this via google alert, if you’d like to try.
Filed under Seattle
Soon after it dawned on me today (apropos of nothing) that I last visited San Francisco almost exactly two years ago, I got another email from my NYC friend who recently visited the beautiful city by the bay with her teen-age son. She offered more details on her trip that are well worth sharing. I know I’ll be using them some day (soon I hope ). Here they are:
Hotel Vertigo: awesome helpful staff, lovely hip lobby, great beds with all white comforters, pillows…good bathroom with big strong shower head, big tub, yummy spa-like products, dock station, free wi-fi, flat screen TV, convenient location to union sq (our BART stop). loved this place. and for $79/nite (did I get some special online rate?) I sorta couldn’t believe the price.
Dottie’s: 522 Jones St; a tiny coffee shop located in a run down hotel in the tenderloin hood, felt like the Bowery in NYC former days. Expect to stand on line a long time, we had a one hr wait, but my cool cuz suggested it and 3 guys we met the day before said we had to have breakfast at Dottie’s!…I never would’ve have waited otherwise, but ok sooo worth it. the best cornmeal blueberry pancakes, non-stop coffee refills, great french toast with fresh fruit, cuz some big egg dish with yummy homemade corn bread…even with it being packed, never felt rushed except our waiter spoke at the fastest speed I’ve ever heard! tourists just need to be prepared for this hood.
Alcatraz, so worth it. I wasn’t into a touristy tour thing but that self guided tour with actors’ voices was really well done. the whole experience felt like theatre. it is depressing but they make it alive and real.
Slanted Door: yummy Vietnamese fusion CA food…in lovely Ferry building, overlooking water, we sat at the bar, weeks booked up for reservations, tattooed Aussie bartender talked us thru the whole menu with suggestions, all great. you can order almost any dish for half amount/$ so you try more items. busboy almost knocked over my delicious Calif. white so he gave me another free glass, B. had a jasmine tea, a flower that blooms in the hot water in a wine glass. sophisticated and grown up and not stuffy.
Cafe Tartine – another hour wait! but those pastries…
we love the BART
Cable car. they smash those tourists in. we rode on the outside. our driver was also a stand up comic, or so he thought. oh man, a long ride!
walked up Telegraph Hill then Lombard st. our legs ached by then but so worth the views.
Filed under San Francisco, Uncategorized
A friend who recently returned from a trip to San Francisco with her teen-age son, tried out some suggestions from me – and a few others. She gave a thumbs up to the following: Hotel Vertigo, tartine bakery, ferry building, slanted door, cafe sportte, cafe trieste….cable car, fishermans wharf, ghiradelli, alcatraz tour, lombard st, telegraph hill, union st, union sq, russian hill, univ berkeley, dotties coffeeshop.
A few are new to me – Hotel Vertigo and Dotties Coffeeshop – so I’ve done a little legwork (more accurately fingerwork on the computer). As guessed, Hotel Vertigo has a Hitchcock connection – it’s reportedly on the site of the Empire Hotel from Hitchcock’s, you guessed it, movie Vertigo. Sounds like a good location – in Nob Hill near Union Square. Dotties must be “Dotties True Blue Cafe” which gets high marks from Zagat for Best Buys, Breakfast, Diner – and there’s a virtual tour of the place ( if you don’t want any surprises when you arrive). http://www.zagat.com/Verticals/PropertyDetails.aspx?VID=8&R=47594. Dotties is at 522 Jones St. (between Geary &O’Farrell); 415-885-2767
Filed under San Francisco
How could I not be dreaming of warm sunny Tucson, after a call from my dad who is there while I’m in frigid Iowa. The temp here is 7 degrees (“Feels like -11.”)Happy New Year!) And more deep freeze to come all weekend. By Tuesday, though, we may hit 11! I can feel the cold as I type in my home office, even with the sun streaming through windows etched by frost with pretty snowflake patterns that look like bundles of spindly branches.
Dad was visiting Kartchner Caverns State Park, south of Tucson, a rare living and growing cave that I visited with my family and wrote about when the place opened to the public in 2000. (see http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/21/travel/frugal-traveler-outside-tucson-a-family-goes-underground.html?scp=6&sq=betsy rubiner&st=cse)
I need to get back there – especially since a new section (“The Big Room”) has opened for tours since my visit. As I wrote, ten years ago, what makes this seven-acre cave system special is that it is so unspoiled. I hope that’s still true. More more info see: azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/tour_info.html.
I know, I know – I should be blogging today about the thwarted terrorism attack at the airport of my youth (my native Detroit). But I’m far more excited to share my latest unlikely discovery – a beautiful new mural we chanced upon inside – of all places – the spanking new welcome center along Interstate 35 in the northern Missouri city of Eagleville.
Installed in September 2009, the mural fills a long wall inside the Eagleville Welcome Center (opened in February 2008) and is made of 600,000 pieces of multi-colored glass tile. An homage to Missouri history, culture, and topography, the mural has all kinds of scenes (the Missouri River, the Kansas City Jazz and Negro League Baseball Museums) and portraits (Jesse James, Harry Truman, Thomas Hart Benton) and cultural touchstones (from the American Bison to the Missouri River steamboat, Arabia.) Among other things, I learned that Walt Disney not only grew up on a farm near the small town of Marceline, Mo. (the Disneys’ barn is featured in the mural) but that the main streets in every Disney attraction are based on Marceline’s main street. Walt even recreated the barn on his home property in Los Angeles.
Apparently I am not the only one curious about the many images embedded in the mural, which was designed by a Washington State couple who won a competition to design the mural, funded through a federal grant. At the center, I picked up a very helpful 16-page pamphlet all about the mural – entitled “The Prairie Passage” – produced by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
I love finding art in unexpected places – and I love that someone bothered to perk up my drive through northern Missouri. This rest area is a far cry from the dreary ones I remember from the family road trips of my 1960’s youth. Which leads me to wonder – how much of this is going on at other interstate rest areas and welcome centers across the country? Is this effort on the rise or in decline? Which states or rest stops have the best public art installations? I have seen some great examples of rest area public art in Iowa along Interstate 80 (funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Art-in-Transit program). Googling for more info, I chanced upon a terrific website about rest area history (www.restareahistory.org) that may answer some of my questions.
Filed under Discoveries: trust me, Iowa, Missouri, On the road, rest area
We made it with no problem from Des Moines to Dodge City (technically the small town of Wright, outside Dodge) and it’s a good thing we’re not traveling today. It is bitter cold, with fierce winds, making an already harsh landscape look even harsher, the trees even more battered and windswept, the land flat, frozen,empty, the sky a dull, slightly menacing shade of blue-gray (is there snow in them there clouds.)
Emma, my trusty computer tech, is here with me at the wonderful new Cup of Jo-nes on Wyatt Earp Blvd. (the kids here “drag Earp” for fun) which has great chai and much-welcomed WiFi. Thank you, thank you. Our drive yesterday featured various forms of precip – starting with the worst, frozen drizzle (is there such a thing a “freezing fog”?) outside Des Moines, then rain in southern Iowa and northern Missouri, brief sunshine in K.C. then dense fog, which ruined my favorite part of the trip – the scenic Flint Hills of Kansas, which were shrouded beyond recognition. By Wichita, we just had wind, a lot of fierce wind (which just blew open the heavy wooden door to this coffee house) . The wind also knocked out the heat at D’s mother’s house so we had a very cold night and morning until some neighbors came and started fiddling with the boiler.
Who knows what weather comes next? Doesn’t look like much snow but we may get more ice – and the wind is likely to remain fierce. We will probably try to get to a movie in the mall and maybe our favorite mexican restaurant in Dodge, otherwise we’re not likely to check out the tourist hotspots which include A reproduction of Boot Hill (my husband had a friend who had a summer job playing the part of the “Drunken Indian” there in in the 1970’s. I’m thinking that part has been eliminated these days), the “Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame & Gunfighters Wax Museum” (no joke), and the Bridle Bit Museum.” We’re rather much-welcome spend time with family!
Filed under Dodge City, Kansas, Kansas misc
TakeBetsywithyou
TakeBetsywithyou 