January 1, 2010 · 8:22 pm

Dreaming of: Tucson pt. 2

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.

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December 28, 2009 · 10:41 pm

Trust me: the fantastic new mural on Interstate 35 in northern Missouri

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.

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December 24, 2009 · 6:58 pm

Christmas in Dodge City

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!

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December 7, 2009 · 4:55 pm

San Francisco: takemewithyou

One of the reasons I started this blog is because I frequently get calls or emails from friends asking for advice on where they should stay, eat, visit when going to one vacation spot or another. So CB, who is going to San Francisco with her teen-age son, this one’s  for you. Yes, you should take a look at my 2008 Real Simple story on San Fran but here’s some other things that might be fun, especially with a young teen:

Where to eat:

The stalls inside the FERRY BUILDING (a renovated 19th century building that’s been transformed into a marketplace showcasing  local cheese, produce etc.  One Ferry Building; 415-693-0996; http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/ and the Saturday Farmers Market (look for satsumas.)

Pizzeria Delfina, a relatively inexpensive and casual Mission District restaurant with thin-crust pizza. The place is tiny (and not to be confused with the bigger, more expensive cafe by the same name next door) and no reservations so go early or late. 3611 18th Street; 415-437-6800; www.pizzeriadelfina.com . Nearby pastry alert – Tartine Bakery!

In North Beach, Caffe Sport on Green Street – a lively Italian place with hearty Sicilian food and crazy decor – was fun with kids, although it’s been awhile since I visited. http://caffesport.ypguides.net/page/o2c4/Why_Caffe_Sport.html

In Chinatown, one of those huge Dim Sum places where they push around carts packed with one item or another.

For other ideas see:  http://www.tablehopper.com, a San Francisco dining “e-column.”

What to do:

– Rent bikes in the Marina District and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin, stopping before the bridge at the Warming Hut cafe/bookstore at Crissy Field. My brother-in-law did the ride recently with his two tween sons and reports all were happy campers (or bikers.) see: http://www.nps.gov/prsf/planyourvisit/crissy-field-marsh-and-beach.htm

–  While you’re in Marin, hike Mount Tam http://www.mttam.net/ (We went on a double-stroller-friendly hike years ago when the kids were babies – I think around Homestead Valley – that led to the beach. Wish I could remember the name. Will check in my journal.)

–  Tour Alcatraz. Sounds touristy I know but touristy can be fun.  The audio tour is gripping – you can stand in the old cafeteria and hear what it sounded like when the prisoners revolted in there.

– Golden Gate Park  – just wander.  The new California Academy of Sciences sounds fantastic – designed by Renzo Piano with a 2.5 acre “living roof” covered with native plants. Strives to be the world’s “greenest museum.” http://www.calacademy.org/visit/

Across the street is the  de Young Museum, opened in 2005 (after the original was damaged in the 1989 earthquake), has  American art, including work by Bay Area artists.  The 360-degree view of the city from the all-glass observation floor atop the museum’s tower  is well worth the trip. Trust me! http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/acrobat/maps/1999/ggparkmap.pdf;

– Watch the surfers on the beach near the Sunset neighborhood. (You’re a budding surfer – don’t know how Jersey shore stacks up to Northern California shore.) Sunrise Deli (www.sunrisedeli.net/) on Irving Street is good for cheap, casual middle eastern food (falafel etc.)

– Wander around Chinatown and visit the tiny Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in a back alley (56 Ross Alley; 415-781-3956) and eat Dim Sum; then wander into nearby North Beach and the legendary bookstore City Lights ( 261 Columbus Avenue; 415-362-8193; http://www.citylights.com) which last time I visited had a photo tribute on the top floor to the beats. (I got my then-14-year-old a City Lights t-shirt adorned with snippets of Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” on it – to my surprise it became one of her favorite clothing items.  It was probably the giant “HOWL” printed on it that resonated with my teen-age daughter. ) Also check out Caffé Trieste (601 Vallejo Street; 415-392-6739; http://www.caffetrieste.com) and walk up, up, up Filbert Steps to the Coit Tower.

– oh yah, ride a cable car

Some helpful websites:

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November 24, 2009 · 4:22 pm

Minneapolis: A B&B gets it right, neither smothering nor ignoring its guests

I still cringe at the memory of the effusive Iowa City B&B owners who welcomed my husband and me to their home like we were their long lost kids returning home after our first year of college.  They wanted to talk and talk and talk. We wanted to leave. Not that I mind a little B&B banter – we always appreciate  suggestions on where to eat, what to see, how to get from here to there.  But striking that balance between smothering your guests or ignoring them can be a challenge for B&B proprietors.  I think the owners of a Minneapolis B&B that we stayed at earlier this month got it right.  (Although, full disclosure, friends we recommended this place to years ago found them too aloof.)

I last visited Evelo’s B&B about 15 years ago and was pleased to see it’s still around (less pleased to see that the price of a room has doubled – from $45 to $95). It’s in a good location, on a quiet residential street in the Lowry Hill area, near the Walker Art Center, Lake of the Isles, and Uptown (although that neighborhood has lost its scruffy arty charm  since we last visited.) From the street, the three-story, turn-of-the-20th-century B&B is unexceptional looking – and there’s no sign indicating it offers lodging.

But step inside and you’re in an impeccably preserved Victorian parlor with the original heavy dark oak woodwork, period furnishings, stained-glass domed lamps everywhere, and carefully arranged collections of American pottery. It’s more classy, than fusty, fussy, or frilly – the work of sophisticated collectors with a very good eye.  The dining room walls were stenciled by hand with a Tiffany pattern of tall cypress trees modeled on the interior of Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace (which I visited in, um, 1982.)  We only know this because we asked the proprietor, who gladly (but only briefly) filled us in.  She appeared to have a speak-when-spoken-to policy that some might consider aloof but we appreciated. We saw her a little when we arrived and a little  at breakfast before we left. Otherwise we were on our own, which is how we like it!

I almost forgot to mention the rooms – all three of them. They’re on the upper floors, more casually furnished than the main floor – with shabby chic bedspreads and distressed furniture – not a teddy bear in sight.  More like staying in a cheerful room in grandma’s attic, complete with creaky wooden floors and a narrow staircase. You do have to share the one bathroom – which can be awkward, especially in the morning when you may encounter strangers also tiptoeing toward the shower.  Co-existing with other guests at a B&B reminds me a bit of Kabuki-style choreography – listening for sounds outside your room, those telltale footsteps in the hall or water running in the bathroom; peaking out the door to see if the bathroom door is ajar;  making a break for it and closing the bathroom door softly but firmly; and feeling relieved – until you remember you have to exit the way you arrived.

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