The Vanishing North
(AP/J. Hayward, The Canadian Press)
Flying from Montreal to tiny Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, you embark on an eight-night journey that goes where the ice allows – to remote islands and bays where polar bears, narwhals and beluga whales still live. Travel is on the 122-passenger Lyubov Orlova ship, an ice-breaker that is safe and comfortable. For adventure travelers who want to see truly remote places, it doesn't get much more adventurous or remote than this. You won't find any t-shirt shops, variety shows or jewelry at these ports, only wildlife and rugged landscapes. Cruise North (not to be confused with Cruise West) is owned by one of Canada's largest Inuit tribes, and their insight into the region goes back generations.
Departures for Arctic trips run from July through August, so keep it in mind for your travel plans next year. And hopefully there will be some ice left in the far north by then.
The SuperFerry Sails On
(AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
The Maui run, however, just celebrated its 400th voyage and 125,000th passenger, putting it right up there with Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures as a local sailing success story. The 800-passenger Superferry, which also accommodates 200 passenger cars, makes a round-trip run from Oahu's ferry terminal – which is not downtown but off Nimitz Highway near the Dole Cannery Shops – to Maui's Kahului Harbor every morning, and does another round-trip four afternoons and evenings a week. One-way fares through the end of October are $59 for adults and $49 for children, plus $65 for a car.
The passage takes about three hours. Nice, if you like a good boat ride and want to avoid the hassle and congestion of flying. The fares may jump up in November after the Superferry passes its inaugural period (and once those court bills come due to the company), but for now, it's a good price for one of the few new travel experiences in the islands.
On The Fringe In Edmonton
They don't call it a fringe festival for nothing. Right now through August 24th, the Edmonton Fringe Festival is taking place in the booming city in northern Alberta, which is pretty much on the fringe of civilization. After Edmonton it's all oil-sand fields and prairie all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. Not a whole bunch of culture emanating from those oil-field roustabouts.
Which is reason enough to make a summer pilgrimage to Edmonton. The city itself is a fine place to explore, as I found out last summer during a trip that way, and lots of people make their way to the Old Strathcona district to watch one of the world's great theater and arts fests. The ten-day festival draws a half-million people to watch a non-stop smorgasbord of entertainment that includes 1,200 shows from 207 theater companies who perform in 27 venues.
Besides lots of great Canadian comedy and cabaret and theater, you can catch acts like "American Squatter" from the Aspen Comedy Works troupe out of Colorado, the Cody Rivers Show from Bellingham, Washington, and "Don't Make Fun of Jesus" from GiggleGirl Productions in New York City. The Big Apple is represented by four theater companies who made the trek to the Great White North; beats a weekend in the Hamptons, I guess.
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Which is reason enough to make a summer pilgrimage to Edmonton. The city itself is a fine place to explore, as I found out last summer during a trip that way, and lots of people make their way to the Old Strathcona district to watch one of the world's great theater and arts fests. The ten-day festival draws a half-million people to watch a non-stop smorgasbord of entertainment that includes 1,200 shows from 207 theater companies who perform in 27 venues.
Besides lots of great Canadian comedy and cabaret and theater, you can catch acts like "American Squatter" from the Aspen Comedy Works troupe out of Colorado, the Cody Rivers Show from Bellingham, Washington, and "Don't Make Fun of Jesus" from GiggleGirl Productions in New York City. The Big Apple is represented by four theater companies who made the trek to the Great White North; beats a weekend in the Hamptons, I guess.
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Cruising to Alaska? Some Tips From A First-Time Cruiser
(AP)
"Don't expect to use the pool," was one of Jon's first comments. His image of a cruise vacation before he left involved lots of lounging, walrus-like, around a pool while being served tall, fruity drinks. But Alaska cruises are surely not about the weather; it was too rainy and chilly to get in much pool time. If pools are a big part of your dream vacation, consider a ship, like Holland America's newer models, that have an all-weather canopy over the pool, ensuring warm temperatures anywhere.
"Alaska itself was great," he added. The family took floatplane excursions over Juneau and Denali National Park, hauled in salmon and halibut on fishing expeditions, which Jon booked from dockside vendors, and saw moose while riding the train to Skagway. Tours were crowded and in some cases, the family had to hustle to procure lunch for the kids before embarking on long bus rides, so they preferred to book smaller trips just for themselves. The downside was that the cost of seeing Alaska this way nearly doubled the price of the cruise for the Moore family. "Well, we figured that it was something that we would just do once in our lives, so we should do it right," he said.
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How The Other Half Lives In Milan
You know, a lot of us are concerned these days with the high cost of travel, especially as it relates to fuel prices. Many of us are taking vacations closer to home, which accounts for the Travel Guru sightings last weekend at Milo McGiver State Park in Oregon, where a newly acquired used tent (only $35, Ma!) doubled for my usual palatial digs at four-star resorts.
You'll be happy to know that the ultra-rich are having their own dilemmas when it comes to travel. Just choosing one at random, how, for instance, can one ride around in style through the streets of Milan, Italy after one has booked the $7,087-a-night Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Milan hotel, an utterly chic boutique hotel in that utterly chic city? I mean, who has money left over to rent a car at those prices?
Not to worry: The Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Milan now comes with the complimentary use of a Porsche Boxster, Carrera or Cayenne (you choose) for the duration of your stay, allowing you to zip around the streets of the city in your customary style.
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You'll be happy to know that the ultra-rich are having their own dilemmas when it comes to travel. Just choosing one at random, how, for instance, can one ride around in style through the streets of Milan, Italy after one has booked the $7,087-a-night Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Milan hotel, an utterly chic boutique hotel in that utterly chic city? I mean, who has money left over to rent a car at those prices?
Not to worry: The Presidential Suite at the Park Hyatt Milan now comes with the complimentary use of a Porsche Boxster, Carrera or Cayenne (you choose) for the duration of your stay, allowing you to zip around the streets of the city in your customary style.
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Rocking Music, Food In Wash. State
This is complicated, but bear with me: I had to go high up in the North Cascades mountains of Washington, to the new Suncadia resort, to hear a professional football player who can rock, and to try the newest thing coming in seafood. And I'm glad I did on both counts.
First, the fish: It was Tasmanian salmon, arriving on the west coast via the Honolulu fish market. With its firm texture, deep pink color and nice oil content, it was every bit as good as the Alaskan salmon that generally arrive at markets in the summer to great fanfare, and great prices. Chef Andrew Wilson, who is doing wonderful things in the resort's Portals restaurant, explained that even despite flying the Tasmanian fish halfway around the world, he can offer it at better prices to his guests without sacrificing the quality of Alaskan fish. He prepared filets of the salmon beautifully, with crispy skins and tender, medium-rare centers; paired with a Washington wine, it was one of the best things I've eaten this summer, especially as part of a multi-course feast that included perfectly roasted lamb from closer to home than Tasmania.
The rocking was done by Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill (number 93 on your scorecard), who turns out to be quite an accomplished rock-and-roll singer/songwriter. With Midwestern roots from his native Indiana, Craig writes and plays songs that evoke the sounds of Bob Seger and John Cougar Mellencamp; he and his band of professional musicians delivered a set at Suncadia that had the mountains reverberating. Quoting Dire Straits, the boy can play. He's also one of the largest rockers on record; I'll bet he could bench-press Meatloaf. His teammates Matt Hasselbeck, Chris Spencer and Tom Ashworth were there to watch him rip through a set of twenty songs that included his original compositions and covers of Seger, Van Morrison and Springsteen songs. Pity that Terrill's golf game, which I also saw first-hand, isn't as good as his singing. The guy putts like a linebacker.
With Tasmanian fish, resorts in the mountains and singers who eat quarterbacks for a living, this is shaping up to be one unusual summer for travel, at least for this Guru.
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First, the fish: It was Tasmanian salmon, arriving on the west coast via the Honolulu fish market. With its firm texture, deep pink color and nice oil content, it was every bit as good as the Alaskan salmon that generally arrive at markets in the summer to great fanfare, and great prices. Chef Andrew Wilson, who is doing wonderful things in the resort's Portals restaurant, explained that even despite flying the Tasmanian fish halfway around the world, he can offer it at better prices to his guests without sacrificing the quality of Alaskan fish. He prepared filets of the salmon beautifully, with crispy skins and tender, medium-rare centers; paired with a Washington wine, it was one of the best things I've eaten this summer, especially as part of a multi-course feast that included perfectly roasted lamb from closer to home than Tasmania.
The rocking was done by Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill (number 93 on your scorecard), who turns out to be quite an accomplished rock-and-roll singer/songwriter. With Midwestern roots from his native Indiana, Craig writes and plays songs that evoke the sounds of Bob Seger and John Cougar Mellencamp; he and his band of professional musicians delivered a set at Suncadia that had the mountains reverberating. Quoting Dire Straits, the boy can play. He's also one of the largest rockers on record; I'll bet he could bench-press Meatloaf. His teammates Matt Hasselbeck, Chris Spencer and Tom Ashworth were there to watch him rip through a set of twenty songs that included his original compositions and covers of Seger, Van Morrison and Springsteen songs. Pity that Terrill's golf game, which I also saw first-hand, isn't as good as his singing. The guy putts like a linebacker.
With Tasmanian fish, resorts in the mountains and singers who eat quarterbacks for a living, this is shaping up to be one unusual summer for travel, at least for this Guru.
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Brooklyn's Hotel Le Bleu
(Hotel Le Bleu)
Now, I'm not saying that Brooklyn is neither charming enough nor sophisticated enough to embrace a blue, French hotel. I lived there nearly 30 years ago, sharing a one-bedroom walk-up apartment in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood off of Clinton Street, and Brooklyn had a lot of charm back then. There were espresso shops on the boulevard before anyone had ever dreamed of Starbucks, and they were frequented by old Italian men who smoked cigars. There were sausage and cheese shops, a Latin grocery store on the corner, and everyone drank Yoo-Hoo chocolate soda. My landlords had the finest clear, plastic slipcovers that money could buy on their chintz sofas, and on hot summer days when I went over to deliver the rent check, my butt would stick to the slipcovers when I sat down to answer the friendly question, "How are youse doing?"
I doubt that even award-winning architect Andres Escobar, who designed Hotel Le Bleu, could have achieved such a homey effect as those slipcovers delivered. And the food at the chic, new Vue restaurant at the hotel will surely pale in comparison to my landlady's truly impressive meatballs.
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Exotic Wedding Destinations
(CBS)
Lisa, who I met on a Princess cruise last month, is the CEO and founder of Destination Bride, a company that specializes in arranging exotic, beautiful weddings in some of the most gorgeous resorts and locations on the planet. Her Web site and book of the same name are filled with great ideas and planning tips for, say, tying the knot on a Greek island, or a South African game preserve, or a Hawaiian garden, or for the truly romantic who don't find weddings claustrophobic, a submarine. "Consider the Atlantis Submarine," she writes in her section on Greece, "which offers underwater wedding ceremonies off the coast for up to 30 guests."
Well, okay, I'll consider it if you will, honey. As Lisa points out, destination weddings are a huge part of the $125 billion American wedding industry, with some 30 percent of couples claiming that they would prefer to get married while traveling. And they're not talking about eloping to that submarine off the Greek islands: The average number of guests invited to a destination wedding is 88.
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Still Snowing On Mt. Rainier
(Deby Dixon)
Just this week, while the east coast was getting hammered by sun, Mt. Rainier was hit by more snow, with a foot of white stuff dropping on Paradise, where Deby took these shots. Think about that when your air-conditioner goes on the fritz, and maybe it will provide some small relief.
For more of Deby's awesome nature shots, check out her work on the Flickr.com website.
Paradise Is Open
(Deby Dixon)
There are 118 guestrooms at the Inn, many of which were updated during the renovation to accommodate wheelchair guests. Some have private baths with showers, some share a bathroom down the hall. They're plain and simple, small, but fine after a day of hiking on part of the 243 miles of trails in Mt. Rainier National Park.
When I was there last week, the Inn was covered in snow, with fifteen-foot drifts pushed to the edges of the parking lot thanks to the massive snowfalls of this winter. It snowed another six inches overnight, and we awoke to a blanket of white over everything, marked only by the tracks of a fox who has been hanging around the property lately. Just gorgeous, and it will be fun to go back during the summer when all of the white is replaced by green.
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The Medieval Tower of Meat
(Princess Cruises)
Alfredo was born in Italy and grew up in Paris, and received his first culinary training at a restaurant his grandparents owned off the Champs Elysees. Cruise ships these days are looking for all kinds of new ways to offer premium dining experiences to guests – for which they levy a small surcharge – and Alfredo has risen to the challenge. On my Princess ship, you could order a champagne balcony breakfast or a lobster dinner for two in your stateroom for a small fee. For a $15 surcharge you could eat good filet mignon steaks at the Sterling Steakhouse, and $20 bought a multi-course Italian dinner at Sabatini's.
It was with the Chef's Table experience that Alfredo really went over the top. A private dinner for ten guests, with a $75 surcharge each, starts inside the kitchen to witness the bustle and clamor of a cruise ship dinner service while you sip champagne and eat from trays of hors d'oeuvres. Seated back in the dining room at a table decorated with flowers and breadsticks, Alfredo personally oversaw the serving of great pots full of creamy seafood risotto, followed by "Bloody Mary sorbet" in martini glasses to which he added a shot of vodka. And then he brought out the single craziest thing I've ever seen on a cruise ship: A hanging rack of spiked iron on which were impaled chunks of perfectly cooked beef, veal and pork which he personally basted in flaming brandy. The rack held pots of sauces, including a rich Bearnaise and a pesto, and diners grabbed the meat from the rack with tongs and spooned on the sauce. Wine was poured in great quantities.
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When Chefs Make Good
You know, it does my heart good when I see a chef drag himself out of the kitchen, like a prehistoric, reptilian creature evolving before your eyes, stand up on his two hind legs and make something of himself. Chefs and cooks are, without a doubt, the hardest working people in the hospitality industry; but what a terrible price they pay for spending all day reducing pots of veal stock into a thimbleful of exquisite demi-glace, or figuring out new ways to flavor a dish. They rarely see the light of day, they aren't paid especially well for their trouble, they don't have the faintest idea who is leading the American League standings, and the turnover in their business is horrific, as is the failure rate of new restaurants.
It makes me glad, then, when a guy puts away his whites and toque and comes out to the eating side of the restaurant with some success without selling his soul to the devils of over-commercialization, Food Network stardom, new ventures in Las Vegas and both coasts, cookbooks and gushing autobiographies. In this case, I refer not to Wolfgang and Mario and Charlie and their ilk, but to Adam Berger of Portland, Oregon. He owns two terrific restaurants, Tabla and Ten-01, which opened in 2003 and 2006, respectively, and judging by the quality of the food and the enthusiasm of local patrons, it looks like he'll continue to run them for many more.
Adam fell in love with good, simple, regional Italian food when he landed jobs cooking in the Piedmont region of Italy in 1997, where hand-cut pasta is often dressed with just a little olive oil, good cheese and shavings of white truffle when you can get your hands on them. One place had a brick oven, where he learned how to bake breads and roast meats. He brought all this to Tabla, which offers three-course Italian menus every night for the great value of $24. In May, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the restaurant, the pasta dishes will be sold for just $5 each. This includes the single best thing I've eaten this year, a handmade ravioli filled with creamy cheese and a poached egg atop a lovely, light butter sauce. I recently ate the same thing at one of the star chefs' restaurants in L.A., and it wasn't nearly as good and cost $19.
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Spring Skiing
(CBS)
At Banff, in the Canadian Rockies, for example, they had an unbelievable dump of more than a foot and a half of snow last weekend. And that was in the village; they had even more on the mountain, where ski conditions at the Sunshine Village ski area are excellent. I had the pleasure of skiing there a few months ago, taking the L-shaped gondola up the mountain and then finding an enormous bowl of great skiing when you get to the top.
If you want to have an absolute blast while trying something new, rent a sno-bike from the shop at the top of the gondola, take a 15-minute lesson, and you'll be shooting down the hills on bikes with skis where the tires should be. I spent a very happy afternoon taking the Mt. Standish express quad lift and biking down the Creek Run and Borderline trails, skidding the sno-bike into turns and enjoying the scenery immensely.
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What's New In Canada
(AP (file))
Where else would you hear someone casually mention that, "The beluga whale migration is kind of neat," as a young guy named Scott who represents the vast, northern Ontario wilderness told me. We know Ontario as the home of cosmopolitan Toronto, but Scott tries to drum up interest in all the rest of it, a huge, undeveloped area that includes 329 provincial parks and 7 national parks. There are no roads, hundreds of lakes and rivers, Canada's largest game preserve at Chapleau, and tiny villages of fewer than 50 people. You get there by float plane and stay at little hunting and fishing lodges. At one point, Scott circled a vast, wilderness area on the map and said, "This is all canoeable."
Likewise, a big, former rugby player named Anthony was extolling the virtues of northern British Columbia, far away from the city streets of Vancouver and the chic ski hills at Whistler. You fly up to the town of Prince George, he said, rent a car and go looking for moose and bear. The town of Stewart is right next door to Hyder, Alaska and is the place to visit enormous blue glaciers. Prince Rupert has a grizzly bear sanctuary. It's not a place to go looking for spas and movie stars; "It's more for adventurous types who hope to see bears," he said.
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