Everett Potter's Travel Report

The Artful Traveler: Rarely Seen Works by Winslow Homer in Portland, Maine

Artists Sketching in the White Mountains. Winslow Homer.

Reviewed by Steve Jermanok

By most accounts, Winslow Homer had a sardonic sense of humor. In his studio in Prouts Neck, Maine, where he created his best known works, hangs a sign in bold black letters that reads: "SNAKES!  SNAKES!  MICE!"  The artist wrote this to discourage "the damned old women," his reference to the summer visitor, from disturbing him while working on the rocky shoreline. Sketchbook in hand, he would wait patiently for nature to provide the tense drama. Wait for the merciless Maine climate, replete with dense fog and forceful gales to roll in, thrusting the waves against the shoreline of rock.  Wait for the weather to take a turn for the worse and trap an unfortunate fisherman in his small dinghy on the rocky outcroppings as the angry waves bathe him in salt.

Rarely do we see a lighter side of Homer. So it comes as a delightful surprise to view the oil, Artists Sketching in the White Mountains (1868), where we find a self-portrait of a younger Homer, his handlebar mustache extending out from his face, the last in a line of three painters depicting the mountain scenery. The work is rich in whimsy, the romanticized version of the artist working under the umbrella for shade, his bottle of wine atop a nearby stump, with rucksack labeled in black bold letters, "HOMER," strewn on the ground behind him. You can't help but laugh, finding it hard to believe that Homer ever painted in a sports jacket and hat.

Steve Jermanok's Active Travels: Allagash River, Maine

Maine’s rivers have attained near-celebrity status from paddlers nationwide. Mention the Allagash River to a canoeist and his eyes suddenly become moist and dreamy as he inevitably responds, “Yeah, I’d like to go there someday.” The river has somehow attained legendary stature. Perhaps it’s the way the blue streak of water slips off the map of America’s northern fringes, remote and isolated, hundreds of miles from the nearest metropolis. Or maybe it’s the legacy of writer, philosopher, and inveterate traveler Henry David Thoreau, who ventured down the waterway a mere 140 years ago, waxing lyrically about the last great frontier in the East in his book, The Maine Woods. Whatever the reason, the 92-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway continues to lure 10,000-plus paddlers to its shores every summer, turning farfetched dreams into reality. Go with a trusted guide like Mahoosuc Guide Service, who led me down the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine last fall. That led to an article in this month’s Sierra Magazine. For more adventures, visit Active Travels.

 

Capturing the National Parks, Canon Cameras in Hand

Half Dome and waterfalls from Glacier Point. This was a very bright scene during the middle of the day. But using exposure compensation helped saturate the colors and avoid a washed-out photo.

Story and Photos By Karen Glenn

    I stood in the shadow of Half Dome reading the Yosemite calendar of events when a man with a long gray beard approached me. "See anything good?" he asked.
    "A photography-in-the-parks slide show at 8:30." I said, "Free."
    "I caught that last night," he said, nodding with enthusiasm. "It was the best educational thing I've ever seen. You'll like that."
    And, no surprise, I did. After all, I'd taken the Canon photography-in-the parks hands-on workshop that morning. Also free.

    What's more, there's plenty of time left this summer for you to take a workshop as well. For the fifth consecutive year, Canon and the National Parks are offering Canon in the Parks, free digital photography workshops and photo presentations in a series of National Parks. The workshops move from Yosemite (June 7-28), to the Grand Canyon (July 4-July 24), to Jackson Hole (July 29-30), to Yellowstone (August 1-7), to Acadia (August 16-24). (For a complete schedule, visit www.usa.canon.com/parks.) They are also testing out video workshops in two locations, Acadia and Jackson Hole.

Lewis Kemper leads a class in Yosemite.

Skilled photo professionals lead all the classes, but I was especially lucky to experience one with Canon "Explorer of Light" Lewis Kemper, who lived in Yosemite for 11 years and worked with some photo greats, such as -- are you ready?-- Ansel Adams. Since Lewis is also the author of the Photographing Yosemite Digital Field Guide, it's hard to imagine a better teacher.

Spa Watch: Spa and the City -- Spa Merge

By Mary Alice Kellogg

SpaWatcher is pleased to note that two new -- and radically different --  spas have bloomed in New York this spring. One is an intimate oasis, the other an opulent  blockbuster we'll explore in Part Two of Spa and The City.

The first to open is Spa Merge on West 57th Street. A sleek yet cozy model of the ideal urban day spa, its minimalist, tranquil decor contrasts mightily with the Midtown bustle outside. Particularly impressive here is the absence of shared public changing rooms; each of Merge's 9 treatment rooms is self-contained with its own locker/safe, massage table, mirrored vanity, and private bathroom with shower for maximum privacy. Celebrities and CEOs take note.

Letter from Paris: Ralph Lauren in Paris, Cookshop in NYC

Ralph's, Paris.

by Alexander Lobrano

Ralph’s, Paris: An American in Paris

If I lunched there several times a few weeks ago, and generally found the food to be much better than expected (with the exception of the worst frites I've ever eaten in France), it took a trip to New York to really put Ralph's, the new restaurant in Ralph Lauren's new Saint-Germain-des-Pres boutique, into perspective. To wit, I think it's sort of too bad the powers that be didn't decide to do a modern American bistro in the idiom of the very pleasant Cookshop in New York City's Chelsea district instead of a pricey slice of up-market Betty Crocker vintage Americana.

The Interview: Don George and San Francisco's Book Passage Travel, Food & Photography Conference

Don George.

San Francisco’s Book Passage bookstore is one of the great American independent bookstores. Anyone with more than a passing interest in travel literature also knows it as the home of the Annual Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, which this year has expanded to cover food writers. At the helm of this lively festival is Don George, a travel writer and editor who is a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler. George was the travel editor at the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, founded and edited the Wanderlust section of Salon.com, and most recently was Global Travel Editor at Lonely Planet Publications. He is the author of  The Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing and the editor of six literary travel anthologies, including The Kindness of Strangers, Tales from Nowhere, and By the Seat of My Pants. I caught up with Don to ask him about this year’s Conference, which runs from August 12-15, 2010.

Everett Potter: Don this year marks the 19th Annual Book Passage Travel, Food & Photography Conference. How did the conference originate?

Don George: The conference began when I was the Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle and Elaine Petrocelli, the owner of Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, Marin County, called with “a crazy idea”: How about, she said, putting together a multi-day conference for aspiring travel writers, with workshops and panels featuring notable writers, editors, agents and publishers? I loved the idea and invited Jan Morris to be our first guest of honor. She graciously agreed and the conference was born.

Steve Jermanok's Active Travels: Elizabeth Islands

Cuttyhunk by Charles Henry Gifford, 1872

Take the ferry from New Bedford or Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama plans to vacation once again this summer, and you’ll pass the far less congested Elizabeth Islands in Buzzards Bay. With numerous coves and a strong southwesterly wind blowing 15 knots almost every afternoon, this is a favorite cruising ground for sailors in Massachusetts. The waters are inundated with yachts, Hobie cats, sunfish, schooners, even the 6’ 2” long dinghy known as the Cape Cod Frosty. Only two of the islands, Cuttyhunk, the outermost island, and Penikese, a former leper colony, now a state-owned bird refuge, remain public. This summer, Mass Audubon will bring guests on naturalist-led cruises to both islands. Leaving from Wood’s Hole, you’ll learn about the natural and cultural history of the Elizabeths, and venture on foot to find Leach’s Storm Petrel and Tern colonies.Visit Active Travels.

Snapshot: Martha’s Vineyard

The harbor at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard.

Forty-five minutes by ferry. That's all that it takes to get to Martha's Vineyard, the largest of the islands off the coast of Massachusetts. It's a short journey for such a big trip.

Martha's Vineyard is justly famed for its great beaches, quaint towns and bevy of celebrity residents, from Carly Simon to former President Bill Clinton. President Obama came out last summer, to an island that was long the summer haven of both Jacqueline Onassis and Walter Cronkite. And yes, that’s Ted Danson in line for ice cream at the Galley and sure, you might spot Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Oak Bluffs.

Head to one of the beaches.

But the Vineyard wears its celebrity lightly. Few people gawk, everyone is dressed down (most of the time) and you come here to slow down and relax on one of the beautiful spots on the East Coast. That ferry ride from Cape Cod is what begins to put you in a laid-back mood. You came for the beach but you'll stay for the lush island, the locals, the sea breezes, the touches of Old New England everywhere. You're here for lobster rolls, ice cream cones and polished beach glass.

West on Books: The Cloudspotter's Guide

Reviewed by Richard West

Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s The Cloudspotter’s Guide may be the most valuable guidebook you buy, for it’s obviously not of a place but a guide to everywhere above you. Pretor-Pinney is founder of The Cloud Appreciate Society, founded from his love of nature’s free abstract art gallery and, tired of hearing depressing expressions like “under the weather” and a “perfect summer’s day” -- meaning one cloudless -- felt someone should stand up for clouds.

St Anton, Austria: High Ropes in the Arlberg

Learning the ropes in St. Anton, Austria. Photo by Ed Wetschler.

By Ed Wetschler

"St. Anton is more sporty than Lech," a local told me. "Lech has charm, but we have more demanding ski terrain that attracts a younger crowd."

    Good point, one that helps explain why St. Anton has more late-night bars than Lech, to the west. Still, I might have replied that St. Anton, with its house museum and traditional hotels, has plenty of charm, too. Or that St. Anton's fast railroad connection with the Zurich airport is more charming than any dirndl.
    But I wasn't there to sell St. Anton to locals. I was there to test myself on the high ropes course, one of many activities that make summer in the Austrian Alps such a splendid season.

The Born to Shop Ladies: Dead Sea Secrets

 

Wading for a cure in the Dead Sea.

Born to Shop Editorial Director Sarah Lahey took off for Israel and sent back this report:

Suze - I can't believe you tumbled and broke a toe! If you were here in Israel with me, a dip in the Dead Sea could make it all better. At least that's what I was told by the folks in charge at Mineral Beach.

They also claimed a mud and sea treatment could take ten years off my middle-aged face. Ha!

"Sign me up" I quipped, " I'll cancel my Botox appointment."

Steve Jermanok's Active Travels: Cabins at Campgrounds

Summer reservations are already up 8 to 9 percent at campgrounds across America, another strong sign that travelers are once again striving for affordability. But if you think those campers are sticking solely to RVs and tents, you’d be wrong. All across the country, campgrounds are building cabins to accommodate the growing number of requests. And these aren’t little shacks either. The six new cabins at West Glacier KOA in Montana near Glacier National Park feature full bath, kitchen, and an outdoor deck with barbecue. Many campgrounds also feature nightly entertainment, like live music. So the next time you need to book a room, also visit the Go Camping America site to see if there are any interesting alternatives nearby.Visit Active Travels.

Giveaway: "Spa-Tacular Getaway for Two" at Mohonk Mountain House

Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York.

"Spa-Tacular Getaway for Two" at Mohonk Mountain House

We're thrilled to be giving away a three-night "Spa-Tacular Getaway for Two" at Mohonk Mountain House, a National Historic Landmark resort just 90 miles north of New York City.  The award-winning 30,000-square foot eco-friendly Spa wing is rated as the #8 Hotel Spa in the United States and Canada by Travel and Leisure magazine.

 
      

THE PRIZE
The "Spa-Tacular Getaway for Two" at Mohonk Mountain House includes three (3) nights accommodation for two (2) adults, three (3) meals daily, afternoon tea and cookies, and a $390 spa credit per person at the Spa.

This package also includes a welcome gift, turndown service, unlimited access to steam, sauna, heated outdoor mineral pool, and solarium, a 10% discount on one additional Spa service and a 10% discount on Spa retail purchases during the visit. Complimentary indoor fitness classes include yoga, meditation, Qi Gong, and core conditioning. Outdoor activities are abundant and include guided nature walks, hiking, boating, and more. For more information visit www.mohonk.com. 

The winning package is available Sunday-Thursday, excluding August and holiday periods, and is valid through March 27, 2011. Travel to and from Mohonk Mountain House is not included. The total value of the prize is $3,000.00

Steve Jermanok's Active Travels: Boundary Waters, Ely, Minnesota

Guide in the Boundary Waters, Minnesota.

Maybe it’s the 1,000,000-plus acres of seemingly endless wilderness—a whopping 1200 miles of canoeable waters through countless lakes, rivers, and ponds—that gets paddlers all dreamy-eyed over Minnesota’s northern frontier, the Boundary Waters. You can go days without seeing another person, replaced instead by moose, whitetail deer, black bears, beavers, otters, and those laughing loons. Wilderness Outfitters has been taking people away from civilization since 1912. Fish for smallmouth bass as you canoe from Mudro to Crooked Lake in early June, or wait for fall foliage in late September and you can paddle when moose are in heat. They also offer canoes and maps for self-guided trips. 

Visit ActiveTravels.

 

Smart Deals: Masai Mara, Untamed Africa

What's the Deal: Readers of Everett Potter's Travel Report get 25% off the cost of an 8-day Masai Mara Safari.

The Details: You can experience the Maasai Mara on this eight-day safari from Extraordinary Journeys in the company of  Alex Walker, a third generation guide in Kenya. You stay in the luxurious Ngare Serian Camp along the Mara River in the North Mara Reserve. The safari includes exploring the reserve in an open safari vehicle and a walking safari with a Masaai tracker. The last three days of the stay are at the Nkorombo Mobile Camp.