Destinations by Santa Maria Times

Best vacation ever INSIDE: SEE READERS’ TOP VACATION PHOTOS AND GET TIPS ON TAKING YOUR OWN SHOTS TULUM, MEXICO – Blue green waters draw a visitor to this isolated cenote or natural well carved out of limestone. Photo by Jesse Miller

Destinations PLAN YOUR ROUTE TO...

... THAT INSPIRE & AMAZE

CUBA

JOE CAVARETTA, SUN SENTINEL

HAVANA, CUBA – Garcia Baxe, a dance instructor for Carnival, waves the U.S. and Cuban flags as the Fathom Adonia arrives in Havana in May.

CRUISING TO CUBA: WHAT TO KNOW

he Fathom ship Adonia has launched a schedule of cruises from Miami to Cuba and more cruises are expected later this year and in 2017. The 704-passenger Adonia now leaves the Port of Miami every other Sunday for a week-long voyage to Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. Q: Is traveling to Cuba by ship a good way to see the country? A: In a seven-day trip around the island, passengers spend two-thirds of their time at sea, and only about 50 hours on the ground in Cuba. So a more time-efficient way to explore Cuba is to take a charter flight directly to Havana, Santiago de Cuba or one of several other Cuban cities and begin exploring from there. Q. What are the advantages of traveling by ship? A. After a day of exploring a city on foot, many passengers appreciated being able to return to a floating hotel at the dock where they could find a hot shower, a comfortable cabin and a cafeteria that is almost always open. Although there are fine restaurants in Cuba’s major cities, finding light fare while touring is not always easy. There are no Starbucks, no fast-food franchises. For those not comfortable wandering the streets of Cuba on their own, Fathom offers walking and coach tours to places such as national historic sites, organic farms and artist studios. Q. Will I need to get a visa before I go to Cuba? A. Visitors to Cuba are required to have a visa. When you book a trip to the island, Fathom and other tour operators provide the visas at an average cost of about $80. Cuban-born travelers who came to the U.S. after 1970 are required by the Cuban government to have a Cuban passport in addition to their U.S. passport. The cost of the visa and passport for those travelers is about $430. Q. What does a voyage to Cuba on the Adonia cost? A. Fares start at about $2,700 per person for an interior cabin, and rise to about $4,000 for an outside cabin with a balcony. — Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

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Inside

B.J. BUEL, FOR LEE ENTERPRISES

HAVANA, CUBA – Classic cars, such as this one seen outside the Hotel Nacional in Havana, are an iconic sight.

New ways to discover the magic of Cuba

B.J. BUEL For Lee Enterprises

t’s easier than ever to travel to Cuba, but U.S. law stills forbids going there on vacation. That is not a problem, though, because one of the 12 categories of authorized travel is for “people to people” educational activities. And meeting Cubans is the best reason to visit. Cubans are friendly, helpful and curious. Actors, writers, dancers and a poet were eager to perform and talk about their work with a small group of Americans on a recent tour. Owners of private restaurants, which Cuba has permitted in recent years, proudly talked about their businesses. A cab driver, upon hearing that his passenger was from Arizona, wanted to know what she thought about one of her senator’s, Jeff Flake, a Republican, frequent visitor and advocate of ending the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Cubans are also thankful for visitors who bring much-needed dollars to the island. The country is poor, and especially so since it lost financial support, first from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela. In one taxi, the driver used his single door handle like a tool, hopping in and out of his ancient Soviet-made Lada to open and close all four doors. A waiter in a restaurant fashioned toilet paper into roses and presented them to women at the end of breakfast. Sure, he was after a tip, but what a clever way to earn it and make customers smile.

FIND NEW VACATION ADVENTURES

BECOME AN EXPERT PACKER

Tips Expect inconveniences such as

brief power outages.

The food in private restaurants,

HAVANA, CUBA – Touches of color add to the vibrant Havana streetscape. Authorized trips to Cuba via charter flights have long easily been arranged through tour operators approved by the Cuban government. Since May, one cruise line, Fathom, a brand of Carnival, sails from Miami to Havana. Other cruise operators plan to start travel to Cuba in late 2016 and early 2017. Regular commercial air service is about to start, too. Six U.S. carriers, including American and Southwest, are approved to begin flights as early as this fall to nine Cuban airports. The U.S. is expected late this summer to

AVOID COMMON TRAVEL MISTAKES

called paladares, is very good. The food in government-run operations, not so much. ATM cards and credit cards issued by U.S. banks do not work in Cuba. Bring cash. Cuba is hot and humid in the summer. Air conditioning is not widespread. Ask before you book a hotel or Airbnb accommodation. Internet connections are available, but they can be slow and unreliable. Users buy a card from the government telecom provider, ETECSA, and receive a code tied to a limited-time log-in. At an outdoor hot spot in Havana, the price was $2 or $3 for one hour. Hotels also sell access. approve schedules to Havana. Travelers who want to avoid group tours can arrange their own trip as long as they “self certify” that they meet the definition of authorized travel. The Treasury Department posted an FAQ on Cuba in July with more detail about travel rules. It’s at https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/ Programs/Documents/cuba_faqs_ new.pdf

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A trip to the past

MICHAEL BUPP, THE SENTINEL (CARLISLE, PA.)

GETTYSBURG, PA. – Each year more than a million people visit the Gettysburg National Military Park, according to the National Park Service.

GETTYSBURG

NEW YORK

MOLOKAI

WALKING WITH GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

MUSICAL INSPIRES TOURISTS TO FIND HAMILTON

PHYLLIS ZIMMERMAN For Lee Enterprises

BETH J. HARPAZ Associated Press

hether you’re a history student, a Civil War buff or fascinated by the supernatural, the quaint Adams County, Pa., borough of Gettysburg has plenty to offer. The borough of 7,600 people was a key location during the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, a major turning point of the war, took place from July 1-3 in 1863. President Abraham Lincoln gave his iconic Gettysburg Address in the town on Nov. 9, 1863. The Gettysburg National Military Park and Museum and Visitors Center, extensively renovated in 2008, offers a film, “The New Birth of Freedom” and Cyclorama depicting the historic battle; Civil War museum artifacts; a voluminous bookstore; and a refreshments saloon. The Gettysburg National Military Park, the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, comprises a 3.33-by5.33-mile stretch located within and around the borough. The park includes many monuments, including the towering Pennsylvania Monument with a panoramic view of the battlefield, and the Soldiers National Cemetery. Visitors may reserve a licensed tour guide; take a bus tour; or take a self-guided tour using a CD or field guide book purchased from the Museum Bookstore. The David Wills House, 8 Lincoln Square, also holds a place in history as the location where Abraham Lincoln prepared his most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address. The home of the Gettysburg attorney also was a central point of the borough’s post-war reconstruction. The David Wills House opened as a world-class museum on Feb. 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Finally, long-reputed as a haven for war ghosts, Gettysburg offers a number of ghost tour venues. Gettysburg Ghost Tours, 47 Steinwehr Ave., offers candlelit hour-long tours with professional storytellers.

MARCO GARCIA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

KALAWAO, HAWAII – Hikers overlook a bluff on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai.

Beautiful isolation

Tour offers glimpse of tragic quarantine

MARCO GARCIA Associated Press

visit to the island of Molokai offers a window on a unique and tragic chapter of Hawaiian history. For about a century beginning in 1866, some 8,000 individuals afflicted with leprosy were quarantined to live out their lives on the remote Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molokai’s northern shores. Their stories are told at Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

ABOUT 100 PEOPLE STILL LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY, MOSTLY GOVERNMENT WORKERS ALONG WITH A FEW PATIENTS WHO CHOSE TO STAY AFTER THE QUARANTINE POLICY OFFICIALLY ENDED IN 1969. Unless you’re invited by a resident, you can only visit the park on a guided tour with a permit.

There are several options for getting there. My wife and I booked a package with Makani Kai Charter Tours that included a flight from Honolulu to the main airport at Molokai, a bus tour of the park plus lunch, and a return flight from a tiny open-air airport inside the park. On the tour, we visited structures built in the late 1800s by St. Damien, the Belgian priest who devoted himself to the colony and was eventually canonized, and also saw the gravesite of St. Marianne, the nun who cared for female patients of the colony and who also was made a saint. Our guide pointed out an ancient Hawaiian altar called a heiau, and we visited two turn-of-the-20th century churches still in use. Some of St. Damien’s remains are interred at St. Philomena Church. Along the way there were deer, wild pigs and dozens of feral but friendly cats who were accustomed to being fed by the tour bus driver. We picnicked on a blustery field overlooking the peninsula’s cold, rough waters before being taken to the airport for our flight out. It was sobering to consider that ships once anchored here to unload passengers who would never leave.

istoric sites connected to Alexander Hamilton are getting a lot more visitors than they used to, thanks to a little Broadway show you might have heard about. Fans of the musical “Hamilton,” which won 11 Tony Awards this year, are hunting down every Hamilton spot they can think of, from his home in Harlem, to his burial site in Lower Manhattan, to Hamilton Park in Weehawken, New Jersey, near the dueling grounds where he was shot by Aaron Burr. Hamilton Grange, his Harlem home and a National Park site, had as many visitors in the first five months of this year as it did in all of 2015 — more than 35,000 people. And that’s a 75 percent increase over the 21,000 visitors who toured the Grange in 2014, the year before “Hamilton” opened. But fans are also finding their way to more obscure spots, like the Schuyler-Hamilton House in Morristown, New Jersey, where Hamilton courted his wife Eliza. “We have 5-year-olds, 16-year-olds, 30-year-olds coming here now,” said Pat Sanftner, who gives tours of the Schuyler-Hamilton House. “We did not have that audience in our museum before. We had 60-year-olds. It’s wonderful to have these conversations now with visitors. We’re not just teaching. They’re questioning us and they’re thinking.” Tourists have always visited Hamilton’s tomb in the graveyard at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. But now, not only are more people paying their respects, but they’re also looking for the graves of Hamilton’s wife, sister-in-law, son and his buddy Hercules Mulligan. “Visitors also now leave flowers, stones, coins, notes, even a potted plant, at Hamilton’s monument and on Eliza’s stone just in front of it,” said Trinity spokeswoman Lynn Goswick.

The creation of this special section was a collaborative effort among staff members from Lee Enterprises, Inc. PUBLISHER John M. Humenik, president and publisher, Wisconsin State Journal, Vice President/News, Lee Enterprises. 00 1

EDITORS John Smalley, Beth Williams and Jason Klein, Wisconsin State Journal.

REPORTERS Chris Bumbaca, Amanda Finn and Allison Garcia, Wisconsin State Journal.

DESIGNERS Ben Cunningham and Diane Cunningham, Lee Design Centers.

CONTRIBUTING LEE NEWSPAPERS: Arizona Daily Star, Wisconsin State Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Napa Valley Register, The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.), The Rapid City (S.D.) Journal

Seeing the USA Types of trails

AMERICA’S TRAILS

The National Scenic Byways Program Part of the Federal Highway Administration, the program is a grassroots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States that are deemed especially significant based on one or more archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities. There are about 150 specially designated stretches of roadway in the system today. Over three weeks, I took several of these roads: the Lincoln Highway, the Historic National Road, Route 66, the Great River Road, Natchez Trace and a smidgen of the Blue Ridge Parkway. In 4,200 miles, the routes took me back to places of significance in America’s history, the evolution of small towns, examples of remarkable engineering feats needed to make the roads in the first place. But most of all, these all-but-lost highways brought me to scenes of an America I thought had long been lost. More info: fhwa.dot.gov/byways We follow our explorers and our history: California Trail: The largest migration in history crossed this trail in the 1840s and 1850 to the rich farmland and gold fields of California, covering more than 1,000 miles. Lewis and Clark Trail: The famous trail over 2,000 miles that led fur traders, trappers, missionaries and settlers west. Oregon Trail-Pony Express Trail: The system of riding the mail from Missouri to California in only 10 days before the Civil War and the railroad. Santa Fe Trail: Leading from western Missouri west through Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Trail of Tears: The 1830s trail of the forced migration of the Cherokee tribes west from the southeastern part of the United States. We also like our spirits: Wine, of course, is the main potable of pilgrimage. Napa and Sonoma are now the favorites of the wine wanderers, but there’s also the Finger Lakes Wine Trail in upstate New York. Every state in the country produces wine, and every one of them seems to have a wine trail. Wine trail associations encourage people to linger longer, see more of the area and, of course, spend more. Information: americaswinetrails.com. Beer is coming up a strong second. Craft brew aficionados will find beer trails across the country, often backed by their states’ craft brewers associations and tourism offices as they promote local business and help bring visitors to the area. The Delaware Ale Trail has partnered with the Delaware Tourism Office to showcase the growing craft beer industry in the state. The trail works to promote the local beerscene and show visitors what craft beer in Delaware has to offer. Many of these trails also have passport programs and offer a free gift after your pamphlet has been stamped at a certain number of breweries. For a good old brewery tour experience, go to brewtrail.com. There you’ll find databases of breweries that offer tours and have taprooms and a search engine that lets you blaze your own trail. In 1999, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association formed the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour to give visitors a firsthand look at the art and science of crafting Bourbon. In the past five years, nearly 2.5 million visitors from the U.S. and abroad have done the trail. A minimum of three days is recommended — more if you really enjoy it. Info: kybourbontrail.com. Folkways The White Lightning Trail of Tennessee (tntrailsandbyways. com): Not a spirit trail, though it’s in there. It’s a 200-mile motor route that starts in Knoxville and winds its way up the Clinch and Powell river valleys to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The route includes a drive along the Maynardville Highway, a main artery for running moonshine during Prohibition. But it also includes five state parks, 15 marinas and numerous craft shops and restaurants, circumnavigating the big cities for small towns in less-visited counties. The White Lightning is the fourth in a system of 16 motor trails designed to showcase interesting and offbeat tourist attractions across the state through a program called Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways. The Crooked Road (crookedroad. org): Subtitled Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, it is a 330-mile route from the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Coalfield region of Virginia, connecting eight major heritage music venues with a thriving network of jams, festivals and concerts in the communities along the way.

ALAN SOLOMON, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

NEAR SELBY, S.D. – All signs point to the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Tap into a trail to find new destinations Chase music, food, crafts and history on trails throughout the U.S.

JILL SCHENSUL The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

aybe you’re the kind of traveler who’s been there, done that and now wants even more of it. For the bored and the obsessed, the tourist trail was made for you. Tourist trails are routes that link destinations, sights or attractions that share a common theme. If you are a traveler with an interest in that theme — or have gone to a place that happens to be included in the trail, and you liked it — chances are you’ll like other places along the trail, too. If you’ve come to Virginia to shop for handmade crafts, for instance, local tourism officials and craft organizations have already done most of the legwork for you with their Virginia Artisans Trail Network (artisanscenterof virginia.org). They have put together trails throughout the state, so you can undoubtedly find a trail no matter what area you’re visiting. Pick up a map at one of the participating sites or visitor centers (or online), and it will highlight the artisan-related places of interest. The Eastern Shore Artisan Trail, for instance, covers 70 miles along the Atlantic coast and includes artists’ studios and craft centers along with small farms, restaurants and other points of interest, some which you probably never knew existed, to make the best use of your limited vacation time. For extra encouragement, some trails include “passports” or other checklists that you can turn in for a prize or certificate once you’ve hit every site; a completed Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport, with stamps from all eight distilleries on the route, will earn the bearer a free T-shirt.

TODAY THE TRAILS HAVE BECOME WAYS TO EXPLORE NEW PARTS OF A WORLD WE MAY HAVE THOUGHT WE KNEW, ONLY TO TURN UP NEW DISCOVERIES. I remember one of the first such trails I ever followed, the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail, led all the way around the Shore’s 127 miles of coastline and pointed out historic, natural, cultural and other attractions along the way. It was how I discovered not only some unusual sights (Tinicum Island Rear Range Light, a lighthouse in the Billingsport section of Paulsboro) but some of my favorites to this day (Cheesequake State Park, Allaire Village). Discovering new places and getting

STUART PALLEY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

AMBOY, CALIF. – Famous Roy’s cafe sits on one of the most desolate stretches of Route 66 between Needles and Barstow, California. Route 66 is a classic American road trip draw. off the beaten path are why routes have become an increasingly popular marketing tool for tourism officials these days. These trails don’t just benefit you, of course. Themed tourist trails are becoming an ever-more popular way to market destinations, to encourage visitors to check out lesser-known places and to linger a little longer. Often they are organized by tourism officials along with local government and business leaders and other groups interested in developing the economy of a region. The Fresno Fruit Trail, for instance, was started as a way to help smallscale farmers in California gain another source of income by offering tours, pick-your-own or even bedand-breakfast accommodations to tourists. It was a way to keep the family farm alive. That’s why the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization devoted much of its 2014 conference to tourist trails — they respond to the more enlightened goals of both travelers and tourism development. Today’s travelers want more “experiential” and “authentic” opportunities to see the world, interacting with the locals and learning about their traditions. The trails lead them back from the big, famous and often lifeless repositories of history and art back to the places and people of its origins. The trail idea isn’t new, of course, pilgrimage routes have been around for centuries. People have followed

in the paths of famous explorers; the Lewis and Clark Trail is one example. But the ways the trails are set up and how we follow them are changing. Public relations companies are beginning to offer theme-route consultations. They not only work with locals to identify the unique and most valuable resources — history, art, crafts, geography — of their communities but also assure that trails offer other tourism amenities, like accommodations, rest stops, scenic overlooks, etc. New types of technology are being used to help tell old stories. The Mason County Heritage Trail’s Barn Quilt Trails and Lumber Trail may bring you back to the old agricultural traditions of this area of northern Michigan, but you learn all about how to fell a tree or what life was like in a lumber camp from the privacy of your cellphone in both recorded and video programs. Some of these helpful trails, ironically, can still be hard to unearth. Aside from a few famous trails like the Lewis and Clark Trail, they’re not well known. But, as I discovered with a little research, many organizations have well-funded and established programs and have been researching and developing tourist trails for years. Small-town trails, like the Mason County Heritage Trails, have become big news, in their region and even their state. When planning a trip, county and state tourism websites are your best bet for unearthing these oft-hidden maps to the treasures.

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ANICK JESDANUN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

STRAITS OF MACKINAC – The ferry from Michigan’s mainland to Mackinac Island heads past the Round Island Lighthouse, which dates to the 1890s but is no longer a functioning lighthouse.

Mackinac Island, Mich. Producers of the 1980 movie “Somewhere in Time” didn’t need to build elaborate sets to depict the tale of a playwright who travels back to 1912 to find romance. They simply filmed on Mackinac Island, a Great Lakes enclave that retains its Victorian-era charm thanks to its ban on motor vehicles. Motor vehicles have been banned on the island since the start of the 20th century after an automobile frightened some of the horses. These days, people still travel by horse-drawn carriage, as well as by bike and by foot. Mackinac Island, located off the Straits of Mackinac separating Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, was an important outpost in the region’s fur trade, but that gave way to fishing and eventually tourism. Among the main attractions: the Grand Hotel, a 385-room luxury hotel that played a central role in “Somewhere in Time.” The hotel is such a draw that it charges non-guests $10 to visit. At Fort Mackinac, built on top of a hill a short walk from the main village, you can witness demonstrations of oldstyle guns and a cannon. You can also see some of the buildings once used for distributing supplies, housing soldiers and more. Despite the lack of motor vehicles, Mackinac Island has a state highway, running some eight miles around the island. You can walk or run it. You can also rent bikes. Whether you’re at Mackinac Island for just the day or with an overnight stay, be sure to stop by one of the many shops selling fudge — the island’s specialty cuisine. Just leave your diet on the mainland.

BRUCE SMITH, ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHNS ISLAND S.C. – The landmark Angel Oak on Johns Island near Charleston, S.C., is thought to be as many as 500 years old. which drops passengers from eight stories — is fun for their grown-ups.

Charleston, S.C.

Black Hills, S.D.

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When people think of South Dakota and tourism, many immediately latch onto Mount Rushmore National Memorial as a primary destination. And it’s true: the four faces on the mountainside are a big draw for millions of travelers from around the world who are in awe of this majestic tribute to American democracy. But the Black Hills and Badlands region of western South Dakota has much more than stone-faced presidents. In fact, five major National Park Service sites are located within an hour’s drive of Rapid City, which serves as a good base to explore the area. The natural wonders of Rushmore, Jewel Cave, and Wind Cave can be found among the Black Hills, and Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming is not far away. The moonscape – actually the preserved floor of an ancient ocean — that forms the basis of Badlands National Park is a must-see for anyone who enjoys incredible vistas and learning about geologic history and formations and is only 45 minutes to the east. The 71,000-acre Custer State Park is worth a full day’s visit. In this park, prairie dogs play and buffalo mix with cars and curious tourists who can rough it in a tent or experience fine dining with a stay at a historic lodge. Trout-laden streams and crystal-clear lakes dot the landscape of this park. Harney Peak, the highest point in North America east of the Rockies at 7,242 feet, also beckons for those who want to hike among the pine trees and dramatic granite spires that spring from the earth. Historic Hot Springs, on the southern end of the Black Hills, snuggles

RAPID CITY JOURNAL ARCHIVES

KEYSTONE, S.D. – Mount Rushmore draws nearly 3 million people to South Dakota’s Black Hills each year, according to the National Park Service. against winding Fall River in the heart of its historic downtown. Custer and Hill City just to the north are known as artistic hubs and home to many new wineries and tourist attractions that focus on the natural world, the history of the gold rush, or the culture of Native Americans who still call the region home. The 1880 Train takes a leisurely path through the Hills, and other popular attractions such as Bear Country USA and Reptile Gardens provide wildlife view in a controlled setting.

Branson, Mo. Tourism brings in more than 7 million visitors annually to Branson, Mo., a city of just 11,000 residents. The city has embarked on an ambitious project known as Spirit of 76, a multimillion-dollar revitalization of a five-mile stretch of Highway 76, the bustling strip lined with theaters, hotels and attractions. In addition to enhancements such as lighting and landscaping, the project will improve traffic flow and parking and make the area more walkable. It’s being carried out in chunks, with completion set for 2024. A good place to start your visit to

Branson is at Ride the Ducks, which operates a fleet of amphibious vehicles to give passengers a tour of town — on land and water. The Ducks are replicas of the vehicles used in World War II to transport troops and supplies. The classic country shows are still around — such as the Baldknobbers Jamboree, which is Branson’s longest continuously running show, and the Presleys’ Country Jubilee, which built the first music theater on Highway 76. But there are also shows you’ll love if country music and folksy humor aren’t your thing. For dinner and a show with a more upscale feel, head to Table Rock Lake for a cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle. The huge 1880s-style paddlewheeler loops around the lake for a two-hour voyage multiple times daily. A visit to Branson isn’t complete until you spend the day at Silver Dollar City, the 100-acre 1880s-themed park built above the Marvel Cave, its first attraction. In 2015, the park added the kid-friendly Fireman’s Landing to its assortment of coasters, storefronts, restaurants, shows and craftsman demonstrations. Low-key firehouse-themed rides such as Lucky’s Dizzy Dogs and Fire Spotter will give the little ones a thrill, and Firefall —

Old-fashioned horse carriage tours offer overviews of Charleston’s architecture and history, and many historic homes and nearby plantations also offer tours. Middleton Plantation is known for its landscaped gardens as well. The City Market complex, a National Historic Landmark, is one of the city’s top attractions. Its open-air market buildings date to the early 1800s, but were given a $5.5 million facelift that was completed in 2011. The 150 vendors sell everything from tourist T-shirts to sweetgrass baskets, handwoven onsite. On Meeting Street is the site of the former South Carolina Institute Hall, where the Ordinance of Secession was signed Dec. 20, 1860, withdrawing the state from the Union. A marker notes that the historic building was destroyed by the “Great Fire” of 1861. Meeting Street ends at White Point Garden, also known as the Battery, a seawall and promenade from which you can see Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. The fort is now a museum accessible by a half-hour ferry ride or tour boat. Beyond Charleston’s city limits, within 15 miles or so, are the Sea Islands: Folly, Johns, James, Kiawah (home of the exclusive golf resort), Seabrook, and Sullivans, among them. It’s worth a side trip over one of the “connector” bridges to the southern end of Johns Island to gape at one of nature’s exceptional creations. It is about a mile or two off Bohicket Road and down a dirt road that first appears to lead nowhere. But there, in an isolated park, is the stunning Angel Oak. This live oak tree, named after the family that once owned the property, is 400 to 500 years old. It’s 65 feet tall and 25 feet in circumference, and its longest limb is nearly 90 feet long. Its area of shade is 17,000 square feet. Many of its limbs rest on the ground, weighed down by age. The tree is a sight that simply stops an unsuspecting visitor in his tracks, and it’s a fitting end to a visit. — Associated Press, Lee Enterprises

ORLANDO, FLA. – Volcano Bay, slated to open next year, will feature a massive volcano that rains down waterfalls in the daytime and blazing lava at night. The park is looking to enhance the water park experience — guests won’t even have to carry their own rafts up to the top of a ride.

Magical lands Theme parks offer family thrills with imagination

AMANDA FINN Wisconsin State Journal

or Mouseketeers, the Disney parks are a beloved vacation spot and with the addition of dazzling nighttime shows, new attractions and more, Disney excursions may be even more magical. Should you be beckoned to the Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, come night fall, a new fireworks show will greet you. “Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular” incorporates pyrotechnics with projections from the “Star Wars” series onto the front of the Chinese Theatre replica and other buildings in the heart of downtown Hollywood Studios. “We are actually able to cast fireworks to tell different parts of the Star Wars story, in colors identifiable with the film whether it’s green for Yoda or creating a starfield up in the sky,” said show director Michael Roddy of Disney Creative Entertainment in a statement. While just a shuttle ride away at Walt Disney World Resort’s Animal Kingdom a light show of a more earthly nature awaits. “The Tree of Life experiences ‘awakenings’ throughout the evening — from dusk to close — featuring colorful stories of nature brought to life by high– tech projections,” said Todd Heiden, international public relations director for the resort.

IN ANOTHER PART OF ANIMAL KINGDOM, PANDORA — THE WORLD OF AVATAR — SET TO OPEN SOMETIME IN 2017 — WILL IMMERSE VISITORS INTO THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF PANDORA IN INTRICATE DETAIL. “I’m excited by the technology, immersive storytelling and the legendary attention to detail that our guests will be immersed in once they’re able to experience the land,” Heiden said. Attention to detail gets down even to the ground, which will glow beneath visitors’ feet. While some information about the park has yet to be revealed, AVATAR Flight of Passage and the Na’vi River Journey will be two of the rides which will transport guests through the alien world. AVATAR Flight of Passage will be a birds-eye view of the vast land of Pandora and Na’vi River Journey will send guests down a sacred river in canoes where they are surrounded by glowing plants and foreign creatures. But, while new attractions abound, the sun must set on the old. Fans of the Tower of Terror at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, should get

NATHANIEL CHADWICK, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD

UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF. – The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in April and immerses guests in the magical world of the cherished book series. Visitors can experience the park’s signature ride “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” or a family friendly coaster in “Flight of the Hippogriff.” Universal Studios Orlando also features the Harry Potter park, which opened in 2010.

DISNEYLAND RESORT CHIP LITHERLAND

WINTER HAVEN, FLA. – Legoland Florida features rides and activities geared toward children ages two to 12. In early 2017 the park will open the new Lego Ninjago Land which features a state-of-the-art gaming technology that allows riders to use their own hands as weapons against virtual villains.

Theme park tips Check to make sure your favorite rides will be open when you visit. Annual passes may be a better investment than single tickets (depending on how

often you visit).

Some parks offer discounts for tickets purchased in advance. Holidays tend to be the busiest times — be sure to arrive early. Check clothing policies before going to the parks (especially ones with water parks).

their screams in while they can before the ride departs after this year’s holiday season. John McClintock, Disneyland spokesman, said that the ride will be redesigned into Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! where guests help Rocket the raccoon save his comrades from The Collector who has put the Guardians on display in his museum. It will remain a free fall attraction when the new ride opens in summer 2017. For travelers interested in a good

scare, Universal Studios Hollywood has just opened the doors to the walkers from the “The Walking Dead”. “Guests can now come face-to-face with live and animatronic Walkers that are indiscernible from the Walkers from the show,” said Greg Nicotero, “The Walking Dead” executive producer and director, in a statement. The tamer option for Universal Studios adventurers can be found at the Orlando park starting in 2017 with the addition of Volcano Bay water park that will feature 18 unique attractions that

ANAHEIM, CALIF. – Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! — set to open in summer 2017 — will take guests through the prison-like museum of a villain, the Collector, who has captured the Guardians of the Galaxy. Riders will accompany Rocket the raccoon on a mission to rescue his comrades. range from riveting thrill rides to peaceful journeys. Even tamer still would be a trip to Legoland, a theme park targeted at children ages 2 to 12. Major expansion plans are in place at Legoland Florida Resort in Winter Haven, which includes the Lego Ninjago World — set to open in early 2017 – with a state-of-the-art game that allows players to defeat villains with nothing more than their hands. According to David Brady, spokesman for the park, other parts of Ninjago world will train fledgling ninjas for Ninjago the Ride. “The story line is that you’re sharpening your ninja skills before going on the ride,” Brady said. The ride puts four riders in front of a sensor, so when the rider moves their hand as if throwing fire at a bad guy — they’re really doing it.

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Park wonders

Experiences can take your breath away

JILL SCHENSUL The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

ou can’t go wrong in a national park. I mean, yeah, you can take a wrong turn. Well, I can, for sure. (If not for my husband, the rangers might still be looking for me somewhere in the national park wilderness.) But if you want a destination that will rock your world, a national park will never disappoint. Because 2016 marks the centennial of the National Park Service, the agency that oversees our park system, the parks have ramped up their programs and facilities. Pick a park that strikes a chord with you — or one that sounds too good to be real. Then go. You’ll see. There are views that are just gorgeous. That word: gorgeous. It’s one of the problems with national parks. A word doesn’t really convey what you’d like to describe. You kind of have to be there. Once you’re rendered speechless by some view around a bend, you’ll see the limitations of language. It’s all about experience. Your experience. Every visitor has a story. Just as every one of the more than 400 sites in the park system has a story — a uniquely American story. They’re not all about beautiful landscapes, though. When you hear national park, you think of the rock stars first. The Yosemites and Grand Canyons — the vast ones with the buffalo and the forever rolling vistas. There are 59 official national parks and each must be passed and designated by a congressional vote. The rest? There are national battlefield parks, national historic parks, national lakeshores, national recreation areas, national scenic rivers, national historic landmarks and more. They are classified according to why they are significant: history, archaeology, cultural preservation, natural beauty and rarity, significant events. Their common thread is that they are quintessentially America. The park system has grown, stretching its definition of significant as awareness has grown, new discoveries were made, and history was revisited. The national park system now includes places that commemorate more recent, and sometimes more sobering, history. The stories of the fight for civil rights, the World War II Japanese-American internment camps and Sand Creek, the site of a tragic Indian massacre in 1864, are all told in national parks. One of the most recent additions to the roster is the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, composed of three sites in Tennessee, New Mexico and Washington State that were significant in the creation of the first atomic bombs. “Andersonville is one of those sites that is breathtakingly dramatic,” said Elizabeth Paradis Stern, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, referring to the Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia, once a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. It tells the story of the horrors of Civil War prisons. “That’s a really important part of our history and our experience,” Stern said. “We can learn from it going forward.”

FIND YOUR PARK (FINDYOURPARK.COM) IS HELPING SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE SITES. YOU CAN FIND ALL THE PARKS, BIG AND SMALL, NEAR AND FAR.

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It’s also been a way to promote the variety and diversity of sites in the park system, making it more relevant and appealing to the next generation of park visitors. The park service, part of the Department of the Interior, has been fretting over that next generation for several years, as boomers like me, are getting older, creakier maybe, and are dwindling. So the centennial was a good time for a good push to reach out and grab the next generation. Find Your Park seems to be doing its job — along with all the publicity about the centennial. Overall, park attendance was up about 2 percent before the summer started. During National Park Week, so many people tweeted the #findyourpark that it was a top 10 trending story, and Twitter gave it its own emoji: a ranger with a flatbrimmed hat. “So we know that we are reaching that audience, that target audience,” Stern said. “We’ve captured interest from the White House to Sheryl Crow. I think that the fact that this is resonating with so many people speaks a lot to the power of these places.”

JACK BROOM, SEATTLE TIMES

ZION NATIONAL PARK, UTAH – The rugged peaks of the Court of the Patriarchs are among the best-known features of Zion National Park in southwest Utah, which gets 3 million visitors a year. The peaks are named for the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

MARK BOSTER, LOS ANGELES TIMES MARK BOSTER, LOS ANGELES TIMES

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK – Visitors to the Lower Geyser Basin are in awe of the amazing colors created by the bacteria and thermophile living in the hot water in Silex Spring last summer.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK – Rush hour is a little different than in other parts of the country while a Bison lumbers down the highway near Madison Junction bringing park traffic to a crawl.

Some of the least visited national parks (Note that in some cases, the town listed for the national park is only for its mailing address.) Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, King Salmon, Alaska (nps.gov/ ania): Number of visitors in 2014: 134. Aniakchak is not only remote — accessible by a long journey of flying, boating and/or backpacking — it’s also rugged and rainy. It also boasts a lot of bears and wolves but rewards those who visit with a stunning 6-mile-wide, 2,000-footdeep volcanic caldera. Within this deep, ashy crater is Surprise Lake, source of the Aniakchak River, as well as Vent Mountain, a 2,200-foot-tall cone formed by a volcanic eruption in 1931. Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, near Big Bend National Park, Texas (nps. gov/rigr/index.htm): Number of visitors in 2014: 321. (not including visitors to Big Bend). Most of the river is popular and well-visited. The part that isn’t is the section designated “wild and scenic,” a 196-mile stretch that travels east from the Mexican border into Texas and winds through some of the more remote vistas in the Chihuahuan Desert. Traveling in the lower canyons requires that you register, pay a fee and sign a release form. And part of the river is pretty difficult. The park service suggests speaking with a ranger before attempting a trip. Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Monument, Martinez, Calif. (nps. gov/poch/): Number of visitors in 2014: 786. The worst homeland disaster of World War II happened on a dock not far from San Francisco. Thousands of black sailors served at Port Chicago in segregated units during the war in limited roles; one of these jobs was loading weapons and ammunition into ships. One evening in July 1944, more than 5,000 tons of munitions exploded, killing 320 men and injuring hundreds of others. Two weeks later, when sailors were ordered to return to the same dangerous conditions, 258 men refused and 50 were court-martialed and found guilty of mutiny. This was one of the events that led to desegregation of the Navy and, subsequently, all U.S. armed forces. The memorial is on an active military base, so you need to make reservations at least two weeks in advance of your visit. Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Philadelphia (nps.gov/thko): Number of visitors in 2014: 1,475. Pol-

ish-born Kosciuszko helped American colonists win their independence from the British in the Revolutionary War by meticulously designing and fortifying military defenses. After the war, Kosciuszko returned to Poland and led an uprising in 1794 in a failed attempt to liberate Poland and Lithuania from Russian occupation. After suffering serious injury and imprisonment, he lived the rest of his life in exile, returning briefly to America in 1797. The memorial in Philadelphia is where he stayed on this second visit. Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Eagle, Alaska (nps.gov/yuch): Number of visitors in 2014: 2,329. This wilderness preserve near the Arctic Circle protects the site where two pristine rivers meet in the state’s interior. The entire Charley River basin is contained within the park, as well as about 130 miles of the Yukon, one of the longest and wildest rivers in North America. The geology exposed by these rivers is some of the oldest in the world, dating back 600 million years to the Precambrian Era. Visitors can paddle through the vast mountains and bluffs and see caribou, peregrine falcons and other wild creatures. The preserve sits between two former gold-rush towns dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s; the ruins of prospectors’ cabins and other historic buildings are part of the park’s landscape. Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Nome, Alaska (nps.gov/bela): Number of visitors in 2014: 2,636. This roadless wilderness sits on the western edge of Alaska on the Seward Peninsula. Although few people travel here today, archaeologists believe that ancient populations migrated from Russia into the Americas across this stretch of land during the Ice Age 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, when ocean levels dropped and exposed a 1,000-mile path between the continents. Once the stomping grounds of mastodons and mammoths, the preserve is now home to reindeer, muskox, wolverines, and other hardy animals, and is also a nesting site for birds traveling the Asiatic-North American Flyway. Unusual geological features include tors, hot springs with year-round geothermic activity, and the four-largest maar lakes in the world, created when magma contacts groundwater; the largest maar at Bering Land Bridge is more than 5 miles wide.

Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, Danville, Calif. (nps.gov/euon): Number of visitors in 2014: 3,202. O’Neill, America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, wrote many of his best-known works here, including “A Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “The Iceman Cometh” and “A Moon for the Misbegotten.” O’Neill and his wife, Carlotta, designed the home, known as the Tao House, which sits on 13 acres. Reservations are required; call a week or two in advance for a tour. Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Fritch, Texas (nps.gov/alfl): Number of visitors in 2014: 4,513. This park in the Texas Panhandle encompasses geology and history. Its remote flint mineral deposits are unlike any type of flint found elsewhere. Native Americans have quarried it since the Ice Age for its superior durability. Walk through grassy mesas sprinkled with manmade mineral shavings and learn about the history of the quarries, which include more than 700 excavation sites. Rangers offer “flint knapping” demonstrations, showing how native craftsmen once made tools. Reservations required. Nicodemus National Historic Site, Nicodemus, Kan. (nps.gov/nico): Number of visitors in 2014: 3,374. In 1877, seven men from Kentucky— most of them formerly enslaved — set out to create the first all-black settlement on the Great Plains, inspiring many other black families to travel west, too. Life was difficult, however, and many of these early settlers left quickly; others lived in sod houses or holes in the ground and suffered without enough food until a second wave of settlers brought horses, plows and other resources several years later. In its heyday, roughly 600 people lived in Nicodemus; about 60 still do. Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, Christiansted, Virgin Islands (nps.gov/sari): Number of visitors in 2014: 5,192. This Caribbean park preserves 2,000 years of indigenous culture on the island of St. Croix, as well as the history of Europeans attempting to colonize the area. Members of Christopher Columbus’ crew set foot on the beach there. The area’s natural wonders include mangrove forests, coral reefs and a rare bioluminescent bay. Several outfitters offer guided tours.

Youryour path to picking vacation Find next vacationadestination W

hether you’re as a Whether you’re traveling astraveling a family, with with friends or on friends or on family, a romantic getaway, finding a a romantic destination that works forgetaway, everyone fi isnding the firsta step to planning any vacation. destination that works for “Travelis creates memories and bonds everyone the filasting rst step to planning any with your fellow travelers that could last a vacation. lifetime andcreates you can’t get either of those by “Travel lasting memories and stayingwith home”, saidfellow Ed Mani, presidentthat of bonds your travelers Burkhalter could last aTravel. lifetime and you can’t get

Mani, president Burkhalter Travel. A vacation could beoflounging on a sandy A vacation lounging beach, whitewatercould raftingbe through the on a sandy beach, whitewater raftingand through mountains, wandering around museums landmarks or exploring a new city’saround nightlife.muthe mountains, wandering

Ready to start?

seums and landmarks or exploring a new

Answer questions for a recommendacity’s these nightlife. tion on which U.S. spot you should consider for your next big trip: Answer these questions for a

YES

Are you bringing kids?

recommendation on which U.S. spot you should consider for your next big trip:

either of those by staying home,” said Ed

Is this a romantic getaway? Do you want to visit paradise?

YES

DISNEY WORLD

Do you like theme parks?

YES

Your kids may have wished upon a star to meet Elsa and Anna, ride on a pirate ship with Jack Sparrow, shake hands with Mickey Mouse or have breakfast in Cinderella’s Castle.

NO NO

YES NO

KAUAI (HAWAII)

Do you like big boats?

Do you want to be near the water?

Along the Napali coast of Hawaii’s garden island are sandy beaches with views of Kauai’s mountains perfect for a romantic getaway.

FLORIDA BEACHES Florida’s Gulf Coast is lined with family-friendly beaches from Clearwater Beach to St. Pete Beach and even Treasure Island.

YES

Do you prefer the West coast?

Is seeing animals a priority?

Do you need a beach?

Sit back, relax and let the ship do the work. Many cruises cater specifically to families with activities for kids and adults too.

NO YES

YES YES

Are you a night owl?

MIAMI BEACH

Do you need a beach?

One of Florida’s most beautiful beaches where cruise ships often stop, is also known for its restaurants and nightlife.

CARIBBEAN CRUISE

YES YES NO

Culture or adventure?

SAN FRANCISCO Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, this city is home to the Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39 and Alcatraz and is also just a short drive away from wine valleys and redwood forests.

SAN DIEGO

CULTURE

ADVENTURE

Is gambling fun for you?

Between fun-in-the-sun beaches, the historic Midway, lively zoos, Sea World and more, San Diego is good for active families interested in variety.

Want to get out of the lower 48?

YES

YES NO

LAS VEGAS

Want to explore by train?

If you’re feeling lucky Vegas is the spot to catch a show, throw some dice and enjoy the nightlife.

How does dinner and show sound?

YES

DENALI (ALASKA) Home of the highest peak in North America, Alaska’s Denali National Park is where the caribou roam free and sled dogs run past.

PERFECT

Prefer the desert?

YES

COLORADO ROCKIES NEW YORK CITY

North or south?

From daylight wonders like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building to nightlife treasures like Broadway and Time Square, there is a reason why this city never sleeps.

NORTH

How much do you like museums?

SOUTH

SEDONA ARIZONA

Passing from Durango to Silverton, the Narrow Gauge Railroad provides a new perspective along the historic tracks through mountains, past rivers, around canyons and within forests.

This Arizona town overflowing with trails and red rock is a great spot for desert hiking, and it’s just a two hour drive to the Grand Canyon.

Have to be by the ocean? Do you want to visit the wild west? NO

A LITTLE YES A LOT

YES

BEND OREGON Whether it’s kayaking and fishing along the Deschutes River in the summer or skiing and snowmobiling in the winter, Bend is a home for outdoor adventure.

BOSTON Walking along the Freedom Trail through Boston Common, into Paul Revere’s house and past the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”), America’s rich history comes to life.

WASHINGTON D.C.

CHARLESTON S. CAROLINA

SAN ANTONIO

At the nation’s capital you can see the White House, the Smithsonian museum, the Washington Monument and more.

Enjoy authentic barbecue and wander past antebellum houses while taking in the history of a city scarred by the Civil War at sites like Fort Sumter.

After a visit to the Alamo and a leisurely stroll down the San Antonio River Walk, conclude your day with dinner outside including some southern specialties.

ACADIA (MAINE) Coast and mountains meet at Acadia National Park where fishing, kayaking and whale watching are done in the shadow of the Cadillac and Sargent Mountains.

SOURCES: Ed Mani , President of Burkhalter Travel; Brenda Trainor, Owner of Pyramid Travel of Wisconsin Inc. JASON KLEIN, ALLISON GARCIA − Wisconsin State Journal

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Get ready to go Linen bag Use zippered linen bags to hold outfits or categories of clothing such as swimwear.

Dopp bag Keep a dopp bag permanently stocked with toiletries so it’s ready to go.

Liquids Remember flyers are allowed to bring one quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, and creams in their carry-on luggage. All items must be 3.4 ounces or less.

Bag with outfit Use zip top bags to sort clothes into outfits needed for each day.

Luggage tag

Shoes

Make sure each piece of luggage has a tag. Put colorful duct tape on each bag so it’s easily identifiable at the baggage carousel.

Pack small items inside the shoes and cover the shoes with plastic bags to protect clothing.

Chargers Remember to pack chargers and adapters for needed electronics.

Rolled clothing Save room in your suitcase by tightly rolling clothing.

Categorize clothing Keep socks, soc underwear, swimwear and more organized by sorting items into zip top or linen bags.

Luggage luxury

CONVERTIBLE DUFFEL: A duffel bag that can be carried in multiple ways — such as a backpack or suitcase — simplifies the process of hauling luggage. Plus it is small enough to fit in the overhead bins of an airplane avoiding checked baggage fees. The 60L Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Bag also serves as a backpack making it easy to carry.

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LUGGAGE ORGANIZER: Products like travel cubes, compression bags, packing folders and pocket organizers help make everything fit. REI expandable packing cubes, use zippers to expand or compress space for packing.

In addition to toiletries, pack a first aid kit, list of medications and doctor contact information. Remember that needed medications should go in a carry-on bag.

Packing made simple Get organized for a stress-free vacation

JILL ANNIS For Lee Enterprises

ith a little planning and checklists you’ll feel prepared and certain you’ve packed everything needed for your next trip whether you’re traveling alone, with your family or on a road trip. Use the following tips and guidelines while preparing for your next trip.

When flying

LIGHTWEIGHT SUITCASE: Having a lightweight suitcase is good for both your back and your wallet. Having a suitcase that weighs less allows you to avoid airline fees for overweight bags. The IT Luggage Megalite suitcases sold by eBags come in multiple sizes and all of them weigh less than six pounds.

Makeup bag

Consider these variables when making the list of clothing to bring: weather, trip duration, availability of laundry service and type of activities you’ll be doing. Tightly roll clothing to save space and minimize creasing. Place the most useful items on top. For example, if you’re arriving at your destination in the evening, pack your outfit for dinner or pajamas on top. Use plastic zip top bags or zippered linen bags to hold categories of clothing — socks, underwear, swimwear, lingerie — so you aren’t searching through your suitcase or duffel bag. Or assemble outfits for each day and use the bags to hold each outfit. Keep a permanent dopp kit or toiletry bag with duplicates of all your toiletries. It will be ready for any trip once you add your current medications. Include first aid essentials. Bring a list of your current medications and doctor contact information if it won’t be accessible online. Many hotels will provide swim towels, hair dryers, and basic toiletries so you can leave those behind. Check with your hotel before packing these items. Leave room in your bag for vacation purchases unless you are planning on shipping them. Pack valuables and medications in your carry-on bag. In addition, pack a complete day’s worth of clothing in case your luggage is lost. Remember chargers and adapters for electronics. Use luggage tags and strips of colorful duct tape on every checked bag.

Hitting the road

Shop for food and beverages about a week before the trip. Shopping for groceries before leaving town will help save money. Pack snacks in a small cooler and put it in an easy to reach place. Thoroughly declutter your vehicle two days before you leave. Stock the vehicle with paper towels, disposable plates, cutlery and several boxes of facial tissues for the trip.

Before you leave Place a hold on your newspaper and mail

delivery.

Hire someone to mow your lawn while you’re

Travel gear

MONEY BELT: Money belts are like portable safes for travelers. This is the place to keep valuables — like passports, cash and credit cards — safe. The Civita Moneybelt sold by Rick Steves comes with an elastic waist strap to be worn around the hips, or can be purchased in a hanging option for underneath a shirt.

away, or mow the night before you leave.

Ask someone to water plants. Contact your credit card companies and notify

them of your travel plans so they don’t freeze your account when you try to use it in another region or country. The evening before you leave, toss food that will soon spoil. Ask a trusted neighbor to put your trash bins at the curb on collection day and then return them to your garage after collection as well as keep an eye on your property. Lock your windows and doors including the side door leading into your garage. Adjust air conditioning or heat. Set up some timers for your lights so it isn’t obvious you’re gone. Arrange for pet sitters or boarding well ahead of time. Shut the main water valve off to avoid any leaks. Consider hiring a house sitter.

Give each passenger a plastic grocery bag for trash. Empty or replace bags every time you refuel or stop at a wayside. Bring basic first aid and clean-up supplies: bandages, wipes, paper towels and waterless cleaner for mishaps. Assemble emergency road supplies for your vehicle as well as some basic tools. Tuck a flashlight with fresh batteries under the front seat. Instead of schlepping big, heavy bags in and out of hotels while traveling, pack a day’s worth of clothing in packing cubes or clear zip top bags. Once you arrive at the hotel, grab one of these pre-packed bags for each person and toiletries. Bring along a large empty duffel bag to fill with dirty clothing. Keep the bag in your car because it will become heavy. Pack all outerwear into one bag and all shoes into a laundry basket. This eliminates the need to dig through luggage for those items. Tidy the car at the end of each day. As you approach the hotel have your kids gather their things and return them to their backpacks. Remove all the trash. Jill Annis is a professional organizer based in Madison, Wis. Her website is www.simplyorganizedwithjill.com.

TOILETRY KIT: The Pack-It Original Wallaby by Eagle Creek is made with a removable, TSA approved 3-1-1 pouch for going through airport security, a swivel hook for hanging the bag and multiple pockets and compartments for storing toiletries.

OUTLET ADAPTER: When traveling abroad, don’t forget an adapter for charging electronics. The Conair All-In-One Adapter sold by Target has outlets that work in multiple countries — including places in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America — and also includes a USB port for convenience. — Allison Garcia, Wisconsin State Journal

Across the pond

Make the most of your money in Europe’s grand cities

M RICK STEVES Tribune News Service

astery of Europe’s major cities — Rome, Paris, London, Vienna — is the mark of a good traveler. Teeming with color, energy and cultural vibrancy, these places, while expensive, richly reward the thoughtful traveler. There are plenty of ways to thrive in big European cities without going broke. And the good news is that, in so many ways, the less you spend, the more you’ll engage in the life around you. So stow your camera, roll up your sleeves and enjoy the real thing. Here are some of my top tips for keeping your expenses in check without compromising your travel fun.

Freebies

Smart travelers know where they can get in for free. London has some of the world’s steepest restaurant, lodging and entertainment prices, but fortunately, some of its biggest and best museums — the British Museum, Tate Modern, British Library — don’t charge a penny. Plenty of big-city museums have a free day or evening: In Paris and Rome, for example, the top public museums (Musee d’Orsay, Vatican Museums) open their doors for free on the first or last Sunday of the month.

Exploit the urban fabric

Many of the iconic monuments you’ve traveled so far to see are right out in plain sight. Every time you crisscross Paris, London or Rome, top sights such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben or the Colosseum will cheerfully remind you that you’re not in Kansas anymore. To pick up the urban beat, stroll the grand boulevards — the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Unter den Linden in Berlin and Via del Corso in Rome.

BOB DOWNING, AKRON BEACON JOURNAL

PARIS, FRANCE – It’s worth checking out free days at museums such as the Louvre in Paris.

TRAVELING AMID TERROR THREATS

Sightseeing deals

EILEEN OGINTZ Tribune News Service

Europe must have a university course called “Confusing, Nonsensical Museum Passes.” Few of the passes are worth the trouble, but some noteworthy exceptions pay for themselves in a hurry. Worthwhile museum passes in Paris, Rome and Berlin cover all the major sights. In London, budget-minded travelers can buy a Travelcard transit pass and earn 2-for-1 discounts at the London Eye, Tower of London, Madame Tussauds and more. With any pass, always crunch the numbers to make sure you’ll really save.

Good value tours

City walking tours with professional guides can be one of the best deals going. Just perusing the fascinating lineup of two-hour, $14 tours offered by London Walks inspired me to stay longer in London (www.walks.com). It’s hard to beat the price of the “free” walking tours sweeping Europe’s cities — but be prepared for an inexpert guide who will press you for a tip at the end. To sightsee free and easy on your own, download my Rick Steves Audio Europe app (self-guided walking tours for London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, and more).

Transit touring

Hop-on, hop-off sightseeing buses are a no-brainer way to sightsee, but the tickets are expensive (about $35). Explore via local transit routes instead; with just a $2 bus ticket, you’ll get a cheap and convenient introduction to your city. The number 69 bus in Paris ranges from the Eiffel Tower to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Berlin’s bus number 100 laces together the major sights in a kind of poor man’s tour. Rome’s cute “elettrico” minibuses wind through the narrow streets of old and interesting neighborhoods.

Cultural connections

City churches are classy venues for free or cheap musical concerts throughout Europe. Leafy havens, like Oslo’s Frogner Park or Paris’ Luxembourg Garden, are perfect places for observing Europeans at play. For something more lowbrow, drink with the locals; for the cost of a pint, you’ll get an evening’s worth of homegrown conviviality in a well-chosen London pub.

Food tips

Eating in Europe’s pricey cities demands budget strategies. When splurging for a fine dinner, you’ll generally get

ELLEN CREAGER, DETROIT FREE PRESS

ROME, ITALY – Dining al fresco on Piazza Navona in Rome. a better value in a smaller town rather than the big city. Enjoy fine places by ordering carefully — order a fancy dessert with four spoons, for instance. Make self-service cafeterias and supermarkets your everyday option. Scenic picnic sites are everywhere. Don’t overlook culturally appropriate fast food: hot dogs in Scandinavian cities, pizza in Rome, pub grub in London. I also love happy-hour pricing, which seems to be catching on in more and more of Europe’s cities. In Rome, for

example, competing bars now offer enticing buffet spreads, free for the cost of a drink.

Spend to save

Don’t make the mistake of economizing on information. A good guidebook will pay for itself in money-saving tips on day one. During my decades of travel throughout Europe I’ve found that spending less can actually drive you into the arms of culture and give you a better experience.

arbara Cioffi was surprised when she boarded a crowded train in Italy with her husband and two kids. “When you listen to the coverage at home,” the St. Louis mom said, “it sounds like everyone in Europe is afraid. But then you get on the trains packed with people going about their daily lives and you realize the perception is a lot different than the reality.” The U.S. State Department has issued another Europe Travel Alert, which expires Aug. 31, warning Americans about the risk of potential terrorist attacks. Wherever you are traveling, the State Department suggests you enroll in STEP, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, which will send you travel alerts and warnings, helping you to make informed choices about your travels. The program can also help the U.S. Embassy contact you in an emergency, including a family emergency at home, and help your family and friends get in touch with you. Go to: step.state.gov. Anytime you are in an unfamiliar and crowded place, you don’t want to take your eyes off your kids. Make a place to meet if you get separated. Be prepared for additional security screenings. And have a “what if” plan with your family, should you get caught in an emergency situation and get separated. Where will you meet? Does everyone have a smartphone? Remind the kids that if the family gets separated in an emergency and they don’t know what to do, look for someone in a uniform and ask for help, just as they would do in an American city. It might be wise to practice with the kids asking in the language of the country you are visiting. Make sure everyone has the name, address and phone number of the hotel. Also make sure each member of the family has money in their pocket, should they need to get somewhere on 00 1 their own.

CAMERON HEWITT, RICK STEVES’ EUROPE

WOODSTOCK, ENGLAND – Blenheim Palace’s expansive gardens, with a more formal French style, stretch nearly as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Exploring country manors Tours let you get close to English aristocracy or at least inside their homes

About the author Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and is the popular host of travel shows on public television and public radio. Email him at rick@ricksteves. com and follow his blog on Facebook.

RICK STEVES Tribune News Service

he English countryside is studded with all manner of manors, castles and palaces. Many of these stately homes, as the English call them, were built in Victorian times by ridiculously rich nobles and aristocrats. To maintain these lavish mansions and grounds, which have been crippled by taxes on income and inheritances, many of these homes have opened their doors to visitors (some are managed by the National Trust, while others remain private). These days, the most popular stately home to visit is Highclere Castle, where much of the “Downton Abbey” series was filmed. An hour from London, Highclere has been home to the earls of Carnarvon since 1679, but the present, Jacobean-style house was rebuilt in the 1840s by Sir Charles Barry, who also designed London’s Houses of Parliament. The Egyptian exhibit there features artifacts collected by Highclere’s fifth earl, a keen amateur archaeologist. Due to the popularity of “Downton Abbey,” Highclere tickets can be hard to come by. For a similarly grand experience, visit Blenheim Palace, 30 minutes from Oxford — my pick for the number-one stately home in Britain. As a sightseeing experience and for simple visual grandeur, Blenheim is among Europe’s finest. The palace was gifted to John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, after

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE/ZUMA PRESS/REX SHUTTERSTOCK/ADRIAN SHERRAT

NEWBURY, ENGLAND – Highclere Castle is the most popular stately home to visit in England these days, due to its ties to the television series “Downton Abbey.” he defeated Louis XIV’s French forces at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. This event marked a turning point in the centuries-long struggle between the two nations. Some historians claim that if not for his victory, we’d all be speaking French today. Nearly two centuries later, another famous Churchill, named Winston, was born at Blenheim. It’s inspiring to be here in the home of the two Churchills who saved Britain, first from the French, then nearly 250 years later, from the Germans. The last time I was here, I nearly didn’t visit, thinking that on a gorgeous Saturday in July, the palace would be a mob scene. I decided to go late in the day (arriving two hours before closing) and I nearly had the place to myself. The light was warm, the vibe was mellow, and I was able to really appreciate the fine interior, from the sumptuous state rooms used to impress visiting dignitaries to the private apartment, which provides an excellent behind-the-scenes peek at the palace. The 2,000-acre yard

is as majestic to some as the palace itself. Arundel Castle (in the south, between Brighton and Portsmouth) graces the valley below with straight-out-of-astorybook appeal. Like many castles, Arundel was built on a historic site — an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle (with a keep on a mound). But what we see today is the fancy of a fabulously wealthy nobleman in the 19th century. It’s all neo-medieval rather than really historic. The Duke of Norfolk — the top dog among all English dukes — still lives here. Paying the steep admission price and exploring the opulent interior caused me to think more about economic justice than fancy furniture. But the place is undeniably impressive, including a wonderful library with rich mahogany woodwork, along with delightful themed gardens. One of my favorite stately homes is Stanway House, in the Cotswolds. Like many rural mansions, it’s open to the

AVOID THESE TOURIST TRAPS Torture museums, Europe

All over the region, juvenile torture exhibits are cleverly marketed. They make lots of money by appealing to the lowest desires of dumbed-down travelers. Nearly every major city has one, and few have any real artifacts.

Costa del Sol, Spain

To northern Europeans, the sun is a drug. Oblivious to the concrete, pollution, ridiculous prices and traffic jams, tourists lie on the beach like game hens on skewers, cooking, rolling and sweating under the sun.

Blarney Stone, Ireland

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Busloads line up to kiss a stone on the top of a castle rampart and get “the gift of gab.” The best thing about this lame sight is watching a cranky man lower lemming-like tourists over the edge, belly up and head back, to kiss the stone while an automated camera snaps a photo.

Mamertine Prison, Italy

This 2,500-year-old cistern-like prison in Rome is where, according to Christian tradition, pagan authorities imprisoned Saints Peter and Paul. Any artifacts have been removed and today it’s run by a tour-bus company charging $8 for a cheesy “multimedia” walk-through.

Land’s End, England

The westernmost point in all of England should seem like a desolate, rugged place. In reality, it’s a tacky tourist trap where greedy businesses have chewed up whatever small bit of charm or authenticity this place might once have had. As you approach, you’ll see endless signs bragging about “the last” everything.

Killarney, Ireland

The town is a sprawling line of green Holiday Inns and outlet malls littered with pushy shoppers looking for plastic shamrocks.

public to help pay the bills. I’ve become friends with the lord here — the Earl of Wemyss. When I think about British aristocracy, I think of people like him, eccentrics with a noble commitment to English high culture and all sorts of interesting stuff in their back closet. The Earl of Wemyss is a good example of the challenges of today’s English aristocracy: He’s land-rich, but seemingly cash-poor. He likes to greet visitors and is fascinating to chat with. His place feels like a time warp, from the onepiece oak shuffleboard table to the 1780 Chippendale exercise chair. Near Stanway House, Snowshill Manor was left to the National Trust after its owner, Charles Paget Wade, passed away in the 1950s. Wade was a recluse and a collector of anything and everything: bicycles, kitchen equipment, finely carved spinning wheels, samurai armor, even elaborate figurines carved by prisoners from the bones of meat served at dinner. After touring this ultimate hoarder’s house, you learn that the family motto is, fittingly, “Let Nothing Perish.” Visiting these stately homes provides more than just a chance to ogle some big, fanciful estates. Each one has an interesting story to tell about a far grander and more class-conscious time in England’s past.

My responsibility as a travel writer is not to just rave about everything, but to also help overwhelmed travelers sort through the superlatives and smartly allocate their limited vacation time. So here are my top tourist traps:

Volendam, The Netherlands

Mix Killarney with Coney Island and drizzle with herring juice — and you get the Dutch village of Volendam. Its highlight is the cigar-band room at the local museum, where an artist glued 11 million cigar bands to big boards to create giant images, from Dutch windmills to Venice.

Tangier’s tourist restaurants, Morocco Tangier has a couple of extremely touristy restaurants where the “Africain-a-day” side trippers from Spain’s Costa del Sol all seem to eat. When you consider how many wonderful options are just down the street, it’s a shame that for most of these visitors, the one meal in their life that they have in Africa is here — with cliches and belly-dancers jangling all around them and only other tourists to talk to.

Titisee, Germany

This famous lake in the Black Forest, with a giggle-inducing name, is improbably popular among Germans. It’s a toss-up as to which is bigger: the lake or its parking lot.

Phony attractions, Europe

Lately I’ve noticed more commercial ventures that advertise aggressively and are on sale all over town with various discounts and promotions. One example is Time Travel Vienna, which promises “history, fun, and action.” In reality, it’s about $25 dollars and 45 minutes wasted in a tacky succession of amusement-park history vignettes, much of it only in German. A major mistake many travelers make is putting sights into their itineraries simply because these places are famous from a song, a part of a relative’s big-bus-tour memory, or advertised everywhere. Duck these gimmicky destinations: Travel smart and insist on connecting with real culture. — Rick Steves, Tribune News Service

Do-good trips ‘Voluntouring’ a great way to vacation

LISA M. DIETLIN For Lee Enterprises

re you always in search of that oneof-a-kind special vacation? Are you constantly trying to find time to do good? There’s a tremendous opportunity to have a very special vacation, meet amazing people, visit places you’ve never been all while making a difference by taking part in voluntouring or in a do-good vacation.

VOLUNTOURING IS A CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN PROGRAMS AROUND THE WORLD THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITHIN A SHORT TIME FRAME – ANYWHERE FROM ONE WEEK TO ABOUT THREE MONTHS, WHILE VACATIONING! Because you’re donating your time and effort to a nonprofit organization, a significant portion of your vacation costs may even be tax deductible. Here’s how voluntouring works: You will be working side by side with a community and its residents. Voluntouring vacations are available around the world in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia. The projects cover many important areas, such as children, the environment, health care, education, historic restoration, animal conservation, senior care, construction and others. Voluntour participants often speak about building tremendous new friendships that last for many years. While some trips are for adults only, there are many that are appropriate for families and young people. Voluntourism has become both a big and global business primarily supported by the increasing desire of travelers to take worthwhile and meaningful trips while trying to do some good.

EMILY HUMES

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO – A group of volunteers with Bike and Build is biking across the United States this summer and stopping to work on affordable housing projects.

Voluntouring organizations

Cross-Cultural Solutions (https:// www.crossculturalsolutions.org/) was founded in 1995 and works year-round in 12 countries with more than 25,000 people having participated in their programs. Globe Aware (http://globeaware. org/) offers volunteer vacations, service vacations, working holidays and service trips with projects such as building schools in the Andes and repairing trails in Nepal. USA Today has called Global Volunteers (https://globalvolunteers.org/) the “granddaddy of the volunteer vacation movement.” They are focused on programs for children, work in more than 100 communities worldwide and have partnerships with such organizations as the United Nations and UNICEF. United Planet (www.unitedplanet. org) is focused on creating a world “in which all people understand, respect, and support one another.” Their volunteers work in over 40 countries and have provided over 600,000 hours of international community service through voluntouring. Started by students as a way to do something meaningful during a “gap year” between school and “the real world,” Projects Abroad (www.projects-abroad.org) is 20 years old and, while still mostly focused on students and the recently graduated, there are people of all ages who volunteer in conservation, journalism, and human rights projects, among their many focus areas.

Examples of voluntouring vacations Through Projects Abroad, a two week program offers voluntourists the opportunity to work in archaeological ruins of ancient pre-Inca structures in Peru. Anyone 16 years or older can participate. The work would include preliminary investigations, excavations, analysis and registration of cultural materials, site visits, office registry work, working at museums, archaeology presentations, classification of ceramics and community activities including working at an elementary school. The group also organizes social events for volunteers. Another example of a trip takes place with Greenforce (www.greenforce.org); for approximately $3,900 you can work to save the endangered orangutans in one of the oldest and most beautiful rain forests in Borneo. Other types of trips include voluntourists working on restoring temples by spending half the day cleaning

BRIAN J. CANTWELL, SEATTLE TIMES BRIAN J. CANTWELL, SEATTLE TIMES

WAIHEE REFUGE, MAUI– Karen Pollard, in a hat of woven pandanus leaves, pulls invasive castor beans at Waihee Refuge on Maui.

MAUI, HAWAII

STANDING UP FOR SEA TURTLES BRIAN J. CANTWELL Seattle Times

he lowering sun glares in my eyes as I walk down a hill above Ho’okipa Beach, famed favorite of windsurfers. In a warm, gusting breeze, offshore surfers wait for breakers. Looking down over caramel-colored sand, I spot a dark head bobbing in nearshore waves. Not human. It’s a sea turtle. As I watch, another appears, and another, then another — all aiming at the same corner of the bustling beach. Dozens of green sea turtles have been showing up every evening, hauling out on the sand to stay for hours. Naturalists call it “basking.” “We don’t quite understand why they chose this place, but once they did they have kept coming,” says Hannah Bernard, president of the nonprofit Hawaii Wildlife Fund, which has organized an effort to help protect them. Visitors can photograph the turtles. Or they can have a richer experience: While on the island, they can volunteer as turtle monitors with Bernard’s group, helping to educate others about these endangered sea creatures the locals call “honu.” Helping the honu means spending

a few hours on the beach, hardly a painful commitment. It’s just one way to turn your island vacation into “voluntourism” — giving back some of the spirit of aloha. Theories vary on why the turtles are coming ashore. It might be related to a disease that causes nonmalignant tumors, depleting their energy. It might be a way to escape shark predation. Or the coldblooded turtles might just be taking a break to warm up, not unlike human swimmers. “One of the largest things we do is educate the tourists about turtles,” says volunteer Jeffery Heubschman. “We’re not here to safeguard or baby-sit as much as it’s about coexistence.” With slow, jerky gaits, more and more turtles carve a tractor-tread-like path up into the sand at the base of a bluff. By 7:30 p.m., the end of that night’s watch, we count 24 turtles resting on the sand. It’s a wildlife show that you’ll never get at SeaWorld. To learn about volunteer opportunities including the Honu Watch Project, protecting green sea turtles, contact Hawaii Wildlife Fund; email wild@aloha.net. More details: wildhawaii.org.

HOOKIPA BEACH, MAUI– Jeffery Heubschman hands out brochures and answers questions about sea turtles coming ashore at Maui’s Hookipa Beach.

Tips Find an organization that

paintings or building walls with the monks. The rest of the afternoon they spend their time sightseeing. Or a penguin rescue and rehabilitation program in South Africa with accommodations and a meal allowance during six weeks of catching, feeding and cleaning up after penguins and other seabirds. But you also have two days off per week to sightsee. The possibilities and opportunities are truly endless. Alternatively, you might also want to consider a do-good vacation, which includes travel to more common holiday destinations in places like Ireland, Italy

and Spain. These vacations are different from voluntouring in that you will be working with a nonprofit to raise money for a cause and not be working in a local community. Often travelers create their own trip by raising money or awareness on behalf of a cause or organization that is near and dear to their hearts. Work with your favorite nonprofit organization to create a plan of action that includes doing good on your next vacation. Lisa M. Dietlin is the president/CEO of The Institute of Transformational Philanthropy in Chicago, Ill.

matches your passion and has a proven track record. While most organizations are above board, there are fraudulent organizations that you need to look out for; you can visit the websites in the story as well as www.gooverseas.com or www.govoluntouring.com to learn more, or read a book such as “Volunteering Vacations” for additional information. Select a trip that suits your abilities and interests and be prepared to work! Speak with people who have been on the excursion before or worked with the company you choose. Learn about local customs – even a bit of the language – before you go, but be prepared for a trip that may be tremendously different from what you might expect. Be open to new experiences. If traveling to a non-English speaking country, try to learn the language or at least some phrases; even though it is not required, it is great way to begin getting prepared. Recognize that reality can be different from what you read in a book or online. Expect none of the comforts of home, in other words, you will be “roughing it.” Go with an open mind and see how your heart is transformed; it will be the vacation of a lifetime! With many people still doing “stay-cations,” consider the benefits of incorporating a volunteer experience into your planned time off; many of us say, “If only I had time, I would volunteer at X to do Y.” Well now is your chance! BONUS TIP: Have fun! 00 1

BETTY ADAMS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

GRAND BAHAMA – Pristine and often sparsely populated beaches await visitors to Grand Bahama island.

Tropical escapes BAHAMAS

Get away from the crowds

GLENN ADAMS Associated Press

ooking for a quiet and low-key getaway? Grand Bahama may be your place. It’s one of the main islands of the Gulf Stream-warmed Bahamas archipelago of 700 islands, cays and inlets sprawling across the waters off southeastern Florida. Our trip saw temperatures locked between 70 and 80 degrees, with an occasional spurt of rain at night. At restaurants, it wasn’t unusual for the three of us — my wife, brother-in-law and me — to be the only ones there, although some places buzzed with activity. With the exchange at 1:1 U.S. dollar to a Bahamian dollar, the prices all seemed reasonable, and the practice of factoring tips into the bill made transactions even simpler.

If you go Numerous flight options are available to Freeport, on Grand Bahama, including frequent service from South Florida airports, plus ferry service from Fort Lauderdale for the fourhour trip to Grand Bahama. Planes and boats connect Freeport and Nassau. For the Bahamas tourism website, check bahamas.com.

BEACHES IN MANY AREAS WERE QUIET, WITH AN OCCASIONAL TRICKLING OF CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS NOW AND AGAIN MAKING THEIR WAY ACROSS THE GLISTENING SAND, WADING OUT TO REEFS AND CHECKING OUT SHIPS DOTTING THE HORIZON. This was the case at Gold Rock Beach at Lucayan National Park, which at $5 per head is a don’t-miss stop just a few miles east of Freeport along the Grand Bahama Highway. Tour companies and taxis make trips to the park, which features trails to an underwater cave

system where pre-Columbian artifacts have been discovered. Another part of the park (be careful crossing the highway) offers trails whose meandering boardwalks lead through a mangrove ecosystem featuring saltwater fish, waterfowl and wading birds. Tour companies also offer activities including kayak trips through a mangrove forest, sightseeing by bike or Jeep, all-terrain vehicle rides, snorkeling and birding. For the more adventurous, there’s parasailing and even (gasp!) shark feeding dives. We spent a week in a rented house in Freeport’s Xanadu Beach area, noted for the 13-story resort once owned and inhabited by Howard Hughes and haunted by Hollywood jet setters. Now the highrise stands eerily silent, its once-vibrant surroundings appearing desolate as we looked on from the quiet white-sand beach. Same at Freeport’s International Bazaar, a marketplace of shops and boutiques — now mostly abandoned, shuttered, silent. Under the shade of a palm tree near its main gate, a checkers board, pieces still set on squares, lay untouched as if waiting for the next move. But we found our bliss at Albertha Cooper’s restaurant. It’s a bit out of the way, but worth the expedition. At the far eastern end of the island in McLean’s Town, a seaside village known for its annual conch-cracking contest, we happened upon Cooper’s tidy little drive-up restaurant. There was no

MEXICO

PUERTO RICO

SAYULITA TURNING INTO A TOURIST HOT SPOT

LATIN CULTURE WITH NO PASSPORT

MANUEL VALDES Associated Press

ookended by seaside rocks that protrude into warm Pacific Ocean waters, the relatively small Playa de los Muertos, or Beach of the Dead, features gentle waves, pelicans diving for fish and sunbathers lying on the sand. But just beyond the laidback beach is a peninsula that hosts a new and posh 62-property development, highlighting that Sayulita, once a tranquil fishing village, continues to grow into one of Mexico’s top tourism and retirement destinations. “Every time I’ve said it can’t get bigger, it does,” said Jody Meacham of New Jersey after surfing on Sayulita’s main beach. Meacham has been visiting Sayulita for 25 years, back when there were “more burros than cars.”

LOCATED ABOUT 45 MINUTES NORTH OF PUERTO VALLARTA ON MEXICO’S PACIFIC COAST, SAYULITA PRESENTS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE ALL-INCLUSIVE RESORTS THAT LINE THE BEACHES SOUTH OF IT.

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menu to be seen, but she gladly obliged us with her specials for the day. I chose the fried conch plate. Asked where the conch was caught, she pointed to the turquoise cove a few hundred yards to our backs. “Right there,” she said with a smile. The conch came with a helping of rice-and-beans and coleslaw. My wife chose three lobster tails with sides, and her brother chose the ribs plate. On another outing, we drove to the west side for a day of snorkeling and relaxing at Paradise Cove, a friendly and informal resort near Dead Man’s Reef, 15 miles from Freeport. Getting around the island was easy, though driving itself is a bit of a challenge: You drive on the left side of the road, but many cars also have steering wheels on the left — different from both the U.S. and British systems. Of course Grand Bahama is but one of the islands in the Bahamian chain. Nearby Paradise Island and Nassau (the Bahamian capital on New Providence island), offer more night life. Atlantis, with its more than 2,300 rooms, casino, water park and what it calls the world’s largest open-air marine habitat, is also a major draw for visitors. Eleuthera and Harbor Island offer quieter settings in an atmosphere that retains trappings of the British loyalists who settled there centuries ago. Eleuthera, where fishing and pineapple farming are king, boasts well-developed resorts, pink sand beaches, rocky bluffs and large coral reefs.

The town has grown to about 5,000 residents, plus the scores of visitors who cycle through and the Mexican government has promised money for

KRISTI EATON Associated Press

MANUEL VALDES, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAYULITA, MEXICO – This recently opened taco stand is just one sign of growth in the once-tranquil fishing town of Sayulita, Mexico. infrastructure improvements. Sayulita’s attractions are plentiful: surfing, charter fishing, seasonal whale-watching, lush-green jungle hikes and horseback riding, baby sea turtle releases, among others. On the south end, its main beach still hosts small local fishing boats. Farther north, surfers ride waves as the town disappears into the jungle. Playa de los Muertos and Playa Car-

ricitos provide quieter and more isolated alternatives. Sayulita boasts chic restaurants to attract foodies and excellent street chow (Tacos El Ivan is top-notch and so is a cake stand named La Gorda). Accommodations range from camping spots (El Camaron, located by the beach, is cheap, but reviews are mixed) to isolated luxury retreats (Teitiare, $400 a night).

ometimes you just need a quick trip to the beach. But as an American without a passport — mine had been stolen — I had limited options for an easy but interesting getaway. I decided to try Puerto Rico. The island, which is a U.S. territory, offers for Americans all the comforts of domestic travel — easy entry, no extra charges for cell phone service, and the U.S. dollar as the currency. But Puerto Rico also has Caribbean beaches and Latin culture along with waterfalls, colonial Spanish history and good food. Christopher Columbus landed here in 1493 and Ponce de Leon founded a settlement on the island in 1508. Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colony until 1898, when the U.S. took over. A large gate and tunnel, Puerta de San Juan, still lead to the old city through what’s left of the tall walls that once surrounded it. Pink, blue, green and yellow buildings caught our eyes as we wandered the cobblestone streets. We also spent a day at El Yunque, Puerto Rico’s famous tropical rain forest. We booked a guided tour through our hotel that included a hike and swimming beneath a waterfall. After a couple of days of sightseeing, we were ready to indulge in the main reason we’d come here – the beach.

Calling all fans SPORTS PILGRIMAGES WORTH MAKING

VERSAILLES, KENTUCKY

Baseball Hall of Fame

25 Main St, Cooperstown, N.Y. 888-425-5633; http://baseballhall.org/ The sport known as “America’s Pastime” has its Hall of Fame located in a quiet town in New York’s Catskill Mountains. More than 300 individuals have been inducted to the Hall, most recently Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza. The myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown was instrumental in bringing the Hall to the town in 1939.

MILO STEWART JR., NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York serves as a museum of America’s Pastime while honoring its more than 300 members.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

1000 Hall of Fame Ave., Springfield, Mass. 877-446-6752; http://www.hoophall.com/ Named after the man who invented basketball, Dr. James Naismith, this hall of fame features 10 teams and 345 individual members, ranging from coaches to players to referees. Springfield, located in western Massachusetts, is an approximately 90-minute drive from Boston.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

2121 George Halas Dr NW, Canton, Ohio 330-456-8207; http://www.profootballhof.com/ The birthplace of professional football in the U.S. also houses the National Football League’s Hall of Fame. The Hall opened its doors in 1963, and as of 2016, there are 303 inductees. Former Green Bay Packers great Brett Favre highlighted the latest class of hall of famers this year.

Hockey Hall of Fame

30 Yonge St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 416-360-7765; https://www.hhof.com/ Head north of the border to Canada to take in the history of professional ice hockey. The Hall, which also functions as a museum, was established in Toronto in 1958 and is now located in the Bank of Montreal Building. There are 15 major exhibits, accounting for 60,000 square feet of hockey greatness.

College Football Hall of Fame

250 Marietta St NW, Atlanta, Ga. 404-880-4800; http://www.cfbhall.com/ Located in South Bend, Indiana until 2012, the Hall found a new home in Atlanta in 2014. There is approximately 50,000 square feet of exhibit and event space. Notre Dame leads all schools in number of players or coaches in the Hall, with 45, and followed by USC (40).

National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame 10360 Hall of Fame Dr, Hayward, Wis. 715-634-4440; http://www.freshwater-fishing.org/ The records for the largest fresh water fish are maintained at this hall of fame in northwestern Wisconsin, two and a half hours from Minneapolis. Nearly 100,000 visitors pass through the Hall every year, which features a 143-foot long muskie sculpture and more than 400 mounted fish.

Muhammad Ali Center

144 N 6th St, Louisville, Ky. 502-584-9254; http://alicenter.org/ Located in Louisville’s West Main District, the museum and cultural center pays homage to arguably the greatest boxer ever. The Center also honors Ali’s efforts outside of the ring, which were inspired by his core values of “respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, charity, and spirituality.”

Erin Hills

7169 County Road O, Hartford, Wis. 262-670-8600; http://erinhills.com/ Just 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, Erin Hills will host the 117th U.S. Open from June 15-18, 2017. Interestingly, the course is walking-only, as there are no cart paths.

NASCAR Hall of Fame

400 E. M.L.K. Jr Blvd, Charlotte, N.C. 704-654-4400; http://www.nascarhall.com/ NASCAR honors its legends in Charlotte because of the area’s affinity for racing. The signature artifact is Richard Petty’s Plymouth Belvedere from 1967, when he won 27 races with the car. — Chris Bumbaca, Wisconsin State Journal

ELLEN CREAGER, DETROIT FREE PRESS

VERSAILLES, KY. – A groom leads Thunder Gulch, a retired stallion at Coolmore America in Versailles, Ky. He won the Kentucky Derby in 1995 but now is retired and meets visitors.

‘Horse Country’ new tourist draw Kentucky farms opening stables to the masses

S ELLEN CREAGER Detroit Free Press

he touched his silky chestnut shoulder and felt like the luckiest person in the world. Shannon Brown of Michigan had just met equine royalty: triple crown winner American Pharoah. “We almost started crying,” she said, after she and her family stood next to the champ and petted him during their one-hour tour of the Coolmore America stud farm. “He just looked so proud, like he knew what he had done.” Most fair-weather racing fans lost track of American Pharoah after his triumph last year. He was the first horse in 37 years to win the triple crown of victories at the 2015 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Where is he now? Living the good life in the rolling Kentucky countryside.

NORMALLY, FANS NEVER GET TO SEE THESE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR HORSES, LET ALONE PET A TRIPLE CROWN WINNER. BUT SHAKEN BY LOW INTEREST IN HORSE RACING IN GENERAL, LEXINGTON TOURISM AND AREA HORSE FARMS IN 2014 INVENTED HORSE COUNTRY, A PROGRAM TO OPEN UP THE SECRETIVE RACING WORLD TO THE PUBLIC. Suddenly, tourists could visit small and large thoroughbred farms, breeders, veterinary clinics and even feed mills. Now, among the stars you can meet is American Pharoah, who arrived at Coolmore America in November. His new job is nibbling grass, mating with mares (stud fee, a cool $200,000) and greeting the public most afternoons. He’s a star with good manners. Coolmore’s groom brought him on a lead out of the stable. The stallion stood calmly as 15 tourists quietly walked up one by one. They touched or petted his neck reverently — some with tears in their eyes.

VERSAILLES, KY. – American Pharoah can be seen by guests touring the Coolmore America farm in Versailles, Ky., where he has gone to stud.

If you go Stay: You have a choice of

many hotels in town or on the outskirts; one I like is the Campbell House, part of the Hilton chain (www.thecampbellhouse. com, 859-255-4281). Tickets: You can get tickets to visit many horse farms across Lexington, some small and some large, some high-tech and some low key. You also can visit two equine veterinary hospitals and a famous feed mill. Get tickets through Horse Country (www.visithorsecountry.com). American Pharoah Coolmore tickets: Tickets are released gradually, so get on the e-mail list for notification at www.visit horsecountry.com/coolmore/. There is never a guarantee that American Pharoah will appear on the tour, however. “OK, that’s enough,” Coolmore guide Nathaniel Feerick said as the last of the photos snapped. The grooms walked him back into the elegant stone stable and into a large stall, where they put a blanket over him and gave him something to eat. He munched his feed and swung his tail. He might have been a superstar, but there was also something plain and endearing about the famous bay. At Coolmore, visitors see the breeding shed, an oak-paneled and padded round arena the size of a gym and as fancy as a fitness center. There, breeding goes on four times a day, seven days a week. Last year 1,900 mares were bred at this U.S. arm of the international Coolmore conglom-

erate, which stretches from Ireland to Australia. The $20 tickets for the Coolmore tour went on sale last November and quickly sold out. They added more tickets in January and February, and those also sold out, mostly to people in the horse world who knew about the tours and to people with dumb luck (I bought one online in late February). But more tickets are being added, although the schedule must coordinate with the working farm’s primary responsibility: breeding. When you are dealing with working horse farms, “we will never have tours every half hour all day like the (Kentucky) Bourbon Trail does,” says Anne Hardy, executive director of Horse Country. American Pharoah is only 4 years old. He has many years to live at Coolmore, so there will be many opportunities for tourists to see him. He may be one of the most famous athletes in the world, but he is not the only famous horse in the area. In 2017, the winningest race horse of all time, California Chrome, will retire to the Taylor Made farm in nearby Nicholasville. At the Old Friends retired thoroughbred farm in nearby Georgetown, you can see former Derby and Preakness champion Silver Charm and other former champs. A report six years ago revealed that only 22 percent of Americans considered themselves horse racing fans, and most fans were older and dying out. Horse Country has sold several thousand tickets to various horse-related tours around Lexington. Things are picking up. “I know the trajectory has changed since American Pharoah won,” Horse Country’s Hardy said. “We believe if people get out on the farms they will 00 1 fall in love.”

Capturing the allure of travel

ewspaper readers from across the country answered our call for their best vacation destination photography. More than 10,000 photos were submitted showing us everything from iconic sites such as the Eiffel Tower to children and dogs frolicking on favorite beaches. Some photos were taken well off the beaten track — featuring the sand dunes of Namibia or spectacular ice caves in Iceland. Some of our favorites can be found on these pages. For aspiring travel photographers, there’s hope here, too. One of the highlighted panoramas was captured on an iPhone.

Tracy Wundrock, whose Iceland photo received the most online votes, won the contest’s top prize of $1,000. Nicki Hondros’ photo of Trolltunga took second prize winning $500 and Melanie Verbout’s photo in memory of a child lost won third place and $250. Three other photographers were chosen at random to win $100 prizes. They are: Taya Amidon, Sabrina Alstat and Kathy Green. VIEW MORE PHOTOS ONLINE: Visit our website to view thousands more photographs that were submitted from around the country to the Destinations Photo Contest.

First place

GRJOTAGJA, ICELAND – A brilliant blue thermal spring shimmers in this small lava cave near Lake Myvatn in Iceland. Tracy Wundrock took this photo on a June trip to Iceland with her husband to celebrate Wundrock’s sixth year of survival with metastatic breast cancer. Wundrock of Madison, Wis., shot this photo with a Canon 70D camera.

DOOR COUNTY, WIS. – Bright fall foliage draws tourists to this popular Wisconsin peninsula bordered on one side by Lake Michigan and on the other by Green Bay. Photo by Lloyd Fleig

GRAND CANYON, ARIZ. – Catching another photographer at work while hiking on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim in May 2016. Photo by Bobbi Kearney SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA – A January morning at Angkor Wat. Angkor, which contains temples and Khmer art and architecture, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo by Jason Kath

Second place

ODDA, NORWAY – Trolltunga or Troll’s Tongue in

Norway is a popular hike with a view that Nicole Hondros said was worth every slippery step along the 23 km roundtrip hike. Hondros of Schererville, Ind., shot this image with a Canon T3I Rebel.

Third place EASTERN WASHINGTON – A full rainbow above Eastern Washington wheat fields

after a storm. Photo by Ed Wiens

PRO TIPS FOR GETTING THE BEST PHOTOS 00 1

Rick Wiley, the Arizona Daily Star’s photo editor, says taking photos that match the fun and beauty experienced on a great vacation is often as simple as knowing the limitations of your camera or phone and obeying a few basic rules.

NEW YORK – The Statue of Liberty stands tall in the afternoon sun. Photo by Diana Burnett

Get in close.

Move-in or zoom-in (if you have a camera) as close as you can to fill the screen with as much visual information as possible.

Use the Rule of Thirds.

Divide the photo into thirds, vertically and horizontally, and look for opportunities to put your subjects where the imaginary lines intersect. This adds some “tension” to the composition and makes it more interesting.

BRADFORD, ILL. – Melanie Verbout of Normal, Ill., submitted this photo in memory of baby Graeme, seen here on the left. Graeme died two years after Verbout took this photo with her Canon PowerShot SX10 IS at a family reunion.

Lock the focus.

Cameras allow users to lock focus and reframe for interesting composition using the Rule of Thirds. For smartphones, like the iPhone, just move the floating square to where you want the camera to focus and tap the square.

Use the light.

The best time of day for photos is early in the morning and just before sunset. The light is low and warm. Everything takes on more character.

Know your auto exposure.

Automatic digital cameras and smartphones are designed to take an average of the entire scene to determine the correct exposure. In most devices, the meter gives slightly more “weight” to the center portion of the picture. If the exposure is poor, reframe the scene from a different angle and try again. You can also try to lock exposure using the same techniques for locking focus.

Have fun.

DOOR COUNTY, WIS. – A road winds through colorful trees on Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula – a popular Midwest tourist destination known for its cherries and scenic views of Lake Michigan and Green Bay. Photo by Betty Toland

NAPLES, FLA. – A golden sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by Amy Young

JUNEAU, ALASKA – A cable car soars above the trees. Photo by Nicholas Reece

FLORENCE, ITALY – This photo was taken from the top of Piazzale Michaelangelo at sunset using an iPhone 6S. Photo by Jessica Gregorio

SNAEFELLSNES PENINSULA, ICELAND – Kirkjufell draws photographers to western Iceland. Photo by Lindsay Snow CLEARWATER BEACH, FLA. – Florida beaches such as this one can offer spectacular sunset views. Photo by Karen Bishop

TWO HARBORS, MINN. – Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior’s north shore has

been restored to its 1920s appearance and is open for public tours. Photo by Lloyd Fleig

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. – The unique rock formations and canyons of South Dakota’s Badlands can have an 00 00 otherworldly feel. Photo by Matt White 1 1

SUPAI, ARIZ. – The bright blue water of Havasu Falls lures visitors willing to undertake a hike through the Havasupai Indian reservation. Photo by Joshua Glatt

NAMIBIA – Hikers walk across the sand dunes. Photo by Jason Kandume

NIKKO, JAPAN – The famed Shinkyo bridge connects Nikko to the town’s shrines and temples. Photo by Park Owens

NAPALI COAST, KAUAI – Waves splash along the wild and beautiful

Napali Coast on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Photo by Sally McGuire

PARIS, FRANCE – The April sky after a spring rain provides an ideal backdrop for one of Europe’s most iconic sites – the Eiffel Tower. Photo by Philip Coleman

XIAN, CHINA – The terracotta army, which features thousands of life-like statues, was created for China’s first emperor. Photo by Barb Kittell

VATNAJOKULL, ICELAND – The bright blue colors and unique light draw visitors to these ice caves at Vatnajokull National Park. Photo by Yvette Gaudier-Jabaut

KYOTO, JAPAN

– A long walk at a memorial park. Photo by John Dye

RIOMAGGIORE, ITALY – One of the coastal towns that make up the area known as Cinque Terre, a group of picturesque villages along the Italian Riviera. Photo by Mark Tibbits

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RICK STEVES, RICK STEVES’ EUROPE

Don’t dine anywhere with a menu printed in five languages, and a big, if hard-to-believe, promise in English: “No Frozen Food.”

Travel basics Tips Documents

Avoid these common mistakes TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE/FOTOLIA

If you make a mistake while traveling, don’t get indignant — have fun with the process instead.

And don’t worry about travel gaffes

O RICK STEVES Tribune News Service

nce, while riding the train into Dresden, Germany, I got off where most other passengers did at Dresden Neustadt. After 20 minutes of walking in a confused fog, my denial that I had gotten off at the wrong station slowly faded. Embarrassed by my mistake, I hopped on the next train. Five minutes later, I got off at Dresden Mitte. As I stepped outside the station, it slowly sunk in: I made the same mistake. Another train came. I got on and finally made it to Dresden Hauptbahnhof — a block from my hotel. Even after countless trips to Europe, I still make my share of blunders — I get lost, miss train connections, and get shortchanged by taxi drivers. But with each slip-up, I learn something. Now I make it a point to tell people: “Many towns have more than one train station. Be sure you get off at the right one.” Here are some of the biggest mistakes I see travelers make these days.

Saving money at the expense of time 00 1

People focus on saving money while forgetting that their time is an equally valuable and limited resource. It may be

worth paying the museum admission rather than going on a free day and suffering through slow lines and crowds. If a taxi costs you and your partner $5 more than two bus tickets, it’s worth the 20 minutes saved. If ever time was money, it’s when you’re trying to get the most out of traveling abroad.

Traveling with outdated information I may be biased, but an up-to-date guidebook is a $20 tool for a $4,000 experience — and justifies its expense on the first ride to your hotel from the airport. A guidebook can head off both costly mistakes (getting fined for not validating your train ticket) and simple faux pas (ordering cappuccino with your pasta in Italy). A good guidebook can also save time, keeping you from visiting a museum that’s closed for renovation, waiting for a bus that no longer runs, and ...

Needlessly waiting in line

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There are two IQs for travelers: those who queue and those who don’t. Crowds are unavoidable at big attractions, like the Eiffel Tower or Anne Frank’s house, but what is avoidable is standing in line for hours to buy tickets. These days, most popular sights sell advance tickets that guarantee admission at a certain time (often with a small booking fee that’s well worth it). While

hundreds of tourists are sweating in long lines, those who’ve booked ahead can show up at their reserved time and breeze right in.

Not being alert to scammers and thieves You’re likely not going to get knifed or mugged in Europe. But if you’re not on the ball, you could get conned, whether it’s a cabbie padding your fare, a waiter offering a special with a “special” increased price, or a beggar with beautiful eyes, beautiful children and sad stories asking for a euro — and stealing your wallet. Be cautious, and be alert. And watch for thieves who work the lines at crowded sights and on the bus lines handiest for tourists. Store your passport, credit cards and cash securely, in a money belt.

Never leaving the tourist zone

Many people jockey themselves into the most crowded spot of the most crowded city in the most crowded month (Old Town Square, Prague, July) — and then complain about the crowds. Likewise, they eat dinner on the most touristy street at the most high-profile restaurant with the most aggressive sales pitch, then are upset by the big bill and disappointing food. You’ll enrich your trip by wandering the back streets, away from the main tourist area. Old Town Square may be a mob scene, but six blocks away you’ll find fewer crowds and eateries full of happy Czechs.

When planning for a trip abroad, among the top priorities should be making sure everyone in the party has the proper paperwork. This means getting or renewing a passport and in some cases getting a visa. “Once you know you’re going to China, apply for your passport now. Don’t wait,” Burkhalter Travel Agency president Ed Mani said. The country also has an extensive visa application. “You don’t gain any advantage by waiting.” The passport application process is estimated to take about six weeks, according to the State Department. To expedite the process, applicants have to pay an additional $60, cutting the wait to about three weeks. For adults (16 and older) the fee for a new passport book or renewing a passport book is $110. For first timers there is also a $25 execution fee. Applying early is especially important if a visa is necessary in addition to a passport. Go to travel.state.gov to find out if a visa is needed for your trip and for more information on passports.

At the airport

The fastest way to get through security is to apply for a Transportation Safety Administration trusted traveler program such as TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. Choosing which program depends on whether you predominately travel domestically, to specific countries like Canada or Mexico or if you want general international coverage. By performing a background check in advance, applicants who pass are cleared to go through a shorter security line where they don’t have to take off their shoes and jacket or remove large electronics. For more information, go to tsa.gov or https://www.cbp.gov/ travel/trusted-traveler-programs/ global-entry.

Travel insurance

Generally travel insurance plans provide coverage if the trip must be cancelled or interrupted. Some policies provide medical benefits. But trip cancellation may not always mean for any reason, according to Chris Buggy, spokesperson for Travelex Insurance Services. “Before you purchase travel insurance, people need to understand what your plan covers,” Buggy said. “Make sure you can cancel your trip for death or sickness of a family member if that’s one of your concerns.” — Allison Garcia, Wisconsin State Journal

Savor vacation BARCELONA, SPAIN

Combining culture and cuisine

O MARJORIE MILLER Associated Press

f course we are familiar with the Spanish rice dish paella, we say. It is the color of a Mediterranean sunrise, a coral red or saffron yellow. Chef Rosa Camprodon shakes her head. Or maybe that’s a shudder. She is our instructor at a Barcelona cooking school that caters to tourists, and she is teaching us to make paella Catalonia-style: a rich coppery brown. Camprodon tosses finely diced onion into a pan of hot olive oil and has one student stir it. Add the tomato, and stir. Never let it sit on the flame, she says. Add rice and stir 15 minutes in all, or until the mixture is a deep brown, ready for other ingredients. “There are as many paellas as there are cooks,” Camprodon says. “But paella is not red or yellow. It is brown. The darkness depends on how long you caramelize the onions in their own natural sugar.”

FOOD, LIKE ART OR HISTORY, IS A GREAT GATEWAY INTO A NEW PLACE. So on our first trip to Barcelona, my husband and I signed up for a half-day class with the Cook and Taste school. The city’s cuisine gained international fame in part thanks to the innovative chef Ferran Adria. His El

MARJORIE M. MILLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sisters Andrea and Sandrea Siow of Singapore and Carlos Rajo of the United States practice their chopping techniques in Barcelona, Spain. The Catalonia-style cooking class for tourists is offered by cooking school Cook and Taste.

If you go Cook and Taste: 65 euros (children, half-price), http://www.cookandtaste.net/

Bulli restaurant closed in 2011 but his influence remains. And maybe that’s why we even thought to take a cooking class. The menu at Cook and Taste was gazpacho, roasted vegetables and cod over flatbread, seafood paella and, for dessert, crema Catalana. Our diverse

group of 12 from the U.S., Singapore and Australia had much to learn and eat in four hours: The ham must be room temperature so the fat melts over the meat to bring out the flavor. The cockles for the paella should be cleaned in cold water with salt “so it feels like home,” Camprodon said. The mussels, well, “they

are very sociable, you know,” so you must remove the thin beard-like membrane they use to cling to each other and to rocks. We prepared dessert first so it would have time to chill. One group whisked egg yolks and milk infused with lemon peel and cinnamon. The scented mixture was poured into terracotta dishes and refrigerated. Another group diced and blended gazpacho, using the traditional tomato, cucumber, green pepper and garlic along with unusual ingredients: watermelon and beets. Camprodon prepared flatbread dough ahead, so it could rise before baking. We roasted eggplant, onions and red pepper, peeled the peppers and cut the vegetables into strips before boiling the cod in hot olive oil with garlic and cayenne. The bread was cut into squares and layered with vegetables and fish. Finally, the paella. “This is a social event. We make it on Sundays with kids everywhere and sometime people fight, ‘No, I make the best paella, I do it better...’ but there is plenty for everyone to do. This is hard work,” Camprodon explained. We took turns stirring onions, adding vegetables, rice and a saffron-garlic paste, then spreading it evenly in a pan. Cockles, mussels and shrimp were laid on top, then fish stock was poured into the pan and brought to a boil. We ate gazpacho and flatbread as the paella cooked. At last, it was ready, as delicious as it looked. We savored the flavors but left room for the finale: our Catalan dessert, topped by sugar caramelized with a kitchen blow torch.

MAINE

On a roll in Maine

At Quoddy Bay Lobster, the rolls have a bit of mayo to hold the roughly chopped claw, knuckle and tail meat together. They’re then topped with a fully intact, steamed claw.

STEVE DOLINSKY Chicago Tribune

lobster claw the size of an iPhone 6 sits perched atop my lunch, completely blocking any chance I have to see the quarter-pound of chopped lobster meat, lightly dressed with mayo and tucked into a split-top hot dog bun that’s been ever-so-gently griddled with butter on either side. The lobster roll at Quoddy Bay Lobster, an industrial-looking blue aluminum shack on the eastern lip of the United States, isn’t my first — you can find them now in seafood restaurants all over the country — but it’s certainly the freshest, most delicious version I’ve ever had. “We feed people the way we feed our fishermen at home,” said Sara Griffin, who runs the fishing co-op and restaurant with her family. That means no celery, drawn butter or lettuce but rather a bit of mayo to hold the roughly chopped claw, knuckle and tail meat together, topped with a fully intact, steamed claw. Quoddy Bay began as a Thursday-only chowder joint about eight seasons ago. Today the staff goes through about 100 pounds of live lobster every day in the summer, all still dispensed through a carryout window. The lobster roll was born in 1929 at Perry’s restaurant in Milford, Conn., according to “The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink.” Like many of the nation’s great sandwiches, it was born of necessity: How else to use up this prodigious native species? Not everyone feels like tackling a 1- to 2-pound lobster, plastic bib intact, metal shell cracker in one hand, tiny fork in the other.

Fresh from the pot at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth.

STEVE DOLINSKY PHOTOS, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Spring Point Ledge Light juts into the Atlantic at South Portland, smack dab in the heart of lobster country.

THE LOBSTER ROLL OFFERS THE PLEASURES OF THIS NATURALLY SWEET CRUSTACEAN WITHOUT GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY. While some fishing towns in New England have added melted butter, celery and lettuce along the way, Maine’s fishermen seem to adhere to a less-is-more ethos; mayo is fine, but even that’s con-

sidered sacrilege in some quarters. My family and I drove south along the coast, starting in New Brunswick, Canada, and ending up in Portland, Maine, for a lobster roll lover’s Magical Mystery Tour. Maine is on a roll, boasting huge catches the last three years, according to the state Department of Marine Resources. More than 120 million pounds were landed each year, supplying 85 percent of the country’s fishmongers. If the road to Quoddy Bay is a winding, twisting odyssey, the journey down

U.S. Highway 1 is a meandering sojourn past antique shops and seafood shacks. At Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company in South Freeport, the rolls begin with lobster that’s first boiled. A bit of mayo, some salt and pepper are all the seasoning they get. Three-anda-half ounces of barely dressed meat is stuffed into the buttered-and-griddled Sunbeam buns that have a thin layer of green leaf lettuce at the bottom for added color and crunch. Portland’s Eventide Oyster Co. is much more than an oyster bar. Its signature lobster roll, doused in a bit of brown butter and served in a puffy, split-top Asian bun, is certainly not traditional, but it’s also not to be missed. For pure tradition, you can’t beat the Lobster Shack at Two Lights, about 10 minutes south of Portland, in Cape Elizabeth. This is the ideal East Coast shack experience I had been dreaming of: located almost directly on the water, next to a Coast Guard house that blasts a fog horn every few minutes and a brief menu, heavy on whole lobsters, fried clams and lobster rolls (don’t forget the chowda).

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