Wichita Eagle: Travel

Woody Guthrie’s great American voice gets a new home in Tulsa

Steve Paul — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:46 CDT

TULSA — The woman in the wheelchair and headphones is watching pictures go by and hearing a narrator speak about a place and a moment long ago.

On the screen a typewritten love letter appears and the words scroll down and you can imagine the woman when she first laid eyes on those words. It was 80 years ago in Pampa, Texas, when Mary Jennings, then 16, succumbed to the sweet words and married Woody Guthrie. Here she was, reliving the memory.

Behind her was her daughter from a later marriage, Anne Jennings, who wiped away tears, and on the woman’s right side watching the screen was Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie and his second wife and a driving force of the Woody Guthrie Center, which opened April 27.

Hiking heaven: Even a flatlander can scale trails in these Italian Alps

Barbara Brotman — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:04 CDT

MERANO, Italy — A line of goats walked toward us, their bells ringing. A waterfall gurgled. The steeply pitched mountain farm angled down sharply below us. The goats headed downhill, then leaped over a stream through the grass, which looked like green velvet.

“Really?” Julia said, voicing our communal disbelief. “Really?” Really. Not that it looked real. In fact, the snow-dusted mountains towering over verdant meadows, the medieval castles and the riotous colors of flowers tumbling from Bavarian guest houses looked so perfect that my friend Amy, an artist who paints theater sets, took to claiming it was the work of a colleague.

That’s what you see in South Tyrol (English), Alto Adige (Italian) or Sudtirol (German), all names for the same spectacular province on the south side of the Alps that was part of Austria until the end of World War I, when it became part of Italy.

Swept up in a Toronto summer

Ellen Creager — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:11 CDT

TORONTO — Streetcars, sharks, pandas and parasols.

This summer, Canada’s largest city will be vibrantly alive.

Just watch out for construction.

Outlaw history alive at Colorado dude ranch

Andrea Kitay — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:28 CDT

CLARK, Colo. — Bumping along in our ride to the Home Ranch, an upscale dude ranch where my husband, young son and I will spend the week, wrangler and local cowboy Sand Reed suddenly jerks the pickup to a quick stop on the road’s edge, nearly spilling the contents of the drink I’ve been clinging to since he picked us up at the airport.

“See them buildings over there? That’s where the stagecoach used to stop,” he says, pointing to what looks closer to a date with a wrecking ball than a historic preservation effort. “Poor travelers bunked on the floor when the stagecoach pulled in.”

Spending time around cowboys as a kid gave me an appreciation for embellishment, but when he next tells me Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent nine winters in the little town of Clark and points out a little wooden church where Butch hosted barbecues, I mentally check it and decide to verify later.

Walking on the wild side at the Georgia Aquarium and Zoo Atlanta

Bo Emerson — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:30 CDT

ATLANTA — Atlantans are walking on the wild side this spring, enjoying opportunities for up-close encounters with dolphins, otters, pandas, Komodo dragons and other exotic creatures great and small.

At the Georgia Aquarium and at Zoo Atlanta, visitors can order up these boutique experiences with the wildlife on exhibit. Most involve feeding snacks to the animals. Some even include an opportunity to touch.

—Georgia Aquarium

The gems of San Juan: Who’s hungry for sauteed veal brains?

Phil Vettel — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:57 CDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — This island offers so many visual treats — gorgeous beaches, rugged hills, beautiful churches and majestic historic forts — that dining becomes a virtual afterthought. A hunk of meat or fish, some sides of mofongo (fried mashed plantains) and mamposteao (rice and beans with other goodies), a stiff rum drink and you’re good to go, right?

Well, yes, that’ll do nicely much of the time. And if you get a chance to attend a pig roast (which draws locals and tourists alike to drink beer, listen to music and feast on lechon asado, or whole-roasted pig), by all means do so. You’ll have to leave the city for the mountains (mine took place at a water’s-edge park just outside of town, but my host assured me that everything beyond the city limits is “the mountains”), but it’s worth the trip.

There’s no shortage of restaurants in the city, of course, but the sometimes frustrating thing about dining here is that many/ most restaurants cater to the tourist trade, which they identify (probably with cause) as unadventurous. Seasonings can be mild to the point of blandness; local products can be forsaken for the presumed cachet of, say, Pacific Ocean seafood.

Birmingham, Ala., embraces its complex history

Alice Short — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:57 CDT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — When I told friends I was planning a trip to Birmingham, the reaction was universal.

“Alabama?” one asked. “On purpose?”

I shared their skepticism, viewing the travel literature with the jaundiced eye of a longtime Angeleno who puzzled over the concept of vacationing in the South. But I was flying here for a business meeting that had been scheduled for Presidents Day weekend, so why not take some extra time and look around?

Iceland: the quirky home of Bobby Fischer, Bjrk and the Blue Lagoon

Ellen Creager — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:24 CDT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — This is the only country that gives you a bath before they send you home.

The Blue Lagoon, open year-round, rain or shine, envelops thousands of tourists from all over the world in its misty embrace.

Many of them come in big tourist buses on the way to the airport, which is only 15 minutes away.

Dreams of Africa are alive in the Okavango Delta

Anne Z. Cooke and Steve Haggerty — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:26 CDT

MAUN, Botswana — If you’ve paid for an African safari but you’re still not clear about the details, bad on you. Making the same mistake, I didn’t dig into the heart of the adventure before I headed to Southern Africa for my first wildlife safari, because I was always too busy. Bad on me!

By the time we reached the Okavango Delta, in northern Botswana, we’d been on the go for 24 hours, rocketing through nine time zones, three airplanes and four airports. Jet lagged and yawning, I ached for a hot shower and a good bed.

But when Botswana’s big animals call, every moment counts. I’d barely unzipped my bag and put my toothbrush on the sink when they announced the afternoon game drive, starting at 4:30 p.m. No problem, I thought. I’ll sleep late tomorrow. Until they explained that the next morning’s game drive would start — as usual — at 6 a.m. sharp.

Museum finds a winning formula

William Hageman — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:23 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO — A venerable San Francisco institution has packed up and moved to a lovely new waterfront home.

The Exploratorium, housed at the city’s Palace of Fine Arts since 1969, has relocated to a $300 million space on Pier 15. It is scheduled to open April 17. And though a science museum usually isn’t a must-see attraction for visitors to any city, this one is worth a look.

Sitting more or less halfway between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Ferry Building — heck, you’re going to make both those stops anyway, so this is right on the way — the new Exploratorium (exploratorium.edu) is on a 9-acre campus that has indoor and outdoor attractions.

Shenandoah National Park offers stellar ridge-top vistas of high, rocky places

Bob Downing — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:31 CDT

SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The ridge-top Skyline Drive offers lots of panoramic views.

The curvy 105-mile drive from Front Royal on the north to Waynesboro in the south offers 75 scenic overlooks in the 197,000-acre national park that was dedicated in 1936.

Shenandoah National Park is a mountain park with a river’s name. Some of its best views are its very highest.

Redefining the ‘real’ Miami night life experience

Jenn Harris — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:42 CDT

MIAMI — A cool ocean breeze cut the day’s humidity. Dresses up to there in hot pink sequins and acid yellows colored the sidewalks. It was around midnight on a Thursday in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, and the evening was just getting started.

I was in town for a couple days in February and was determined to have a “real” Miami night life experience — whatever that meant. The clubs here are more intimate than those in L.A. or Las Vegas, with some bars nothing more than a DJ, lights and liquor in a small box-like room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find newer bars that specialize in artisan cocktails and take pride in not having someone sift through the crowd at the door. There were too many choices for there to be a “scene” at any of them, and depending on your mood and who you wanted to meet, there was something for everyone. It was a blur of neon lights, vodka sodas and exhausted ear drums. Here’s a rundown of a weekend nightclub blitz:

Don’t fly over Nebraska — stop and visit

Luaine Lee — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:45 CDT

OMAHA, Neb. — While everybody talks about the “flyover” states, few people stop to see what all the chatter is about. In the midsection of the United States sits Nebraska, a state that boasts treasures worthy of unfastening your seatbelts and putting your tray-table in its upright position.

The “golden triangle” of Omaha, Nebraska City and the state capital, Lincoln, is a good place to start.

Where else could you dog the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, visit the state’s most popular venue and discover terrain that made “Little House in the Prairie” a hit?

Glacier National Park a mountainous mecca for hikers, campers and backpackers

Karen Samelson — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:33 CDT

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — Jagged peaks, a lucky glimpse of a bear or moose, and, of course, glaciers — these sights are just the tip of the iceberg at Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana.

Red, blue, yellow and white wildflowers fill the alpine meadows, even into August, and a few mountain goats or bighorn sheep may be grazing, too. The melting snow and rocky terrain create plenty of waterfall photo ops, and the glaciers carved out several large, windy lakes where visitors can take a boat cruise or try fishing for trout.

The park, which sits on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountain Range, borders Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park, and the two are designated an International Peace Park, Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site. Clearly, this place is special, compelling some visitors to return year after year.

Shaker Village’s maple syrup goes from its trees to its tables

Sharon Thompson — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:36 CDT

HARRODSBURG, Ky. — Guests who eat breakfast at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill probably don’t even give a second thought to the syrup that covers their stacks of pancakes. But if they ask, they’ll get a history lesson.

The maple syrup — which is sold in 6-ounce bottles for $6.98 — is processed on the property the same way the Shakers did it in the 1800s.

The Shakers at Pleasant Hill tapped the maple trees, but not to a great extent, said Ralph E. Ward II, museum program and agri-tourism manager. “It was not always successful. It was greatly dependent on the winter variations in the temperature.

The pope’s Rome: Where Francis, the 266th pope, will live and rule

Gary A. Warner — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:04 CDT

ROME — “SILENZIO!” says the sign just past the massive bronze doors marking the entrance to St. Mary and the Martyrs Catholic Church in Rome, one of the two or three most important churches in Christian history. The sign reminds all that this is a house of worship. Indeed, visitors from around the globe flock to the Piazza della Rotonda to see its austere, columned portico.

But the true beauty of the church is inside, where a geometrically perfect sphere could fit between ceiling and floor. A thick shaft of light flows into the space from a large circular hole — called an oculus (“eye”) — at the apex of the domed roof. It’s a design copied around the world. Two Italian kings and the artist Raphael are entombed along the walls.

Yet, if you got into a Roman cab and asked to go to the St. Mary and the Martyrs, you’d likely get a blank stare from the driver. No one uses the name of the church.

‘The Arkansas Traveler’ is what you should want to be

Samantha Feuss — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:04 CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkanas is a state that many people may not give much thought about when planning their vacations. Often considered a “flyover state,” it has much to offer a traveler in search of adventure, culture, or a natural refuge.

Home to 52 state parks and some of the most modern museums one can want to explore, as well as hot springs and musical centers, and well known as one of the major hotbeds of the civil rights movement, Arkansas is both naturally beautiful and contains some must-see, man-made marvels. Here are four of them:

—Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville celebrates both art and nature a setting that explores the power of art with the beauty of surrounding natural landscape.

Summer shapes up as a hot ticket; here are trips to nail down now

Josh Noel — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:59 CDT

“I would argue Europe is better in the shoulder seasons,” said Amy Farley, news editor at Travel + Leisure and author of the magazine’s “Trip Doctor” column. “I was in Florence in October, and it was extraordinary. That said, if you have children and want the ideal weather, summer it is.”

And for good reason: The weather warms, lakes and oceans become more inviting, academic calendars take a holiday and workplaces become a little more relaxed. It leads to the question of what’s summer without a summer vacation?

Though it might seem unreasonable to start considering warm-weather travel so early into 2013, the time to start planning is now for the tickets and rooms that will disappear by the end of spring.

Florida beaches prove excellent vacation spots

Robert N. Jenkins — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:13 CST

Long before Orlando was transformed from a modest citrus-and-cattle town into Theme Park Central, folks vacationed along the fringe of Florida — its beaches.

The state has the second-longest coastline, after Alaska, and all the beachfront is open to the public, up to the average high-tide mark, where private-property rights begin. That means you can stroll along the sand almost everywhere. Plus, the state has more than 40 parks on beaches, and most coastal counties also have their own beach parks.

Too many choices? Here are some suggestions:

10 spots in ’13: Now’s the time to see them for yourself

Christopher Reynolds — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:40 CST

Here, in alphabetical order, are 10 places I’d like to see in 2013. Several are cities, one is a state, three are entire nations, and all have interesting things happening in the weeks and months ahead. Will I get to them all? Probably not.

But if I did, in alphabetical order, come December, I’d be able to swagger into some stylish Seoul watering hole, possibly limping slightly from a sled-dog mishap under the northern lights, but gamely standing rounds and spinning yarns of Ecuadorean trainspotting and what I learned from the reenactors at Gettysburg, Pa. Would you listen?

Didn’t think so. It’s better if you see for yourself.