July 8th, 2008 writerspice
Wisconsin isn’t really that far.
And, on a recent trip there, I was surprised to find that it is actually a lot closer than I thought. To my heart, that is.
Driving through lush forests and green farm fields, I’d occasionally spot ribs of white limestone sticking up through the earth’s surface. It seemed a lot like another place I know quite well – the Bruce Peninsula, where my mom was raised and my grandmother lived. In her backyard, there were cherry trees. And cherries are so hot in Wisconsin’s Door County we ate them every day, in various forms, at least once.
Turns out, this bucolic back-to-the-lander’s paradise, edged as it is in historic fishing villages and spotted with a mix of lighthouses and inland art studios, is the western edge of the Niagara Escarpment, a stony arch that stretches from New York State, into Niagara (Niagara Falls is actually water dropping over it), through Ontario, along the Bruce Peninsula, Manitoulin Island, and the southern edge of Michigan’s U.P., before it drops down to create Door County. For all you visual learners (like me), here’s a picture.
Being there was a bit like going home and especially since I got to hang out with some great people, like my new friend Margo, who describes this perfect vacation retreat in a bit more depth.
Posted in Recommended, United States | 8 Comments »
June 4th, 2008 writerspice
I love the United States. The country is full of grand vistas and great people.
And even though lots of Canadians complain about the tough process of getting across the border these days, I’ve never had a problem.
More often than not, I find the folks working the conveyor belts and waving me through the metal detector professional and often personable. Yes, getting through customs is a longer process and the lines are often peppered with panicked people anxious that they’re going to miss their flights, but what can you do? Get there early. Take a deep breath. Leave your liquids behind.
But with today’s news from ABC that “citizens from countries in the VWP [Visa Waiver Program], which allows travelers from certain countries to enter the United States without a visa, will be required to submit their travel plans and personal information before their day of travel,” I’m not so sure I’ll be visiting nearly as much after the requirement comes into effect next January.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing to hide. But the thought of logging my passport number into a computerized system 72 hours before I’m set to go, to wait as my name is checked against a terror watch list, raises visions of all those zombie-like automatons wandering around that fictitious world of George Orwell’s. According to the article, the Europeans are balking, too, with concerns about what will happen to the collected information and how long it will be held.
And there are other questions, as well. Who is on that list? What is the definition of a ‘terrorist’? Does someone attending a hunger strike outside the U.S. consulate to protest American military policies end up on that list? Stranger things have happened.
Posted in Issues, News, United States | No Comments »
March 17th, 2008 writerspice
A few years ago, my brother was living in Baltimore, Maryland and J. and I took the opportunity to visit. He lived in the suburbs, but showed us around the old downtown – the Inner Harbour (yes, here in Canada, we retain that old English ‘u’) and the city’s Little Italy. We learned that the Irish also had a strong presence in this city, fleeing the famine and ending up in Baltimore to work on the railroads in the mid-1800s, a history now commemorated by two museums and a walking tour through what are now some of Baltimore’s rougher areas.
But my favourite place was Fell’s Point. Tucked up against the ocean, this historic area is paved in cobblestones and still boasts an active, old market where crab soup is served with cornbread by an apron-clad waitress who calls you ‘Hon’.
The neighbourhood bars – the Cat’s Eye Pub and the Wharf Rat Tavern (the Fell’s Point location), among others – retain the dust and grime (and archaic charm) of a more rough-and-tumble time. In the Wharf Rat Tavern, we ordered the local drink, brewed by Baltimore’s Oliver Breweries. Surrounded by broad beams wrapped in thick ship’s ropes, we sipped stout alongside our meal of malt-vinegar-soaked orange roughy and succulent oysters accompanied by chips (uh, French fries).
After eating, we wandered around the corner to the Cat’s Eye, an Irish pub with nightly live music – or, as is the case today, a 2:00 pm start to Dogs Among the Bushes, a traditional Irish folk band.
On the way, we crossed Lancaster Street where William Fell started the first shipyard after arriving from England in 1730. As other shipyards opened, the harbour began to boom and the neighbourhood evolved into a crowded haunt for mariners and merchants, complete with rooming houses, plenty of pubs and the essential brothel.
Turns out the Cat’s Eye used to be the brothel. Serving spirits and ale for over a hundred years, the bar’s low ceiling and slanted floors once hosted a pretty rough crowd of sailors and, more recently, bikers. In the 1960s, Fell’s Point came close to being obliterated when the city nearly replaced the ancient rowhouses and cobblestones with an expressway. When Fell’s Point – or part of it – was added to the National Register of Historic Places, that plan thankfully came to a grinding halt.
In the bar, a cobwebbed model of a schooner hung from the ceiling and a large mural of the history of Ireland decorated one wall. Above the narrow stage, a wall light glowed red near the remnants of old-staircase, once used by sailors climbing to the brothel bedrooms, so legend and locals say.
Sipping scotch alongside a chaser of microbrew, we watched the band and felt thankful for the chance to enjoy the unpolished Fell’s Point, to sit at the worn bar and drink our grog like so many others who came before.
Photo by Lauren Carter
Posted in Seasons, United States | 4 Comments »
December 6th, 2007 writerspice
A couple of odd bits of news from Miami, Florida popped into my in-box today, sent by TravelMole. Together, they summoned an image of that strange ocean-side world, so different from the wintry view out my window. How fun!
The first is a newly offered guarantee from Catalina Hotel & Beach Club. They’re promising a free indoor tanning session to any visiting tourist if it rains for more than two hours during “prime tanning hours.”
I’m sorry, but did you say prime tanning hours? Into my head popped an image of that cute little sun-bronzed Coppertop girl with the puppy dog pulling on her bathing suit, revealing a white bottom beneath. As in, uh, the 1980s. Forgive me, but I thought that decade was the last time anybody actually made an afternoon of lying under the sun.
But I suppose this is Miami Beach. And what do I know? I’ve only been there once, at the age of 13, in the backseat while my dad drove the family down the beach in our very uncool minivan. South Beach probably lay somewhere far to the south of us, but my sister and I were too busy looking for Sonny Crockett to care.
I wouldn’t mind going back – especially with all that Art Deco and Cuban flare. And with the hurricanes keeping their distance and winter continuing to pound the northern half of the continent, tourist season is looking up for Florida.
But for those who are about to make the ultimate trip, TravelMole and assorted media today reported on an interesting option.
In a sandy, barren area just off Miami, an artist-designed underwater city is being established by the Neptune Society. Set up to restore fish habitat and reestablish coral reef, the concrete lions, columns and other architectural features are also available as enclosed receptacles for anyone looking for a unique burial option for their ashes.
From guaranteed tanning to underwater burial in a recreated Atlantis. Fitting, in an odd sorta Florida way.
Photo by Mike Schinkel
Posted in Going Green, Just For Fun, United States | No Comments »
November 30th, 2007 writerspice
Last July, Jason and I spent some time hiking in hundred degree heat in southern Utah.
It wasn’t just to get away. Nor was it an exercise in self-flagellation. Like Gary Ferguson, the writer of Outbound, a poignant and lovely essay I recently discovered in the Summer issue of Camas, the University of Montana’s lit journal, we went to remember someone.
The experience of wandering the red rock canyons and watching “the sun lighting clusters of rabbitbrush and Apache plume” in Capitol Reef National Park came back to me as I read this essay. So did the feeling of grief which left me seated on a small island in the creek that ran through our campsite up on Boulder Mountain, crying for my uncle until I heard in my head what he would say: get up, live your life!
Somehow I feel connected to Mr. Ferguson. Apart from our taking a similar trip for similar reasons, there’s also the fact that I grew up in the “dark woods of Northern Ontario,” where he lost his wife.
He’s also a very good writer. One that brings two kinds of terrain to life: that which hosts its ‘huddles of juniper’, the other which dwells within.
Posted in Recommended, United States, Writing Life | No Comments »
November 23rd, 2007 writerspice
I’ve posted before on the great deals that can be had this time of year in Las Vegas.But after hearing stories of the loads of available freebies from some friends who went recently, I was glad to see this post – Backpacking Las Vegas…Cheaply – by Ubertramp – a veritable catalogue of how to do Vegas a little bit differently: without blowing that wad ‘o cash…
Posted in Bargains!, United States | 1 Comment »
November 5th, 2007 writerspice
It started with a cheap date. On Friday night, Jason and I headed twenty minutes south to the big city of Barrie to treat ourselves to Starbucks and a stroll through the aisles in Chapters. While browsing the remaindered books I found an intriguing one by writer Christine Wicker called Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead
, about a village some 60 miles south of Buffalo, New York that started as a Spiritualist summer camp and continues to be a haunt (excuse the pun) for modern day mediums and followers of the religion. It was $4.99. I bought it.
The next morning, while Jason slept in, I wandered around the house, drinking tea and glancing at various magazines. One of these was the October issue of National Geographic Traveler, signed out of the library. Daisann McLane‘s Real Travel column caught my eye. Now, often I don’t actually read entire articles. Like many magazine readers, I skim, take in half and move on. This one, though, was about spooky hotels. It was captivating and nothing else was calling me, so I read the whole first page and flipped to the next. Here’s what I found on the following page: “…booked. Sometimes my choice to stick it out has paid off in extraordinary ways. Many years ago, I remember reluctantly checking in to the Maplewood Hotel in Lily Dale, New York.” McLane goes on to explain what I’d so recently learned about the community: populated entirely by members of the Spiritualist Church, founded over a century ago.
I’ve written before about how strange coincidences and synchronicities seem to find me, so I wasn’t all that surprised. This was odd, yeah, but apart from moving us to rent the very scary hotel movie 1408 that evening, the incident came and went. Lily Dale, Lily Dale. The usual. File under weird.
Cut to Sunday morning and the random act of turning on CBC radio. I happened to catch the opening of the Sunday Edition as host Michael Enright was summing up the schedule for the morning. Seeing as it was so close to the Day of the Dead, the show was a special on, what else, death. You can probably already guess what’s coming next. In our first hour, he said…. In our second hour… And then: in our third hour, a documentary on a town where the residents speak to the dead. Yep. Lily Dale, New York.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
I’m not exactly sure what it all means, but I might just be crossing the border soon to check out this town that seems to be summoning.
Photo by Mark H. Baker
Posted in Contemplations, Otherworldly, United States | No Comments »
November 1st, 2007 writerspice
Back in the 1800s, so the story goes, the city of Jackson, Michigan, 75 miles west of Detroit, was given the choice between state prison or state university. Living in an industrial age, they clearly saw the advantages of having plenty of prisoners around: cheap labour to keep the factories functioning. But these days, that cheap labour is more commonly found in other countries and the town of Jackson, its prison closed up in 2002, has slipped into decline.
But they also had this hulking body of a stone building on their hands, so some creative folks got together and the Armory Arts Village was born. Starting this December, the massive walls of the former maximum security prison will be holding a whole new population: artists. Subsidized housing will provide over 60 printmakers, potters and painters with affordable lodging while they create, show and sell their work in several studios and galleries spread across the campus. Music, theatre, workshops and studio crawls will bring new life to a once-dead building.
It’s an ambitious project and one in keeping with the current popular philosophies of Richard Florida, who upholds the idea that
artistic and culturally vibrant communities attract high-tech industry
– much needed in this age of a declining manufacturing base. Case in point: Google recently set up shop in the gallery-lined streets of artsy Ann Arbor, Michigan.
As an arts-oriented person and one in love with history, I was particularly attracted to Jackson’s project. The huge room that once held layers of cell-blocks and is now set up for regular concerts and art shows took my breath away. The labyrinthine halls were intriguing. And in the model suite, it seems I shot a photo of a ghost… exactly the sort of thing worthy of any curiousity-seeker worth their salt. Here’s the photo. Now debate.
Posted in Art, Otherworldly, United States | No Comments »
October 30th, 2007 writerspice
On Sunday, I fulfilled one of my travel goals. It was a modest one: not like yurting in Mongolia or walking the moors or crossing the ocean from the old world to the new a la my ancestors.
Instead, this place I’ve always wanted to see is relatively close to my home and can be easily repeated. And by the looks of the amazing changes underway, I will happily return
to the Detroit Institute of Art to gaze up again at the Diego Rivera murals.
Housed in a glass-covered courtyard, the frescos were painted throughout 1932 and capture the age of industry and vibrancy that once defined the suprisingly quiet and crumbling city. With a decidedly communist bent, they were controversial and raised a hubbub appropriate to the great Mexican artist, who once said, as quoted by PBS, “An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can’t feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn’t capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won’t put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn’t a great artist.”
As we left, driving by abandoned art deco buildings and police cars angled sideways on the streets, I thought about the struggle to bring this once wealthy American city back to life. If he could, what would Rivera paint about Detroit these days?, I wondered.
Things change, places change, but there are some destinations and sights that stand the test of time, despite what happens all around them. What are your travel dreams: what have you always wanted to see?
Posted in Art, United States | 2 Comments »
October 24th, 2007 writerspice
What’s Southwestern Michigan without a beach party? Even in 60-degree weather (that’s about 15, for the rest of the world), we bunch of brave journalists enjoyed a fish fry this past Monday night followed by a bonfire beside big rollers roaring in on the beach. We roasted marshmallows, made smores and dismissed the increasing rain as simply surf blowing in, in favour of enjoying the fire, local wine, good company and conversation. It was there, outside Michi-Mona-Mac Lakeshore Cottages, that I snapped this shot of two brave souls baring their soles.
Posted in Pretty Pictures, United States | No Comments »
Wisconsin isn’t really that far.
