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Winslow Homer’s Studio Will Open to the Public in September

Winslow Homer’s still-standing studio on Prouts Neck, Maine will finally open to the public next month. It has been closed for renovations since 2006, when the Portland Museum of Art acquired the studio where Homer lived and painted many of his masterpieces from 1883 until his death. Several years ago, I wrote an article for Yankee Magazine about Homer’s years in Prouts Neck. You can reserve tickets to the studio through the Portland Museum of Art. To further celebrate the opening, the Portland Museum of Art will display 35 major oils and watercolors painted during Homer’s time at Prouts Neck in a show titled Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine. The exhibition will run from September 22 to December 30, 2012. Stay at one of my favorite stopovers in southern Maine, the Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, a 15-minute drive from both Portland and Prouts Neck. The Inn by the Sea is featuring a "Seascapes Package" to coincide with the exhibition and studio opening. For $632, you receive two nights in a one-bedroom suite, two rum cocktails named for the artist, two tickets to the Weatherbeaten exhibition, a catalogue from the show, and full breakfast for two each morning. They can also help to arrange tours of the studio, which cost an additional $55 per person. 
 

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Northern Lights Viewing, Dogsledding, and Yoga Retreat in Finnish Lapland

Arctic travel and Northern Lights specialists Off the Map Travel have just announced a new winter wellness retreat in Finnish Lapland. The 4-day/3-night itinerary includes 2 nights at a glass-roofed igloo in Rovaniemi and one night in a snow room at the Arctic Snow Hotel. In the daytime, you’ll go dogsledding, take yoga classes, and experience rest and relaxation in the world’s first sauna made from snow. You’ll be enveloped by an instant cloud of steam, resulting from the contact between the sauna’s 1.5 meters-thick snow walls and the heat from the sauna’s stove. The result is a steam-room like effect with cleansing benefits for both mind and body. Then it’s off to the ice bar and your glass-roofed igloo with uninterrupted views of the Arctic night sky. Cost starts at $1606 per person based on double occupancy, and includes lodging, breakfast, activities, and airport transfers. 

 
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Adventures in Ecuador: Hanging with the Huaorani

To reach the Huaorani Ecolodge, you must first drive four hours from Quito to Shell, where you switch to a 5-seat airplane for a 45-minute flight. Arriving on a grass runway, the Huaorani people greet you and escort you via motorized longboat down the Shiripuno River. Finally you arrive at your lodging for the next three nights, five wooden cabins and a dining room perched overlooking the river. On the edge of Yasuni National Park, the Huaorani Reserve is easily one of the most remote destinations in South America, deep in the Ecuadorean Amazon, at least 100 miles from the nearest signs of civilization.
 What you get in return for your effort is an incredibly authentic travel experience straight out of the pages of National Geographic. Bare-breasted grandmothers show you around their communities, picking the juiciest papaya off the tree for you to try. Led by our Huaorani guide, Emy, we swam under hidden waterfalls and against the current of the Shiripuno River, visited small communities along the river while spotting monkeys, toucans, macaws, caimans, and kingfishers. We also learned the important skills of living in the Amazon bush, how to climb trees and hunt with a 7-foot long poisonous blow dart. Emy hunts wild boar, monkeys, and toucan when hungry. When asked what toucan tastes like, he told me it was better than chicken. Don’t worry. Your menu back at the lodge consists of tilapia, fresh baked bread, green bananas, and fresh fruit juices. 
        Who knows how much longer this authentic travel experience will last. The Huaorani sit atop one of the largest petroleum preserves in the world. For the past 7 decades oil companies have tried to remove them from their land, but thankfully the Ecudorean government has always intervened. Let’s hope the oil companies can remain happy on the outskirts of Yasuni so that future generations of the Huaorani can live off the grid in this dense foliage. 
 
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Great Late Summer Savings from New England Inns and Resorts Association

While most of America is heading back to school, the northeastern part of the country can celebrate one more vacation with the family in late August before school starts after Labor Day. Many lodgings in New England offer deals the last week of August to entice families. NEIRA just sent me their latest listing including many last-minute deals. Rates at Meadowmere Resort in Ogunquit drop 30% the last week of August to $149 a night including breakfast. The Inn at Ocean’s Edge in Lincolnville, Maine, just north of Camden, is $188 a night including full gourmet breakfast starting August 25th. Or head to Newport and stay at Gilded where the mid-week rate is $229 a night. To find year-round savings with NEIRA, sign up for their Inn Crowd emails. 

 
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Affordable European Flights Out Of Boston’s Logan Airport

This might be the summer to return to Europe, especially with the announcement last week that a number of low-cost airlines will soon start to offer flights from Boston’s Logan Airport. Thomas Cook Airlines will fly to Manchester, England, for as low as $312 one-way. AirBerlin will also begin offering flights to Dusseldorf, Germany. They join no-frills carriers like Norwegian Air and WOW, which started offering cheaper flights to Europe last summer. Adding to the fun is news that WestJet, the low-cost Canadian airline will soon offer flights to Halifax and Toronto. Time to take advantage of that favorable Canadian exchange rate?

 
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Support the Active Community Transportation Act of 2010

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I like to write about rail trails across North America. Discarded rail lines converted into biking and jogging routes are not only a great way to spend a morning or afternoon, but add necessary commerce and a sense of pride to small, often rural communities across the country. That’s why I’m happy to support the Active Community Transportation Act of 2010 introduced by Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. The Act would create a $2 billion program over five years to help hundreds of towns across the country improve their trails. Please encourage your representative to co-sponsor this significant legislation. 
 

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Great Late Summer Day Hikes, Blue Mountain, Adirondacks

Although it took 26 hours or more on railroads, stagecoaches, and steamboats to get to Blue Mountain Lake from New York City in the 1870s, the remoteness of the Adirondacks proved to be more of an attraction than a deterrent. The wealthy elite, including J.P. Morgan, William Whitney, and Alfred Vanderbilt bought large tracts of lands and built themselves "great camps," sprawling collections of handsome log buildings with massive stone fireplaces. To make traveling more pleasurable, they would create their own private railway car, complete with brass railings, shower, card room, and bed. A fine example of this is on view in the Age of Horses Building at the Adirondack Museum.  

 
Just up the road is the trail to the peak of Blue Mountain.  I took this 2-mile path on a cloudless day, when the bright sun beat down, forcing me to stop and hydrate. An hour later, I reached the summit. Soaked with sweat, I tore off my shirt, took another gulp of water and then stared at the surroundings. Anonymous mountains tumbled over one another, their slopes forming a sea of green. Blue Mountain Lake stood before me, a speck compared to the much larger Long and Raquette Lakes that shimmered in the distance. These names I remember from my adolescence when I canoed a string of lakes, ponds, and rivers nearly 100 miles from Old Forge through Blue Mountain, Long, and Raquette Lakes to the Saranac Lakes in the north. Whether you hike, paddle or sail like my parents loved, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts in the Adirondacks. 
 

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