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Providence Features Children’s Film Festival

No need to wait for the next WaterFire to return to Providence. Over February break (February 13-22), the city is hosting its fifth annual Children’s Film Festival. Close to 20 films will be shown at three different venues around town. The impressive line-up includes the French Academy Award nominee, “Ernest and Celestine,” Harold Lloyd’s classic silent film, “Safety Last,” and a movie Roger Ebert called one of the five best films ever made for children, the Japanese animated flick, “My Neighbor Totoro.” March 20 brings the return of Gallery Night. From 5 to 9 pm, buses and curators will bring you to the city’s 26 galleries to talk about the latest art. Tours leave every 20 minutes. While in town, check out North, which Boston Globe food critic, Devra First, called one of her favorite restaurants in 2013. The innovative Southeast Asian fare includes mussels, drunken and stirred, and flounder with golden oyster mushrooms. We recommend spending the night at our favorite property in town, Hotel Providence, an 80-room boutique hotel smack dab in the center of town. 

 

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Time to Cruise Vermont’s Route 100

All it takes is one drive on Vermont’s Route 100 from Killington to Stowe to understand the fall foliage hype. Traveling along the ridgeline of the 4,000-foot Green Mountains as it radiates with its majestic robe of multi-hued maples in October and you can’t help but sing its praises. Be sure to stop in the farming community of Rochester for the requisite “cows and meadow” photo and the historic village of Stowe to find one of the numerous freshly painted white steeples. Along the route, you’ll want to visit the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for your jug of cider, out-of-the-oven doughnuts, and genuine maple syrup. Nearby is the Ben & Jerry’s factory where you can take a tour, sample the wares, and find out how the duo started their celebrated business. We’ve been putting clients up lately at Trapp Family Lodge to savor the vistas from atop the hillside and to sample the new beer hall. 

 We’re off to Chicago for the week, back October 11th. Have a great Columbus Day Weekend and keep active! 
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February Vacation Deal at Boston’s Hotel Commonwealth

With February vacation week just around the corner, Boston’s Hotel Commonwealth is offering a special staycation "Sale" in honor of the new Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale (#41). From 2/18 through 2/26, families staying at the hotel will receive the first night at a discounted rate of $199 and the second night (or second room) at an extra special "Sale" price of $41. It’s the perfect time to get out of the house and spend a few days exploring everything Boston has to offer, from the MFA’s new "Make Way for Ducklings" exhibition to ice skating at Frog Pond. Also included in the promotion is valet parking for one vehicle ($53 value), a special welcome gift for each child, and for those that stay 2/24 & 2/25, a double-feature movie night in the hotel’s new ballroom. 

 
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My Favorite Fall Foliage Travels—Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Empire, Michigan

Head to the Grand Traverse Bay area, a four-hour drive northwest of Detroit, in the autumn months for a weekend, and you’ll be treated to far more than a fun frolic on a Great Lake. Slow down and explore the region at a slow pace on bike or on two feet and you’ll find diverse terrain, from the shaded wetlands of the Grass River Natural Area to the rolling countryside of the Leelanau Peninsula to the steep dunes of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the largest sand dunes west of the Sahara Desert. The towering slopes of sand, some as high as 440 feet, slide steeply to the shores of Lake Michigan. Stroll on the 1.5-mile Cottonwood Trail and the dunes look like bowls of sand that only a giant could drink from. No wonder Good Morning America just named Sleeping Dunes the most beautiful locale in America.
 

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Biking the Emerald Necklace to View the Fog Sculptures

I’ve always visited one Emerald Necklace park at a time, say a stroll around Jamaica Pond or through the century-old maples and gardens at Arnold Arboretum. And that’s pretty much how the great landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, intended-to treat each one of his verdant urban oases as a jewel. But when the Emerald Necklace Conservatory decided to display five works of Japanese fog artist Fujiko Nakaya across all their green spaces, I decided it was time to connect the dots and bike most of the seven-mile long stretch from Olmsted Park to Franklin Park. On display until October 31st in Boston, "Fog x FLO" is a unique treat, where fog is spewed out of nozzles at specific times to create a hazy display through the woods or on the water. 

 
We parked at Willow Pond at Olmsted Park and biked along a trail to Leverett Pond, just in time to see the fog rolling out on the water, reflecting the clouds above. That whet our appetite for the rest. We retraced our steps past Willow Pond and up to Jamaica Pond to eye the next fog display on the beach. Stick to the sidewalks and bike lanes to reach Arnold Arboretum, the only real tricky part of the bike ride. It’s worth the effort to view "Fog on the Hill," an 8-minute spray of immense fog that goes off on the hour. We watched as the fog rolled down the hillside, splintered with sunshine. Then we were off to our final stop, Franklin Park, on newly paved bike trails and a bike lane the entire way. Here the fog spews out into the ruins of a building Olmsted originally designed the structure as a field house to use as a changing room or view the sports on the adjacent fields. A mile later, I was downing a Santa Fe Salad at The Dogwood, across from the massive Forest Hills T Station. My reward for all the biking. A wonderful outing, especially on a Sunday! 
 
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Raft the Deerfield River in Massachusetts

This coming spring, due to excessive snowfall these past three months, New Englanders are blessed with more water in our backyard than we’ve had in years. “This May proves to be one of our best yet,” says Bruce Lessels, co-owner of the rafting outfitter, Zoar Outdoor in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Many of the whitewater rivers, like the Deerfield that Zoar Outdoor runs, gain their momentum from dam releases at power plants. The more water these plants have in their reservoirs from snow and rain, the more water you have to surge over rapids in a raft or kayak. Raft Zoar Outdoor’s most popular trip, the Zoar Gap. Minimum age is 7 and rates range from $69-$97 depending on age. Their highly regarded white-water kayaking school is also one of the best places to learn the sport in the northeast.

 
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The Globetrotter’s Get-Gorgeous Guide

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Debbi Karpowicz Kickham for more than decade. She worked as travel editor at Robb Report before having an illustrious freelance career that has taken her on cruises around the world, with multi-month stopovers at her favorite haunt, Hawaii. Now Kickham is sharing her insights on how to look good while traveling in new book titled “THE GLOBETROTTER’S GET-GORGEOUS GUIDE: Diet and Beauty Secrets of Travel and Beauty Pros, Traveling Executives, and Celebrity Travelers.” She notes that it’s the world’s first beauty book for traveling women. The book is filled with tips from flight attendants to road-warrior CEOS and executives, on everything from beauty products to luggage.  There’s a chapter on cruising, another chapter on beauty products from around the world made with local indigenous ingredients, and a special bonus section about buying bargains throughout Paris and France. Samantha Brown of The Travel Channel wrote the Foreword, and Kickham completed interviews with Joan Lunden, Cheryl Tiegs, Ivana Trump, and other well-known names. So if you haven’t yet found that perfect Christmas gift for your loved one, this might do the trick.
 

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