Dining Under the Stars at the Four Seasons, Big Island

Last summer, I wrote a story for Outside Magazine on the transformation of abandoned oil plants, railroad yards, even elevated railroad lines (the High Line Park in Manhattan) into popular urban parks. Now The Trust for Public Land’s Peter Harnik has written a book on the subject called “Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities.” A must read for any urban visionary, the book not only delves into examples, but is a primer on how to create parks from space that not long ago was thought of as unusable. Grab lunch at Chelsea Market and have a picnic on the High Line, like I recently did, and you realize the brilliance of this concept.
As an adventure travel writer, I’ve been paid to bike around the Big Island of Hawaii, sea kayak the Fijian islands, dive the Great Barrier Reef, and paddle the Allagash River during a memorable foliage. Then I had my first child and the canoes, skies, and other outdoor paraphernalia started to collect dust in the basement of my suburban Boston home. Going stir crazy one summer day, I called my dad who gave me the sage advice to integrate family into my work. The next thing I know I’m going up and down the hills of Vermont with my toddler on the back of my bike. Like many parents, I began to realize that I don’t have to give up my passion simply because I have little ones. It was time to introduce my kids to the real me. Now I travel with Jake, 13, and Melanie, 11, as much as possible without getting scolded by their teachers. And they’re the ones teaching me a thing or two about every sport they try.
In a May/June 2000 story for Transitions Abroad magazine entitled “The Best and Worst Of Europe—with Apologies to None,” Rick Steves writes “the area south of Edinburgh is so boring the Romans decided to block it off with Hadrian’s Wall.” In another section of the piece (still found online and worthy of a download), Steves notes, “Oxford pales next to Cambridge, and Stratford is little more than Shakespeare’s house—and it’s as dead as he is.” Then there’s this juicy tidbit: “A hundred years ago, Athens was a sleepy town of 8,000 people with a pile of ruins in its backyard. Today, it’s a giant mix of concrete, smog, noise, tourists, and four million Greeks. See the four major attractions (the Acropolis, Agora, Plaka, and great National Archaeological Museum) and get out to the islands or countryside.”
After spending 3 days on an island in a remote Ontario lake with very few people, it was an adjustment to get back to civilization. This was clearly evident when we arrived at Killarney Mountain Lodge, a busy Georgian Bay summer outpost, especially during the 3-day August Holiday Ontario celebrates. The front desk seemed ill-equipped to handle the many demands of the multi-generational families staying here and gave us bracelets to wear and a stack of cards to hand out every meal (neither were necessary during the stay). It felt far too touristy at the time. But I have to say that after spending 2 nights here, the place really grew on us and I’m glad Amy added it to the itinerary. I really enjoyed the food, especially the blueberry pancakes with regional maple syrup each morning, and the waitstaff were far superior to the front desk. I loved having our cocktail hour behind a beautiful new building they designed, made from massive logs. The patio overlooked a scenic inlet to Georgian Bay and we could spot otters gathering reeds from the water. From the resort, you can take an easy walk over a bridge to the town of Killarney, which will be commemorating its bicentennial in 2020. For lunch, we stopped at Herbert Fisheries for its award-winning fish and chips, made from local whitefish. We also took a sunset sail our last night into the many coves and anchorages in this section of the immense Georgian Bay.
It certainly was a privilege to be born a Vanderbilt in the latter part of the 19th century. While Cornelius Vanderbilt II erected his mega-mansion, the Italian-style villa The Breakers, in Newport, brother William and his wife Alva were designing the nearby Marble House. Then there was the youngest of Cornelius’s siblings, George Washington Vanderbilt II, who decided to shun the Atlantic coast and build his estate in the therapeutic mountain air of North Carolina. Built in the French chateau style by renowned Manhattan architect, Robert Morris Hunt, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville is still one of the largest private homes in America, close to 180,000 square feet. Each spring, Biltmore celebrates the legacy of American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the mastermind behind the Biltmore gardens. Olmsted’s influence is obvious throughout year, but especially in spring when a progression of blooms spreads like a flowery blanket across the estate. The gardens come to life with the tulip bloom followed by multi-colored azaleas, rhododendrons, and roses in the resplendent rose garden.