Isn’t It Time You Skied Telluride?

When it opens in the fall of 2018, Vessel will be a spectacular climbable installation in the middle of the new Hudson Yards development, which is set to regenerate the city’s Far West Side (previously an industrial zone). The glinting copper structure will be the centerpiece of the Public Square and Gardens and will comprise 154 interconnecting flights of stairs in a geometric pattern. Visitors can ascend the 148-feet high structure via the mile-long network of pathways, with each staircase providing a slightly different perspective on the revitalized neighborhood below.
We met Bruce at our first family-style dinner at Ojibway and instantly took a liking to his many stories about the lodge and the region. He had been coming to this exact spot since 1951 when he was a 10-year-old overnight camper from outside Detroit. Now living in Virginia Beach, he spends a little over a month each summer in his cabin on an island across from Ojibway to listen to waves lapping ashore, smell the sweet pine, watch the night sky, and explore the lake via canoe or motorboat. While Tanya and Louise are the consummate hosts who run Ojibway, Bruce is the unofficial guide. He said he’d take us on his boat to see some of this immense lake that first night and we thought he was just being friendly. But then he did just that on our last day, as we went out with him to one of his favorite spots in the northern part of the lake. We brought lunch made by the kitchen, drinks, and headed off.
I’m a travel writer, so it’s my job to turn you on to places around the globe I think you should definitely check out. But after spending a glorious day in the Boston area, I’m just as happy to see you venture outdoors in your own neighborhood. I just visited my longtime oasis, Broadmoor, a Mass Audubon retreat, staring at numerous turtles sunbathing on upturned logs in the Charles River, watching a heron take flight, even spotting a rare merganser swimming in a pond. Spring is finally here, so take advantage of the warmer weather and keep active!
I’ll be taking a brief hiatus as I’m off to Rhode Island, San Antonio, speaking at the New Hampshire Governor’s Tourism Conference, and chatting with a group of Nova Scotia chefs and restaurateurs headed to Boston. I’ll be back on May 7th.
(Photo by Lisa Leavitt)
A World Heritage Site, Halong Bay is known for its limestone karsts that jut up from sea making this one of the most striking cruise destinations in the world. But if you read my recent article in The Boston Globe, you’d know that any place that has cruises now offers adventure. Emeraude Classic Cruises has teamed with Slo Pony Adventures, owned by an American duo, to offer a three-day, two-night cruise in Halong Bay. Sure, you’ll get to sit back and marvel at the spectacle with gin and tonic in hand. That’s a reward for the daily dose of adventure that includes sea kayaking, rock climbing, and trekking through Butterfly Valley in the National Park to find waterfalls hidden in the lush terrain.
In the mid-90s, I was hired by Art & Antiques Magazine to write a story on the period of time painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, lived on the shores of Lake George. This was to coincide with a photography exhibition of Stieglitz’s work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. I knew renowned abstract sculptor David Smith lived in Bolton Landing, but I honestly had no idea O’Keeffe lived in Lake George, since she’s far better known for her New Mexican motif. From 1918 to 1934, O’Keeffe would spend a good portion of her summer at the lake. She would return to Lake George for the last time in 1946 to spread Stieglitz’s ashes at the foot of a pine tree on the shores of the lake. Today, those ashes lie on the grounds of the Tahoe Motel. Next door, the house they lived in, Oaklawn, is still standing at The Quarters of the Four Seasons Inn. On a wall next to my desk, I have a poster of a dreamy mountain and lake landscape simply titled Lake George (1922). My brother, Jim, purchased this for me at the San Francisco Museum of Art, where the original O’Keeffe oil still hangs.