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New App that Identifies Trees Makes Its Debut
Researching my first book, Outside Magazine’s Adventure Guide to New England, I would do my best to correctly identify the type of tree I was starting at. Soon after the book was published, however, I received letters from budding arborists telling me those trees on so-and-so trail in Vermont were white oaks, not red oaks. How I wish I had a new app unveiled last month that identifies all the trees in the northeast and soon all of America. Called Leafsnap, the app was developed by scientists at Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution and is currently available for free on iPhone and iPad. Simply take a picture of a leaf and within seconds a likely species appears with photographs of the tree and information on the tree’s flowers, seeds, and bark. Now I want the Audubon Society to create an app that identifies birds from the sound of its call.
Cruise the Marquesas on the New Aranui 5
By far the most memorable cruise I’ve ever taken was a 2-week trip with Lisa aboard the freighter cruise ship, the Aranui. We traveled 750 miles north of the island of Tahiti to the Marquesas Islands, the archipelago most distant from any continent. The only way to visit all six of the inhabited Marquesas was aboard this upscale freighter that offers air-conditioned cabins and three French meals daily. The ship’s main function, however, is to transport goods to the local residents. She comes bearing bricks and cement, pipes and tractors, fishing nets, medicines, and food, all the necessities for an isolated existence; and returns to Tahiti with copra, dried coconut meat that is processed into oil, soap, and cosmetics.
Take the Smooth Jazz Cruise
Yesterday, I wrote about the most memorable cruise I ever took, aboard the Aranui to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. The cruise I’m most excited to take in the future is the Smooth Jazz Cruise. George Benson, David Sanborn, Norman Brown, and Peabo Bryson are just a few of the well-known jazz musicians performing on this winter’s two Smooth Jazz Cruises, January 10-17, 2016, and February 21-28, 2016. Leaving from Fort Lauderdale aboard a Holland America’s Eurodam, the cruise stops in the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Key West. But the real action happens at night when jam sessions from these great performers last until the wee hours of the morning. This is the only way to cruise!
Affordable Skiing in the Adirondacks
I grew up skiing little ole Maple Ski Ridge, just outside of Schenectady. Though I wouldn’t technically call it skiing. Every Saturday morning, my mother would drop me off with my ski class. I’d ski down once, straight to the lounge, where I’d order a hot chocolate and listen to Don McLean’s “American Pie” on the jukebox. Remember, this was long before Capilene and Gore-Tex products, when you froze your ass off in those plaid shirts and goofy overstuffed jackets. Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic or perhaps nostalgic for the ski lift prices of my youth, but upstate New York and the Adirondacks still offer some of the best deals in the country.
Big Tupper Resort in Tupper Lake re-opened in 2009 as a not-for-profit, no-frills, re-invigorated Adirondack ski resort run entirely by volunteers. With a 1,200-foot vertical drop and 17 trails of beginner-to-expert terrain, Big Tupper is the biggest bargain in the Adirondacks. Lift tickets cost only $15. Since the 1940s, Titus Mountain in Malone has been a hub for Adirondack skiing. Originally called Moon Valley, Titus has undergone some major changes in the past 70 years. Eight chairlifts, 27 trails, a ski school and a 1,200-foot vertical drop make Titus a great option for Canadians, as well as skiers and boarders from nearby Vermont. It’s also the third highest ski area in the entire Adirondacks, yet an all-day ski pass costs less than $40. Back at Maple Ski Ridge, a 4-hour ticket costs $32, with access to their new terrain park. Hot chocolate is extra.
Birdwatching at Mount Auburn Cemetery
On Friday, I’ll be waking up early to join Mass Audubon on a birdwatching outing at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Waking up early to visit a cemetery might sound like a macabre undertaking, but Mount Auburn is no ordinary cemetery. It was created on the outskirts of Boston in 1831 as America’s first rural or garden cemetery, a precursor to parks in urban areas. The city was yearning for a new aesthetic, a cemetery landscaped with rolling hills, ponds, flowering shrubs, and a mix of trees that provide shade not only for those in mourning, but for the entire public to enjoy their picnic lunch. It became a smashing success that would lay the groundwork for Frederick Law Olmstead to create Central Park in New York and the Emerald Necklace here in Boston some 40 to 50 years later.
Today, more than 200,000 visitors enter the gates of Mount Auburn annually. Sure, they might come to visit the final resting place of a relative or to stop and say thanks to a long list of luminaries in American arts and letters, like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Winslow Homer, and Buckminster Fuller, yet others like me simply follow in the footsteps of Roger Tory Peterson, the renowned ornithologist who once led bird walking tours here. The height of the spring migration for warblers usually happens around Mother’s Day each year. Bring your binocs and you might just spot the scruffy yellow chin of the divine Northern Parula warbler. To read more about Boston’s historic cemeteries, see my article from last summer’s American Way magazine, the inflight publication of American Airlines.
Hong Kong Week-Seeing Big Buddha and Tai O
It’s hard to grasp the immensity of Big Buddha until you’re high in the sky on a cable car looking down at this massive sculpture perched atop the hillside on Lantau Island. The sitting Buddha is one of the largest in the world at 112-feet high. It’s definitely worth checking out, not only to walk up the many steps that lead to the Buddha and see the neighboring Po Lin Monastery, but to take the wonderful cable car ride to the site. Once again, our concierge at the W steered us in the right direction by getting tickets to the cable car in advance and going for the standard car, not the deluxe one with a glass bottom. The line for the standard cable car was much shorter and frankly the vistas from the windows are magical enough. Take the subway to the Tung Chung station and you’ll see signs to walk over to the Npong Ping Cable Car. Wait in line with your timed ticket (try to arrive at least 20 minutes prior to your time) and then get ready for a 25-minute ride past the international airport to the mountainous silhouette that houses Big Buddha. Once you disembark, walk past the shops and climb the 268 steps to go face-to-face with the statue, which made its debut in 1993. Then wander over to the large monastery, where people were lighting incense and saying prayers for good fortune at the start of the Chinese New Year.
