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Stocking Stuffer No. 2—The Red Bandanna Travel Book, The Medicine of Traveling

I read this slender memoir/self-help travel book on my train ride back from New York to Boston. When I finished, I wish I had taken the book in sections, working on the assignments the author Joanne Socha had created at the end of most chapters. This is a unique book that’s meant to be savored at a slow pace. Socha is a travel advisor that I know through my affiliation with Virtuoso and Largay Travel. She knows firsthand the anxiety most people have before and during a trip. In fact, no one I know is stress-free when it comes to travel. I have bridge phobia and I’m neurotic about getting to the airport early to catch my flight. But that never stopped me nor does it stop Joanne, who follows her dream as she travels the globe, visiting the destinations on her wish list. What I loved about this book is that Socha shares her vulnerability, overcoming adversity, so when she’s finally snorkeling in the Maldives in a sublime blissful state, you realize she earned it. She deserved to be there and so do you. Just remember to do your homework! 

 

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Skiing and Luging Le Massif

With a height at the summit of only 2,645 feet, you would think Le Massif would be a pretty mellow mountain. And you’d be wrong. With the largest vertical drop east of the Canadian Rockies, more than half of the 53 trails are black diamond or expert.  That still leaves more than enough trails for beginners and intermediates to savor the expansive view of the St. Lawrence River that stands in front of you. Start the morning with a nice blue groomer like La Petite-Riviere, and at mid-mountain switch to the green L’ancienne, which snakes through the trees to the edge of the ski area. The vista from here is amazing. You can see the town of Baie-Saint-Paul and the snowcapped mountains in the background. Out to sea are the icy waters of the St. Lawrence and the island across from Baie-Saint-Paul, L’isle aux-Coudres. More experienced skiers should take advantage of the morning sun to head to the southern slope and sample steeper blacks like La Fenomene. Only the truly gifted should attempt the triple black diamond La Charlevoix. That’s where the Canadian national ski team comes to practice their downhill and slalom runs.
 
Le Massif also offers guests the rare chance to go rodeling or luging down a 7.5-kilometer trail on the northern face of the mountain. The exhilarating two-hour trip starts with a snowcat ride to the top of the trail, where you’re handed a small sled. Then you start cruising downhill, curving around banks, and sweeping over hills, all with that same glorious view of the St. Lawrence. I took the luge tour yesterday and it was a blast! You use your feet to brake and turn, stopping to walk uphill over streams and to take a break for a drink at a warming hut. The actual time on your sled is probably around 45 minutes, which went far too quickly. On that gondola ride back to the top, you’ll have the urge to sign up for the next luge tour and do it all over again. 
 
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Cruise Lines Help with Evacuations and Aid to Puerto Rico

Nearly a week after Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, many residents are in critical need of supplies. Food, water, and medicine are dwindling and the island is expected to be without power for several months. The international airport in San Juan continues to operate on limited emergency power with fewer than ten commercial flights to the US each day. Instead, Puerto Rico is relying on cruise ships to bring resources to the devastated island. Royal Caribbean Cruises cancelled its Adventure of the Seas cruise to utilize the ship for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. The ship arrived in San Juan yesterday, before heading to St. Thomas and St. Croix to aid in the evacuation and donate critical supplies to each destination. Adventure of the Seas will bring evacuees to Fort Lauderdale before returning to San Juan on October 6. Carnival, the world’s largest cruise line, also has been helping with the aid effort. Carnival ships are currently traveling to destinations in the Caribbean that have been impacted by both Hurricane Irma and Maria. 

 
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Cleveland Rocks!

Last Saturday, my wife and I picked up our son, Jake, at Oberlin College after a weeklong electornic music workshop. Then we hightailed it to Cleveland for the weekend to check out the city. Must-see stops were the Cleveland Museum of Art, whose impressive collection includes noteworthy pieces by van Gogh, Monet, El Greco, and Bierstadt. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we viewed the famous jacket worn by John Lennon on the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover, Michael Jackson’s glove, and my personal favorite, Notorious BIG’s jersey. 
 
Then there were the pleasant surprises like the West Side Market, the historic food market that served a tasty bratwurst on a bun for 4 bucks and a Montrealer crepe that made Jake happy, created with brisket and Emmentaler cheese. West Side Market is located in Ohio City, a cool neighborhood of restaurants and bars like Crop Bistro, set inside the cavernous walls of a former bank. Nearby is Great Lake Brewing Company, a microbrewery that helped gentrify the neighborhood of derelict buildings when it arrived on the scene in the 90s. Also loved the milk shakes and falafels at Tommy’s in Coventry Village and the Italian fare at Mia Bella in Cleveland’s Little Italy. We stayed at a great locale, the Glidden House, a former estate across the street from the Frank Gehry-designed building on the Case Western University campus. We were within easy walking distance of Little Italy, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the resplendent Cleveland Botanical Gardens, in full bloom upon our arrival. The only thing we missed was a baseball game at Jacobs Field, now called Progressive Field. The Indians were out of town. There’s always next time!
 
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Plaza Athenee Turns 100

Sleep deprived after our overseas flight into Paris, my family stepped under the signature red awning into the lobby of the Plaza Athenee and exhaustion was immediately replaced with a deep sense of comfort and relaxation. It wasn’t only the doorman who carried in your luggage.  No, it was the man behind the reception desk stating that our room was already available at this early hour, and the nearby concierge, standing at a desk twice as large as the reception area, already helping us with dinner reservations and museum passes. Then a woman escorted us upstairs to our room, a stately suite, where the antique rugs and furniture blended with the latest technology like flatscreen televisions. We opened up the French country windows to see a garden box planted with flowers. To our right was the Eiffel Tower standing in all its glory. Everything was bliss.

 
When the Plaza Athenee opened its doors on April 20, 1913, it quickly became the place to be for the Parisian personalities of the day. Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker and Rudolph Valentino made the crimson-trimmed palace their Parisian hot spot of choice. So did the fashion icon Christian Dior, who became so infatuated with the hotel, he opened his new boutique on the same street. Luminaries kept coming: Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper, Jackie Kennedy, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, and more. As it celebrates its 100th birthday, the hotel just gets better with age. You can read my full review of the property at FamilyVactionCritic. 
 
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Drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway…in Your Own Lamborghini

The drive to Whistler from Vancouver is on one of the most breathtaking stretches of roadway in North America, the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The drive heads north away from the ocean high into old-growth forest. Just outside Squamish, you can see rock climbers scurry up the cliffs and spot the white dome atop 8,787-foot Mount Garibaldi. Then you pass two impressive waterfalls, Shannon and Brandywine, before making a final ascent to the lofty peaks of Whistler. I always love taking this route on the open-air compartment of the Rocky Mountaineer’s “Whistler Sea-to-Sky Climb.” But next time I might have to take the train down after first driving to Whistler in a Lamborghini. Scenic Rush, a Vancouver-based tour company that started in 2014, offers four exotic driving experiences ranging in price from $495 to $1,295 CAD per person. The 3.5-hour Sea to Sky Experience also includes the opportunity to take the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish or a helicopter tour above the alpine peaks of the Coast Mountain Range. Be sure to spend a night or two in Whistler to try the longest zipline in North America, take the spectacular Peak 2 Peak Gondola over a 2.5-mile span from Whistler to Blackcomb, and try the summer bobsled.  
 
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Rob Barbour Leads Trip to Ethiopia

In March 2015, I had the privilege of traveling with Rob Barbour around northern Tanzania, with stops in Arusha and Arusha National Park, the southern Amboseli plains, Mwiba Wildlife Reserve, Ngorongoro Crater, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Kusini Camp in the southern Serengeti, the Grumeti Wildlife Reserve, and the Lamai section of the northern Serengeti, where the legendary wildebeest migration takes place across the Mara River. Rob not only serves as director of African operations for the safari operator, Epic Private Journeys, but he’s a native Tanzanian who formerly owned his own lodges in Lamai and Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania. It seems like every restaurant, hotel, and airport stop we made, he ran into an old friend. What was invaluable to me was the wealth of information he shared on taking a safari in Africa, knowledge accumulated over a lifetime. 

 
Now Rob is taking his expertise to Ethiopia, April 15-28, 2018. The 14-day adventure involves a range of accommodation styles and modes of transport, including trekking in the high plateaus of the Simien Mountains and the Bale Mountains. Ethiopia offers a diverse cultural experience from the Coptic Christians and medieval rock hewn churches in the north to the remote tribes of the Omo Valley. The country is also home to incredible wildlife including endangered Ethiopian wolves, Bale monkeys, Geladas and the Walia Ibex. Please contact ActiveTravels for pricing if interested. 
 

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