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5 Favorite Travel Days in 2013, A Birthday Bash at the Basin Harbor Club, Vermont

Every time I visit Vermont, I wonder why I take the extra time and effort to go anywhere else. This was especially true last August when I went with my wife’s family to the Basin Harbor Club to celebrate a momentous birthday for my mother-in-law, Fran. Talk about an ideal location. Basin Harbor Club rests on the shores of mighty Lake Champlain, backed by the Adirondack Mountains on the New York side of the lake. On the Vermont side, you’re smack dab in the middle of that fertile breadbasket known as Addison Valley, one of my favorite places in North America for road biking. 
 
Waking up on my own birthday, my wife and I took off on the enticing network of roads that branch off from the Basin Harbor Club. We biked onto Basin Harbor Road, turning right on Jersey Street, the smell of manure wafting in the air as we passed numerous dairy farms. Soon we arrived at the Panton General Store and looked across the valley at the ridge of peaks that form the backbone of the Green Mountains. Then we headed along Arnold Bay Road to get exquisite vistas of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Everywhere you look is another spectacular view. 
 
After biking, we returned to the Basin Harbor Club to sea kayak and swim with the family, relaxing on the beach with a Switchback Ale in hand between outings. That night we danced to a band at the dining room playing “Orange Colored Sky” and other Nat King Cole standards. Not a bad way to top off a perfect day. 
 
 

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Backpacking the Fundy Footpath in New Brunswick

One of my favorite Canadian adventures was an assignment I had for Backpacker magazine and later, The Boston Globe, to backpack the Long Range Traverse in Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park. Led by Bob Hicks, owner of Gros Morne Adventures, the 4-day trek took us to spine-tingling vistas of landlocked fjords and atop snowcapped peaks where the caribou and moose far outnumber other backpackers. An equally impressive backpacking excursion is along one of the last stretches of wilderness on the Atlantic Seaboard in New Brunswick. Overlooking the Bay of Fundy, the Fundy Footpath is a moderate to strenuous 24-mile trek that crosses a river, skirts the beach, and goes up and down a dozen or so ravines, rewarding backpackers with breathtaking views of the rugged shoreline. Camping at primitive sites, moose, caribou, and bald eagle are common sightings. 
 

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One of My Favorite Covered Bridges in Vermont Washed Away Due to Hurricane Irene

I spent the morning with my family cleaning up my yard in suburban Boston after Hurricane Irene swept through the area on Sunday. There were more than 5 garbage cans filled with downed branches, including one massive limb that fell two feet from our car and could have caused extensive damage. All in all, we were fortunate as ole Irene was tired by the time she reached here. Vermont took the brunt of the storm in New England. I was saddened to hear that one of my favorite covered bridges in New England, the one that sits over the Ottauquechee River in Quechee, best seen while dining at the Simon Pearce restaurant, was swept away by surging water. In Rockingham, the 141-year-old Bartonsville Covered Bridge was washed away by the raging Williams River. Those bridges are irreplaceable.
 

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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.  

 
While burly crew members haul sacks of rice and other goods off the boat, guests get the opportunity to take guided hikes, go horseback riding, and visit the locals. Nuka Hiva is the island where a 22-year old sailor named Herman Melville jumped ship and wrote about his experience with cannibals in his first book, Typee. Paul Gauguin’s gravesite rests on the neighboring island of Hiva Oa. Sitting under a plumeria tree on a hillside over the bay, the stone is simply inscribed, “Paul Gauguin, 1903.” A three-hour cruise from Hiva Oa brought us to the verdant island of Fatu Hiva.  Here, we took a ten-mile hike into the stunning Bay of Virgins, the most majestic site of the voyage. Towering rock cliffs rises from the ocean’s depth, forming a v-shaped buttress that’s illuminated by the sun’s yellow-green rays. In the distance, serrated ridges, cloud-piercing peaks and impassable gorges stand as a monument to the centuries of volcanic fires that formed this fantastic landscape. That sight is hard to forget. 
 
On December 12th, the Aranui will be introducing a brand new ship, the Aranui 5. The 254-passenger ship features 103 spacious cabins, many with balconies. Public spaces include the Sky Bar with sweeping panoramic views, two lounges, library, video and computer room, outdoor swimming pool with a whirlpool, fitness room and massage room. Far more luxurious than the ship Lisa and I went on in 1994! The itinerary also includes a stop at Bora Bora on the return trip. Price starts at  $2,781 per person. 
 
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At Portland’s Drifters Wife, Believe the Hype

Located on the burgeoning Washington Avenue neighborhood in Portland, Drifters Wife has had a loyal following since its debut in 2016, two years prior to Bon Appetit Magazine naming it one of the country’s top 10 new restaurants. But now it’s so popular that food writer Alex Hall noted in yesterday’s Boston Globe “that in July, you’ve got a better shot at getting your kid into Harvard on a full scholarship than walking in and nabbing a table at Beard Award-decorated favorites like Fore Street or Drifters Wife.” You can reserve a table 30 days in advance, which is exactly what we did for a dinner this past Saturday, when we knew we were spending a night in Portland after our visit to Acadia National Park with friends. Those friends are from Laguna Beach, California, home to one of the best farmers markets on the West Coast. So they’re accustomed to getting a vast assortment of fresh vegetables year round. Maine, of course, has a much shorter growing season, but what Drifters Wife finds locally was more than enough to blow us all away. The choice of appetizers and entrees are limited, 4 or 5 appetizers and 3 entrees. But all were exceptional, from starters of grilled shishito peppers and a zesty arugula salad to entrees of a whole black bass and a tender chunk of hake with a clam sauce. Wash it down with one of their natural wines or a bottle of Peeper from Maine Beer Co. Then finish off the memorable meal with a dish of milk pudding topped with pistachio chunks called Malabi. Sublime. 

 
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Top 5 Travels of 2010, Strolling Kingsbrae Gardens, St. Andrews, New Brunswick

A good botanical garden has often been a highlight of my travels, from the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Capetown to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria. So I was excited to walk through the Kingsbrae Gardens in St. Andrews this past July, especially after being cooped up in Down East Maine dealing with three solid days of rain. Due to inclement weather, I had to cancel a cruise to see puffins at Machias Seal Island, a sea kayaking jaunt on Cobscook Bay, and an oceanfront hike at Culter Coast Public Lands. So when the sun finally came out on the ferry ride over from Eastport to New Brunswick, I could breathe again. Those breaths of fresh air soon became flower scented as I made my way through the wave of colors from flowers in bloom at Kingsbrae. Just across the Maine border, the quiet seaside town of St. Andrews is an undiscovered gem with Kingsbrae Gardens leading the way. Hummingbirds flew under the tall chestnut trees, water lilies dotted the fountains, and everywhere you looked, there was some whimsical sculpture nestled within the 27-acre grounds. I bent down and inhaled from the sweet-smelling rugosas and for a moment, everything was bliss.

 

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Bike the Charles River Bike Path

Boston takes its biking very seriously. When I lived in Cambridge, there were four bike shops within a three-block radius of my apartment. Just on Mass Avenue, I saw bikers with suits going to work, bikers with backpacks heading to school, and crazed riders who just seemed to enjoy weaving in and out of the car traffic. Needless to say, road biking is more than just a sport in this town, it’s a mode of travel. The 17.1-mile Charles River Bike Path runs from the Museum of Science along the Boston side of the Charles through the Esplanade to Watertown Square. The trail then crosses the river to the Cambridge side on its way back to the Museum of Science. Be on the lookout for Harvard, MIT, and BU crew teams that make their way up and down the Charles. Yet, it’s that iconic image of a single sculler slicing through the water, backed by the red-brick bridges and white steeples rising from the Harvard campus that locals and out-of-towners alike find so alluring. It’s like a waterbug skimming the placid surface of a pond, a tranquil setting in the midst of the urban buzz. 

 
 

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