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Top 5 Dream Days in 2016, Biking with Wayne Curtis in New Orleans

Wayne Curtis is best known as author of “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails” (Crown, 2006) and as cocktail columnist for Atlantic Monthly. But my friendship with Wayne goes back at least a decade prior when we were both moaning about the egregious book contracts Frommer’s publisher forced upon us. Thankfully, those days are far behind us. I caught up with Wayne in 2008, when he had just moved to New Orleans. He brought my brother Jim and me to his favorite bars and bartenders and it resulted in this story for The Boston Globe. But I know that Wayne has a passion beyond cocktails, including architecture, urban renewal, jazz, and biking. All figured prominently in a 5-hour tour he designed for my family on our trip to Nola this past April.

We rented bikes at Michael’s on Frenchman Street and off we went to our first stop, Crescent Park, a brand new green space that hugs the Mississippi River for over a mile. Then we biked the streets of Bywater, one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city especially for young hipsters, where Wayne pointed out a massive church and convent that will soon open as a hotel. We pedaled through Louis Armstrong Park in the Tremé neighborhood and then ventured on the latest bike trail in town, the 2.6-mile Lafitte Greenway. We stopped at Parkway for the requisite roast beef and shrimp po’boys (please see my story on New Orleans dining in Virtuoso Traveler) before biking through the Tulane campus, glorious Audubon Park and its exquisite moss-covered Spanish oak trees, and past the homes of Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, and Archie Manning in the Garden District. A quick ride through the crowds in the French Quarter and we arrived back at our bike rental store 15 miles later. A perfect ride, especially since we ended with a set of live music and a beer across the street at The Spotted Cat. 
 

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Affordable European Flights Out Of Boston’s Logan Airport

This might be the summer to return to Europe, especially with the announcement last week that a number of low-cost airlines will soon start to offer flights from Boston’s Logan Airport. Thomas Cook Airlines will fly to Manchester, England, for as low as $312 one-way. AirBerlin will also begin offering flights to Dusseldorf, Germany. They join no-frills carriers like Norwegian Air and WOW, which started offering cheaper flights to Europe last summer. Adding to the fun is news that WestJet, the low-cost Canadian airline will soon offer flights to Halifax and Toronto. Time to take advantage of that favorable Canadian exchange rate?

 
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Memorable Spring Bike Rides, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Early Sunday morning and the only traffic on the 11-mile Crater Rim Trail was our little core of a dozen bikers. We rounded another bend and caught our first eye-widening view of Halema’uma’u Crater. Once home to a lake of lava in the 1920s, steam was now gushing forth over the large pit’s walls, permeating the air with the smell of sulfur. A trail of vapor shrouded the blackened basalt rock to give the lunarlike landscape an even more mysterious look. Halfway through our circular route, the harsh terrain was suddenly gone, replaced by a vivid green canopy of banana and tree ferns. A cool mist enveloped this tropical rain forest, polishing the long leaves with a layer of gloss and giving the chorus of birds something to sing about.  
 
Home to two of the most active volcanoes in the world, one would expect Hawaii’s southernmost island to be an angry land of deadened rock and rivers of red. Yet, I would soon realize that this ever-expanding island has a myriad of moods—the gentle rolling hills of Waimea, the inviting sand of the Kohala Coast, the almost impenetrable jungle-like interior of the Hamakua Coast, the enormity of two mountains that are nearly 14,000 feet, and yes, even a rain forest on the backside of a volcano.  
 
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Urban Adventures: Climb Piestewa Peak, Phoenix

Piestewa Peak, formerly known as Squaw Peak, is part of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. Piestewa is 2,608 feet high, with a total elevation gain from the Summit Trail of 1,190 feet. That might not sound high, but hikers of all levels can get a decent workout climbing this mountain and then be rewarded with excellent views of the city once they reach the top. Realize, however, you won’t be alone. According to the City of Phoenix, the Summit Trail is one of the most heavily used trails in the nation with 4,000 to 10,000 hikers per week. The reason why dogs and bicycles are not permitted.

 
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Wish You Were Here

Having spent half my childhood listening to Pink Floyd on my headphones, I’m incredibly excited by the following news. Starting tomorrow at London’s V&A Museum is a blockbuster exhibition on the band titled “Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains.” The show traces Pink Floyd’s origins from the 60s London psychedelic scene, when they were house band at the UFO nightclub, through landmark albums like “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall.” On display are scores of instruments, letters, items of clothing and other artifacts, as well as some impressively large installations, like a replica of London’s Battersea Power Station, the structure that appears with the flying pig on the cover of the band’s 1977 album “Animals.” Yes, the pig is also on display. There’s a hint of nostalgia to the show, which comes 50 years after the release of Pink Floyd’s first album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” recorded at Abbey Road Studios the same time The Beatles were creating “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in the next room. The exhibition will be at the V&A through October 1st. 

 
‘Animals’, album cover art, Roger Waters, 1977. © Pink Floyd Music Ltd
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Top 5 Beaches in New England to Be Active: Bike to Briggs Beach, Little Compton, Rhode Island

South of Route 195 and the gritty mill towns of Fall River and New Bedford lies countryside so fertile you’ll feel like you’re in Vermont. Stretching from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to Little Compton, Rhode Island, the area is known as the Heritage Farm Coast. It has the sunniest and most temperate climate in New England and thus the longest growing season. Dairy farms, corn fields, even vineyards, border the Sakonnet River as it washes into the Atlantic. Add the crescent of sand at Briggs Beach and you have the perfect country and coast ride. For a good 20-mile loop, take Route 77 south from Tiverton Four Corners to Sakonnet Point and return on backcountry roads past the village green of Little Compton.
 

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Favorite Travel Days 2011, Checking Out Miami’s Wynwood Walls

 

I can’t say I was thrilled with the idea of leaving the beachfront in Key Biscayne to head into downtown Miami to write a story on the emerging arts district called Wynwood. But when I stepped foot into the new restaurant, Wynwood Kitchen, and saw the freshly painted works of Shepard Fairey covering the bar walls, I was blown away. It only got better when I went outside and saw the display of international graffiti artists who came to Wynwood to showcase their works, lured to Miami by the country’s foremost contemporary art expo, Art Basel. Now I can’t wait to go back to Wynwood Walls and wow my friends with this discovery. 
 

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