A Memorable Summer Day in Toronto
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
Family owned and operated for over 30 years, Manitoba-based Frontiers North is best known for their polar bear explorations in Churchill. Come to northern Manitoba in October and November and you’re almost guaranteed to view polar bears in the day, the Northern Lights at night. Now the company has their sights set on summer. On their weeklong Big Five Safari in early August, you’ll still stop in Churchill to find polar bears and pods of beluga whales swimming in Hudson Bay. You’ll also visit the thick forests, mountains, meadows, and gorges of Riding Mountain National Park to view the herd of bison, moose, and black bear. Dates are August 2-9, 2017, and cost is $5,999 CAN including round-trip airfare from Winnipeg to Churchill, all lodging, meals, and activities like a zodiac ride on Hudson Bay. If you’re interested or have any questions, please contact ActiveTravels.
On the second day of our safari, I woke up at sunrise to the cacophony of high-pitched bird calls. French-press coffee arrived at my lodge at Stanley’s Camp and I drank a cup overlooking the high grasses of the Okavango Delta. After breakfast, our group of six was driven to a clearing where we soon stared in awe at a massive 11 ½-foot high, 5 to 6 ton elephant named Jabu. A gentle giant, Jabu was joined by two other elephants, the playful Thembi, and the oldest of the trio, 40 year-old Morula. The elephants were led by American Doug Groves and his South African-born wife, Sandi, two zoologists who adopted the threesome when culling operations in South Africa and Zimbabwe left them as orphans more than 25 years ago.
For most of the 20th century, this large plot of land in downtown Los Angeles was used as an immense Union Pacific railroad yard. When Union Pacific closed shop in 1989, the property laid dormant until 2001. As California State Parks hemmed and hawed about how best to convert the space into a park, artist Lauren Bon, backed by a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, had her own ideas. With the help of The Trust for Public Land, they excavated some 5,000 tons of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons and metals, planted more than a million corn seeds, and installed an irrigation system to create her artwork, Not a Cornfield. The large crop has now been harvested to make way for bike trails and fields of wildflowers. Los Angeles State Historic Park is still being landscaped, but close to half of the property is open to the public.
Talk about lobster rolls in Maine and you enter into a territorial catfight where everyone seems to choose their local favorite. I happen to love the affordable rolls at Quoddy Bay Lobster in Eastport, topped with a full claw, the chockful of meat served in a bun at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, and sitting at the pier at Beal’s, just outside Acadia National Park. But if you ask those same foodies where to find the best lobster roll with a view, the majority of Mainers will point you to the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth. Not far from where Winslow Homer set up shop on Prouts Neck, the picnic tables overlook that same boulder-strewn coastline Homer loved to paint. Order your food at the window of the rustic shack, wait for your number to be called, and grab a spot with vistas of Casco Bay, framed by two lighthouses. One of those lighthouses is the picturesque Portland Head Light, a favorite subject of artist Edward Hopper. For more information on the Lobster Shack, see the story I wrote for The Boston Globe.
Less than a 45-minute drive from Kilimanjaro International Airport, you reach Hatari Lodge on the northern edge of Arusha National Park. While other properties, like Legendary Lodge, nestled in the coffee plantations of Arusha, might be more luxurious, Hatari is the perfect welcome mat to Tanzania because it immediately gives you the feel of being in the African bush. Rooms are spacious and you wake up to monkeys jumping on your roof, families of warthogs running across the property and magnificent views of the sun rising above Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. At breakfast on the outdoor patio, you’ll spot your first giraffes and buffalos, then go on a game drive into the park to get close-up shots of elephants, hippos, and countless flamingoes. The lodge gives you the opportunity to canoe past the hippos, but a better option is to drive up the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro for a day hike and picnic. Hatari offers 9 rooms and is adding 3 new family suites this summer. It’s the ideal spot to start your tour of Tanzania, rest after the long flight, be immersed in the wildlife, and see mighty Kilimanjaro.