VIE Magazine December 2018

A JOURNEY TO

THE WILD and RUGGED WEST of IRELAND FAITH in the WAKE of DISASTER #LOVEMEXICOBEACH

TRAVEL GUIDES NASHVILLE, CHARLESTON, MIAMI, BIRMINGHAM, and PENSACOLA

December 2018

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY

TR AVEL EDITION CELEBR ATING TEN YEARS OF VOYAGING

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LindaMillerLuxury.com | (850) 974-8885 | Linda@TheSmileOf30A.com

Real Estate Broker in Rosemary Beach® ROSEMARY BEACH® is a registered trademark owned by Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC and is used with permission pursuant to a license from Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC.

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1. 1465 W. SCENIC HIGHWAY 30A

2. 100 SOUTH BRIDGE LANE 319-C

3. 188 ROUND ROAD

BLUE MOUNTAIN BEACH – $5,200,000

WATERSOUND BEACH – $1,865,000

ROSEMARY BEACH – $4,200,000

The best of both worlds in an up-and-coming neighborhood! This private oasis is over 6,000 square feet resting on 1.5 acres with 211 waterfront feet on a rare coastal dune lake overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

Over 2,000-square-foot Gulf-front luxury home with beach views for a mile! This is the best-priced one-level home in the area with an open floor plan, spacious master, large balcony, and garage.

Five-bedroom, six-bath home in the heart of Rosemary Beach. Includes a private courtyard with pool, boardwalk access to the beach, and a great carriage house. Experience the luxury and elegance of this walkable beach town.

4. 11 PARK ROW LANE

5. 427 EAST WATER STREET

WATERCOLOR – $3,795,000

ROSEMARY BEACH – $8,900,000

Enjoy Gulf-front and lakefront views through “the stand” of pines on Western Lake. Like Park Avenue on 30A, this home has top-of-the-line amenities on the exclusive south side of WaterColor.

This recent total renovation is in the perfect location, with fabulous Gulf views and just steps to Main Street and the beach.

Includes a lap pool, wraparound porches, and carriage house over a two-car garage.

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Celebrating 20 Years in Business on Scenic Highway 30A! Linda Miller is the Broker of Rosemary Beach Realty on Scenic Highway 30A. With 20 years of experience and wisdom as well as extensive knowledge of the local market, she has been the number one agent since 2015. Miller brokered the largest sale on 30A of $12.5 million in Rosemary Beach and has generated over $425 million in career sales with an average sale of $2,340,000.

When you own property on 30A, you’ll be smiling too!

LindaMillerLuxury.com | (850) 974-8885 | Linda@TheSmileOf30A.com ROSEMARY BEACHÂŽ is a registered trademark owned by Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC and is used with permission pursuant to a license from Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC.

Resilient.

Relentless.

Rebuilding.

Fulfilling Dreams Since 1976

#PanhandleStrong The devastation left by Hurricane Michael has left few unscathed in its wake. There is much to do, and our recovery will require a long-term commitment to rebuilding the area we love and call home. As difficult as it is to view the damage incurred, we have been heartened by the rapid response of many outsiders who are working tirelessly to reestablish our infrastructure.

We have met neighbors we never knew. We have hugged, loved, and cared for each other like never before. We have all learned what we think of most in life when everything is in peril, and it is not the things that can be repaired or replaced. Our area is hurting in many ways, but we will recover and we will be better than ever. Let’s continue to love and support one another and let’s be thankful for what we have today.

— Edward San Juan efsa nj ua n.com

TAP BY TODD POWNELL Trunk Show and Personal Appearance November 8th & 9th | 11 am – 7 pm ( 8 5 0 ) 8 3 7- 8 8 2 2 | G R A N D B O U L E VA R D | S H O P T H E J E W E L . C O M

In this issue On the Cover

Los Cabos, anyone? Pack your bags and escape to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula for a relaxing getaway at Las Ventanas al Paraíso, a Rosewood Resort. With a focus on all things wellness, Las Ventanas al Paraíso—which means “the windows to paradise”—transports guests to a serene oasis both physically and spiritually as they indulge in world-class spa treatments, enjoy six superb dining outlets, partake in a host of resort activities, and explore the beautiful surroundings and cultural traditions of San José del Cabo. Don’t forget to check out sunset from the beachside infinity pool! Visit RosewoodHotels. com/en/Las-Ventanas-Los-Cabos to learn more or book your trip.

Photo courtesy of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts

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IF YOU’RE HEADED TO THE BIG EASY, STAY IN STYLE WHEN YOU BOOK A ROOM AT THE ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS.

FEATURE 86

102 A Taste of Amsterdam

Hurricane Michael: Faith in the Wake of Disaster

110 Off the Beaten Track in Ancient Egypt

VOYAGER 23

Hipster Chic in NOLA

24 Music City: Nashville Is Where It’s at!

38 Miami: Feel the Rhythm. Feel the Beat.

122 The Gift of Adventure: Hiking Grand Canyon’s Most Dangerous Trail

50 The Boston Top Ten: What to See and

128 Postcards from China: The Huangshan Mountains

58 Sophisticated South: Charleston, the

CONNEMARA LIFE 135

70 The Pristine Beaches of COLA 2 COLA®

136 Reel It In: The Great Fishing Houses of Ireland

Where to Eat

World’s Favorite City

C’EST LA VIE CURATED COLLECTION: THE TRAVELER 92 LE MONDE 95

PUBLISHED BY

116 Ace of the South: Art Deco Meets

142 From Field to Fork: Connemara Lamb 146 Máthair Conamara

AU REVOIR! 151

96 Up, Up, and Away! Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

TheIdeaBoutique.com info@theideaboutique.com V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 9

C O M I N G FA L L 2 0 1 8 !

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Shoppes at Inlet, 13625 Emerald Coast Pkwy East Inlet Beach, FL 32461 (850) 837-5563

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CREATIVE TEAM FOUNDER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LISA MARIE BURWELL Lisa@VIEmagazine.com

FOUNDER / PUBLISHER GERALD BURWELL Gerald@VIEmagazine.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR JORDAN STAGGS Jordan@VIEmagazine.com

CHIEF COPY EDITOR MARGARET STEVENSON CONTRIBUTING WRITERS SALLIE W. BOYLES, HARRY CAMPBELL, SLOANE STEPHENS COX, DALE FOSTER, NICHOL AS GRUNDY, STEVE L ARESE, SARA LISS, MARGARET LITTMAN, TIFFANY LOPINSKY, ANDREW MARSHALL, TORI PHELPS, CLIODHNA PRENDERGAST

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY ART DIRECTOR TRACEY THOMAS Tracey@VIEmagazine.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS OLIVIA PIERCE HANNAH VERMILLION

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS BRETT BULTHUIS, ANDREW CEBULK A, CHIRAJUTI, RUURD CORPEL, KOBBY DAGAN, DANIELLE DAVIL A, BILL FAUTH, PETE FOLEY, FOTO-SELECT, MARK FURNISS, JACK GARDNER, CATHY GILL, STEVEN GRAY, NICHOL AS GRUNDY, EMILY HALL, ALEX HUTCHINSON, STEVE L ARESE, LITTLENY, TIFFANY LOPINSKY, MARIAKRAYNOVA, PAUL MARSHALL, MIA2YOU, ANGELINA PEACE, PAJOR POWEL, CLIODHNA PRENDERGAST, ROMONA ROBBINS, JOE VAUGHN, JAY YUAN, BEYOND CONTENT, ESB PROFESSIONAL, MARIA CAVALI FOTOGRAFIE, SHUTTERSTOCK

ADVERTISING, SALES, AND MARKETING DIGITAL MARKETING DIRECTOR MEGHN HILL BRANCH OFFICE MANAGER – IRELAND SHARON DUANE ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ABIGAIL RYAN BRAND AMBASSADOR LISA MARIE BURWELL Lisa@VIEmagazine.com

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER TIM DUTROW DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR SHANNON QUINL AN

VIE is a registered trademark. All contents herein are Copyright © 2008–2018 Cornerstone Marketing and Advertising, Incorporated (Publisher). All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher. VIE is a lifestyle magazine and is published twelve times annually on a monthly schedule. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of the Publisher. The Publisher and its advertisers will not be held responsible for any errors found in this publication. The Publisher is not liable for the accuracy of statements made by its advertisers. Ads that appear in this publication are not intended as offers where prohibited by state law. The Publisher is not responsible for photography or artwork submitted by freelance or outside contributors. The Publisher reserves the right to publish any letter addressed to the editor or the Publisher. VIE is a paid publication. Subscription rates: Printed magazine – One-year $29.95; Two-year $54.95. Subscriptions can be purchased online at www.VIEmagazine.com.

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Editor’s Note

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD! Find Your Piece of Heaven on Earth

It’s better to give than receive.

—Acts 20:35 When you really think about how many amazingly beautiful places there are in the world, it is astounding! We have curated our favorite travel features from over the past decade for you to enjoy, to inspire new bucket lists, or just to marvel at in gratitude and see how lucky we are to be alive. We have big news to announce from two of our brand advertising partners and Florida neighbors, Alys Beach and Seaside: Architectural Digest recently announced its fifty most beautiful small towns in America, with the famed Alys Beach ranking third and Seaside eighteenth! Make plans to visit Scenic Highway 30-A where both towns are located and where you can find some of the best beaches in the world. We truly do live in paradise.

Life is beautiful, but we all need to remember this fact as things do not always go according to our plans, hopes, and desires. Gratitude is key. I am a practicing student of walking in gratitude. It always lightens and brightens my day, and I am forever grateful for this gift. We are forever grateful that VIE headquarters, located about thirty miles west of where Hurricane Michael made landfall on October 10, is still standing and that we all have our homes intact. To say this storm has been a hardship for our neighbors to the east would truly be an understatement. Please consider helping with the various hurricane relief programs when you read this issue’s feature story, “Faith in the Wake of Disaster,” and give as big and as deeply as you are able. Churches, businesses, chefs, homemakers, and those who could cut trees out of the way have poured into the areas ravaged by the storm to help.

Seeing this has been heartwarming and inspiring and has restored my hope in the kindness of humanity.

When someone else’s words are better able to express what the collective mind-set has been for many of us living and loving the Panhandle of Florida since Hurricane Michael left its mark, I believe it’s important to share those words. I saw many social media posts of horrific images of loss and destruction in Panama City, Mexico Beach, Lynn Haven, Port Saint Joe, and many other places—and then there were the posts about how our area could help. Angela Ragsdale, who co-owns The 30A Company with her husband, Mike, had this to say a few days after the hurricane:

You can travel the world for experiences that delight and give you adventure or a long-needed respite—but you can also travel to help those in need, and that is what so many have done and need to continue doing to help rebuild what was lost. Creating heaven on earth might actually mean going to places of destruction rather than to places of beauty.

To Life!

“Those of us in the 30A area are blessed and lucky beyond measure. I’m sure we’ve all offered our prayer or energy for and of gratitude and thanks. Now, we turn our attention to our neighbors. We all have talents—talents different from others and the same as some. Pick one or all of yours and give them humbly and freely. No gesture is too small. Those who pray, PRAY hard. Those who build, BUILD! Those who can cook meals, COOK! Even if that means bringing a hot meal to one of the families in the trenches. It all will trickle down!”

Top: The Gulf Green in Alys Beach, Florida, which was recently listed as number three on the Architectural Digest list of Most Beautiful Small Towns in America.

Photo courtesy of Alys Beach VIE September/October 2015, The Home & Garden Issue Bottom: The iconic New Urban town of Seaside, Florida, is known throughout the architecture community as a breakthrough in walkable town planning.

—Lisa Marie Burwell Founder/Editor-In-Chief

Photo by Sky Pro Imaging VIE July/August 2016, The Modern Minimalist

V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 17

local experts GLOBAL REACH

2 ND ROW HOM E C LOSE TO ALYS

CL ASSI C COASTAL RETREAT CO M ES R E A DY TO E N T E RTA I N

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OUR FEATURED EXPERTS 30A Blue Mountain Beach | 30Avenue Inlet Beach | City Market Bayside Destin EACH OFFICE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED.

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La conversation

INSTA-GRATEFUL WE LOVE TO COMMUNICATE AND INTERACT WITH OUR READERS! AND WE LOVE IT EVEN MORE WHEN THEY PROUDLY SHARE THEIR STORIES AND POSE WITH VIE FOR A CLOSE-UP! THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT: SHARING, LOVING, AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. WE THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AND WE APPRECIATE YOU!

@hionlife_2.0 LOVE this interview and photo shoot with @tytryone (not only stylist of @beyonce, also stylish as h*** himself in our Swirl Coat) and @dapperafrika. Stylish stylists making art with heart. Photo by @julianwhitephoto

@e.f.sanjuan Our doors (and windows) are open!

The E.F. San Juan window and door sales and service teams are operating at full capacity. Thank you for your outpouring of support for our business and community after Hurricane Michael. Project: Private Residence, Santa Rosa Beach, FL. Photo by @romonarobbinsreynolds for @viemagazine

@bay_oyster Enjoyed this evening at @viemagazine’s VIE Speaks event at the Vineyard with @peatandpearls. So nice meeting @lisamburwell!

@csteien PINK PARADISO by @juliaclancey as seen in @viemagazine October 2018. Illustration

by Caroline Steien

Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation Want to know what our #MotivationMonday is today and every day? Our benefiting charities and the incredible work they’re doing for the children in our community. Congrats to the team at Food For Thought Outreach Inc. for a great article in VIE magazine!

LET’S TALK! Send VIE your comments and photos on our social media channels or by emailing us at info@viemagazine.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts. They could end up in the next La conversation!

@thesouthernatelier We loved cohosting @peatandpearls 2018 and celebrating Scotch, oysters, and all things Southern!

Photo by @cameraandflask

VIEmagazine.com KUT from the Kloth All that is good does glitter!

Find out why in the latest edition of VIE magazine.

V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 21

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SEE THE WORLD

Many wouldn’t think of Ireland as a beach destination. Sure, the beaches there are not tropical—but they’re no less lovely. The Emerald Isle is home to world-class surfing, fishing, island tours, and more. This stunning shot was captured at Glassilaun Beach, a quiet destination situated between Killary Bay and the town of Renvyle in the country’s western Connemara region. Visit VIEmagazine.com and search “Connemara” for many more beautiful photos and stories from the west of Ireland.

Photo by Mark Furniss

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NASHVILLE IS WHERE IT'S AT!

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By Margaret Littman

ashville— Nowville, It City. Nashville’s popularity has been on the rise in recent years. The population is booming (it recently surpassed Memphis as the state’s largest city) and tourism is increasing, thanks to new hotels, restaurants, and shops. With all of that comes a host of new monikers highlighting how hip the Tennessee capital is. But its older and better-known name is the one that still rings the right tune: Music City.

Settled on the banks of the Cumberland River in 1779, Nashville is a city that has always been built on a dream and a song. Even some of its earliest leaders, such as Congressman Davy Crockett, were known for their fiddle-playing and storytelling as much as their governing.

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music. That’s okay, because not only is it omnipresent, it’s also almost always good. The joke (funny because it is true) in Nashville is that your waiter is a better guitar player than you will ever be. Don’t be surprised if he has a Grammy.

his reputation crossed the ocean in the 1870s, when the Fisk Jubilee Singers, students from Fisk University, embarked on a world tour to raise money for their little school. Queen Victoria was so impressed with their harmonies she proclaimed they must hail from Music City. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, who still perform today, brought the name back with them, and since then Nashville has cemented itself as a place to hear music, write music, and live music.

If you think today’s Music City means twangs, cowboy hats, and rhinestones, well, you’re not exactly wrong, so much as limited. Yes, Nashville is home to the Grand Ole Opry (since 1925), and it can be hard to resist the siren song of a well-designed cowboy boot bedecked with a little bling. But Music City, both its roots and its future, is more about the songs and the stories they tell. Nashville is less focused on the stars who perform than on the songwriters behind the stars, the people who pen the lyrics and craft the stories themselves.

(And the stars who live here love Nashville for that, for the way they get to live here and be part of the community, rather than just a stop on a celebrity home tour.)

That is what the songwriters might call Nashville’s “hook,” the part of the song that you just can’t get out of your head. Download some favorites and listen as you explore the melodies, choruses, harmonies, and arrangements of one of the country’s best cities.

Melodies: WHERE TO LISTEN

The bulk of an itinerary in Nashville needs to be devoted to hearing live music. No matter where you go, you’ll find it. Locals sometimes lament that it’s hard to find a place to eat and talk without live 26 | DECE MBER 2018

Just south of downtown is 3rd and Lindsley, the kind of place you’d miss if you were driving by and not looking for it. From the exterior, it looks like it might be an office supply warehouse. But inside is a venue that books some of the best acts visiting Music City, from acoustic songwriters to country to pop to blues. On Monday nights, 3rd and Lindsley welcomes the Time Jumpers to the stage.

This Western swing band is a fun, high-energy jam

NASHVILLE IS LESS FOCUSED ON THE STARS WHO PERFORM THAN ON THE SONGWRITERS BEHIND THE STARS. session of musicians. The lineup changes based on who is on tour that week, but you can almost always count on hearing Vince Gill (wearing a T-shirt and jeans) on vocals and guitar. And at twenty dollars, the ticket price won’t break you, so you can see plenty of those shows.

The Bluebird Cafe in Green Hills is a legendary venue where the songwriters, not the stars, test their

lyrics and share their work. This is a place you’ll be shushed for talking during the show, but you’ll be so mesmerized, you won’t want to anyway. Because the space is small—and the Bluebird’s reputation is big—tickets are hard to come by. Check the website for the advance reservation directions.

There are plenty of other authentic music venues. The Station Inn in the Gulch, another blink-and-you’llmiss-it spot, is a cinder block holdout in a sea of highrises. The Listening Room in SoBro offers an intimate experience for hearing songwriters and their lyrics.

Nab a ticket in advance and you’ll get to experience songwriters “in the round,” where each takes a turn playing their lyrics for audiences. The Listening Room has the added advantage of being within walking distance of the downtown fun, so you get the contemplative acoustic sounds before heading out to Lower Broadway.

For more than ninety years, the Grand Ole Opry has been broadcasting its live radio show on WSM. Catch one of these variety-style shows; each thirty-minute act has different performers, from gospel to bluegrass to mainstream country. Yes, the jokes can be a little corny, but the Opry is a time-honored tradition that helped make country music the megagenre that it is. This is an experience that shouldn’t be missed. In recent years, stars from the Nashville TV show (formerly on ABC and now airing on CMT) have made regular appearances on the hallowed Opry stage, ushering in a new generation of fans.

Down the street from the Opry House at the Texas Troubadour Theatre is the Midnite Jamboree, the second-oldest radio show in the country. Tapings of live shows take place at ten on Saturday nights (they air at midnight, hence the name), are free, and usually include a signing session with the guest host.

If you like your music louder and your dance floors more crowded, you’ll want to check out the honkytonks along Lower Broadway. In the early days of the Opry, honky-tonks on the north side of Broadway had doors in the back so musicians could drink at the bar until their set time and then run across the alley into the Ryman’s side door. Today the second

Above: Visitors can brush up on their gold-record history at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Fifth Avenue.

entrances are convenient for crowd control. Honkytonk highlights include Robert’s Western World and Nudie’s Honky Tonk (named for a famous Nashville tailor, not for a state of undress). Nudie’s has many signature rhinestone suits framed on the walls (as well as his old Cadillac hanging from the wall. Yes—a car on a wall. Welcome to Nashville).

Harmonies: WHERE TO PLAY

To get some context for all those live performances, head to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Even if you think you don’t like country, you’ll appreciate learning about the genre’s roots

from lots of interactive displays, and you’re sure to hear songs and stories that pluck your nostalgia strings. The Hall of Fame and Museum is downtown, but ticket packages include a bus ride and a tour to nearby Music Row and historic RCA Studio B. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Studio B was the place to be.

More than thirty-five thousand songs were recorded here, including many by Elvis Presley. The studio’s acoustics led to the creation of the “Nashville Sound,” a song styling with rich background vocals. This period helped the city transition away from what some felt were the hillbilly roots of the Opry-style country music and built the foundation of Nashville as a recording town. Today the local economy is strong, thanks to its breadth of music industry businesses—not just live music performances, but all the behind-the-scenes work that makes music happen. The tour bus drivers for the bands are trained here, videos are made here, and sets are designed here.

Photo courtesy of Nashville CVC Inset: The Listening Room Cafe features live music nightly and has hosted some of country music’s greatest songwriters.

Photo by Danielle Davila Opposite: The Station Inn is regarded as the go-to spot to hear some good old-fashioned Nashville bluegrass.

Photo courtesy of Nashville CVC V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 27

Voyager

THE BLUEBIRD IS A PLACE YOU'LL BE SHUSHED FOR TALKING DURING THE SHOW, BUT YOU'LL BE SO MESMERIZED, YOU WON'T WANT TO ANYWAY.

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Famous even before its appearances on the hit television series Nashville, the Bluebird Cafe is perhaps the most renowned of the city’s songwriters-inthe-round listening venues.

Photo courtesy of Nashville CVC Inset: Jack White’s Third Man Records opened its Nashville location in 2009 with a record store, novelties lounge, label offices, photo studio, and the world’s only live music venue with directto-acetate recording capabilities.

Photo courtesy of Third Man Records V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 29

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hile at the Hall of Fame, spend time in the Hatch Show Print shop on the first floor of the museum building.

Since 1879, this letterpress print shop has made concert posters and other signage that has become as iconic to Nashville as the city itself. Hatch is still a working print shop; depending on the day you visit, you can learn how letterpress works, buy both past and current posters, and visit the Haley Gallery (also in the lobby) where historical reprints and new works are sold.

Just down the street from the Hall of Fame is the Johnny Cash Museum, a small private museum with an impressive collection of memorabilia from and about the Man in Black. While the Hall of Fame and Museum provides a breadth of information about country music as a whole and its evolution, this institution allows you in-depth learning about one of its most prominent figures.

When it is time to venture away from downtown, there are plenty of options for a good time. The Opry Mills mall is now home to Madame Tussauds Nashville, an outpost of the famous London attraction, themed around music. The attraction is more than a gallery of lifelike wax figures (although their realness is uncanny), as it offers interactive options for designing concert T-shirts and singing on stage with the replicas of music’s biggest names. There’s even a replica of Studio B, complete with Elvis.

Aside from Music City, one of Nashville’s other nicknames is the Athens of the South, initially earned because of its commitment to education. Today there are more than twenty-five colleges, universities, and community colleges in town. These include Vanderbilt University; Belmont University, which has become a leader in the music industry; and Fisk University, a 30 | DECE MBER 2018

Visit the Johnny Cash Museum for an inside look at the musician’s legendary career and wayward life.

Inset: Tànsuõ means “to explore” in Cantonese, and guests at this contemporary Chinese eatery will explore a range of delicious fare

by Chef Chris Cheung and his team.

Photo by Emily Hall

private historically black college (home to the aforementioned Fisk Jubilee Singers). Nashville was the first Southern city to create a public school system. Fisk is also home to the Carl Van Vechten Gallery, an art institution established in 1949 when painter Georgia O’Keeffe donated a collection of works from her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, to the school. This collection, which now rotates between Fisk and Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, gives the school one of the leading modern art collections in the country. While on campus, stop to see murals by Aaron Douglas, a leader in the Harlem Renaissance who taught at Fisk and established its art history program.

But there’s one landmark that helps keep the Athens of the South name in use, and that’s the full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon, which anchors Centennial Park, one of the city’s great parks. Originally built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, the Parthenon is a gathering place, an art gallery, and, after dark, a beacon of light against the night sky.

Inside, a gilded forty-two-foot statue of Athena makes a commanding presence.

For fun, locals like to head to The Band Box, located in the right field of First Tennessee Park, where the city’s minor league baseball team, the Nashville

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(although “vegetable” is loosely used, as macaroni and cheese is often counted as such). Nashville was also known for hot chicken, an über-spicy delicacy of pan-fried chicken brined in eye-watering spice.

Culinary sophistication didn’t seem to be one of the notes Nashville could hit.

Sounds, play. This outdoor bar/restaurant/playground has food and drink the likes of which you don’t typically find in a stadium, plus board games, ping pong, shuffleboard, and access to a mini golf course—all inside the baseball stadium where, yes, you can actually watch the game if you so desire.

Third Coast Comedy Club in historic Marathon Village has affordable stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy shows.

Choruses: WHERE TO EAT

For years, even those who touted Nashville as an innovative place for music and creativity and dreams would complain that its food scene was strictly one note.

The city had lots of delicious Southern food, particularly at meat-and-three eateries, cafeteria-style restaurants where diners choose one meat and three vegetables

But Nashville’s next verse is that of a foodie town.

World-class chefs moved to Tennessee to open their own restaurants; local chefs were nurtured and given the same creative inspiration and freedom as their musical counterparts. Tànsuŏ, (which means “to explore” in Cantonese and is roughly pronounced without the u) is one of the new standouts, with updated twists on traditional Chinese street food dishes and inventive cocktails. Tànsuŏ was developed by Morph Hospitality Group, the team behind Chauhan Ale & Masala House, which is celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan’s restaurant in the same building.

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The flagship store of Reese Witherspoon’s lifestyle brand, Draper James, is a can’t-miss stop for shoppers looking for Southern style—and sweet tea!

Inset: Peter Nappi offers premium leather goods, handcrafted Italian shoes, boots, hats, and much more in a rustic industrial setting in Nashville’s Germantown.

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hen James Beard Award–winning chef Sean Brock opened Husk Nashville (an outpost of his Charleston restaurant) in Rutledge Hill in 2013, it helped to usher in a new level of food reverence in Nashville.

Pinewood Social and Bastion are two local favorites from Strategic Hospitality, the team that also owns The Band Box and some other restaurants, from the high end to the Lower Broad beer-drinking variety.

Chords: WHERE TO SHOP

It may not have the reputation of New York or LA when it comes to shopping, but Nashville’s retail scene has matured along with everything else in Music City.

In addition to Hatch Show Print (mentioned above) for one-of-a-kind letterpress, there are great boutiques for clothes, souvenirs, and, of course, boots.

In the 12South neighborhood, there are two celebrityhelmed shops (plus many others). A modern general store with a twist, White’s Mercantile is owned and stocked by singer/songwriter (and Hank Williams’s granddaughter) Holly Williams. Many of the products are her finds from time spent out on tour. Just north on the same side of the street is Draper James, the flagship store for Reese Witherspoon’s clothing line. The shop is as Southern as Witherspoon—you’ll be greeted with a glass of sweet tea when you walk in. Further north on the same street is the newest location for Peter Nappi, the Nashvillebased premium leather footwear company that works with Italian artisans to create exquisite boots, shoes, and leather goods. Local purse maker Ceri Hoover has delicate leather goods in her 12South shop as well.

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D on’t skip Third Man Records, the independent record store (and record label) owned by megamusician Jack White. It’s one of the best places in town to find noncountry recordings, and the atmosphere and recording booth are beyond description.

Arrangements: WHERE TO SLEEP

After all that exploration, you’ll need somewhere to crash. The “problem” is that many of Nashville’s hotels are worthy of tours of their own. You’re not going to want to sleep, particularly at the new 21c Museum Hotel. The building includes 10,500 square feet of contemporary art on display, much of it challenging and groundbreaking and different from anything else in Nashville.

The Thompson Nashville offers sleek, minimalist design coupled with maximum service and a location 34 | DECE MBER 2018

in the heart of all the action of the Gulch. Tall windows afford views of the energy and opportunities Nashville offers. For a home-away-from-home experience, SoBro Guest House is merely blocks from downtown. The hotel is in a renovated apartment building, so you get creature comforts such as a full kitchen (ask ahead of time and the staff can stock it for you), a record player with vinyl to get you in the mood to hear Music City, free parking, and board games to play with the family when you are in the mood to chill out.

Together those elements, no matter the tempo, come together for a song worth putting on repeat in your playlist. Welcome to Music City.

For more suggestions on making the most of your time in Nashville, check out VisitMusicCity.com.

Rest your head at SoBro Guest House, an all-suite boutique hotel that has all the comforts of home in downtown Nashville.

Photo by Beyond Content Inset: The new 21c Museum Hotel offers a unique hotel experience. The property features a contemporary art museum, a gourmet restaurant, and more.

Photo courtesy of Nashville CVC

DAY TRIP: Tracing the Region’s Stories

One of the country’s most epic road trips, intertwined with music and American history and food, is the Natchez Trace Parkway. The northern terminus of this 444-mile National Park Service roadway is in Nashville, just steps from the legendary Loveless Cafe (and its selfieworthy neon sign).

The parkway is a paved, scenic tour of the route buffalo, Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and others took from the Mississippi River inland to Nashville. Today it provides commercial-free access (there are no billboards or gas stations or other distractions on the road) to explore the route of the Americana Music Triangle and visit Civil Rights and Civil War monuments, plus places to hike and bike. To do the route properly

takes more than a day, but some of the highlights are an easy detour from Nashville, having you back in town in time for dinner: • Franklin, a suburb with a charming downtown strip of restaurants and shops and many Civil War sites • Leiper’s Fork, country living meets country music, in a tiny outpost of antique stores and pickin’ corners • Meriwether Lewis Death and Burial Site, a monument to the explorer along the Trace

Learn more and start planning your trip at VisitMusicCity.com.

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Ocean Drive is an iconic strip running along the Art Deco District of Miami’s South Beach neighborhood.

Photo by LittleNY / Shutterstock

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Feel the Rhythm. Feel the Beat.

BY SARA LISS

city brimming with optimism, bronzed bodies, and mojitos.

Home to Art Basel, a celebchef-studded food festival, and countless DJ-fueled parties. An international city of the fabulous and the almost fabulous, Miami continues to seduce with its sultry mix of Latin culture, its newfound food fame, and a healthy dose of art.

But beyond the glitz and glamour, there’s more to our humid slice of paradise than what those hip-hop videos would have you believe. First things first.

There are two parts of Miami: the mainland, which doesn’t border the ocean but does border Biscayne Bay; and Miami Beach, that swath of barrier island that faces the Atlantic and is what most visitors consider the destination. Both are equally enticing and both beg to be explored and experienced.

There is Vegas-like excess here, and it would be easy to dismiss this city as the place where billionaires go to retire with their trophy wives and sports cars. But that would be missing the Miami for the vice. The beach remains as pristine as ever, with great public parks providing tots a window into the gin-colored waves. And the atmosphere is undeniably pleasant.

A typical weekend could include a morning swim in

the Atlantic, a lunch of stone crabs and key lime pie, and a day spent browsing local art galleries. And in the span of twenty-four hours, all that’s wonderful about South Florida can be had. Nestled between the Florida Keys and Fort Lauderdale, Miami is part laid-back coastal village, part opulent jet-setting destination. If visitors are lucky, they’ll get to experience both.

Downtown

What was formerly a deserted urban landscape when the suits went home for the night is now a sophisticated backdrop to swanky new hotels and chef-focused restaurants. Centered on the busy thoroughfare of Brickell Avenue, the dream of a bustling, cosmopolitan Miami comes to fruition with spots like the sleek Brickell City Centre. This mixeduse high-rise, designed by local firm Arquitectonica, features an innovative and environmentally friendly Climate Ribbon, which acts as a temperature regulator. The complex includes an open-air mall with retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Intermix and an enviable lineup of restaurants that are already proving a hit with the well-heeled downtown crowds.

One of three towers sprouting from the massive BCC development, the posh EAST, Miami hotel boasts a buzzing fortieth-floor rooftop bar called V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 39

Voyager Sugar, where Blade Runner-esque views provide a backdrop to cocktails such as the Smoked Apple Ol’ Fashioned, made with Fuji apple bitters and rum, and Asian small plates like kinilaw, a Filipinostyle ceviche made with coconut milk, calamansi, and chili.

The cloud-grazing condo buildings are slowly filling up with young professionals who populate alfresco happy hours, including the sixteenth-floor shindig at Area 31 that lasts from five until midnight on Friday nights. Stiletto-heeled revelers sip five-dollar glasses of prosecco and nibble on pork belly steamed buns as they plot their evening adventures.

Wynwood

Just north of downtown lies Wynwood, also known as the gritty gallery district. This chunk of land in between downtown and the Design District is now home to the city’s most exciting neighborhood, with bustling restaurants and a diverse shopping scene. On the second Saturday of each month, the area’s galleries are open to the public and the streets are busy with roving art enthusiasts, food truck meet-ups, and the occasional outdoor concert.

Young artists get their start at Butter Gallery, while thought-provoking works can be seen at the Rubell Family Collection.

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troll through Wynwood Walls, known as Miami’s most Instagrammed place; the outdoor “gallery” is a profusion of artwork by graffiti artists and muralists. Live music and eclectic eats can be found at the Wynwood Yard, an all-day outdoor hangout spot that acts as a culinary incubator for food entrepreneurs (the Della Test Kitchen food truck is wildly popular for their vegan menu) and a cultural hub with a rotating lineup of musical performers, free yoga, crafting workshops, and talks. There are shows weekly (check out the venue’s Instagram page @wynwoodyard to stay updated) that range from reggae to folk to Latin. Shakira even stopped by for a surprise show one time.

The Art Scene

Art Basel barreled into Miami Beach about fifteen years ago and forever changed the cultural landscape with its mix of high-end art dealing, nonstop

parties, and a slew of satellite art fairs and events that have turned the city into an art-making and buying mecca. The annual affair occurs during the first week of December every year and if you manage to snag a hotel room (or Airbnb) during the packed-to-capacity week, you’ll be privy to a dizzying variety of artwork, from a milliondollar Basquiat to a not-yet-dried painting by an up-and-coming Miami artist. Going to the main convention center is equivalent to experiencing the best contemporary museum in the world, with hundreds of galleries from around the world represented. It’s family friendly, too, with plenty for the little ones to gawk at and observe. After a day at Art Basel, take time to check out satellite fairs

Opposite left: The Wynwood neighborhood is known for its vibrant art culture, galleries, shops, and eateries.

Photo by Mariakraynova / Shutterstock Above: South Beach is perhaps the most iconic of Miami’s destinations.

Photo by Mia2you / Shutterstock

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At night, the neon signs and bright lights along Ocean Drive make for an exciting view.

Photo by ESB Professional / Shutterstock Opposite: One of many colorful lifeguard towers on South Beach 42 | DECE MBER 2018

like PULSE, SCOPE Miami Beach, and NADA, which feature emerging artists.

WHAT WAS FORMERLY A DESERTED URBAN LANDSCAPE WHEN THE SUITS WENT HOME FOR THE NIGHT IS NOW A SOPHISTICATED BACKDROP TO SWANKY NEW HOTELS AND CHEF-FOCUSED RESTAURANTS.

The rest of the year, Miami’s cultural happenings are centered on local institutions, which have undergone impressive expansions and revitalizations in the last few years. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (also known as the PAMM) opened in 2013 and quickly established itself as the city’s go-to for contemporary art and stunning architecture. The Herzog & de Meuron–designed building features expansive galleries that display a variety of Latin American works (collector and Miami developer Jorge Pérez donated a portion of his personal collection valued at an estimated $20 million), as well as a massive outdoor veranda that houses the restaurant Verde and is host to many weddings and musical performances. Every second Saturday the museum is free for visitors; every Thursday night the museum is open until nine and presents a robust schedule of talks, performances, and screenings.

Across the plaza from the PAMM is the new Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, with its dazzling planetarium, aquarium, and exhibit halls that have something for everyone. Rising three stories, the aquarium features a thirty-one-foot-wide oculus lens, a unique viewing portal into the Gulf Stream Aquarium habitat for hammerhead sharks and other deep-sea denizens. Kids love the stingray touch tank, while adults appreciate the 3-D planetarium V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 43

The stunning entrance to the Pérez Art Museum of Miami Photo by mariakraynova / Shutterstock Inset: People viewing Carlos Cruz-Diez’s piece Physichromie Panam N° 259 at the Sicardi Gallery Photo courtesy of Art Basel

shows that concentrate on space exploration and climate change. Permanent exhibits focus on the solar system and known universe, the physics of flight, light, and lasers, and the biology of the human body and mind.

Over on Miami Beach, the Wolfsonian-FIU manages to attract both serious thinkers and casual art lovers. Located in the heart of the Art Deco District of South Beach, the museum’s exhibits showcase industrial design with an emphasis on American and European decorative and fine arts produced between 1885 and 1945. The free Friday night admission and happy hour—from six to nine—make it a popular predinner activity and a nice way to usher in the weekend. Farther up Collins Avenue is the stately Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach’s museum of contemporary works. The Bass recently underwent an expansion, giving it twice as much exhibit space and allowing more of-the-moment exhibits and familyfriendly art activities in the bright and airy Creativity Center.

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More Creative Diversions on Miami Beach

If outdoor concerts and picnics are your thing, then bookmark a date for one of the New World Symphony’s Wallcasts, where orchestral performances are projected on the facade of the Frank Gehry–designed New World Center and are free to the public. Performances begin at 7 p.m. and patrons are encouraged to bring snacks and blankets. Sunday afternoons are reserved for Lazy Sunday barbecues at André Balazs’s Standard Spa Miami Beach, where live DJs set the tone for cocktails and grilled bites.

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Dining in the Magic City STUBBORN SEED At his new solo project, Top Chef–winner Jeremy Ford has pulled out all the stops with some of the most imaginative food in the city. The eight-course tasting menu includes hollow potato bites topped with caviar, paprika crème fraîche, and salmon roe; Hawaiian kajiki fish served with a spicy buttermilk dressing, sea grapes, and Asian pear; and smoked foie gras.

101 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach

KIKI ON THE RIVER A posh taverna serving grilled fish and classic mezes, this spot has already generated celebrity sightings from local basketball stars to pop music moguls. The lush waterfront hideaway features an inviting outdoor patio overlooking the Miami River and is outfitted with blooming bougainvillea, whitewashed walls, secluded “cabana” tables, and navy-cushioned seating. Chef Steven Rhee sources ingredients like olive oil, honey, and spices from Greece while also maintaining a local and seasonal menu.

450 NW North River Drive, Miami

Get a stunning view on the terrace at La Mar. Photo courtesy of La Mar

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M A KO T O

Above: If you’ve got a sweet tooth, stop by Stubborn Seed for the croustillant, a decadent chocolate layer cake.

From prolific restaurateur Stephen Starr comes this Asian beauty: the secluded, wood-paneled eatery features communal tables topped with marble, a twelve-seat sushi bar overlooking the glass-enclosed open kitchen, and cushy booths covered in throw pillows. Bartenders dispense sake cocktails made with lychee and lemongrass from a whitewashed bar in the outdoor courtyard. The namesake chef worked with Morimoto in Philly before branching off to hone modern Japanese cooking in dishes such as robata-grilled short ribs, spicy tuna crispy rice, and pristine sushi.

Photo courtesy of Grove Bay Hospitality Right: La Mar’s mascarpone looks as good as it tastes.

9700 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach

Photo courtesy of La Mar

EDGE STEAK AND BAR Yes, it’s a handsome beef temple on Brickell, but the creativity of chef Aaron Brooks keeps it from being a ho-hum steak house. The dining room feels cozy and urbane with a large rectangular-shaped marble bar lit by exposed hanging light bulbs and white oak tables flanked by cream leather booths. The kitchen focuses on locally sourced ingredients that work their way into shellfish starters, 46 | DECE MBER 2018

hefty slabs of beef, and creative mains, like the basilcrusted corvina with piquillo peppers. A gorgeous outdoor terrace offers downtown skyline views.

1435 Brickell Avenue, Miami

Opposite: The lounge at Zuma offers a modern minimalist vibe downtown.

Photo courtesy of Zuma

T H E B A Z A A R BY J O S É A N D R É S Prepare for sensory overload at this clubby outpost of global tapas and exotic cocktails. Like its LA counterpart, there are two dining rooms: the “Rojo,” a redand-black-accented spot in the hotel’s lobby with black leather couches and a bull’s head clad in a lucha libre mask; and the “Blanca,” a quieter option adorned with a massive seashell-clad chandelier. The epic menu contains anywhere from sixty to eighty items that change daily but can include bacalao fritters served in a clear plastic sneaker and a scallop risotto presented in a coconut shell.

1701 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach

LA MAR Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio’s downtown Miami restaurant occupies a gleaming waterfront spot at Brickell Key’s Mandarin Oriental. The main dining room is awash in shades of watery greens, sandy grays, and beiges, but it’s the enticing outdoor terrace that offers views of downtown and is the perfect backdrop for chef Diego Oka’s contemporary Peruvian dishes with colorful tweaks.

500 Brickell Key Drive, Miami

ZUMA Upscale Asian dishes complement a dock crowded with million-dollar yachts. If you’re looking to indulge, reserve a spot during their weekend brunch, when the restaurant rolls out almost the entire menu: endless buffets of fresh sushi, skewers of marinated beef and vegetables from the robata grill, and prepared salads. Then

there’s the bottomless glass of Louis Roederer champagne, not to mention the Bloody Marys made with robata-grilled tomatoes. And it all goes perfectly with the waterfront views of downtown.

270 Biscayne Boulevard Way, Miami

Plan your trip at MiamiandBeaches.com.

Sara Liss is a Miami travel and food writer who has worked with newspapers, magazines, and websites including the Miami Herald, Departures, Modern Luxury, Florida Travel + Life, Miami.com, Onboard Media, and more.

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Whether you’re spending a lengthy vacation in Boston or just visiting for the day, a few of these must-sees (and must-eats) should be on your to-do list!

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What to See THE FREEDOM TRAIL One of the city’s most popular attractions—if not the most popular—the Freedom Trail is a two-anda-half-mile walk through downtown Boston. It passes many of the city’s most historic landmarks, including the Boston Common, the Massachusetts State House, the Benjamin Franklin statue, the Old South Meeting House, the site of the Boston Massacre, the Paul Revere House, Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, the USS Constitution, the Bunker Hill Monument, and more. Many of the official sites offer free tours or tours by donation, and there are many other landmarks along the way that are not officially part of the Freedom Trail but are exciting to see nonetheless.

The Black Heritage Trail crosses paths with the Freedom Trail and winds through the Beacon Hill neighborhood, citing important landmarks in a different journey to freedom.

Visit the African Meeting House (the oldest surviving black church in the country), the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial, the Abiel Smith School, and several other stops commemorating the brave people who paved the way to ending slavery and furthered civil rights in Boston.

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FENWAY PARK Let’s go, Red Sox! A trip to Boston just wouldn’t be complete without taking in a game at Fenway Park.

The baseball stadium was built in 1912 and is one of the country’s most iconic sports venues. As notorious as the Red Sox–Yankees rivalry are Fenway’s many quirky attributes, such as the thirty-seven-foot left-field wall and seating area known as the Green Monster, the ladder attached to it that was once used to retrieve home-run balls, the 1930s-era scoreboard set into the same wall, and the lone red seat in the right-field bleachers that signifies Ted Williams’s 502-foot home run, the longest ever hit at Fenway. The park has the capacity to seat over thirty-seven thousand people, hot dogs and beers in the hands of many. Don’t forget to visit the Cask ’n Flagon pub next door, voted America’s top baseball bar by ESPN. When the Sox aren’t playing, Fenway Park is also home to other sporting events and concerts throughout the year.

BOSTON.REDSOX.MLB.COM

Above: Boston Public Garden Inset: Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Travel & Tourism Right: Brownstones in the Back Bay neighborhood

PUBLIC GARDEN You’ve no doubt seen the photos of Boston’s famous Swan Boats, which have floated lazily along the four-acre pond in Boston’s Public Garden since 1877. The twenty-four-acre park is adjacent to the famed Boston Common and is the oldest public botanical garden in the United States. Its manicured paths, monuments and sculptures, rose bushes, flower beds, and more than thirty tree species are proudly maintained by the City of Boston.

BOSTON.GOV/PARKS

FANEUIL HALL MARKETPLACE Faneuil Hall—the Hub of the Hub— has been a meeting hall and marketplace in Boston’s North End since it was built by Peter Faneuil for the city in 1742. Before the Revolution, patriots used the hall for public meetings and gave impassioned speeches there, earning it the nickname the Cradle of Liberty. Since then, such provocative figures as Susan B. Anthony, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Ted Kennedy have spoken there, carrying on the tradition. Today it remains a huge gathering spot filled with shopping, dining, and entertainment for Boston locals and visitors alike.

FANEUILHALLMARKETPLACE.COM

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The twenty-four-acre park is adjacent to the famed Boston Common and is the oldest public botanical garden in the United States.

NEWBURY STREET Shopaholics, look no further than Newbury Street for designer storefronts including Burberry, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Armani, Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabbana, and so many more. Hundreds of shops, trendy dining establishments, art galleries, and salons are present in these historic brownstone buildings, making a stroll down Newbury Street just as scenic as it is worthwhile for those searching for the perfect outfit or gift. Events along the street include pop-up shopping experiences, yoga and other wellness classes, gallery exhibits, and Open Newbury, a seasonal monthly event where it becomes a pedestrian-only street fair for a day. Walk beyond Newbury for more luxurious shops and restaurants in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.

NEWBURYSTBOSTON.COM

BEACON HILL Historic Federal-style row houses, gas lanterns, brick sidewalks, and New England charm make Beacon Hill the quintessential Boston neighborhood. Photo ops abound as visitors will see the iconic Massachusetts State House at the top of the hill, the Greek Revival homes of Louisburg Square, and the cobblestones of Acorn Street. Suffolk University and Suffolk University Law School are also here, and while the neighborhood is now home to students and Boston elite, its origins are steeped in history. It contains many sites along the Black Heritage Trail, and its homes have belonged to many historical figures of Boston.

A DAY ON THE WATER The Waterfront, running from the North End through the Financial District and Downtown Boston along the harbor, is a mecca for those seeking New England seafood and entertainment on the water. The New England Aquarium is a great family-friendly destination here, as are the carousel, fountains, food trucks, and public art exhibitions that line the Waterfront’s wharves and marinas. On the opposite side of the city, the Charles River shore is home to Lederman Park and the three-mile Esplanade walkway full of playgrounds, lookout points, and sports and event venues. Concerts in the Hatch Memorial Shell amphitheater and the annual Fourth of July fireworks display draw large crowds to the Esplanade, but on any day it’s a perfect place to walk, jog, or just sit with a book and watch the sailboats on the Charles.

Above: A home on the famous Acorn Street in Beacon Hill Photo by Jay Yuan

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY The Boston Public Library, established in 1848, was the country’s first free municipal library of its size. The present-day main branch on Boylston Street at Copley Square was completed in 1870 as architect Charles Follen McKim’s “palace for the people.” The Bates Hall Reading Room at the McKim Building is an architectural treasure with its elaborate coffered ceiling and wooden research tables. This is not just a destination for bibliophiles; speaking engagements, author visits, exhibitions, educational programs, and other events throughout the year are available to the public.

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Visit in fall to see leaves changing and feel the scholarly air of sophistication as the semester—and football season—get into full swing.

Right: Harvard University Inset: The Frank Gehry–designed Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Photo by chirajuti / Shutterstock Opposite: An impressive seafood platter at Row 34 in Fort Point

HARVARD CAMPUS It’s fitting that one of the most prestigious universities in the country has a beautiful campus to match. Although technically located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard’s historic buildings and landscaped quadrangles are just a short jaunt across the Charles River from Boston and worthy of a day trip. Visit in fall to see leaves changing and feel the scholarly air of sophistication as the semester—and football season—get into full swing. Some campus highlights include Harvard Square, the statue of John Harvard, crew teams rowing on the Charles, the Harvard Lampoon building, and Harvard Yard (just don’t try parking your car there).

HARVARD.EDU

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STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT . . .

17 Uptown Grayton Circle Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 (850) 213-0000 · Q-Tile.com

MUSEUMS GALORE With a cornucopia of fantastic museums in Boston, it’s impossible to list them all, but we’ll hit some highlights. One could spend a whole day touring some of these beautiful destinations for art, education, and history. The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum is a popular stop on the Waterfront, where visitors can relive the famous incident during which Bostonians dumped 340 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor in protest of taxes levied by the monarchy upon the colonies. Tours are led by Samuel Adams himself.

The Institute of Contemporary Art is your go-to stop for modern art exhibitions and the Museum of Fine Arts for more classic tastes, while the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum offers historic fine art with a mystery to match—it is home to one of the biggest unsolved art heists in the world. History buffs also should not miss the New England Holocaust Memorial, the Museum of African American History, and more. The Boston Beer Museum is an obvious choice for those who love a good brew, while more family-friendly options include the Boston Children’s Museum, the Museum of Science, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Where to Eat sto r y and photo grap h y by TI FFA N Y LO P I N S KY

For most people, the first things that come to mind when they think of the Boston food scene are classic New England seafood and Italian cuisine. While Boston is full of restaurants that do seafood and Italian incredibly well, we have so much more to offer than lobster rolls and cannoli. Especially in the past few years, the food scene in Boston and its surrounding areas has boomed—from Japanese-Spanish fusion, to urban farm to table, to global tapas from James Beard Award–winning chefs, the Boston restaurant scene is incredible. With so many great spots, picking my ten favorites is a challenge, but here’s a spread of some of Boston’s best:

ROW 34 Whenever a friend is visiting from out of town and asks me for a recommendation for a seafood restaurant, Row 34 is my go-to. With an impressive raw bar and a menu full of other seafood classics like clam chowder, lobster rolls, and fish and chips, you can’t go wrong at this Fort Point neighborhood favorite.

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NEBO While Boston’s North End is known for having incredible Italian spots, Nebo is one great Italian restaurant outside of Boston’s Little Italy. Located on Boston’s Waterfront, Nebo is a wonderful creation owned and run by sisters, Carla and Christine Pallotta, who were inspired by their Italian grandmother to get into the kitchen. From squid ink pasta to zucchini lasagna, their menu features a unique combination of classic Italian recipes and modern dishes. You can’t leave without trying the Christoforo—their Nutella pizza—for dessert!

520 ATLANTIC AVENUE, BOSTON, MA 02210 NEBORESTAURANT.COM

ALDEN & HARLOW Alden & Harlow is a wonderful modern American small plates restaurant in Harvard Square. The menu changes daily and focuses on everything fresh and local; I always have a great meal here. While they serve a huge variety of dishes, this is a spot that I love to bring vegetarians to. Acclaimed chef Michael Scelfo does an incredible job at making vegetables taste great. From their kale salad to charred broccoli to roasted beets, I always leave feeling full and nourished.

40 BRATTLE STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138 ALDENHARLOW.COM

PREZZA A cozy yet upscale spot in the North End, Prezza serves Italian cuisine with Mediterranean influences. Because of its unique approach and delicious handmade pastas, its one of my favorite spots in the neighborhood. A must-try is their Ravioli di Uovo, a ravioli stuffed with an egg yolk and ricotta, then tossed with butter and sage. It’s perfection.

24 FLEET STREET, BOSTON, MA 02113 PREZZA.COM

PAGU With their Japanese-Spanish fusion cuisine and lots of pug-themed paraphernalia, PAGU in Cambridge’s Central Square is one of the most interesting restaurants in the Boston area. Until dining here, I didn’t realize that pintxos were the perfect prelude to ramen, especially when they’re tied together with cocktails that bring in influences from both Spain and Japan.

310 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 GOPAGU.COM

LITTLE DONKEY Little Donkey is the latest Boston-area creation from chefs Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer, the James Beard Award–winning duo behind the adored restaurants Coppa and Toro in Boston’s South End. You might come in for their Instagram-famous chocolate chip cookie dough, served on a mixer beater, but you’ll return for more of their impeccably crafted, global-inspired small plates and beautiful cocktails.

505 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 LITTLEDONKEYBOS.COM 56 | DECE MBER 2018

Top: Dessert at Little Donkey is a must!

Inset: The unique squid ink oyster bao at PAGU Left: Delicious tapas made from fresh local ingredients at Alden & Harlow

CULTIVAR A recently opened modern American restaurant in the Ames Boston Hotel downtown, Cultivar is an excellent spot focused on seasonal and sustainable cuisine. They even have an on-site hydroponic garden, where talented chef Mary Dumont forages some of her produce for the menu. With great cocktails and great desserts too, all served in a beautiful eighty-eight-seat dining room, this spot deserves all the hype it gets.

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North Square Oyster’s beautiful composed oysters are a must, and you can’t go wrong with their crudos or their fantastic lobster and oxtail Bolognese.

1 COURT STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108 CULTIVARBOSTON.COM

BRASSICA KITCHEN + CAFE NORTH SQUARE OYSTER North Square Oyster is another recently opened spot that has grabbed the attention of Boston’s gourmands. The restaurant is located in the North End, just a short walk from the Paul Revere House, so don’t let the tourists deter you. North Square Oyster’s beautiful composed oysters are a must, and you can’t go wrong with their crudos or their fantastic lobster and oxtail Bolognese.

5 NORTH SQUARE, BOSTON, MA 02113 NORTHSQUAREOYSTER.COM

A no-frills foodie paradise, Brassica Kitchen + Cafe is an eclectic café by day and restaurant by night in Boston’s crunchy Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Chef Jeremy Kean leads an incredibly talented culinary team, and I encourage you to let them guide you by doing the tasting menu, which is also available in pescatarian and vegetarian formats.

Left: North Square Oyster is the North End’s newest seafood hot spot—and for good reason.

Inset: Sunday brunch at Little Big Diner is worth the short trip to Newton Centre.

3710 WASHINGTON STREET, JAMAICA PLAIN, MA 02130 BRASSICAKITCHEN.COM

LITTLE BIG DINER Little Big Diner’s ramen, rice bowls, and draft cocktails make it worth the trek to Newton Centre, a little bit outside of the city. With only twenty seats and no reservations, you’ll see the line on Sunday morning start to build before they open at eleven thirty. Come early to get a seat!

1247 CENTRE STREET, NEWTON CENTRE, MA 02459 LITTLEBIGDINER.COM

Tiffany Lopinsky is a Boston-based food blogger. She started her blog, Boston Foodies, in 2014 while she was a sophomore at Harvard.

Tiffany has grown her audience to hundreds of thousands of readers across Instagram (@ bostonfoodies) and her site, Boston-Foodies.com.

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Historic homes line the Battery along the lower shores of the Charleston Peninsula and the mouth of the harbor.

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S O P H I S T I C AT E D SOUTH

THE WORLD’S

Favorite CITY

BY TORI P H E L P S

W

hen Charlestonians travel, they hear one thing over and over: “You live in Charleston? I love Charleston.”

Considering that Travel + Leisure readers voted it the number one city in the world—yep, the world—lots of people apparently love Charleston.

a drinking problem; it’s a drinking town with a historic problem. It’s nicknamed the Holy City because of its foundation in religious freedom—not because the residents are saints.

I’m one of them. It’s my home, and I wouldn’t trade living here for anything. Even my husband knows that if it’s a choice between him and Charleston, well, I’ll miss him.

Historic sites, fabulous food, stunning beaches—there’s no shortage of reasons to fall in love with Charleston. But if you ask me, the city’s greatest asset is its people.

(Not that I’m biased.) Holy City residents are famously gracious and genuinely enjoy sharing Charleston with the world.

So, what does this Low Country port city have that other destinations don’t? Nothing. But it does have the best of nearly every destination, all in one place.

Consider this your formal invitation. We hope to see you soon!

Charleston is perhaps most famous for its rich history, which still feels very much present, thanks to centuries-old architecture and staunchly preserved cultural traditions. Don’t let the city’s impeccable manners fool you, though. Its fun side runs just as deep.

Natives joke that Charleston isn’t a historictown with

A LOVE LETTER TO THE ARTS

And when it comes to food, hold onto your waistband. In addition to a long list of award-winning restaurants, most weekends are filled with festivals celebrating everything from oysters to mac ’n’ cheese.

SPOLETO FESTIVAL:

Spoleto Festival USA is a lot like Charleston itself: unique, deeply rooted, and a huge draw for visitors. This two-and-a-half-week performing arts phenomenon has treated audiences to opera, theater, dance, and music for the past forty years, even throwing in some visual arts and special events like garden tours.

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t’s a scope that’s possible, in part, because of its hometown. “Spoleto is a celebration not only of the arts, but also Charleston itself,” says Spoleto marketing and PR director Jessie Bagley. “The city is what makes the festival so unique.”

Actually, the festival was born in the Italian city of—yes—Spoleto. Nearly twenty years after its inception, founder and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti sought to expand it to America. Charleston won his heart, and Spoleto made its US debut in 1977.

One reason Menotti decided on Charleston, according to Bagley, is the city’s walkability. Plenty has changed in the last four-plus decades (there were only four hotel options in the mid-1970s), but the “car optional” nature has not. Though Spoleto performances take place in more than a dozen venues, only one—the finale at Middleton Place— isn’t within walking distance of the other sites, dozens of hotels, and countless restaurants.

Right: Spoleto Festival USA is an annual celebration of the arts during which Charleston’s streets, theaters, churches, and other performance spaces are alive with music, art, and drama.

Opposite top: Sunsets on the Charleston Harbor are spectacular, but the view downtown and in other parts of the city can be equally stunning.

Opposite bottom: Beautiful and useful, traditional handmade sweetgrass baskets are the perfect souvenir; they can be found at Charleston City Market and other vendors throughout the city.

Photos courtesy of Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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Spoleto sells roughly 84,000 tickets during its seventeen-day run. That’s a lot of shows and a lot of possibilities. If deciding on an itinerary seems daunting, do what Spoleto staffers do and pick one from every category. “Personally, I like to dabble in each genre,” Bagley shares, adding that the festival’s diversity is uncommon—and special. “There are some really fantastic music festivals or dance festivals out there, but Spoleto presents a comprehensive selection of programs.”

In its forty-first season, which runs May 26 through June 11, attendees can dig into everything—from Monchichi, a fusion of ballet, martial arts, and break dancing, to Mozart’s Great Mass. Then, of course, there’s Eugene Onegin, the latest opera produced by

“SPOLETO IS A CELEBRATION NOT ONLY OF THE ARTS, BUT ALSO CHARLESTON ITSELF. THE CITY IS WHAT MAKES THE FESTIVAL SO UNIQUE.”

Spoleto. Though generally a presenting organization—meaning it showcases other companies’ performances—opera is the exception. In an annual tradition that sets Spoleto apart from most other arts festivals, Spoleto staff hires everyone from directors to costume designers, and the sets are built right in Charleston.

It’s not that they have trouble attracting performing companies. In fact, artists go out of their way to be there. Bagley points to Ireland’s Gate Theatre, whose repeat appearances at Spoleto make Charleston one of the only destinations outside Europe in which they’ve performed.

It’s a testament to the artists’ experiences that they come back, she says, and the city plays a key role in drawing both repeat and new performers. “We tell them, ‘Yes, you’re going to have to travel, but you’ll be in Charleston. It’s a pretty special place.’”

SWEETGRASS BASKETS: CARRYING THE STORIES OF A PEOPLE

Sometimes, a seemingly simple object has an incredibly complex story to tell. And the tale behind sweetgrass baskets, those intricate works of art so closely associated with South Carolina’s Gullah culture, is one that involves both the best and the worst of humanity.

The baskets were brought to the Low Country in the seventeenth century, carried in the minds of enslaved Africans for whom they were a part of daily life. Many West African slaves came from rice-growing regions where they used tightly coiled baskets to separate the chaff from the rice. A similar landscape greeted them in South Carolina, so they created familiar baskets to assist with their forced labor.

Despite their name, sweetgrass baskets weren’t made of sweetgrass initially. Bulrush, a sturdy marsh grass, was the material of choice until the turn of the twentieth century. Sweetgrass eventually gained popularity not only for its lovely scent but for a pliability that allows artisans to craft intricate designs. What time hasn’t changed is the foundational technique: coiling, rather than more common braiding or twisting methods.

The Gullah people, descendants of enslaved Africans who developed a distinct culture all their own, have preserved both the technique and the pride in craftsmanship through the generations. Visitors can watch modern masters—usually women—at work all around Charleston. But the “sweetgrass corridor” is actually in nearby Mount Pleasant. As many as a hundred roadside stands along Highway 17 offer sweetgrass baskets directly from the artisans who create them.

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Opposite bottom: The crab cakes Benedict at High Cotton are a must for any brunch bucket list.

Photo courtesy of High Cotton Below Left: There’s a lot to see and do in Bluffton, just a short drive from Charleston and a perfect day trip during your visit!

Photo courtesy of Montage Palmetto Bluff.

Below Right: A carriage tour is a great way to see Charleston, where charming streets hold hundreds of years of Southern history.’

Photo courtesy of Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau

Finished works can cost hundreds of dollars, with price points varying by size and design. Basket makers devote a dozen hours to even simple designs; elaborate designs and larger pieces often take weeks. They’re worth every penny (and more) based on the time investment alone.

But when you factor in the tradition that has wrapped around an entire culture, sustaining its people and offering a way to reclaim a piece of exploited heritage, their real value becomes clear.

This unspoiled slice of the Low Country is awash in gorgeous May River vistas and moss-draped trees right out of a genteel Southern novel. The scenery is just the start, though, as Bluffton is quietly becoming a prime destination for foodies and lovers of artisan goods. Its picturesque downtown is lined with homegrown bistros, many specializing in local seafood, and boutiques where you can browse everything from antiques to handmade leather bags.

That’s why Gullah-made sweetgrass baskets are more than a practical tool or even art. They’re a story you can hold in your hands.

But the crown jewel of Bluffton may be Montage Palmetto Bluff, a destination unto itself. Sprawling across twenty thousand acres of riverbanks and nature preserves, this model of relaxed luxury is an impressive coalescence of genuine hospitality and world-class amenities.

SIDE TRIP:

BLUFFTON, SOUTH CAROLINA With your bags already packed, why not explore more of South Carolina? Instead of following the crowds to Hilton Head, we recommend stopping ten minutes’ shy of the island and enjoying the historic charm of Bluffton instead.

The property is renowned for a staggering number of on-site activities, most of which are complimentary.

Headliners include an ecologically sensitive golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a well-done spa, and boat excursions. There’s also tennis, bocce, kayaking, a state-of-the-art equestrian center, a skeet range—and, believe it or not, much more.

If chewing is as active as you want to be, they’ve got you covered there, too. The handful of restaurants and lounges are staffed with a crème de la crème culinary team and one of the best sommeliers in the country. Each evening begins with samplings of “culinary heirlooms,” like oysters or hoppin’ John, and ends with gourmet s’mores by the fire pits. Hunger seems to be a dirty word at Montage Palmetto Bluff.

Accommodations, too, are designed in a something-for-everyone fashion. You can’t go wrong with a room at the inn, though do spring for a balcony. Larger groups, or couples looking for more privacy, can rent a cottage or guest house. And because the desire to stay forever isn’t uncommon, you can even buy a residence on property.

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The view from Tavern & Table on Shem Creek is not to be missed.

Photo courtesy of Tavern & Table

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO CHARLESTON HUSK: A James Beard Award–winning chef, locally sourced ingredients, and a track record of topping every “best of ” list. Husk is one of the most lauded Charleston restaurants and so obvious a choice that you might consider skipping it. Don’t. But do make reservations well ahead of time.

76 Queen Street, Charleston

CALLIE’S HOT LITTLE BISCUIT: Biscuits are part of the very fabric of Southern society, and nobody does them like Callie’s. These are change-your-life bites of heaven that you can get slightly sweet (try

the cinnamon) or savory (black pepper bacon for the win). It’s only open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.—plus late nights on the weekends—so grab ’em while you can!

476-1/2 King Street, Charleston

TAVERN & TABLE: The recipe for a memorable meal starts with a chef who bested Food Network icon Bobby Flay. Sit inside if you must, but we recommend a table or couch along Shem Creek. While boats and dolphins idle by, sink your fork into global offerings or more classic Southern dishes.

100 Church Street, Mount Pleasant

POE’S TAVERN: An homage to Edgar Allan Poe, who lived on Sullivan’s Island while stationed at Fort Moultrie, Poe’s Tavern is known for good beer and great burgers. The Instagram-worthy burgers with names like Annabel Lee and Pit & Pendulum are fun for visitors, but local diners know there’s plenty of substance behind the style.

2210 Middle Street, Sullivan’s Island

HIGH COTTON: Sunday morning starts with Jesus and ends with brunch. So grab your bow tie or pearls and head to the elegant High Cotton, where even low-rent dishes like doughnut holes go upscale with a bacon-apple-bourbon glaze. Try the Carolina shrimp and grits or Charleston crab soup if you want something substantial.

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PAVILION BAR: Another top-of-the-world lounge, Pavilion Bar is an überchic locale with fun drinks and an impressive wine and champagne menu. Prices are high, but you’re really paying for the experience and some of the best views in the city. Heaters on chilly days are free.

225 East Bay Street, Charleston

STARS ROOFTOP: The restaurant below is good, but Stars Rooftop is stellar (pun intended). Belly up to a tigerwood bar or settle into a comfy wicker chair to savor King Street panoramas. This drinks-only destination features an extensive cocktail list, many of which are made with local spirits.

495 King Street, Charleston

SECOND STATE COFFEE: Yes, Charlestonians swap out bourbon for coffee in the morning. Usually. Make like a local and hit up an independent java joint like cult fave Second State, formerly known as Black Tap. Hot, cold, plain, tricked-out—everything here is handcrafted. Parking stinks, but the lavender lattes are worth the effort.

70-1/2 Beaufain Street, Charleston

BELMOND CHARLESTON PLACE:

CUPCAKE DOWNSOUTH: Need a sugar rush? Let your nose lead you to one of two Cupcake DownSouth locations nearby. You get twelve classic and seasonal choices every day, including “after dark” options infused with alcohol.

433 King Street, Charleston & 644 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant

THE GIN JOINT: Staffed with real-deal bartenders who know their mescal from their Metaxa, this hideaway is a cocktail lover’s dream. Ever-changing menus introduce creative concoctions well beyond the usual martini or cosmo.

Daring patrons should opt for the Bartender’s Choice.

Just pick two words from a list (i.e., sweet, spicy, smoky), and then give the mixologists free rein.

182 East Bay Street, Charleston 64 | DECE MBER 2018

Considered the gold standard in traditional luxury, the Belmond is Charleston’s go-to hotel for sophisticated travelers. Shop for Gucci bags, swim in a heated rooftop pool, or spend a day at a world-class spa—all without leaving the hotel.

205 Meeting Street, Charleston

THE VENDUE: If you’ve ever wanted to spend the night at an art gallery, the Vendue comes pretty close. This French Quarter boutique is housed in two historic buildings where no two rooms are alike. While there, browse hundreds of original works and visit the artist in residence.

19 Vendue Range, Charleston

THE RESTORATION: Experience the suite life in this hip downtown retreat on Wentworth Street. The brand’s mission is to “recreate history and bring an easy, modern twist to the best elements of classic Southern Hospitality.”

With guest suites that range from studios to three bedrooms and modern downtown loft decor, you’ll

feel at home here. Don’t forget to check out the hotel’s “community outlets”—The Watch Rooftop Kitchen, The Port Mercantile, The Amethyst Spa + Nail Bar, and The Rise Coffee Bar. 75 Wentworth Street, Charleston

THE WENTWORTH MANSION: An intimate twenty-one-room stunner with refinement to spare, the Wentworth is a private residence-turned-posh inn and spa. You might expect the crystal chandeliers and marble fireplaces, but complimentary amenities like daily wine and port offerings and house-made chocolates are unexpected pleasures.

149 Wentworth Street, Charleston

JOHN RUTLEDGE HOUSE INN: B and B fans should look no further than the Rut-ledge. It’s pure Charleston, from a National Historic Landmark status to afternoon tea served in the piazza.

Originally built by a signer of the Constitution, it exudes regal charm without forgoing modern amenities. And the breakfasts are darn good, too.

116 Broad Street, Charleston

BOONE HALL PLANTATION: This striking combination of history and natural beauty is a distinctly Low Country marvel. Founded in the late 1600s as a cotton and pecan plantation, Boone Hall today offers both an unflinching look at the slave era and a peek inside a modern working farm. Pick from tours like Gullah culture and gardens with hundred-year-old roses.

1235 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant

NATHANIEL RUSSELL HOUSE MUSEUM: Get a feel for how an upper-class merchant family lived during the early 1800s with this breathtaking residence. Everything from the interior paint colors to the formal gardens has been meticulously restored by the Historic Charleston Foundation to the opulence of its 1808 debut. Unearthed artifacts also help illustrate the lives of the home’s enslaved residents.

51 Meeting Street, Charleston

OLD SLAVE MART MUSEUM: A huge percentage of slaves entered the country through Charleston’s port, and the Old Slave Mart Museum is dedicated to honoring their stories. It’s a difficult but essential stop, filled with both relics and educational pieces, including an interview with a former slave.

6 Chalmers Street, Charleston

Opposite top: Stars Rooftop boasts a relaxed atmosphere and excellent views of King Street.

Photo courtesy of Stars Rooftop Opposite bottom: Specialty cocktails, such as this refreshing South Pacific concoction, are the name of the game at the Gin Joint.

Photo by Andrew Cebulka Below left: Quadriga, a bronze sculpture of four horses surrounding a Carolina bird of prey atop a fourteen-foot Greek revival column, sits outside the Belmond Charleston Place hotel.

Quadriga was created by John Mills, a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, who was inspired by the significance of horses and Greek revival architecture in Charleston’s history.

Photo by Joe Vaughn Below right: Oak trees lining a plantation lane near Charleston are a quintessential Southern sight.

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Voyager USS YORKTOWN : This nearly nine-hundred-foot-long World War II aircraft carrier, which now rests at Patriots Point, has thirteen decks to explore. Come to Patriots Point for the Yorktown but stay for other museums and memorials, including the country’s only Vietnam Experience Exhibit.

40 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant

THE GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART: Thoroughly Charlestonian in scope, the Gibbes celebrates visual arts in relation to the city and the region. Its permanent collection spans four centuries and mediums from paintings to decorative objects. Plus, excellent temporary exhibits spring up every month or two.

135 Meeting Street, Charleston

A TOUR: Do yourself a favor and book a tour as your first activity. It’s the best way to wrap your mind around the city, its geography, and points of interest. Becoming a registered tour guide in Charleston is a rigorous

process, so whether you’re looking for an overview or a more niche tour (pirates, anyone?), you’ll be in good hands—as long as those hands are certified by the Tourism Commission.

RAINBOW ROW: Iconic Rainbow Row encompasses a string of thirteen Georgian row houses along East Bay Street.

Theories abound as to why the eighteenth-century homes were originally painted in Easter egg hues, but their current shades were assigned in the 1920s when the area finally started recovering from the Civil War (a.k.a. the Late Unpleasantness).

83–107 East Bay Street, Charleston

RILEY WATERFRONT PARK: There are actually two waterfront parks, one on either side of the Cooper River. Most visitors head for the Charleston side, though, which is home to the city’s famous Pineapple Fountain. Let the kids splash around, and then relax in a family-sized swing. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch dolphins playing in the harbor.

1 Vendue Range, Charleston

CHARLESTON TEA PLANTATION: The U.S.’s only fully operational tea plantation covers 127 acres of nearby Wadmalaw Island. Take a trolley tour of the historic plantation (now owned by the Bigelow Tea Company), sip the free samples, and even bring a picnic to eat on the massive front porch.

6617 Maybank Highway, Wadmalaw Island

BEACHES: Surprise! There are a lot of beaches in the Charleston area, and mild weather means they’re nearly year-round destinations. Hint: Get there early during high season to claim your spot. Popular stretches of sand can be found on Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, and Folly Beach.

KING STREET: This avenue is synonymous with shopping in Charleston. Roughly divided into antiques (Lower King), fashion (Middle King), and design and dining (Upper King), there’s truly something for everyone. And while you’ll find chain retailers, there are plenty of local, independent shops, too.

CHARLESTON CITY MARKET: One of the oldest public markets in the country, the historic City Market is a four-block extravaganza of mostly local goods. Pick up an iconic sweetgrass basket and snack on regional delicacies like benne wafers during the Day Market. The weekend Night Market adds live music to the experience.

188 Meeting Street, Charleston

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CHARLESTON CRAFTS: Skip the T-shirts and bring home a real piece of Charleston instead. The oldest craft co-op in the city, Charleston Crafts stocks a remarkable mix of products, from pottery to jewelry to textiles to skin care. It’s all handmade, and it’s all courtesy of local artisans.

161 Church Street, Charleston

CHRISTOPHE ARTISAN CHOCOLATIER-PÂTISSIER: Is it art or is it chocolate? At Christophe, it’s tough to tell—until you bite into it. The brainchild of a third-generation French chocolatier, the shop is full of hand-painted goodies in innovative flavor combinations (e.g., Earl Grey tea and lavender caramel), as well as traditional favorites.

90 Society Street, Charleston

CHARLESTONCVB.COM

Opposite left: The Cooper River Bridge can be seen from much of the city, though often the best views of it can be found during sunset at Riley Waterfront Park.

Opposite right: The historic Church of the Cross in Bluffton is an excellent site for getting a little education during your day trip.

Left: Charleston City Market is your one-stop shopping destination for locally made goods, souvenirs, and a quick meal.

Photo by foto-select/ Shutterstock

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THE

BEACHES

COLA Pensacola to Apalachicola

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OF

COLA

®

and Everything in Between

When it comes to destinations, there are many around the world that people will argue are the best. VIE’s inception as a regional magazine operating in Northwest Florida led to its original tagline, COLA 2 COLA®, referring to the roughly twohundred-mile stretch from Pensacola to Apalachicola. As the magazine has grown nationally, it has branched out to cover people, places, and events around the world. But we believe our own backyard is still one of the best destinations, and this guide will share all the beauty, culture, and fun from COLA 2 COLA®!

Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Pensacola to Apalachicola, is also known as the Emerald Coast, thanks to the brilliant blue-green waters found along its shores.

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THE

’COL A

Consider yourself a world traveler whose wanderlust is constrained by limited vacation time? Northwest Florida, particularly the stretch from Pensacola to Destin, offers an extensive array of happenings and hot spots that rival some of the most elite retreats. During one short stay, you can satiate your inner foodie, fashionista, history buff, and outdoorsman by exploring the bustling downtown areas, bucolic settings, and pristine beaches.

DOWNTOWN PENSACOLA Pensacola natives who haven’t returned to their hometown in recent years might steer you straight to the world-renowned white-sand beaches and away from downtown, recalling dilapidated buildings and sleepy streets they would not dare walk after dark. Ignore their advice!

Making a beeline for the beach is tempting, but you won’t want to bypass the burgeoning urban oasis on the north shore of Pensacola Bay. Downtown Pensacola is in the midst of a remarkable renaissance, and now it can add the accolade “2017 Greatest Place in Florida” to its other coveted claims, which include “America’s First European Settlement.”

The city’s welcoming nature and “refreshing blend of historical resolve and cosmopolitan progress” are among the many reasons for the recent win, according to the American Planning Association, which bestowed the award after a public poll.

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Start your stay in one of nine spacious guest suites at the Lee House. This boutique hotel in the heart of downtown boasts all the modern comforts and amenities of new construction while retaining the look and feel of the 1866 home that once graced the property. Spacious porches overlook Pensacola Bay, and the hotel is flanked by Fountain Park and Seville Square, the magnolia-canopied setting often abuzz with free concerts and family-friendly festivals.

Stroll four short blocks west, past costumed docents leading tours of historic Victorian and French Creole cottages, to one of the “Ten Greatest Streets in America”—another epithet bestowed by the American Planning Association. Packed with posh boutiques, elegant eateries, and artsy exhibitions, Palafox Street is steps away from quaint museums, archaeological sites, and picnic-worthy parks. Its upscale ambience is similar to that of New York City’s swanky SoHo (short for South of Houston Street), so it’s no wonder that SoGo (south of Government Street) is the nickname given to Palafox’s shopping and dining district.

By Sloane Stephens Cox

SoGo’s Scout is a must-see for any woman who wants to dress like a well-appointed A-lister in brands such as Self Portrait, Ulla Johnson, and Golden Goose. Owner and Pensacola native Julia Ussery’s rave-worthy résumé includes working as design director at Calvin Klein and styling celebrities such as Kate Moss for top runway shows. Ussery has an uncanny ability to glean your preferences and determine what looks best on you, minimizing your time in the dressing room and maximizing the time you have to hit other haute haunts.

Cruise Palafox’s brick walkways festooned with fenced-in flower beds and whimsical bike racks. The north–south stretch of more than ten blocks of storefronts showcases many creature comforts, from modern kitchen gadgets to artisanal olive oils, custom jewelry, funky home furnishings, and designer fitness apparel.

Downtown businesses are popping up so quickly that even locals have a hard time staying abreast of the developments. One of the latest clusters is slated to open soon at One Palafox Place, a century-old landmark that has been completely renovated for living, working, shopping, and dining spaces.

Above: Lost Key Golf Club is one of many top-notch courses in the Pensacola area with challenging water obstacles and beautiful coastal scenery.

Left: Palafox Street, lined with shops and restaurants, is the beating heart of vibrant Downtown Pensacola.

Photos courtesy of Visit Pensacola

For a serious case of furniture envy, take a one-mile detour northeast to another downtown shopping mecca: Duh for Garden and Home. Can’t stuff a hand-carved armoire, plush chaise lounge, or cascading shell chandelier into your car? The store can deliver it to you. Or you can choose from plenty of unique items that are easy to stash in your suitcase. Fall in love with found objects from around the world, from Turkish towels to leather flyswatters, before you even know what they are. Duh even offers a new French-bistro-style restaurant, Jo’s, along with men’s and women’s clothing, stationery, jewelry, and many more items that evoke a luxurious lifestyle. Shoppers won’t want their time in the serene sixteen-thousand-square-foot space to end.

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This page left: Pensacola’s craft beer scene has grown in recent years, with Perfect Plain Brewing Company the latest addition to a collection of local breweries and bars.

Photo by Steven Gray, courtesy of Perfect Plain This page right: Executive chef Alex McPhail at Restaurant IRON creates refined Southern cuisine with coastal flair.

Photo courtesy of Restaurant IRON Opposite: Visitors can climb the 177 steps at the historic Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum, built in 1859, for a grand panoramic view.

Photo courtesy of Visit Pensacola

Head back to Palafox to hone your cooking skills in a class at So Gourmet & Kitchenry or unwind Cirque du Soleil–style in an aerial yoga class at Pure Pilates. You can learn more about Pensacola’s nearly five-hundred-year history under Spanish, French, and British rule (Pensacola is known as the City of Five Flags), during a self-guided tour of buildings and museums in the nearby Historic Pensacola Village.

offers tangy jalapeño margaritas and consistently good tapas and entrées. Creative cocktails, stylish salads, and fresh fried oysters are only a few of the favorites at Restaurant IRON. Catch one of the best sunset views on the bay at casual Jaco’s Bayfront Bar and Grille. The west-facing patio is the perfect place to enjoy a cold glass of wine and a warm Bella Mushroom Stack, which lies on a bed of pesto risotto and is topped with Kalamata olives, feta, and tomato cream sauce.

When shopping and sightseeing stir your appetite, Gulf-to-table restaurants await you on every block. Try the tasty mini tuna tacos on a bed of lump-crab guacamole at Nom Sushi Izakaya. Or grab an open-faced Spanish crab melt sandwich, homemade soup, and sweet soda bread at Carmen’s Lunch Bar, which When the streetlights turn on, Palafox continues to hum with family and adult was recently profiled in Forbes magazine. activities. Enjoy a production at the historic Both are intimate venues with impressive Saenger Theatre or a big-name concert at menus. From an outdoor table, you might the small venue Vinyl Music Hall. Impress Its upscale ambience is similar to that catch a glimpse of a horse-drawn carriage, (or embarrass) your spouse, kids, and friends the Pensacola Pedal Trolley, or a group of of New York City’s swanky SoHo, so it’s no by hopping on a mechanical bull at Wild Segway riders gliding past Plaza Ferdinand Saloon, or challenge your brain by wonder that SoGo is the nickname given Greg’s VII, where Andrew Jackson was sworn in solving clues in one of three themed escape to Palafox’s shopping and dining district. rooms at Escape on Palafox. as territorial governor.

For Southern cuisine with a contemporary twist, head a few blocks west to Union Public House. Signature dishes include grouper and shrimp corn dogs and mouthwatering wild boar sloppy joes. Diners wanting grab-and-go gourmet options can swing by the silver Airstream-style food trucks at Al Fresco on the corner of Main and Palafox Streets. For fancier dinner fare, make reservations at Jackson’s Steakhouse or Global Grill, which 74 | DECE MBER 2018

The bass is always pumping at Blend Lounge, which connects to World of Beer. If beer is your beverage of choice, quench your thirst at one of the local breweries, including the newest, Perfect Plain Brewing Company on Garden Street. Wine lovers can kick back in the breezeway at the Wine Bar, where street musicians’ tunes often echo down the arched tunnel of bricks.

A “GLAMPING” RETREAT Nestled among the cotton fields, rolling farmlands, and longleaf pines in nearby Milton is a swank sanctuary called Coldwater Gardens. Named after the spring-fed creek that runs along its eastern border, the eco-agro-tourism resort boasts 360 acres that include sprawling gardens, a luxurious lodge, cushy cabins, and “glamping” (short for “glamorous camping”) tents. The lodge’s clean, contemporary lines evoke the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, who happened to be a close family friend of the owner.

A mod treehouse-style cabin even has a hot tub on its deck, and the glamping-area bathhouse won a

prestigious state award for its dapper design. The six-hundred-square-foot cabins have mod furnishings, open kitchens, spacious bathrooms, generous screened-in front porches, geothermal heat and air-conditioning, comfortable king-size beds, pullout sofas, instant hot water, and landscaped yards.

From three of the cottages, guests can enjoy a fiery sunset over a cotton field.

BEACHES

The quiet getaway, which has managed to maintain a low profile in the rural North Santa Rosa community, is the perfect place to escape digital overload, though Wi-Fi is always available. Only four miles away is the Adventures Unlimited Outdoor Center, where you can traverse a challenging ropes course, soar over treetops on about a mile of zip lines, or head down the water in rental canoes and tubes.

Trying to determine which location has squeakier sand, bigger dunes, or the best spot to sprawl out on a beach towel is impossible and probably unnecessary, since picture-perfect places abound along the Emerald Coast, as the area is called. But, if you drive over the Destin Pass, you’ll almost certainly see water with clear turquoise color and clarity only the Caribbean can rival.

Landlocked beach lovers shouldn’t have to settle for ocean-sound mobile apps and seashell screensavers.

It’s time to take a trip to some of the award-winning beaches of Pensacola, Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, and Destin—all of which are still relatively wellkept secrets.

From the top of the pass, look north to catch a glimpse of the many boats that drop anchor on Crab Island, the famous underwater sandbar that used to be an island. Floating on the water’s surface during summertime is Crab Island Water Park, an inflatable playground that kids love. Destin’s Big Kahuna’s Water & Adventure Park is also a family favorite with a lazy river, a wave pool, and forty play areas.

Popular watersports are available for rent everywhere.

Options include stand-up paddleboarding, parasailing, paragliding, surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling, and sailing. Adrenaline seekers can experience hydroflight, one of the latest trends in watersports, on a Flyboard at Destin Power Boats and Fort Walton Beach’s Power Up Watersports. The water-propelled hoverboards take riders on a thrilling excursion as high as thirty feet above the water.

Of course, even sunny Florida has its rainy days.

When bad weather occurs, consider roaming the 350,000-square-foot military and aerospace museum in Pensacola. The National Naval Aviation Museum displays more than 150 restored aircraft, and kids can even hop into the cockpit of a retired Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet. The oldest and largest of its kind, the museum is among the most visited in Florida, and admission is free.

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Destin Snorkel. Deep-sea fishing adventures are also popular. The Gulf is known for its savory red snapper, so head out during snapper season in early summer to catch fish you can cook in your upscale Sky Home’s kitchen at Pensacola Beach’s Portofino Island Resort.

Other stylish places to stay include The Henderson in Destin and the Hilton Pensacola Beach, which offers a bountiful Sunday brunch. For live music, cold adult beverages, and an island vibe, swing by the Sandshaker Lounge on Pensacola Beach, which claims to be the home of the original Bushwacker cocktail. Or, sit under one of many thatched roofs at Navarre Beach’s Juana’s Pagodas, which is also a hot spot for sandy volleyball games and watercraft rentals.

Beach restaurants can sometimes be hit or miss, but here are some locals’ recommendations: TC’s Front Porch open-air café, a converted gas station in Navarre; Destin’s Louisiana Lagniappe, the Donut Hole, and Dewey Destin’s seafood, popular for its juicy fish sandwiches; Fat Clemenza’s brick-oven pizzeria in Miramar Beach; and The Grand Marlin in Pensacola Beach.

If you can’t get enough of the fresh seafood, stop in the spacious seafood market Joe Patti’s in downtown Pensacola to have some shipped to your home—not that you will ever want your Northwest Florida vacation to end!

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Emerald

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DESTIN TO PANAMA CITY BEACH

By Sallie W. Boyles

COAST SHINES

Of all the places so joyfully explored and then shared within the pages of VIE, Florida’s Emerald Coast, our home base, forever shines in our eyes. Breathtaking scenery and fabulous ways to enjoy life exist right outside our doorstep, from Panama City Beach to Destin, and the only way to see and experience as much as possible is to dive right in.

Left: The Pearl in Rosemary Beach offers charming boutique accommodations and amenities, including a private pool and beach, a restaurant, and a rooftop lounge.

Photo courtesy of The Pearl Far left: Each summer, locals and tourists gather on Pensacola Beach to watch the annual air show put on by the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy flight demonstration squadron.

Photo courtesy of Visit Pensacola

MOTHER NATURE’S FINEST WORK

lifestyle, but the intention to preserve nature also means that the main attractions—beaches, state parks, and forests—remain unspoiled.

At the heart of this region, twenty-six miles of powdery white beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, repeatedly glorified as Mother Nature’s finest work, remained largely overlooked until visionaries put South Walton County, Florida, on the map in the 1980s. Seaside, thoughtfully designed with architecture to evoke the beach cottage town of bygone years, was the area’s first New Urbanist community. Branded as Scenic Highway 30-A (or just 30-A), the stretch boasts sixteen coastal neighborhoods, old and new, and each emanates a distinct character and charm. Eco-friendly planning with ways to get around on foot and by bike not only facilitate a slower pace and village

Rivaling the Caribbean and Mediterranean, the beaches of South Walton and throughout Northwest Florida have crowned the lists of numerous travel guides. From late spring through early fall, the clear emerald-tinted waters invite swimming, snorkeling, and floating for hours on end. Tranquil waves near the shore further entice first-timers and pros alike to grab Jet Skis, kayaks, sailboats, paddleboards, and other water toys.

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Choctawhatchee Bay, immediately north of Destin Bridge, to Crab Island. At one time, the topographical feature was a tiny, crab-shaped island. Today, it’s an immense sandbar beneath about three feet of water and a heavenly spot for swimming, floating, shelling, fishing, and socializing.

Island is also a misnomer for Shell Island in Panama City Beach. Technically, the seven-mile barrier between the Gulf of Mexico and Saint Andrew Bay is a peninsula best reached by boat (pontoon rentals are popular) or ferry. Pack the necessities—food, water, sunscreen—to visit this utterly wild sanctuary.

Instead of concession stands, you’ll encounter snowy sand dunes, a coastal scrub forest, and an inland lake, all supporting many different species: deer, ghost crabs, loggerhead and green sea turtles, and even the Choctawhatchee beach mouse.

feet in depth, the shallow basins (also existing in New Zealand, Australia, and Madagascar) formed at least ten thousand years ago when winds blew sand inland from the beach. Rainwater collected there, as did water from the Gulf, which periodically breached the sand berms. Over time, the back-and-forth flow of rain and seawater produced a brackish ecosystem that supports freshwater and saltwater species. Havens for flora and fauna, the coastal dune lakes also beckon ecotourists and any who crave solace. Many explore via kayak or stand-up paddleboard (SUP).

By no coincidence, the YOLO (an acronym for “you only live once”) Board originated in Santa Rosa Beach.

“The dune lakes not only offer a constant inspiration to share with our many visitors but also, for me, a way to continually develop options to get out and explore them to their fullest,” says Tom Losee, YOLO Board cofounder. He also founded RUN/SUP, a company that encourages people to enjoy the gifts of nature while getting fit. Along with renting SUPs to locals and visitors, RUN/SUP provides cross-training and maps out courses. “We are truly blessed to have such a stunning example of nature’s beauty in our own backyard,” Tom adds.

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Another unique happenstance of nature, this one involving the continental shelf (the underwater ledge that borders every land mass), explains the prevalence of dolphins and big-game fish in this part of the Gulf. Nicknamed the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village, Destin is remarkably close to deep, deep water. Upon entering the Gulf of Mexico via East Pass from Choctawhatchee Bay, the clear, desert-like shallows and white, sandy bottom transition quickly to rocky outcroppings and dark silt, a welcoming environment for amberjack, mackerel, porgy, snapper, and triggerfish. The real excitement, however, occurs twenty-four miles out at what is known locally as the Edge, where the continental shelf plunges to four hundred feet. In those depths, marlin, billfish, grouper, tuna, and wahoo congregate. Many anglers have set world records in Destin, home to the Cobia World Championships (March to May), the Crab Cruncher Classic (April), Sandestin’s Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic ( June), and the Summer Open Fishing Tournament (August).

For a one-of-a-kind, in-or-on-the-water experience, hop aboard a boat, a Jet Ski, or a SUP and head to

To combine nature with shopping and dining, the Timpoochee Trail may be just your speed. Eighteen and a half miles long, the paved bike path, named in memory of a Euchee Indian chief, runs parallel to Scenic Highway 30-A from Dune Allen Beach to Inlet Beach.

Bikers who stay on the trail not only pass through all of 30-A’s villages but also reach dune lakes, state parks with trails and camping, and beach access points.

GLORIOUS FOOD AND SPIRITS Gone are the days when the menu choices in Northwest Florida boiled down to one question: fried, broiled, or boiled? An invasion of talented chefs, gathering inspiration from the abundance and variety of fresh land and sea ingredients, now pepper the region with innovative dishes. Many blend insights from traveling and studying abroad with traditional Southern recipes they’ve known since childhood. Different venues add flavor as well, so your well-rounded culinary exploration must incorporate a range of eateries: food trucks, beachside cafés, and fine dining establishments.

When on the go, The Meltdown on 30A, parked on Seaside’s Airstream Row (or food truck central), makes a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich for which you’ll want to wait in line. If you’re wondering who’s responsible for such decadence, the answer is acclaimed Chef Jim

Shirley, owner of several other top restaurants in the area, including the Great Southern Café and The Bay. For a crowd-pleasing pick, Bud & Alley’s, a Seaside icon, is hard to beat. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner in an idyllic spot that overlooks the Gulf of Mexico, the hospitable eatery (owned by Dave Rauschkolb, a local who’s regularly on-site) welcomes casual diners to take a seat, even in their wet bathing suits. Bud & Alley’s—which also has an adjacent Taco Bar and Pizza Bar—was named to Florida Trend’s Golden Spoon Awards Hall of Fame in 2017. Can’t decide what to order? Go for the crab cake, which is oh-so delicate and mouthwatering!

The name may prompt you to go elsewhere, but count on Stinky’s Fish Camp in Santa Rosa Beach for freshfrom-the-Gulf, expertly prepared fare. “All ways,” a theme at Stinky’s, means that entrées, including the fresh fish of the day, are offered multiple ways, and selections, like the oyster bar’s amusing variations, are quite imaginative and rich in flavor.

Of all the restaurants in Florida, only Seagar’s Prime Steaks and Seafood (Sandestin) and Cuvee 30A (Inlet Beach) received Wine Spectator’s 2017 Best of Award of Excellence for their representations of wine-growing regions and quality presentations.

“When Bud & Alley’s first opened in January 1986,” says Rauschkolb, “there were only five restaurants, including us, on 30-A. It’s been an honor to be one of the pioneers of the culinary revolution that is now a rich tapestry of outstanding restaurants and quick-bite offerings. Of course, it’s wonderful for those people visiting here but even more so for those of us who get to live here. With every new opening, it always seems like another jewel in the crown of South Walton. One thing is for sure: opening a restaurant on 30-A doesn’t guarantee success, as the quality bar is quite high, and we certainly all benefit from that.”

Annual celebrations of food, wine, and other spirits also cultivate refreshing trends that raise the bar for deliciousness. Wine reigns at Sandestin Wine Festival at the Village of Baytowne Wharf (April), South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival at Grand Boulevard’s Town Center in Sandestin (April), Rosemary Beach Uncorked (October), and Seeing Red Wine Festival in Seaside (November).

Craft beer is the star at UNwineD, a March festival at Aaron Bessant Park in Panama City Beach. Beer aficionados also love October on the Gulf with the Baytowne Wharf Beer Fest at Sandestin and Oktoberfest in Panama City Beach.

Opposite: The area from Destin to Panama City Beach is truly blessed with incredibly talented chefs who prepare fresh Gulf of Mexico seafood at a wide selection of awardwinning restaurants.

Photo courtesy of Visit South Walton

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BEACH MUSIC Where there’s a beach, there’s music. On the Emerald Coast, live bands play yearround, and some of the biggest names in music perform at noteworthy annual festivals. Panama City Beach hosts two chart-topping three-day events: Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam is a country music festival on Labor Day weekend with Grammywinning headliners, industry icons, and up-and-coming acts. Meanwhile, SandJam (yes, the party is in the sand) presents live performances from alternative rock bands (think Imagine Dragons and Kings of Leon) in the spring. Festivals sell out to attendees from all over the country and abroad, so be sure to purchase tickets and reserve rooms in advance.

“One of the reasons I started these festivals in Panama City Beach is that I consider this a true destination,” says Rendy Lovelady, executive producer of both events. “When we do surveys, people tell us they come for the beach, the food, and the music. And we attract a gumbo of people who want to hear different kinds of music—alternative, country, and singer-songwriter. This region is also a real melting pot of talent.”

A talent component of both festivals heightens the excitement among fans and performers by showcasing new, original artists who compete on the stages of regional venues in the weeks and days leading up to the main event. The winning act then opens the concert on the final day. Competitors from all over participate, although many are local. “More and more, this area’s becoming a real incubator for new, up-and-coming acts,” Lovelady notes. “Panama City Beach is definitely a live music city. I live in Nashville and can tell you there are as many possibilities in this area to enjoy great live music.”

And don’t miss the 30A Songwriters Festival, which brings many of those Nashville songwriters who have penned hit tunes for huge artists to the beaches of South Walton for intimate performances each January.

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SHOPPING BY THE SEASHORE Northwest Florida has also become a shopping destination to rival any great city for art, fashion, food and spirits, and much more. For all the popular stores and brands, you could spend an entire day at Destin Commons, Grand Boulevard and Silver Sands Premium Outlets in Miramar Beach, or Pier Park in Panama City Beach, but you should also visit the locally owned establishments. Independent merchants are hallmarks of communities like WaterColor, Seaside, Seacrest, Rosemary Beach, and Grayton Beach.

Even if shopping is not your passion, a gem or two will undoubtedly catch your eye. Assorted treasures include high-fashion footwear, trendy accessories, designer apparel, handcrafted jewelry, children’s fine clothing, sporting equipment, amusing toys, cool souvenirs, Southern gourmet treats, one-of-a-kind furniture, coastal home accessories, and original art.

This page: From Pier Park in Panama City Beach to Destin Commons, there is no shortage of great shopping in the area.

The Alys Shoppe, pictured here, offers highend designer clothing, accessories, and more.

Photo by Brett Bulthuis Opposite left: Since 2013, the annual Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam festival has brought award-winning country music artists to Panama City Beach for incredible concerts and fun.

Opposite right: Conservation Park in Panama City Beach includes boardwalks and miles of flatwoods trails that are perfect for hiking and wildlife viewing.

Photos courtesy of Visit Panama City Beach

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The Emerald Coast is home to a diverse community of artists. Don’t miss the gallery of Mary Hong, who uses glass shards to create mesmerizing mosaics reflecting local scenery. Andy Saczynski is a contemporary mixed-media assemblage artist who recycles objects like wood, paint, and musical instruments for his whimsical and coastal-inspired work. Gordie Hinds paints in a nostalgic, Hemingwayesque style to capture snapshots in time, especially life on the Gulf, as well as his love of baseball, dogs, and the great outdoors.

“We have some really great artists down here,” Hinds says. “If acquiring original art is important to you, or if you’re looking for that one piece that does something good for your soul each time you look at it, then there’s a good chance you’ll find it—or the artist to create it for you—here. That said, it’s easy to meet and talk with us about our work.”

In addition to visiting artists and seeing their work in galleries, collectors have their choice of art festivals: Art in the Park (WaterColor) and ArtsQuest (Sandestin) in spring; the West Indies Market (Rosemary Beach) from spring to midsummer; Baytowne Art Walk (Village of Baytowne Wharf ) and Festival of the Arts (Destin) in late summer and fall. Rather than displaying canvases, Digital Graffiti (Alys Beach) in May colors the town’s white walls with a kaleidoscopic nighttime light show.

COTTAGES, CASTLES, INNS, AND RESORTS Variety also pertains to the area’s lodging. Pitch a tent at one of the beautiful state parks or get pampered at the best hotel. A rental could be a quaint cottage, a chic condominium, or a veritable castle by the sea. When choosing, compare the advantages of making your reservation directly with a homeowner versus a property manager. At Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, for instance, hotel and condo guests (those who book via Sandestin) receive generous access to amenities and other perks.

Notably, the Baytowne Marina at Sandestin also rents boat slips with resort privileges.

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For the ultimate luxury home away from home, pristine Alys Beach is the neighborhood for you.

Its spacious homes and vacation units are well appointed and perfect for a peaceful, isolated retreat year-round. Stop by charming Fonville Press for a coffee and breakfast before spending the day walking along a private beach or enjoying your cabana at the exclusive Caliza Pool. Shopping is on tap at NEAT Bottle Shop and Tasting Room, Ann Hartley boutique, and the Alys Shoppe, which is packed with high-end designer clothing, accessories, home goods, and Alys Beach merchandise.

Although a family-friendly theme plays along the coast, some retreats, such as The Pearl in Rosemary Beach, cater to grown-ups. By piling on the luxury in an intimate setting of only fifty-five rooms and suites, the elegant hotel, complete with spa, pool, grill, rooftop bar, and private beach, earns numerous accolades. A few distinctions bestowed in 2017 included Four Stars from Forbes Travel Guide, Four Diamonds from AAA, and Reader’s Choice #8 of Top Hotels in Florida from Condé Nast Traveler.

A DESTINATION FOR ALL SEASONS Every season in Northwest Florida has its own set of virtues. Summer is the best time for swimming and diving into activities; everything is open. Quite a few visitors fall in love with autumn and spring, when temperatures and humidity levels moderate, creating the most delightful setting for outdoor festivals. Winter, too, wins the hearts of those who treasure the deep-blue skies, the peaceful, quiet beaches, and the calm that descends after the holidays. That’s precisely why so many lovers of nature, food, music, and art become permanent residents; they were once vacationers who couldn’t bear the thought of leaving.

HEAD TO VISITSOUTHWALTON.COM AND VISITPANAMACITYBEACH.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TRIP-PLANNING IDEAS!

Anglers can take advantage of four exceptional fishing piers in Panama City Beach. The identical Russell-Fields Pier and M.B. Miller Pier are often referred to as City Pier and County Pier, respectively, while Saint Andrews State Park has Tiller Pier on the Gulf side as well as a fishing pier on the Grand Lagoon.

Photo courtesy of Visit Panama City Beach

East THE

SMALL-TOWN FLORIDA ON THE COAST

By Jordan Staggs

END

Unlike the bustling towns of Pensacola, Destin, and Panama City Beach, the eastern end of our ’Cola to ’Cola area offers a chance to slow down, get to know Old Florida, and experience the natural landscapes the way they were intended—unspoiled by man.

Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Michael—a Category 4 storm which made landfall in Mexico Beach, Florida, on October 10, 2018—most of the area recently saw major destruction. Please join us in praying for our ’Cola to ’Cola neighbors in the towns of Mexico Beach, Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, Panama City, Lynn Haven, St. George Island, Marianna, Blountstown, Youngstown, Callaway, Wewahitchka, and other affected areas. The people of Northwest Florida greatly appreciate any effort to help relieve hurricane victims during this time and in the months and years ahead as they work to rebuild their lives.

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RETREAT D E C E M B E R 6 – 8 , 2 0 1 8 | W A T E R CO L O R , F L O R I D A

ENVISION.PLAN.GROW. GROWING YOUR VISION NEVER FELT SO REFRESHING We’ve all heard that our WHY is what matters the most when it comes to our work, whether we are in the private or public sector. What we don’t often talk about is the burnout that can come when your WHY drives you to perform at a high level of excellence at all times. Eventually, it gets harder and harder to develop new ideas or to execute impactful initiatives.

The purpose of The Refresh Retreat is to bring business women of faith together to strategically position themselves for success while also taking time to relax. It’s a Retreat that is just as much about gaining new information as it is about enjoying life through self-care.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO PURCHASE TICKETS TheRefreshConference.com | (334) 305-0304 precious@bfcmanagement.com

2018 SPEAKER LINEUP PRECIOUS FREEMAN Convention Host & Founder of BFC Management

LISA BURWELL

Photo courtesy of St. Joe Club & Resorts

Founder/Publisher of The Idea Boutique & VIE Magazine

TRETTA BUSH Managerial Accountant & Author

J.W. CARPENTER, JD Executive Director of Birmingham Education Foundation

LATOYA LEE, MS Founder of Precision Grant Writing & Consulting Services

YULUNDA TYRE, PHD, LPC, NCC Author & Owner of Reignite Counselor, Coach & Consultation Service

e all know that we’re not supposed to take anything or anyone for granted, but rarely do we actually understand the fragility of life until it’s gone. Hurricane Michael ravaged a way of life for many people across the eastern portion of the Florida Panhandle and beyond on October 10, causing catastrophic devastation for many people. Homes, cars, photo albums, beds, televisions, refrigerators, clothing, jewelry, roofs, and lifetimes of memories are gone, along with thirty-nine lives. For the storm’s survivors, everyday occurrences such as saying good morning to neighbors, visiting the local grocery store, and going to work or school, to name but a few things, have also been wiped out. It’s hard to imagine

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what that would do to a person until it happens to you or to someone you know. It’s shocking. We know several people who lost everything and many who lost a lot and are displaced from their homes and businesses while they rebuild. Our hearts are broken, and we are leveled to our knees in prayer for God’s grace to help them. It could have been us. It could have been you. A natural disaster chooses its path of destruction, and its victims must learn to cope with their new normal in its wake.

Evacuating from Hurricane Michael, which was coming in as a near-Category 5 system, was scary. You could sense that this leviathan storm meant business and wasn’t retreating as so many Gulf systems have done in the past when heading for the Panhandle. Panama City, Mexico Beach, Port Saint Joe, Apalachicola,

IN THE WAKE OF DISA S TER

BY LISA M. BURWELL

The beautiful and serene coastline along Mexico Beach and Port Saint Joe, Florida, as seen before it was decimated

by Hurricane Michael on October 10, 2018 Photo by Bill Fauth Inset: The quaint wedding chapel at the Driftwood Inn in Mexico Beach was wiped out by the hurricane, along with 95 percent of the town.

Photo by Romona Robbins

Lynn Haven, Marianna, Wewahitchka, Youngstown, Blountstown, and others bore the brunt of the eye of the storm, with Mexico Beach surely being one of the worst hit by this catastrophic monster. We have all seen what those in other places in the world have had to deal with in the aftermath of natural disasters, and our world has seen its fair share of them these past few years. Something about this storm was different—its impact was widespread and unexpected. In fact, the resulting devastation has been likened to that of a nuclear bomb.

# LOV E M E XI CO B E ACH Much of the affected area along the Gulf of Mexico is known as “the Forgotten Coast,” home to not overly developed, old-fashioned Florida towns that wanted to stay that way. Not only did the residents purposely pursue this way of life but countless tourists did as well.

Why? Because it felt different. Time seemed to stand still in these places. And, with an actual time change in between Port Saint Joe and Mexico Beach, you could even spend an hour in the eastern time zone and come back to “repeat” it in the central zone.

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Right: The Martin Theatre in historic downtown Panama City after Hurricane Michael. “The business community downtown was a collective effort.

Even if a few rebuild quickly, they will have tough times ahead,” says photographer Jack Gardner.

Below: “I rounded a bend thinking I was within a few miles of my destination,” says Pete Foley. “A Mexico Beach sign suddenly beckoned: ‘Welcome! Share the beauty we enjoy every day!’ Not today.

The sign was broken on its crown with a backdrop of snapped pines.”

He later snapped this photo in the remnants of the town.

efore the storm, when you entered the rural areas surrounding Apalachicola, a weak signal on mobile phones was part of the charm. (Now service providers are working tirelessly to restore service for thousands across the affected areas.) Another simple pleasure was eating shrimp po’boys in the unpretentious Old Florida bungalow-style restaurant Killer Seafood located on Highway 98 in Mexico Beach (which is currently serving hot meals to the community from a makeshift tent and food truck location they have dubbed Camp Happy Tummies, with help from Dave Snyder from Halyards Restaurant on Saint Simons Island, Georgia). It’s a sleepy beach town sans a single traffic light. Scalloping in Port Saint Joe was a ritual that partakers didn’t tell others about because they didn’t want the sanctity of the experience ruined by the masses. Long, hot, lazy summer days would be followed by a shrimp boil with family and friends and end with stargazing and crabbing on the beach late into the evening. For generations, fishermen, oyster farmers, and all manner of decent and lovely people have called these places home or made memories there while vacationing.

“Mexico Beach has always been an amazing place for visitors to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life, allowing them to unwind and relax,” says Kimberly Shoaf, president of the Mexico Beach Community Development Council. “While there are obstacles in front of us, we will get back to that place—that place that makes Mexico Beach unforgettable.”

# PA N H A N D LE S TRO N G The destruction has been extensively covered on television, but the countless stories that have not yet been told are of neighboring communities from the west side of Panama City Beach, Inlet Beach, Santa Rosa Beach, Miramar Beach, and Destin that have pitched in on a daily basis to bring caravans of food, supplies, and compassion to those who lost everything.

The St. Joe Company, one of the area’s largest employers, has worked tirelessly since the storm to make sure its team members were all safe and accounted for. Many employees lost their homes or suffered extensive damage.

The staff at St. Joe came together to house those who needed shelter, provide supplies and manpower to clear wreckage and repair damage, and visit affected areas weekly to provide hot meals and other essentials.

The company also donated $1 million via The St. Joe Community Foundation. “The St. Joe Community Foundation is honored to be able to contribute to the relief efforts from Hurricane Michael,” says Jorge Gonzalez, St. Joe Company president and CEO of The St. Joe Community Foundation. “Northwest Florida is our home. The residents and businesses of this beautiful region are strong and resilient. They are family.

This is a time when we need to step up and support our family in their time of need. Northwest Florida will come back strong and sound.”

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The Sonder Project, a nonprofit focused on clean water and based in Santa Rosa Beach, has called for volunteers to help with Hurricane Michael relief and pledged that 100 percent of donations will go directly to those efforts until further notice.

The Sonder Project teamed up with local businesses 360 Blue, The 30A Company, YOLO Board, and Visit South Walton to spread the word, funds, supplies, and help to those in need. Brian Kelley of the band Florida Georgia Line, along with his wife, Brittney—they recently opened the Tribe Kelley Surf Post in Grayton Beach—kicked off The Sonder Project’s Sonder Challenge fund-raiser with a five-thousand-dollar donation and have been aiding in relief efforts as well.

Food For Thought Outreach, Inc. is known for its backpack program, which provides meals for children around the Northwest Florida area. They have opened their kitchen since Hurricane Michael and have been working nonstop to prepare extra meals and deliver them to affected areas to the east of their headquarters in Santa Rosa Beach. Meanwhile, Alaqua Animal Refuge in Freeport has taken huge steps to rescue, house, and feed the pets that have been displaced by Hurricane Michael. They are receiving donations of dog and cat food, litter, and other animal care supplies to distribute to those in need.

Above photos: “We just got back from delivering supplies in Blountstown and surrounding areas.

The beautiful forests look like pick-up sticks!

You could tell where the eye of the storm was by the direction the trees were bent and snapped,” recounts photographer Romona Robbins. “The trip was emotionally taxing, but meeting the people was very uplifting—they are true survivors. It is absolutely remarkable to see all these communities working together. This totally restores my faith in humanity.”

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any, many other people and organizations across the Panhandle and the country have been working tirelessly to help the victims of Hurricane Michael, and the outpouring of support has been, as Mexico Beach mayor Al Cathey puts it, “remarkable.”

“The state and the government have done everything we have asked and needed and more,” Cathey says two weeks after the storm. “We’ve got federal support, and we’ve got volunteer food trucks with help from people we don’t even know. There are a lot of assets working together to bring people hope, and when 95 percent of our town is destroyed, we need hope.”

Mayor Cathey, like so many others around the area, went on to assert that his town will come back from this tragedy. “We spent many years calling ourselves the Forgotten Coast, and this is a hell of a way to let people know where we are, but the support has been overwhelming.” He says that like many others he had seen devastation caused by past natural disasters around the world on television and online, but he never realized what it would be like to experience such destruction firsthand. “It really is humbling when it’s in your own backyard. But Mexico Beach will come back from this. We are small in number but strong in heart, and it is without question in my mind that we will rebuild to be the community that so many people know and love.”

Opposite: A National Guard emergency unit unpacks in Mexico Beach.

This page top: A church sign in Callaway, Florida, offers a message of hope in the wake of the storm.

Photos by Pete Foley Bottom left: Angela Ragsdale of The 30A Company, Jeff Archer of YOLO Board, Brian and Brittney Kelley of Florida Georgia Line and Tribe Kelley, and Laurie and Taylor Hood of Alaqua Animal Refuge gathered at Alaqua to help displaced pets after the storm.

Photo courtesy of Alaqua Animal Refuge Bottom right: Linemen and working crews from all over the United States have caravanned to Northwest Florida to help restore electrical grids and other services.

Photo by Romona Robbins 90 | DECE MBER 2018

The second greatest commandment of all is Mark 12:31—to love thy neighbor as thyself. Watching the community help and truly care about their neighbors is so inspiring. Even in these divisive times, humanity and kindness still live on.

CO NTI N U I N G R E LI E F E F FO R T S In a small effort to help, VIE will donate a portion of profits to the relief effort for the next year through the newly created VIE Foundation. Thank you to all those who have donated and volunteered across the area and beyond through so many wonderful organizations.

From our founder/president Lisa Burwell: “We are all in this together, and with our strong sense of community and by the grace of God, we will pull through this!”

If you live along the Emerald Coast and would like to volunteer or donate to the Northwest Florida relief efforts, here is a list of drop-off sites: • Acme Oyster House in Miramar Beach • Alaqua Animal Refuge in Freeport • Berkshire Hathaway in WaterColor Crossings • Chapel at the Beach in Rosemary Beach • ConvoyofHope.org, volunteer teams of 10–20 • Davis Properties in Seagrove Beach • Destin Commons • Destiny Worship Center Campuses in Destin, Freeport, and Panama City Beach

• Louis Louis in Santa Rosa Beach • The Matrix Community Outreach Center in DeFuniak Springs • Ohana School at 30Avenue • Point Washington United Methodist Church in Point Washington • Regional Utilities in Santa Rosa Beach • Resolute Martial Arts & Family Fitness in Destin • Southern Choice Properties in DeFuniak Springs • Seaside • Saint Rita’s Church in Santa Rosa Beach

• DKM Custom Homes in Miramar Beach

• Stinky’s Bait Shack in Dune Allen Beach

• Emerald Coast Association of Realtors Office in Santa Rosa Beach

• 30A Local Properties in Grayton Beach

• Sunrise Coffee in Gulf Place

• Elmore’s Landing in Santa Rosa Beach

• Tracery Interiors in Inlet Beach

• Food For Thought Outreach in Santa Rosa Beach and Destin

• Uhlfelder Law Office in Grayton Beach

• Good News United Methodist Church in Santa Rosa Beach

• What’s Up Dog? in Miramar Beach

• U-Haul in Santa Rosa Beach • Walton Area Chamber of Commerce in Santa Rosa Beach

• Grayton Beer Company in Santa Rosa Beach

• YOLO Board in Miramar Beach

• Helen McCall Park in Santa Rosa Beach

If you don’t live in the Northwest Florida area and would like to donate, the following websites are reputable organizations collecting money for relief efforts:

• Hilary & Reverie in Inlet Beach • The Hub 30A • Idyll Hounds Brewing Company in Santa Rosa Beach

• ChapelattheBeach.org • DestinyWorshipCenter.com • LouisianaCN.com

• Impulse Church in Miramar Beach

• SamaritansPurse.org

• Legendary Marina in Destin

• TheSonderProject.org/MichaelRelief

• Lou Lou Beans Gift Shop in Freeport

• VolunteerFlorida.org V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 91

C’est la vie

THE TRAVELER

Ask any avid voyager, and he or she will likely tell you about a list of items that are essential for traveling. This collection is designed not only to provide some functional and helpful products to make your explorations easier, but also to give you some ideas for adventurous expeditions you might not have considered before.

How about camping under the stars or engaging in a race on your own personal watercraft? And don’t forget to look fierce while getting from here to there!

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Le monde

Le monde GOES ROUND AND ROUND

Dreaming of an island life? Try an unconventional take on it when planning your next vacation with an island-hopping voyage around Greece! From ancient architecture and endless beautiful views to modern luxuries, great food, and much more, the country’s many seaside destinations won’t disappoint. Mykonos, seen here, is one of the most popular Greek isles for tourism. Part of the Cyclades in the South Aegean, Mykonos boasts clear waters, a selection of gorgeous beaches, and a party atmosphere that would give Ibiza a run for its money. Looking for something quieter? Try the lesser-known isle of Lefkada.

Search “Greece” on VIEmagazine.com for more destinations!

Photo by Pajor Pawel / Shutterstock

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A mass ascension of hot-air balloons takes place at the 2014 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The festival, held annually, is the biggest hot-air balloon event in the world.

Photo by Kobby Dagan.

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BY ST EV E LAR ESE

The roar of flames inflating hundreds of hot-air balloons creates an exciting symphony as I climb into the gondola.

It’s a cold October dawn at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and I’m preparing to take off in pilot Chris Sabia’s red, blue, and yellow polka-dotted Wonder Bread balloon. But first, a safety briefing.

“There’s only one rule, and that’s to never, ever…” WHOOOOOOSH! Laughing, Sabia hits the propane burner, and a blast of fire drowns out his warning. The heat lifts us gently skyward, and soon the seventy-eight-acre launch field and balloons below look like a colorful mushroom garden. Scores of other balloons drift aloft around us. Traditional-shaped balloons of all colors remind me of Easter eggs, and special-shape balloons make a surreal scene even more so as a dragon floats by. The sun begins to splinter over the Sandia Mountains to the east, and the green cottonwood forest ribbons along the Rio Grande to our west. It’s another perfect New Mexico day.

Every first full week in October, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta splashes New Mexico’s turquoise-blue skies with hundreds of colorful hot-air balloons from around the world. With more than 320 sunny days, wide-open spaces, and a favorable air current called the Box, Albuquerque is the Ballooning Capital of the World, and the Fiesta is the largest annual hot-air balloon gathering on the planet. Since the first Fiesta in 1972, pilots and spectators flock to Albuquerque to experience nine days of ballooning, competitions, balloon glows, fireworks, music, food, and camaraderie built over the decades. Many visitors schedule their vacations around the event, reserving their hotel rooms

or RV spaces for next year the day after Fiesta ends.

Throughout the week, hundreds of thousands of people (there were 887,970 attendees for 2017’s event) visit the grassy launch field surrounded by scores of white tents selling everything from collectible souvenir pins to New Mexico’s famous green chile breakfast burritos and piñon coffee.

“People can walk on the field, speak with pilots, and even help set up and launch the balloons,” says Fiesta spokeswoman Amanda Molina.

“People from all over the world all come together, wide-eyed at the sight. Everyone’s a kid during Balloon Fiesta.”

A BASH, A BOAST, AND A BALLOON FIESTA The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta began, appropriately enough, with a party. Sid and Bill Cutter’s mother, Virginia, was celebrating her birthday in 1971 and the brothers wanted to throw her a bash.

“I decided to go with a World War I theme,” founder Sid Cutter told me in 1994.

Cutter passed away at 77 years old in 2011, after careers in the Air Force as a pilot and with his family’s business, Cutter Aviation. “I rented Snoopy and Red Baron costumes, thinking I would be the Red Baron and my brother would be Snoopy, although he got to the Red Baron costume first and I had to be Snoopy. But what I really wanted to do was get an old airplane for the hangar.”

After realizing a vintage airplane would be difficult and expensive to get, Cutter was encouraged to rent “one of those new balloons.”

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“When we landed, there were five thousand people and five police cars waiting for us, but no ground crew. People loved it.”

Below left: Balloon Fiesta patrons can get up close and personal with balloons and pilots during the many events that occur throughout the festival.

“In 1971 there were maybe fifty balloons max in the U.S.,” he said. “They were just being ‘rediscovered.’ So I thought, ‘Well, they used balloons in World War I, and I can float it outside my business for advertising after the party.’ That shows you how much I knew about balloons back then.”

Photo by Kobby Dagan.

So Cutter—who went on to be awarded the Montgolfier Diploma by the World Air Sports Federation (the highest honor in the world for ballooning) and was the national hot-air balloon champion in 1978 and 1986—ordered and received his first balloon. It was a patriotic red, white, and blue one with gold trim, and it still flies in his honor during Fiesta each year. Stuffing it into the hangar where the party was held, Cutter kept it inflated all night long.

Below right: Skilled pilots dip their balloons to skim the Rio Grande before rising to the heights once more.

Opposite: The hot-air balloons’ baskets and envelopes lie on the ground as pilots and crews prepare for liftoff.

Photos by Steve Larese.

“So here I am in my Snoopy costume with my brother dressed up like the Red Baron,” Cutter said. “Everybody was having a great time, and the booze was flowing. Some of it flowed into my brother, and he began telling people he and I were going to fly that balloon in the morning.”

Cutter figured that if a hangover didn’t thwart his brother’s plan, the lack of propane would. But at six o’clock the next morning, the Red Baron was at Snoopy’s door.

“I told him we’d used all the gas keeping the balloon inflated last night, but he had gone to the truck stop and got some more,” Cutter said. “He had to save face and was determined to fly that thing. So I thought we’d just have some people hold on to the rope, learn the burner, and take Mom up for a little bit afterward, and that would be that. But we forgot to tell the ground crew to hold on to the rope, and the next thing me and my brother knew, we were three hundred feet up and heading toward power lines.”

Cutter attributed the fact that his first balloon ride wasn’t his last to a perfect flying day. The brothers managed to miss the power lines and landed in the rough at University of New Mexico Golf Course.

While this was happening, the trusty ground crew had given up; they were getting breakfast at an International House of Pancakes. But plenty of other people noticed the Cutter brothers’ jaunt.

“When we landed, there were five thousand people and five police cars waiting for us, but no ground crew,” Cutter said. “People loved it. Balloons were a pretty rare sight then.”

The next year in 1972, local KOB Radio was looking for a unique way to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.

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“KOB heard about my balloon and gave me a call, asking if I could fly for their fiftieth anniversary,” Cutter said. “I said, ‘Why don’t we do it big and have a balloon race?’ They said, ‘Great—what’s a balloon race?’ and I said, ‘Hell if I know.’”

Cutter found out. He contacted twenty-one ballooning teams from across the country to attend the ballooning “happening.”

Thirteen made it, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was born.

“This was just a radio anniversary, but twenty thousand people showed up at six in the morning to watch thirteen balloons take off,” Cutter explained. “It was something else. Albuquerque was trying to find something to hang its hat on. The city had tried a couple of green chile cook-offs, but nothing compared to this.

Looking at the numbers and the demographics, the city felt balloons would put it on the map.”

Albuquerque was right. Cutter organized the next two Balloon Fiestas until it grew too large for him to manage, and the City of Albuquerque took over in 1974, creating the nonprofit Fiesta organization. The Balloon Fiesta injects an estimated $100 million into Albuquerque’s economy annually.

WHAT TO EXPECT Several different ballooning events take place throughout the nine days. Weekends and Wednesday see mass ascensions when all registered balloons inflate and fly. Balloon glows take place most evenings. That’s when balloons inflate but remain tethered, firing their burners in unison to create a glowing, seventy-eightacre forest; fireworks follow the glows. The Special Shape Rodeos take place on Thursday and Friday when an average of a hundred one-of-a-kind balloons are inflated. Returning shapes include Darth Vader and Yoda, spaceships, bees, Smokey Bear, Humpty Dumpty, and even Spider-Pig from The Simpsons Movie. Monday and Tuesday mornings’ balloon competitions include grabbing keys off of tall poles to win vehicles and dropping bean bags on targets. Competitions are fun to watch, are less crowded, and display the talent of some of the best balloon pilots in the world.

New Mexico’s October days can start out near freezing and climb to the 80s, so dress in layers. Traffic to the Fiesta Park is always heavy; give yourself enough time or consider taking a Balloon Fiesta Express Park and Ride bus (www.balloonfiesta.com/ guest-guide/park-ride) or even riding a bike—there’s secure, free bike parking. Bring a hat and water, and make sure to charge your camera. Balloon Fiesta is thought to be the most photographed event in the world.

Days begin at 5:30 a.m. when the launch field opens, and the darkness is punctured by columns of flame as pilots test their burners before tipping their gondolas on their sides and attaching the envelopes. Crowds gather around the baskets to warm themselves, sipping hot chocolate and munching breakfast burritos as they chat with the pilots and crews. A few balloons, called Dawn Patrol, launch to test conditions, glowing like Chinese lanterns in the still-dark sky. As soon as the green flag is raised, indicating favorable flying conditions, hundreds of gaspowered fans roar to life and inflate the balloon envelopes on the ground. As the sky begins to lighten over the Sandia Mountains, propane burners roar and heat the trapped air, causing the billowing balloons to tip upright to the cheers of the crowd. Field officials called Zebras (for their referee-like uniforms adorned with zebra motifs to stand out in the crowd) clear the area around the balloons, and with blasts of their whistles give the all-clear for launch.

Balloons typically land before 10 a.m., and there’s plenty to do in Albuquerque afterward. The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum next to the launch field details the history of ballooning with interactive displays.

The Sandia Peak Tramway takes passengers to the top of 10,378-foot Sandia Mountain for soaring views and hiking. Historic Old Town is a must-visit for local Southwest dining and shopping, and Nob Hill is full of Route 66 charm and local boutiques and restaurants. Albuquerque has many excellent museums, including the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum. The ABQ BioPark (which includes the Zoo, the Botanic Garden, the Aquarium, and Tingley Beach) is a fun place for families to go in between ballooning events, and Albuquerque’s green chile-based cuisine and art and jewelry shopping make it a great destination anytime.

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“Ready to get your feet wet?” he asks me. Getting wet in a balloon was not something I had prepared for, but I’m game for anything. Feathering the burner, Sabia kisses the river’s surface with the gondola before taking us skyward again. Kayakers cheer as we rise, dripping water on them as we pass overhead and clear the trees. The ride feels solid and more like looking out from a tall building than being conveyed by fabric, hot air, and the wind. Other balloons drifting down the Rio Grande create a postcard scene.

In 1700s France, where ballooning originated, angry farmers in whose fields balloonists landed were pacified with a bottle of bubbly, and the tradition has thankfully stuck.

Albuquerque has many places to stay ranging from budget to luxury. Make your reservations as early as possible, as almost every room in the city is booked during Fiesta. The Hotel Chaco in Old Town pays homage to New Mexico’s ancient Native American culture and offers Balloon Fiesta packages; the balloons can be seen from its rooftop patio. Western-facing rooms at Nativo Lodge have balconies with views of the balloon launch, and its rooms, painted by Native American artists, bring a boutique feel to this locally owned property. Sandia Resort and Casino on the Sandia Pueblo east of the balloon field offers prime balloon views; make reservations at its top-floor Bien Shur restaurant on balloon glow nights.

Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa on the Santa Ana Pueblo north of the balloon field has a secluded feel but is an easy drive to the launch field, and the balloons can be seen when the winds are to the north. Tamaya offers its own balloon rides year-round.

Above: Fiesta’s brightly colored balloons and the camaraderie among balloon enthusiasts create an atmosphere that attracts people from all over the world.

Photo by Angelina Peace.

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During Fiesta or any time of year you can take a balloon ride with a number of companies such as World Balloon and Rainbow Ryders.

A PERFECT LANDING Reading a favorable breeze, Sabia skillfully steers our balloon east toward the Rio Grande for a splash-n-dash.

High above Albuquerque again, the flight is silent save for the occasional click of my camera and pop of the burner. Other balloons begin to pick landing sites, and soon Sabia’s radio squawks to life. He’s picked an open lot for landing, and our chase crew is on its way to meet us. Pulling ropes and flaring the burner, Sabia expertly glides us to the ground. Our waiting chase crew holds down the balloon as Sabia pulls a cord and the envelope deflates. My feet firmly on the ground, a champagne flute is handed to me. In 1700s France, where ballooning originated, angry farmers in whose fields balloonists landed were pacified with a bottle of bubbly, and the tradition has thankfully stuck. I raise my morning drink as the Balloonist’s Prayer is recited: May the winds welcome you with softness.

May the sun bless you with its warm hands.

May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter and sets you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Lightheaded either from the experience or the alcohol at nine in the morning, I help pack the balloon away.

The hour-long flight already seems like a much longer dream that I know will stay with me a lifetime.

For more information about the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and Albuquerque, visit BalloonFiesta.com and VisitAlbuquerque.org.

Albuquerque-based travel journalist Steve Larese also writes for National Geographic Traveler, the Travel Channel, and other publications. He experienced his first Balloon Fiesta in 1993 and has only missed one since.

Le monde

A TASTE OF

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BY ANDREW MARSHALL

W

e head to the Dutch capital for a three-day gastro city break to sample some classic eats and drinks.

From apple pie and licorice to herring and craft beers, there is something for everyone.

“Welcome to the Jordaan Food and Canal Tour,” says Eating Amsterdam guide Aileen Martinia outside Café Papeneiland (Prinsengracht 2) one crisp April morning. Just west of the canal belt and formerly a working-class area, the Jordaan is now one of the city’s most desirable and character-filled neighborhoods, packed with specialty food shops, cafés, and restaurants. The four-hour tour provides an excellent initiation into Amsterdam’s culinary traditions, with uniquely Dutch tastings from several food vendors interspersed with entertaining facts and tales en route.

Café Papeneiland is a great example of a traditional bruin café (brown café) and one of the oldest in the city, dating back to 1642. The term “brown café” comes from the dark but snug wooden interiors, and for many locals, an Amsterdam brown café is an extension of their living room. “I have been coming here every week for years to catch up with friends and enjoy some apple pie,” says Willem Alexander. The Dutch have been making appelgebak, or apple pie, since the 1500s, and Café Papeneiland is one of the best places in town to sample it, as theirs is lovingly made from a closely guarded recipe handed down through generations.

ONE FAMOUS CAFÉ PAPENEILAND CUSTOMER WAS BILL CLINTON, WHO ENJOYED HIS SLICE OF APPLE PIE SO MUCH THAT HE DECIDED TO TAKE A WHOLE ONE BACK HOME WITH HIM. A LETTER FROM THE Opposite: Exterior WHITE HOUSE THANKING THE shot of De L’Europe Amsterdam, a fiveCAFÉ’S STAFF IS PROUDLY DISstar luxury hotel on PLAYED ON THE WALL OPPOSITE the Amstel River THE BAR. Photo courtesy of De

L’Europe Amsterdam

White House thanking the café’s staff is proudly displayed on the wall opposite the bar. We join the rest of the tour group around a wooden table in the corner to enjoy a slice of this iconic dessert, served with a large dollop of whipped cream and accompanied by coffee. It’s absolutely heavenly.

Below: An Amsterdam favorite—the classic Dutch apple pie with a dollop of whipped cream on the side Photo by Paul Marshall

What separates Dutch apple pie from the others is the extra-thick crust and spicy filling of cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins that help soak up the juices from the apples as the pie cooks. One famous Café Papeneiland customer was Bill Clinton, who enjoyed his slice of apple pie so much that he decided to take a whole one back home with him. A letter from the

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with chopped onion or gherkin. “There is a saying here that if you don’t try herring, you will regret it, and if you try herring, you will regret it,” says Aileen with a smile. If herring isn’t your thing, then try the superb deep-fried cod bites in beer batter, known as kibbeling.

J Above: Jordaan Food and Canal Tour participants board the salon boat, The Tourist.

Photo by Paul Marshall Opposite left: An interior shot of charming restaurant Ron Gastrobar Photo courtesy of Maria Cavali Fotografie Opposite right: Salty and sweet Dutch licorice by Jacob Hooy & Co Photo by Paul Marshall

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ust around the corner from Café Papeneiland is Swieti Sranang or “Sweet Suriname” (Brouwersgracht 125), a humble-looking takeaway serving some great food from the former Dutch colonies. “Until a few years ago, Dutch cuisine wasn’t terribly exciting, but people from Suriname and Indonesia have brought their amazing foods with them, and restaurants can now be found on many street corners in most neighborhoods,” says Aileen. We all crowded eagerly inside to sample broodje pom, a Surinamese oven dish which combines three central ingredients: chicken, citrus juice, and pomtajer (a plant indigenous to Suriname) served in a bread roll, and baka bana, deep-fried plantain with peanut sauce.

Next on the agenda is Louman (Goudsbloemstraat 76), an old-fashioned butcher’s shop which has been selling locally sourced meats—particularly sausages—for over 150 years. The ossenworst (smoked raw beef sausage) and grillworst (grilled sausage) are popular choices. Close by is the top-quality fishmonger Urker Viswinkel (Tweede Egelantiersdwarsstraat 13), which features the Dutch favorite maatjesharing (fresh raw herring cured in brine) on its menu. The usual practice is to take your herring by the tail and toss it whole down your throat, with your head held back, but the faint-hearted may prefer them in a roll or on a plate

ANOTHER TOUR HIGHLIGHT IS A TRIP THROUGH AMSTERDAM’S WORLD HERITAGE CANALS ON THE TOURIST, A BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED SALON BOAT BUILT IN 1909, WHERE WE SAMPLE THREE TYPES OF CHEESE FROM DE KAASKAMER CHEESE SHOP (RUNSTRAAT 7) PAIRED WITH A BOTTLE OF WINE. Another tour highlight is a trip through Amsterdam’s World Heritage canals on The Tourist, a beautifully crafted salon boat built in 1909, where we sample three types of cheese from De Kaaskamer cheese shop (Runstraat 7) paired with a bottle of wine. Next up is a portion of the quintessential Dutch bar food bitterballen (golden fried meat and potato balls that are much tastier than they look), alongside some superb local beers from the microbrewery Brouwerij ’t IJ. You certainly won’t go hungry on a Jordaan Food and Canal Tour, and my advice is to go easy on breakfast on the day of your tour.

SPIRIT OF AMSTERDAM In the afternoon, we visited the amusingly named Wynand Fockink (Pijlsteeg 31) to experience the Netherlands trademark spirit, jenever, a fiery, juniperflavored drink similar to gin. Located down a narrow alleyway just off Dam Square, Amsterdam’s best proeflokaal (tasting house) barely looks a day older than its 1679 origins. The quirky, cozy, and atmospheric interior is a cross between an old bar and a chemist shop where antique bottles perch on crooked shelves and old wooden barrels line the walls.

“This is the oldest still-producing jenever distillery and tasting room in Amsterdam,” says brand ambassador Joeri Remeeus as we survey the menu of more

than seventy jenevers and flavored liqueurs available.

There are two types of jenever: oude (old) and jonge (young), and different grains such as wheat, barley, and spelt are used in the production process. Jenever is traditionally served neat in a tulip-shaped shot glass filled to the brim, which obliges you to bend down to the counter to take your first sip hands-free or risk spilling your tipple. Wynand Fockink is open daily from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., so make sure to drop by for a quick one and don’t be surprised if you find yourself leaving with a souvenir bottle or two.

A few streets away is Jacob Hooy & Co (Kloveniersburgwal 12), a marvelous store that began life as a pharmacy in 1743. Its beautiful antique interior of worn wooden floors and cabinets looks much as it did back then. Although it specializes in supplements, teas, homeopathic remedies, and herbs, the best reason to visit is the excellent selection of Dutch licorice. Aficionados of the black stuff will think they have arrived in heaven here, with sweet and salty licorice available, both soft and firm and in a variety of shapes. The Dutch refer to salty licorice as zoute drop or dubbel zoute drop (double salted licorice).

On the wooden counter are some scales where the confection is weighed out “pick and mix” style, then scooped into brown paper bags in an age-old manner.

Make mine a big bag, please.

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MARKET FARE

Above left: A delicious selection of Dutch cheese in the Albert Cuypmarkt.

Above right: Another culinary favorite in Amsterdam are sugary mini pancakes called poffertjes.

Opposite left: Brouwerij ’t IJ offers a flight of four organic beers.

Photos by Paul Marshall Opposite right: An interior shot of Brouwerij Troost. Fun fact: this restaurant is located in what used to be a monastery.

Photo courtesy of La Bolleur

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The next morning, we headed out to the trendy De Pijp neighborhood to visit Albert Cuypmarkt, the biggest and most popular outdoor market in the Netherlands, operating since 1905. Over 250 stalls, selling everything from clothing and flowers to fresh vegetables and a smorgasbord of Dutch specialties, are set up down one very long street. Cheese stalls bulge with Gouda, Edam, and Friese nagelkaas, a clove cheese that became popular when spices were first imported in the seventeenth century. Another stall sells poffertjes; a traditional Dutch batter treat dating from the Napoleon era. Made with yeast and buckwheat flour, poffertjes resemble small, fluffy pancakes and are typically eaten with butter and sugar.

W

hile you wander the market (open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) keep an eye out for a food van with the sign “Goudse Stroopwafels,” which sells another favorite Dutch treat, the stroopwafel. First made in the city of Gouda, a stroopwafel is a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup in the center, and Goudse Stroopwafels are said to be the best in Amsterdam.

Another top foodie destination is Boerenmarkt, Amsterdam’s organic Saturday farmer’s market, where, to the accompaniment of some fine busking, you can cruise the various stands offering goat cheese, Dutch meats, freshly baked breads, and fabulous fungi.

MADE WITH YEAST AND BUCKWHEAT FLOUR, POFFERTJES RESEMBLE SMALL, FLUFFY PANCAKES AND ARE TYPICALLY EATEN WITH BUTTER AND SUGAR. It’s worth mentioning that close to the start of the Albert Cuypmarkt is Warung Spang Makandra (Gerard Doustraat 39), an authentic diner serving typical Surinamese and Javanese dishes. Try the roti chicken, Javanese soup (saoto), or the house special of fried rice, stir-fried noodles, chicken fillet in soya sauce, chicken skewer with peanut butter sauce, sliced Surinamese long beans, fried egg, and deepfried mashed potato ball with herbs.

BEER AND BREWERIES With a rich brewing tradition and household names like Heineken and Grolsch, it’s no surprise that the Netherlands’ number one bar drink is beer. In Amsterdam in recent years, there’s been a trend toward craft beers, with brewpubs and microbreweries popping up all around town. In the afternoon (all in the name of research, of course), we took a tram trip from Central Station to check out the microbrewery Brouwerij ’t IJ (Funenkade 7), situated in the east of the city.

Adjacent to the landmark 1814 De Gooyer windmill and set within a former 1950s bathhouse, this is one of Amsterdam’s best-loved microbreweries.

“THERE’S NO MUSIC HERE; IT’S ALL ABOUT THE APPRECIATION OF BEER IN RELAXED, SOCIABLE SURROUNDINGS. WE OFFER FOUR ORGANIC BEERS ON TAP, ONE-OFF BREWS, AND BOTTLED BEERS IN A RANGE OF STYLES AND STRENGTHS.” “Beer has been brewed at Brouwerij ’t IJ for over thirty years, and it’s very popular with locals and tourists alike,” says director Patrick Hendrikse. “There’s no music here; it’s all about the appreciation of beer in relaxed, sociable surroundings. We offer four organic beers on tap, one-off brews, and bottled beers in a range of styles and strengths.” Menu selections include Zatte (a smooth-flavored tripel with hints of fresh fruit and grains), Natte (a dark, smooth Belgian-style organic dubbel)

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This page and opposite: Photos by Paul Marshall

THE SHEEP THAT PROVIDE THE MILK FOR THE CHEESE ARE FED ON MALT DREGS LEFT OVER FROM BEER MAKING AT BROUWERIJ ’T IJ—A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF FULL-CIRCLE SYNERGY IN ACTION. and Struis (an English-style brew with a deep, dark color and full of malty flavors). Each is best enjoyed alongside some Skeapsrond, a soft organic sheep’s cheese from Dikhoeve farm in Ransdorp, about ten kilometers outside Amsterdam. The sheep that provide the milk for the cheese are fed on malt dregs left over from beer making at Brouwerij ’t IJ—a perfect example of full-circle synergy in action. The brewery is open daily between 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. and allows you to combine top-notch beer tasting with some classic Dutch scenery. Definitely recommended.

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here are plenty of other excellent places in Amsterdam for beer aficionados. The ’t Arendsnest (Herengracht 90) distinguishes itself from other city bars by serving only Dutch beer, with over 350 varieties from fifty breweries and microbreweries. Tasting sessions are held downstairs where you can learn about the history of beer and the brewing process. Other places worth a visit: Craft & Draft (Overtoom 417), Butcher’s Tears (Karperweg 45), Bierproeflokaal In De Wildeman (Kolksteeg 3), De Bekeerde Suster (Kloveniersburgwal 6)—a brewery set up by nuns in the fifteenth century—and the bottle shop De Bierkoning (Paleisstraat 125), which has almost a thousand beers.

TASTE OF TRADITION When it comes to restaurants and cafés serving typical Dutch cuisine, they can be quite tricky to find, as many Amsterdammers like to eat something different than their home cooking when they go out. A fine example is Moeders or “Mothers” (Rozengracht 251), a quirky restaurant with a vintage vibe serving Dutch classics.

Inside, photos of mothers brought in over the years by customers adorn most of the wall space—and none of the china, cutlery, or glasses match. This represents the odd kitchenware one might find in their mother’s cupboard. The homely Bistro Bij Ons (Prinsengracht 287) and the elegant De Silveren Spiegel (Kattengat 4–6), housed in a seventeenth-century building, are two other restaurants keeping the traditions of the Dutch kitchen alive.

Some of the typical hearty dishes served in these restaurants are hachee (a Dutch stew based on diced meat and vegetables), erwtensoep (pea soup), gerookte paling (smoked eel served with white toast and a squeeze of lemon), and stamppot boerenkool (mashed potatoes and red cabbage flecked with chopped bacon and smoked sausage). If you’re looking for home-cooked food with a truly personal touch, then “living room restaurants” offer a brilliant alternative to traditional dining. Living room restaurants are a rapidly blossoming trend in Amsterdam and provide a great opportunity to meet new people, enjoy fantastic food in the chef ’s home, and immerse yourself in the local culture.

On our final day in Amsterdam, we had lunch at the stunning greenhouse restaurant De Kas (Kamerlingh Onneslaan 3). The glass building dates back to the 1920s when it was used as the city’s municipal greenhouse, and it still retains an old-fashioned charm despite its conversion into a superstylish eatery.

Locally sourced meat and line-caught fish complement the organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers grown on-site. The three-course menu, prepared by De Kas’s gourmet chefs, changes with the seasons and depends on what’s picked from the garden each day. And you can’t get much fresher than that.

USEFUL WEBSITES Eating Amsterdam Tours: EatingAmsterdamTours.com Living Room Restaurants: WhatsUpWithAmsterdam.com/living-room-restaurants Wynand Fockink: Wynand-Fockink.nl Brouwerij ’t IJ: BrouwerijhetIJ.nl Restaurant De Kas: RestaurantDeKas.nl

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OFF THE BEATEN

TRACK IN ANCIENT EGYPT Story and photography by Nicholas Grundy

Reaching the top of an enormous sand dune, my travel companion Khalil and I were treated to an amazing view out across towering rock formations between the Black and White Deserts.

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the horizon. Bathed in the warm morning glow were gypt is truly timeless. Whether you’re a photographer, an the magnificent temples of Abu Simbel, perched on adventurer, a history buff, or a budding archaeologist, it’s the the banks of Lake Nasser. Long shadows stretched dream destination with something for everyone. On my trip, I across the ground, cast by the soaring statues of broke away from the norm by journeying, for the most part, alone. While most Ramesses II and his Queen Nefertari. I grabbed a visitors immediately link up with a tour group, I grabbed my camera gear from quick snack and raced back to the airstrip, meeting the baggage carousel and found my way to Cairo’s upmarket Zamalek district. the northbound plane to Luxor with only minutes The affluent agglomeration of high-rises sits atop the northern half of Gezira to spare; slightly later and I’d have been making an Island, surrounded by the Nile on all sides. Fortunately, I was not entirely by my epic ten-hour bus journey. The scorched orange lonesome at first, as my friend Khalil awaited my arrival. He is an American expat earth zoomed beneath the wing beside me as the who was living in Cairo for twelve months, and his fluent Arabic would prove aircraft hurtled down the runway and up into wispy invaluable during my two-week journey. white clouds wafting through azure skies.

Khalil’s penthouse commanded views across nighttime Cairo, lights flickering faintly as I dozed off after a long flight. Blazing through the window the next The scorched orange earth morning, the sun prompted a visit straight to the famed Pyramids of Giza.

Although absolutely stunning in proportion, more surprising was their proximity zoomed beneath the wing to Cairo’s western suburbs. Evading the tourist hordes on the first of many beside me as the aircraft occasions, I hailed a taxi to whisk us southward. Our driver stopped beneath the hurtled down the runway. lesser-visited Red Pyramid, his car dwarfed by the towering tomb. Donning my headlamp, we clambered cautiously down into the very center—a tight descent not for the fainthearted! Next, we visited Pharaoh Djoser’s Step Pyramid further Situated on the east bank of the Nile halfway between on at Saqqara. Retiring from a busy day, we plunked ourselves into the plush seating Cairo and Abu Simbel, the ancient city once known of Sequoia, an exclusive restaurant jutting out into the Nile. Here we rubbed as Thebes is home to two magnificent temples. The shoulders with Zamalek’s social elite, sipping cocktails as sailboats fluttered past. sprawling Luxor Temple complex is characterized by towering columns and halls, while Karnak is home to After another day of sightseeing at Saladin’s Citadel and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, awe-inspiring obelisks, erected by Queen Hatshepsut it was back to the airport. With Khalil suddenly required in Cairo, I was offiand still piercing the heavens some 3,500 years later. cially flying solo for the next week. This daunting realization necessitated a crash While immensely impressive to say the least, the temcourse in Arabic as a light aircraft ferried me south across the desert; this would ples are far from the only attraction here. Catching provide me enough bartering and navigation skills to survive. Touching down in a lift on a traditional felucca sailboat, I crossed the darkness only miles from the Sudanese border, orange daylight soon peeked over Nile to find my guesthouse a literal stone’s throw

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Le monde from yet another massive antiquity, Medinet Habu, the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. Its vaulted halls are reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. While any treasure was looted long ago, I found it ironic that the guard entrusted with the temple’s care was fast asleep when I visited. Creeping up with camera in hand, I crouched down and took a quick snap without disturbing his slumber in the slightest. Devoid of any tour groups, the maze of passageways and chambers within were mine to explore with only my trusty headlamp to guide me.

Dots of light flickered into life in the distance as local goatherds arose and lit their morning campfires.

The Pyramid of Djoser is an unusual stepped pyramid located south of Cairo at Saqqara.

Hastily wolfing down breakfast the next morning, I rushed off into the pitch blackness to photograph the remaining sites at dawn. Ascending the western hills offers the perfect 360-degree vantage point. Dots of light flickered into life in the distance as local goatherds arose and lit their morning campfires. From out of nowhere appeared a robed Bedouin man, a shotgun dangling lightly from the fingertips of his left hand. “Salaam alaikum,” I uttered, in the hopes of a friendly response. The man smiled, my Arabic obviously passing the test. He nodded and replied in kind. And with that, he disappeared back into the fog. Out of breath,

I stumbled atop a ridgeline to be greeted with a phenomenal sight: the tour groups across the river had taken to the skies in eleven hot air balloons, the gleaming sun behind them making them an even dozen orbs. A better way perhaps to take in the view—without working up such a sweat!

With the balloons drifting gently on the breeze overhead, I descended into a compact valley to enter the necropolis of Deir el-Medina. Here one finds the unexpected miniature pyramid of Sennedjem, caretaker of the site’s royal tombs. Pushing through the clouds, the sun bathed the surrounding slopes in shafts of amber light. Higher up, a multitude of cave tombs also emerged from the darkness. Bats shot out as I entered one of the caverns. Breathing in the stale air, I felt for a brief moment like a real-life tomb raider. A steep track led out of the ravine and up to an incredible lookout, providing panoramic vistas over the funerary shrine of Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s renowned female pharaohs. My boots dislodged crumbs of earth that trickled down the cliffs. Below, clusters of tourists busily darted about, resembling colonies of ants, and behind the escarpment lay the Valley of the Kings, the final resting place of Egypt’s ancient leaders. Descending the rocky outcrop, I discovered yet another modern-day Egyptian snoozing peacefully. A member of the local tourist police, likewise charged with protecting relics, he sat passed out inside his guardhouse, his arms jutting out into the burning midday sun. This time, however, I barely managed to hide my camera before my presence was discovered.

Pushing through the clouds, the sun bathed the surrounding slopes in shafts of amber light.

Higher up, a multitude of cave tombs also emerged from the darkness.

Returning to Cairo by train was a real test of my limited language skills. Luckily, neither I nor my luggage got lost in translation, and I was met

by Khalil beneath the ornate ceiling of Ramses Station. He had arranged a jaunt for us through the sprawling western deserts. With our guide, Omar,

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Le monde at the wheel, our off-road SUV tore down empty desert highways before veering off across the sand.

Unbeknownst to me, my two companions planned to head well off the beaten track. The engine revved like mad as we shot up an almost vertical sand dune, our backs pressed into our seats like astronauts at liftoff. Until that moment, I thought I’d seen photos of every famous site in Egypt. But, after we crested the dunes, I stared out at wonders the likes of which I’d never seen before.

The engine revved like mad as we shot up an almost vertical sand dune, our backs pressed into our seats like astronauts at liftoff.

Below us stood looming rock formations looking like the halls of Luxor’s temples fading into the distant haze. Winding down through these natural behemoths, we rolled across the Black Desert, a region littered with basalt rock. Past the jet-black outcrops, we entered the contrasting White Desert, where bleached limestone pokes up through the shifting sands. We sat down and reflected on an extraordinary day of discovery, making camp for the night among the area’s chalky, sculpted rock features.

Meanwhile, Omar whirled into life, lighting a fire to boil up some tea before unwrapping blocks of halvah, a local sweet delicacy. With the sun setting across the vast flatness, thousands of stars began shimmering above.

The sun’s arrival at Karnak Temple casts a striking shadow from one of the towering obelisks.

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As we returned to the bustling metropolis of Cairo, it was difficult to imagine we’d been surrounded by such stillness only the day before. On my last evening in Egypt we ventured up to Khalil’s rooftop for the final sunset. A breathtaking sight unfolded westward as the pyramids came into view at the city’s edge, juxtaposed against apartment buildings peppered with satellite dishes. For one last time, a flaming sun dipped below the horizon and the stars emerged overhead. Gazing skyward, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia already, grateful for this rare opportunity to catch up with an old friend while photographing a land of golden hues.

Le monde

ACE SOUTH of the

ART DECO MEETS HIPSTER CHIC IN NOLA’S WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

By Jordan Staggs

Photography courtesy of Ace Hotel New Orleans

In the growing world of carefully curated experiences, Ace Hotel has perfected the art. The trendy chain has properties across the United States, including locations in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to name a few, and has expanded its offerings to London and Panama City, Panama, since its inception in 1999. Ace’s luxury digs in the New Orleans Warehouse District offers guests a retreat just steps from all the excitement of the city— but tucked far enough away from the action to create an oasis for those looking to relax after a busy day (or a long night).

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ce Hotel New Orleans opened in March 2016 with 234 guest rooms, fine dining, a rooftop bar and pool, a coffee shop, and, in true New Orleans fashion, its own live music venue. The art deco building, within walking distance of the city’s famed French Quarter, was once a department store but now houses Ace Hotel’s simple yet refined persona. The guest rooms come in many shapes and sizes, including suites, but all feature beautiful hand-painted armoires, midcentury-style Smeg refrigerators, custom bedding, and luxury bath products by Rudy’s and Pearl+. The decor was carefully selected by New York–based design firm Roman and Williams, known for its modern yet functional approach. Many rooms come equipped with Martin acoustic guitars, turntables, and a vinyl collection, allowing guests to get a taste of the city’s famous music scene before they even step out the door.

The chic and comfortable lobby at Ace Hotel New Orleans, adjacent to Stumptown Coffee Roasters, is a perfect spot to relax and enjoy your morning.

In the lobby is a music scene all its own, as no Ace Hotel in the Big Easy could possibly be complete without a performance venue. Three Keys offers almost nightly entertainment, from jazz to soul to disco and even the spoken word. Shows are open to the public and most are free with an RSVP, so be sure to check out the offerings during your stay.

Three Keys’ checkered dance floor is steps from the supple leather furnishings and low ambient lighting of the Lobby Bar, where craft cocktails, wine, and beer are available.

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Continuing its curation of quintessential New Orleans experiences, Ace Hotel delivers when it comes to dining. Its crown jewel—or perhaps shining star—is Josephine Estelle. Memphis natives and James Beard–nominated chefs Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman fuse Italian favorites with Southern culture in this beautiful art deco–inspired dining room and bar, open for all three meals, plus weekend brunch and happy hour. Reservations are recommended for dinner and are worth it—try starting out with the charcuterie board or Poole’s beets (or both!), then enjoy any of the pasta dishes “to nourish” your appetite, and choose from several simple but classic mains such as the pompano, the pork chop, or the ribeye. As you feast beneath the palm-leaf mosaics and the Edison bulbs that evoke the feel of a Jazz Age lounge, sip signature cocktails with appropriate names like the Things Remembered (sparkling wine, cranberry, rosemary, and orange), the Tailored Fit (vodka, cinnamon, satsuma, and sparkling Riesling), the Creole Apothecary (rye, Peychaud’s Aperitivo, ginger, and lemon), and more.

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Many rooms come equipped with Martin acoustic guitars, turntables, and a vinyl collection, allowing guests to get a taste of the city’s famous music scene before they even step out the door.

For another spectacular brunch option, late-night cocktails, dinner, or fresh oysters, head just down the block to Seaworthy, Ace’s casual hideaway with an extensive bar menu, a nautical theme, and a charming courtyard perfect for enjoying mimosas or Bloody Marys on the weekend.

Above: A laid-back gathering place by day, the Lobby Bar and Three Keys music venue make the Ace a superb hot spot by night.

After brunch, visit Ace Hotel’s “neighbors,” three uniquely curated shopping experiences, each featuring New Orleans–based artists and brands. Defend New Orleans (DNO) offers a collection of branded merchandise such as T-shirts, caps, and accessories like tote bags and collectible enameled pins, plus music and artwork from locals. Sales from DNO often support local nonprofits, are used to host artistic events, or go toward production of new creative content in the community. Next door, Freda describes itself as a collection of “makers” from Louisiana, Texas, and beyond coming together to form “a high desert gem of a lifestyle boutique.”

Its assortment of goodies is interesting enough to keep shoppers occupied for an extended length of time for such a small space, as they sift through handcrafted jewelry, apparel and accessories, artwork, books, vinyl records, apothecary items, and more. The original Freda was founded in tiny Marfa, Texas, by accessories designer Susannah Lipsey, who brought her unique style to Ace—and New Orleans—last year; she has already made a splash creating headbands and other whimsical pieces

Alto is Ace Hotel’s exclusive rooftop bar, serving up cool drinks and fresh bites from the five-star chefs at Josephine Estelle downstairs.

Although you won’t want to leave Ace Hotel’s gorgeous interiors and friendly staff behind, rest assured that upon checkout, you’ll find yourself planning your next trip to New Orleans. perfect for Mardi Gras. Last but not least, stop in at Friend for contemporary menswear and accessories, plus books, artwork, music, and other lifestyle products. If Freda is the desert hippie who wandered into the big city, Friend is her laid-back yet street-savvy big brother who’s always down to check out the new band performing at Three Keys or the new art installation over on Magazine Street. Be sure to pop into all three unique shops during your stay to find the best souvenirs and gifts for friends at home.

Back at the hotel, punctuate your leisurely afternoon of strolling through the Garden District with a rest at Alto, Ace’s ultimate happy hour oasis and rooftop garden. Lounge near the pool and enjoy views of

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the Big Easy while you sip craft cocktails and savor a seasonal menu of small bites curated by Chefs Ticer and Hudman. (The hotel also has 24/7 room service, in case you’re wondering.) Or grab a pick-me-up at an Ace staple, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, which opened at the hotel’s Portland location in 2007 and has been a guest favorite ever since.

Left: Midcenturymodern furnishings, hand-painted armoires, guitars, vinyl collections, and hip loft-style vibes make your guest room at Ace Hotel a true home away from home.

Although you won’t want to leave Ace Hotel’s gorgeous interiors and friendly staff behind, rest assured that upon checkout, you’ll find yourself planning your next trip to New Orleans—or perhaps to one of the hotel chain’s other nine locations—for another carefully crafted stay.

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Le monde

Hi k i n g Gr a n d Canyo n’s Mo st Dange ro us Trail

BY STEVE LARESE

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S The view from Cape Royal Amphitheater is a majestic one overlooking the Grand Canyon’s North Rim and the wooded summit known as Wotans Throne.

Below: Evening camp on Tilted Mesa, one of the only areas flat and wide enough to camp along the Nankoweap Trail.

We found fresh cougar prints near the tent the next morning.

Photo by Steve Larese.

taring at a prow-shaped boulder jutting over the half-foot-wide trail, I feel my blood run cold despite the desert heat.

Immediately to my left is a towering Supai sandstone wall; to my right is a sheer hundred-foot-plus plunge followed by more terraced drops. I allow myself a glance at the sweeping Grand Canyon and feel a wave of vertigo. Pastel mesas fade into its depths, and March snow still blankets the North Rim. Screwing up my courage and clearing my mind, I hug the boulder as best I can with my fortypound backpack hanging over the edge and I gently swing my right leg out over the abyss. Despite the slope and the loose gravel, the ground on the other side feels solid. My footing has to be sure enough to support my entire weight and leave enough space for my left foot to land next it. My balance must compensate for the backpack wanting to pull me over the cliff. Without handholds for support, a slip here is certain death.

I’ve developed a slow-but-steady rhythm and a hyperfocus on the trail not unlike walking meditation.

Daydreaming is dangerous. Morbidly, I find some reassurance in that most deaths on Nankoweap are caused by running out of water, not falling.

Dewey Surbey—a friend since middle school—and I are hiking Grand Canyon National Park’s unmaintained Nankoweap Trail. It’s rated by the National Park Service as the most difficult named trail in all of the Grand Canyon, and I’m feeling that with every fiber of my being right now. For most of Nankoweap’s eleven miles, hikers skirt deadly drops on a sloped, rocky trail that’s only a boot-print wide, with no water sources, and in full exposure. Over the miles,

Unmaintained, unpatrolled Nankoweap Trail in the park’s northeast quadrant slithers like a snake from the North Rim and around Marion Point and Tilted Mesa as it drops to Nankoweap Creek. From here, hikers can continue to the Colorado River for a total descent of 5,640 feet, the longest rim-to-river descent in the Grand Canyon. A side trail near the river leads to nine-hundred-year-old Native American cliff ruins perched five hundred feet above the canyon floor.

Having hiked several other Grand Canyon trails, I wanted to see firsthand these ancient granaries built by the Pueblo people who eked out a living farming in the Grand Canyon—the experience had become a bucket list item for me. Nankoweap’s narrow, crumbling trail skirts miles of deadly drops, including the “scary part” just before Marion Point. Here, the sixinch-wide, gravelly trail is sloped and just a slip away from a hundred-foot-plus plunge off the cliff. This section has made Nankoweap infamous, but there are plenty of other sections just as potentially deadly. Of the thirty thousand backcountry permits issued for the Grand Canyon annually, fewer than a hundred are requested for Nankoweap. Those who have hiked it tell stories with fear, reverence, and excitement.

YouTube has numerous videos of breathless hikers marveling in disbelief at the death-defying sections they’ve just completed. I had to do it.

Taking a breath and clearing my mind, I gently shift my weight onto my right foot and bring my left around like a Tai Chi move in one of the most dangerous steps I’ve taken in my forty-five years. Safely on the other side, I exhale, take a second to center myself, and carefully move down trail to give Dewey plenty of room. A few minutes later he appears safely, shaking his head. “Man, that’ll get your heart going,” he says, carefully hiking toward me. “Yeah,” I muster. Above the impossibly vast Grand Canyon before us, a raven circles on a thermal high, seemingly impervious to gravity.

A Bucket List Adventure

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s adventure-starved kids growing up in Oklahoma, Dewey and I sought excitement wherever we could.

Hopping freight trains, night sailing during tornado season, and climbing empty buildings in downtown Tulsa substituted for the mountains and oceans we lacked.

As soon as we could, Dewey moved to Oregon, and I to New Mexico. He’d be the perfect companion for hiking Nankoweap, and I knew he’d know exactly what we were getting into. A flight from Portland to Albuquerque and a seven-hour drive later, Dewey and I were at Saddle Mountain Trail 57 in the Kaibab National Forest like a couple of Labrador retrievers turned loose in the woods. From here, a three-anda-half-mile hike through the Saddle Mountain Wilderness climbs 1,200 feet to the Nankoweap trailhead, where the forest gives way to the immense grandeur of the Grand Canyon.

John Wesley Powell and geologist Charles Doolittle Walcott oversaw the construction of Nankoweap during the winter expedition of 1882–83 to study the canyon’s complex geology. The trail was little used after that, but in the past several decades it’s achieved cult status among adventurers. Arizona Highways published an article in October 1996 titled “Grand Canyon’s Scariest Trail” in which the writer decided to turn back. In June of that year, a group of Boy Scouts had run out of water on Nankoweap, resulting in a death. It was listed in 2011 among the twenty best National Park hikes by National Geographic. In 2014, a hiker died from heatstroke a mile from the trailhead. Other deaths and rescues underscore the seriousness of undertaking Nankoweap. Falling is a legitimate fear, but heatstroke is a proven killer on Nankoweap.

Slipping Away Above: One of the safer stretches of the Nankoweap Trail between Marion Point and Tilted Mesa. For much of the elevenmile route, the trail comes within inches of sheer drop-offs.

Opposite: Brahma Temple and the South Rim as seen from the North Rim Photos by Steve Larese.

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Safely past the trail-blocking boulder and with miles of cliff-hugging trail behind us, Dewey and I take in the beauty of the inner Grand Canyon at Marion Point, the only safe place to rest before Tilted Mesa four hours away. The vista looks like a Thomas Moran painting. We’re already a day behind schedule due to a missing sign, consumed in the 2016 Wildcat Fire in the Saddle Mountain Wilderness, and then snow flurries and howling winds that forced us to bivvy near the trailhead in an alcove covered in bear prints. We rest too long and will wish we had this time back. Three hours later we’ve traversed the ledge from Marion Point and are down-climbing eight-foot drops using juniper trees to reach Tilted Mesa. Taking a quick break and energized by our progress and the view, we pass up campsites and push for the creek three miles away.

It seems tantalizingly close, as we can make out the green ribbon of cottonwoods and willows in the distance. It’s 5:00 p.m., and we figure we can be eating creek-side just before sundown. We’re fantastically mistaken.

The trail from Tilted Mesa drops 2,200 feet over three grueling miles that traverse ridiculously steep talus slopes, goat-trail switchbacks, and knife-edge ridges. Bright Angel shale slides ahead of us as we inch down a mile-long scree ridge. We probe each step with our hiking poles like insects with antennae.

Poles weren’t high on our gear list but now we couldn’t imagine doing Nankoweap without them, whether we’re putting weight on them, checking trail integrity, or testing for loose rocks before stepping. Our slow progress sees the setting sun skim across the landscape, creating a beautiful but disconcerting scene. Maybe I took a millisecond too long admiring it, or let my mind wander thinking about time, but in an instant, I’m sliding down the scree toward the valley. Plummeting shale sounds like crashing crystal as I arrest myself. Coming to a stop, all is silent. I’m only a few feet below the trail and not hurt. Then I see my pole. It takes a beat for my brain to accept what’s happened. The pole is sickeningly bent at the lowest section, and my reaction is as if I’m looking at a broken leg.

“You OK?” Dewey asks from about twenty feet behind me on the ridge. “My pole’s bent,” I call back. Vocalizing the situation has made it real for me, and I mentally choke back a flash of panic. Shadows are turning purple with the setting sun. “I thought I was going to watch you slide down that whole thing,” Dewey says as he carefully closes our gap. “How bad is it?”

“It’s crimped,” I reply, carefully getting my feet back on the trail as rocks bound down the slope with my repositioning. The pole section easily breaks off as I bend it back. The crimped end is too wide now to slide back into the pole. “Let’s get off this before we lose all our light.”

we’re bolstered, knowing we must be getting close. It’s the first time on Nankoweap that we feel like we can hike normally with a wide trail and no threat of plummeting off a cliff. In an hour, we see a wall of willows ahead in our lights.

“Is that water or the wind?” Dewey asks, listening intently.

“Water,” I confirm. Nankoweap Creek is flowing strong on the other side of this dry channel choked with grapes and willows. I stay on the trail so we don’t lose it as Dewey drops in to scout for a route through the seemingly impenetrable thicket.

After a few minutes, he calls out that he’s found a path, and I head toward his light. We push through vines and branches, then spill out onto the rocky banks of Nankoweap Creek. In no time, we’re filtering water and cooking a late dinner under a billion stars at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We leave the rain fly off the tent

My accident is now threatening both of us, and I want to get us off this perilous ridge and somewhere we can camp for the night. But Dewey already has his Leatherman out. “Let me see it,” he says, hand out.

“No, man, I can make it down,” I say, not sure how.

“Let’s get off this.”

“Just give me a second,” Dewey says, taking the section and sawing off the break. “OK,” I concede nervously, “but let’s get our headlamps out.”

As the last of our sun fades, Dewey has sawed off the crimp enough to jam the section into the base of the pole. It’s solid, and I quickly adapt to the shorter length. But it’s dark now. Dewey’s low on water, having cached a bottle earlier. We’re on a dangerous talus slope, the trail is ill-defined, and we’re still far from water. I should be at home with my family, not hiking in the dark inside the Grand Canyon on an exposed ridge flashes through my mind. But as with the boulder and everything else we’ve encountered today, I swallow my fear and try to think rationally.

We’ve been looking only ten feet or so in front of our feet the whole day, and the headlamp provides plenty of light for that. We have food and water, are dressed properly, know where we are, and aren’t injured. Dewey’s thinking instills in me a shot of confidence. I pass Dewey a liter of water and we resume inching down the scree ridge.

Despite the vastness of the Grand Canyon around me, in the dark I feel as if I’m in a cave as I carefully follow my headlamp’s tunnel of light over the boulder-and-cactus strewn terrain. In an hour we reach level desert, and we pause frequently to look for cairns that mark the otherwise undefined trail. They lead us to a dry wash that we’re sure leads to Nankoweap Creek. The sand beneath our boots feels like a beach and

Other deaths and rescues underscore the seriousness of undertaking Nankoweap.

Falling is a legitimate fear, but heatstroke is a proven killer on Nankoweap.

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so that we can take in the moonless night, and a bright meteor streaks across the sky before I drift off to a fitful sleep. The thought of having to repeat tomorrow everything that we’ve already done—only uphill—races through my tired mind.

A Hard Call Deep Nankoweap Canyon shields us from the sun’s first rays, but my eyes crack open at daybreak anyway. Red clouds cast a pink glow on the cliff walls that I can finally see in the daylight. But I know what those clouds mean for the day.

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“Red in the morning, sailor’s warning,” I say, not knowing if Dewey is awake yet. I feel a sense of urgency as I boil water for coffee. I know that with bad weather coming, the plan to do an out-and-back to the granaries three miles away, then hike back up and camp at Tilted Mesa is dangerous. As if reading my mind, Dewey stirs. “We can make the granaries, but we’re going to catch weather,” he says. “Your call.”

We’re so close. We’ve hiked the Nankoweap Trail, but it’s seeing the granaries firsthand that I’ve dreamed of for years. There’s now only a pleasant riverside hike between me and this iconic sight. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned on Nankoweap, it’s

The pole is sickeningly bent at the lowest section, and my reaction is as if I’m looking at a broken leg. not to push our luck. Our backcountry permit has us leaving tomorrow, and Dewey has a flight the next day. And I miss my wife and kids.

“Let’s get back up to Tilted and actually camp before dark for once this trip,” I say. Dewey nods, and we drink our coffee knowing we’ve made the right call.

Adventure is adventure whether or not it turns out the way you plan it—and it rarely does. But we’ve given ourselves permission to finally relax and enjoy being in the depths of the Grand Canyon, with plenty of cool water and a view that relatively few people have ever seen. Water bottles filled, we break camp and retrace our boot prints from the night before. My short pole is perfect for hiking the steep screes. But

in the distance we see a violent column of rain heading our way, and the wind is picking up. Dewey pulls the tent’s rainfly from his pack, and we hunker under it on the exposed slope as the wind begins to lash us. It feels like going through a car wash as the storm cell passes over, and we repeat this procedure throughout the day as the storm swirls back over and over us like a dark bird of prey. The weather has added hours to our hike as we climb onto Tilted Mesa, but shafts of sunlight start illuminating the Grand Canyon between dissipating showers. The air is crystal clear, and the mesas layering down to the Colorado glow with reds, oranges, golds, and yellows. We set up camp and get a hot dinner cooking, and I know we made the right call in not visiting the ruins. As a reward, Nankoweap has given us the most beautiful view I’ve ever had camping. The sky completely clears and stars begin to appear, and I find myself looking forward to revisiting the terrifying sections we passed on the way down. Tomorrow we’ll hike Nankoweap with more confidence and an earned sense of reverence like hikers before us. At home I’ll hold my family tighter and be all the more grateful for the food, clothing, and shelter we have.

Drifting off to a sound sleep, I see a meteor flash across the sky. I don’t make a wish, but I am thankful for the gift of adventure Nankoweap has given us.

Albuquerque-based travel journalist Steve Larese has another backcountry permit request in with the National Park Service to hike Nankoweap Trail again in the fall.

Follow him on Insta-gram @SteveLarese.

Opposite above: The canyon’s Toroweap Point at sunrise Opposite below: View from the Transept Trail that travels between Grand Canyon Lodge and North Rim Campground Photo by Steve Larese.

Kitty Taylor, Broker, GRI, CRS, CIPS Catherine Ryland, Broker Associate

© 19 65

Origin Custom al ary Us e

“Grayton Girl Team” Selling Grayton and Beach Properties along 30A. Realtor of the Year 2017 for the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors 850.231.2886 | 850.585.5334 133 Defuniak Street, Grayton Beach, FL 32459 www.graytoncoastproperties.com

Le monde

China Postcards from

THE HUANGSHAN MOUNTAINS

BY DALE FOSTER

How many times have you noticed the mountainscape paintings in your local Chinese restaurant? They seem to be idealized depictions of some fairytale place. Not so. Located approximately 250 miles (396 kilometers) west of Shanghai, the Huangshan Mountains are very real and magnificent, and they have inspired artists and poets for over thirteen centuries.

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Mount Huangshan

(Yellow Mountain) has been described as the “loveliest

mountain of China.”

Its history is shrouded in mysticism and folklore.

One eighth-century Tang Dynasty legend claimed the mountain contained the elixir of immortality.

During the sixteenth-century Ming Dynasty, the marvelous views of the granite peaks emerging from a sea of clouds inspired the Shanshui (“mountain and water”) school of landscape painting.

The Huangshan Mountains are a popular tourist destination for Chinese travelers and a UNESCO World Heritage site, yet they are hardly known by Americans. The mountains reach over 6,100 feet (1,860 meters) in height and are protected by the Huangshan National Park. Due to the ever-changing panorama of clouds, mountains, and pines, it is one of the most beautiful and intriguing sites in the world.

Rocky peaks, tree-lined ridges, and rhododendronfilled valleys are complemented by oddly shaped boulders, rugged gorges, caves, tunnels, waterfalls, lakes, and hot springs. It is the Huangshan pine that gives this mountain range its special look.

Predominantly evergreen, the Huangshan pine lives at altitudes above 2,600 feet (800 meters). What gives this species of tree its unique beauty is that the bark of the trunk and branches is also dark green, highlighting the effect of the green pine needles.

Accented against the backdrop of tannish granite, the green pines are a unique and pleasing view that evokes feelings of tranquility and relaxation. Some of the trees are extremely old, unusually shaped, and celebrated by the Chinese, especially the illustrious Welcome Tree (sometimes referred to as the GuestGreeting Pine).

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The scenery is breathtaking. Thanks to the constant movement of clouds funneling through the valleys and over the mountain peaks, it is a continually changing vista. From higher elevations, clouds can be seen climbing vertically from the lower valleys, giving a perspective that people in many parts of the world will never see. The weather patterns change quickly. A beautiful, clear, and sunny window can quickly close with clouds for long periods of time and then, just as suddenly, clear again. Each moment in the Huangshan Mountains is truly a unique experience, so bring a camera and stay alert! The angle of the sun, the cloud cover, the vegetation, and the shadows are never exactly the same.

To enjoy all the splendor the mountains have to offer requires a good deal of walking. It has been said that there are sixty thousand steps in the park.

I think this is a gross underestimation. The paths are in good condition, with footsteps formed from local rocks or carved into the mountain granite.

Still, the steps are almost vertical at times, creating a challenge whether one is hiking up or down the mountains. The park’s designers did an admirable job of blending paths with the natural habitat so as not to be eyesores. For example, most of the guardrails have been fabricated to resemble tree branches.

On this trail, hikers reach the park’s highest point, Lotus Peak, at 6115 feet.

Along the paths, one occasionally sees Chinese calligraphy chiseled into or painted on large rock slabs. These precipice inscriptions are historical records of Mount Huangshan and have become an integral part of the mountain’s heritage.

The remains of ancient Buddhist temples can also be seen along the way, augmenting the cultural legacy of the area.

Adding to the allure of the park are the names of peaks and lookouts. Beginning to Believe Peak, Monkey Watching Sea of Clouds, Immortal Peak, Turtle Carrying Gold Peak, Heavenly Dog Watching the Moon, and Zhu Bajie (a greedy pig from a Chinese folktale) Eating the Watermelon are just a few.

One of the best places to watch the sun set is the Cloud Dispelling Pavilion. The west-facing platform overlooks a picturesque valley and splendid, tree-lined mountain peaks with names such as Upside-Down Boot, Shoes Being Dried, and Wu Song (a legendary Chinese hero) Fighting the Tiger. Here the mist and clouds gather and part, allowing viewers colorful glimpses of the setting sun. Padlocks engraved with couples’ names line the guardrails, accentuating the romanticism of this spot.

For a lucky few, a chance occurrence of “Buddha’s light” can be seen from the mountain peaks. This optical phenomenon resembles a colorful halo and can be seen when the observer is between the sun and a cloud of refracting water droplets.

Sunrise at the east-facing Red Cloud Peak is also a spectacle. With flashlights in hand, hikers jostle for the best viewing spot to see the sun’s glow over the enchanting peaks before it is enveloped in a sea of clouds. It is a scene that is both peaceful and exhilarating.

For the adventurous—and physically fit—the West Sea Grand Canyon (also called Xihai Grand Canyon) is one of the must-see parts of Mount Huangshan Park. Starting near the Cloud Dispelling Pavilion, hikers are treated to a view of one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. Every turn is a

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new scene, a new angle, a new perspective, and a new feeling of awe. Speckled in with the pines are occasional flowering plants whose colors are magnified by the backdrop of pines, granite, and sky. The steps are sometimes steep and precarious, with walkways suspended high above the canyon floor without vertical supports. Hikers get the sensation they are floating above the clouds as they walk to the Illusion Scenic Area, where they can view Immortal Walking on Stilts Peak or Above the Clouds Peak.

On this trail, hikers reach the park’s highest point, Lotus Peak, at 6,115 feet (1,864 meters). From there it is a long downhill walk to the Mercy Light Station, where it is possible to catch a bus back to town. Along the way, hikers are treated to stunning views of distant summits, imposing peaks, narrow tunnels, and scenic bridges. The hiking here is challenging; porters gather at times to take exhausted hikers down the steep slopes on bamboo chairs. Impressively, the porters also carry luggage, food, and water up these same steps. All provisions are delivered to the park hotels in this manner— no motorized vehicles are allowed.

Due to its remoteness in China’s Anhui province, Huangshan Mountain National Park is a bit difficult to reach. Most foreign visitors travel from Shanghai by airplane or train to Huangshan City, which is about 275 miles (442 kilometers) from the park. From there, a taxi is the most reliable way to get to the park’s entrance or nearby hotels. The Cheng Jin Hotel, located in West Tangkou Town, is convenient to the park bus terminal and has a

friendly, helpful staff and a good restaurant for local Anhui cuisine. For those wanting to stay inside the park, there are a handful of options. The Beihai and Paiyunlou hotels offer hostel-style lodgings on top of the mountain, while the Xihai Hotel offers more luxurious accommodations and elegant dining.

Whether staying in town or in the mountain hotels, the regional Anhui food and famous Huangshan Mao Feng tea are essential parts of the Huangshan Mountain experience. Anhui cuisine uses fresh local produce, herbs, and fish. Most of the ingredients, such as stone frogs, mushrooms, bayberry, tea leaves, and bamboo shoots, come from the mountain areas.

Mount Huangshan Park is one of the most renowned scenic landscapes in China, with estimates of over two million people visiting each year. To avoid crowds, try to catch the early buses from the park entrance to the Yungu Temple cableway station. Be prepared for at least an hour-long wait to board the cableway that takes visitors up the steep slopes to the higher elevations, where the scenery is the best. The gondola ride offers the first samples of the majestic scenery to follow.

Once on top of the mountain, tour groups huddle together while their guides blare away on megaphones. Independent hikers are left to explore the park on their own. It is humorous that the tourist maps and even the path-side placards are so inaccurate. Some peaks and overlooks are often labeled different names (Red Cloud Peak and Purple Cloud Peak are the same site), and the routes give no indication of real direction or elevation changes. These challenges aside, the park is well laid out and worth the effort. The longer and more difficult paths offer smaller crowds, though one is seldom alone for very long given the popularity of the park.

Mount Huangshan Park is a scenic delicacy that is meant to be savored, so it takes at least three days to enjoy all it has to offer. Given the ever-changing weather patterns, you can never be sure when rain and clouds might blow in. The park is said to average 258 foggy days per year. The mountains are over a mile above V I E MAGAZ INE . COM | 131

Le monde sea level, so it is a good idea to let your body acclimate to the thinner air before attempting long hikes.

The Huangshan Mountains can be visited and enjoyed any time of the year. Expect larger crowds on the weekends and on holidays. Our visit in May was pleasant, with some spring flowers still in bloom. Supposedly, winter is the best season to view the cloud sea. The weather is unpredictable, so rain gear is recommended and can be purchased in the local stores or at the park hotels.

It is easy to see why the Huangshan Mountains are among the iconic symbols of China and have been the subject of Chinese art for centuries. They are a source of national pride. Today, China’s growing middle class favors these mountains for experiencing the cultural wonder and natural beauty of their country. As China has become more open to foreign travelers in recent years, the rest of the world can now share the magnificence of the Huangshan Mountains, too.

Dale Foster is a Certified Beach Bum, inventor, adventurer, businessman, writer, television producer, and volunteer for worthwhile causes around the world. He has been a happy resident of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, since 2005.

Ballynahinch Castle Hotel & Estate is set on 700 acres in the heart of Connemara with 48 bedrooms and suites.

Enjoy lunch in the Fisherman’s Pub, dinner in the elegant Owenmore Restaurant or at the weekend treat yourself to Afternoon Tea overlooking the river prepared by Pete Durkan and his team.

On-site activities include walking trails, cycling, fly-fishing, hiking, and locally a boat trip from Roundstone to Inishlacken, a deserted island in Roundstone Bay. Voted of the top ten hotels in the UK & Ireland by CondĂŠ Nast.

Tel: + 353 95 31006 | Email: info@ballynahinch-castle.com WWW.BALLYNAHINCHCASTLE.COM

Connemara Life

Model Faye Dinsmore—in a stunning gown by Christian Siriano, hat

by Surell Accessories, and earrings from The Jewel—poses at Ballynahinch Castle Hotel with one of the horses from Connemara Equestrian Escapes.

Photo by Alex Hutchinson for Connemara Life 2017–2018

VIE’s publisher, The Idea Boutique, founded Connemara Life magazine in Ireland’s western region in 2015. Since then, this annual publication has celebrated the people, places, and traditions of this incredible area, also known as the Wild Atlantic Way. In this special travel edition, we are sharing a few stories from Connemara Life’s 2018–2019 issue. Enjoy beautiful landscapes, a special recipe from one of Ireland’s top food writers, and a trip to some of Ireland’s best fishing destinations! Visit ConnemaraLife.ie to read and see more.

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T H E G R E AT FI S H I N G HOUSES OF IREL AND

BY HARRY C A MPBELL

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Ireland offers some of the best and most affordable fishing for Atlantic salmon, sea trout, and native brown trout in the world.

Blessed with a vast system of pollution-free rivers and loughs (lakes), prolific aquatic insect hatches, healthy runs of salmon and sea trout, and a rich cultural history of sport fishing, Ireland’s many angling opportunities attract visitors from all over Europe and North America.

There are few outdoor experiences that rival fishing from a traditional Irish lough boat or along the bank of a famous salmon river with an experienced Irish ghillie at your side. Fortunately, the Great Fishing Houses of Ireland, a premier group of the ten finest fishing lodges, hotels, and resorts in Ireland, makes it easy to research and plan an exquisite angling holiday.

Every member of the Great Fishing Houses of Ireland must meet the most stringent standards of service, offer superior accommodation, and have the highest quality premises, facilities, and fishing to provide guests with the finest experience possible.

Each establishment is run by people with keen, personal interests in sport fishing, or they have passionate fishing specialists on their staff who understand their fisheries and what it takes to have an enjoyable fishing day on their waters. Helpful advice is always available from both house employees and ghillies—and from the other angling guests staying there too.

All of the member houses offer access to private fisheries, from exclusive salmon beats on the fabled River Moy and Munster Blackwater to beats on the Owenmore, Dawros, Cong, Delphi Bundorragha, Inagh, and Owenduff rivers. Lough fishing opportunities include the world-famous Corrib as well as Connemara’s Inagh, Derryclare, Ballynahinch, and Screebe loughs. All of the houses have expert fisheries’ managers and seasoned ghillies on their staffs, and many offer fly-casting tutoring and on-stream fishing instruction.

Owenmore River winding its way through Ballynahinch Estate Opposite: Rock House Estate, County Mayo, in full bloom

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Fishing tackle and related equipment are available for hire at every member’s house, and salmon flies, trout flies, and fishing licenses (required for salmon and sea trout) are sold on-site. Most of the houses also offer rod rooms, drying rooms, freezers, and, in some cases, smokeries.

While all of the members cater to anglers, unlike many other fishing resorts and lodges, the Great Fishing Houses of Ireland also offer an array of additional activities, including hill walking, cycling, horseback riding, golf, tennis, falconry demonstrations, shopping in nearby villages and towns, touring the Irish countryside, visiting Neolithic and other historic sites, and afternoon tea—or merely relaxing in incomparably beautiful surroundings. On-premise amenities often include comfortable sitting rooms with open fireplaces, flower gardens and hiking paths, outdoor tables and chairs, fitness centres, indoor pools, and health spas.

All of the houses serve traditional Irish breakfasts, with most offering awardwinning fine dining in elegant surroundings with locally sourced beef, lamb, and seafood. Many have cosy, full-service, wood-panelled pubs in addition to their dining facilities, and all offer picnic lunches for angling and non-angling guests.

guest houses to historic sporting hotels, gracious country houses, and luxurious four- and five-star resorts—so there is a Great Fishing House for every budget.

Every house is unique with its own distinctive decor and ambience, surrounded by a wide choice of awe-inspiring Irish scenery.

The Great Fishing Houses of Ireland works closely with Inland Fisheries Ireland at both the local and the national levels to enhance trout and salmon populations through maintaining and improving habitat, monitoring water quality, keeping accurate catch records, and encouraging catch and release among all of their guests. The Great Fishing Houses also works cooperatively with Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority, and Tourism Ireland, responsible for marketing the island of Ireland as a holiday destination, to present their unique Irish angling destinations. Accommodations range from comfortable

In the north of County Mayo, you can choose between the magnificent Mount Falcon Country House Hotel, a four-star Victorian Gothic manor house on a 100-acre estate in the legendary Moy river valley, and the elegant Rock House, an early nineteenth-century sporting lodge on the rugged Atlantic coast and a stone’s throw from the Ballycroy National Park, Europe’s last true wilderness.

Farther south in County Mayo you’ll find the majestic five-star Ashford Castle, once the ancestral summer home of the Guinness family, which overlooks Lough Corrib at the mouth of the Cong River, and the famous Delphi Lodge, tucked in the heart of the remote and beautiful Delphi Valley. This historic nineteenthcentury fishing lodge was built for the Second Marquess of Sligo.

Fortunately, the Great Fishing Houses of Ireland, a premier group of the ten finest fishing lodges, hotels, and resorts in Ireland, makes it easy to research and plan an exquisite angling holiday.

In the heart of County Galway’s Connemara, you’ll discover the charming Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel, a boutique nineteenth-century fishing lodge overlooking a wilderness lough and surrounded by Connemara’s tallest peaks; the handsome Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, a four-star luxury hotel set in a private 700-acre estate of woodland with a magnificent salmon river flowing outside your hotel room’s

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window; the cozy Camillaun Lodge, a comfortable, contemporary fishing lodge located on the outskirts of Oughterard, which is the unofficial fly-fishing capital of Ireland; the elegant Screebe House, a seaside Victorian-era hunting and fishing lodge with luxury accommodations, 40,000 acres of hunting, and exclusive fishing on twenty lakes and rivers; and the four-star Renvyle House Hotel and Resort, an architecturally important Arts and Crafts style country house with a sea view on 150 acres of woodlands and gardens with a private lake and ocean beach.

Farther south in the lush Blackwater Valley of County Cork, there’s the stately Longueville House, a spectacular Georgian mansion (c.1720) on a 500-acre wooded estate overlooking the valley, and the award-winning Ballyvolane House, a luxurious, 500-year-old country house surrounded by beautiful gardens, woodland paths, and pastures filled with grazing cattle.

A trip to Ireland should be on every serious angler’s bucket list, and the Great Fishing Houses ofIreland’s website will provide everything a travelling angler needs to know when researching and planning a visit—including an introduction to each member’s facility and fishery—with links to each member’s website along with detailed descriptions of over thirty of the very best rivers and loughs in Ireland.

So, whether you are an experienced hardcore fly fisherman seeking a new trout or salmon angling adventure or someone who would like to try the sport for the first time, choosing one of the Great Fishing Houses of Ireland is sure to provide a superb, all-inclusive angling experience.

To learn more, log into their website, IrelandFlyFishing.com.

Above: Lough Inagh at the foot of the Twelve Bens Left: A salmon drift on Lough Inagh Opposite above: Delphi Lodge on Fin Lough Opposite below: Mount Falcon Estate by night

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IrelandFlyFishing.com

Great F ishing Houses of Ireland M embers Ashford Castle Ballynahinch Castle H otel & Estate Ballyvolane H ouse & F ishery Camillaun Lodge D elphi Lodge & F ishery Longueville H ouse Lough Inagh Lodge H otel & F ishery M ount F alcon Estate Renvyle H ouse H otel Rock H ouse Estate Screebe H ouse

PADDY COYNES PUB Tu l l y c r o s s , R en vyle, Con n emar a, Co. Galway

Paddy Coynes Pub is located in the beautiful village of Tullycross, the heart of Connemara and the Wild Atlantic Way. Dating back to 1811, the pub is a hive of local history and artefacts, a treasure trove of discovery. We are in the perfect location on Renvyle Peninsula for you to enjoy many of the beaches, walks, and attractions of the Wild Atlantic Way. Stay with one of the many local accommodation suppliers and enjoy a relaxing home cooked meal with us. We pride ourselves on our food, using local produce and the freshest of seafood. We are the home of the Connemara Mussel Festival, which takes place in the village each May Bank Holiday.

Call in for a pint of the black stuff, relax by the fire, and stay for the craic!

Winner of Galway Pub of the Year at the Connaught Regional Irish Restaurant Awards 2017

0 9 5 .43 4 9 9 | www. P a ddyC o yne sP ub. c o m

From

Field Fork to

Story and photography by

Cliodhna Prendergast

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Connemara Life

As you enter the wild countryside of Connemara, you are greeted by the Twelve Bens—the mountain range that reigns majestically over Connemara—the beautiful gleaming rivers, and the still, reflective lakes that define this spectacular landscape. You can sense, beneath the surface of these lakes and rivers, the prized wild salmon and trout that draw fishermen from around the world to this region.

I

llusive and wily, they do not fall easily to the angler’s fly, which is why a fisherman comes here as much to simply relax in nature as to catch a fish. This is not a numbers game.

As you explore further west, you hit the sea at the end of almost every road and discover the many beautiful white sandy beaches. On days when the light hits the shallow water over white sand, the colour is an incredible turquoise hue, more akin to far-off Caribbean seas, but without the heat.

Visiting the small fishing village of Roundstone you will see the fishing boats coming in from their day at sea with velvet crab, shrimp, and lobster. Cleggan village is another coastal community; here, ferries that cross to the island of Inishbofin sit alongside serious-looking fishing boats. Fishermen in bright yellow overalls rush to unload their catches, which are then taken across the country and exported abroad. Necklaces of ropes for natural mussel farming are strung along the deep Killary fjord where the water is pure and the mussels thrive on the ropes, hanging in the strong tidal currents.

Scenes such as these represent the way of life for the modern hunter-gatherer and are reminders of how important the sea remains in the life and culture of Connemara’s coastal villages.

But the first example a visitor to Connemara will get of the local farming activity and the larder of Connemara comes before the coast. First-time visitors are amazed to discover dayglo-coloured sheep wandering unattended along the roads and on the hillsides. With pinks and blues more reminiscent of punks on the King’s Road in 1970s London, the sheep must look bizarre to the visitor. The colours

are, of course, brands to help identify the ownership of the free-roaming sheep that give rise to the most prized of Connemara’s food industry: our lamb.

Grazing on hillsides and bogs that are often commonage land (vast tracts of land owned by a group of farmers who have communal grazing rights), the sheep have a diet that is pure and unique, which gives rise to a unique variety of lamb. So unique, in fact, that it is now recognised and protected within the EU and has been granted status as a product with protected geographical indication or PGI. In the same way as Parma Ham is from Parma and Champagne can only be sold as such if made in the Champagne region, Connemara Hill Lamb is so unique that use of the name is now protected by law.

In this part of the country, we are not blessed with good land, and crops do not grow happily for the most part. Much of the area is either rock or bog land bordering an unbelievable amount of water. Roundstone bog boasts a lake for every day of the year, and when you stand high up on top of one of the Twelve Bens, it is only then you see the vast amounts of water and bog many have built their lives and livelihoods on. Because of this, the sea and the grazing sheep are of the utmost importance.

Here, where the sheep live on the mountains for most of the year, lambing season is more common in late April and May, when the weather is warmer. These lambs are feeding on sorrel, bog myrtle, thyme, heathers, and mountain grasses on the hills right down to the sea in many cases, where I have watched them eat seaweed.

They are then brought down to be fattened on sweet summer grasses in the greener fields—or gardens, as they are traditionally called—before killing, which will not happen in most cases until July or August.

True Connemara lamb, due to its hill grazing, will never get as big as those fattened in other parts of the country with more fertile land; however, they will be free from chemicals, fertilisers, and manufactured feed for the most part. They are smaller lambs but much less fatty and have an incredibly sweet flavour, seasoned from the inside out by their wild foraging.

This dish of seaweed-encrusted rack of lamb is a celebration of the sea and the land of Connemara. I collected lots of nori seaweed, also known as laver, on the nearby beach for this. Pepper dillisk works brilliantly with it, as does any other tender seaweed. The seaweed lends an almost mushroom-like flavour to the juices.

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Seaweed Encrusted Lamb Serves 2 Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C

Ingredients 1/4 ounce or a large handful dried nori seaweed or other dried tender seaweed 1 cup breadcrumbs 1 tablespoon lovage or parsley, chopped roughly 3 tablespoons salted butter, melted 1 rack of lamb (1 1/4 pound), trimmed 3/4 cup lamb stock 1/2 small head of garlic, cut across the middle, use the bottom half 1/4 cup red wine Salt and pepper

Method

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•

In a food processor, chop almost all of the seaweed until it is a coarse powder.

Remove a teaspoon of the powder and reserve for the lamb juices. Then add the breadcrumbs and the lovage or parsley and pulse for a moment until everything is mixed thoroughly. Next add the melted butter, pouring it in as the food processor is running. This will form the crust for the lamb.

•

Place a pan on a medium to high heat. Season the lamb with salt and pepper and when the pan is hot, sear the lamb all over, which will take about 8 minutes. Remove the lamb from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Remove most of the fat from the pan with a spoon by tilting the pan to the side to keep the juices in while the fat gathers on top.

•

Return the pan to medium heat and add the half head of garlic; allow it to brown slightly and remove to a roasting tray. Add the red wine, reduce by half, and then add the lamb stock followed by the teaspoon of seaweed powder. Allow the stock to simmer gently and reduce by half.

•

Meanwhile, cover the fatty side of the lamb with the breadcrumb mix, packing it on firmly. Place the lamb alongside the garlic on the roasting tray.

•

Place in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes until quite firm to the touch for medium rare, or 20 minutes if you prefer it more well done.

Remove the lamb from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Return the garlic to the pan with the lamb stock and simmer very gently for about 5 minutes. When the lamb is well rested, pour any juices into the stock, slice the rack, and serve with the seaweed lamb juices.

ROSLEAGUE MANOR

Resting on the quiet shores of Ballinakill Bay, and beautifully secluded within 30 acres of its own private woodland, Rosleague Manor in Connemara is one of Ireland’s finest regency hotels.

Member of Ireland’s Blue Book Awarded No.9 in Top 25 Small Hotels in Ireland on TripAdvisor CALL OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO BOOK AND EXPERIENCE IRELAND TODAY. info@rosleague.com • (+353) 095-41101 • Rosleague.com • Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland

Connemara Life

Derryclare Lough looking out towards the Glencoaghan Horseshoe Photo by Mark Furniss Photography 146 | DECE MBER 2018

BY JORDAN STAGGS Hill to bog and rolling fog, This savage beauty breathes Her past—a storybook, a tome, History writ in lakes and trees.

Upon her breast, her children rest, They’re raised with heart and hale To care for her as she has cared, Learned from mountain, wood, and vale.

Rivers bring the fiercest blush, Bens watching over all As Mother Connemara awaits, Each soul who comes to call.

Hearths and hearts so warm and kind, The mother’s love shines through In rain and cloud or rarest light— Children all, she welcomes you.

Each year, Connemara Life celebrates the spirit and beauty of what’s known as the Wild Atlantic Way, the western region of Ireland along the coast and inland, where hills, lakes, and woods create an idyllic scene for all those who behold her.

Connemara has inspired poets, painters, musicians, photographers, and other creative artists. She has also touched the hearts of countless people who have visited and felt awed by her natural landscapes, her history, and her happy locals and their lifestyle. Join us in this photo journey as we raise a figurative glass—or grab a whiskey or Guinness and raise a real one—to our love, Mother Connemara.

Visit ConnemaraLife.ie to read and see more from Ireland’s west coast.

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Connemara Life

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Clockwise from top left: 1. A lone wind-battered tree in Athry, Recess 2. Cotton-carpeted hills of the bog overlooking Moyard 3. Errislannan shoreline at sunset Photos by Mark Furniss Photography 4. Roundstone Harbour Photo by Ruurd Corpel 5. Wild gorse flowers photographed near Clifden at sunset Photo by Cathy Gill 6. Donkeys hanging out in the countryside Photo by Ruurd Corpel

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VIE cover girl Kristin Chenoweth at the United Palace theater in New York City, New York in 2015.

Photo by Carlo Pieroni

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THE L AST WORD

Sometimes traveling to a magical destination only takes a little imagination.

And who wouldn’t feel like a princess from a faraway kingdom in this stunning gown by Galia Lahav? Inspired by the royal white peacock, the Israeli designer’s Ms. Elle couture gown has a trumpet-style silhouette with embroidery cascading down the back skirt forming two scalloped wings. This made-to-order dress could certainly transport any bride to a fairy-tale castle in her mind!

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