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M AY A u g u s ta , A i k e n & E va n s
Escape the ordinary
It turns out, you can take it with you—and bring it back home again.Your heart and soul long for distant and unfamiliar landscapes, for memories that last a lifetime, for history and the sublime chatter of foreign languages, for experiences that you can’t hold in your hand or give away or sell.When you’re away from home, time slows down.You can step outside of your comfort zone and right back in without judgment. You start thinking globally...travel is an education that you can’t get in school. You’ll meet people who have lived completely different lives that you’ll find fascinating, and vice versa. On the road, strangers become friends, travel buddies, listeners, storytellers, and people we will never forget.You don’t have to have experience to wander the planet, and you can start as small as your own backyard or as big as a three-month sabbatical to study art in Italy. Fall in love in Paris. Get caught in the rain in Amsterdam. Glide through the canals of Venice in a gondola. Spend an entire day in a city where you don’t speak the language getting lost in art museums. Do something that makes you feel uncomfortable until it doesn’t anymore. Give yourself enough time so that you miss being home because, as we all who have wandered know, the best thing about wandering away is coming back home.
Cover Art: Kristen Solecki
“My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” Diane Arbus
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Are we there yet?
Founder
Nikki Hardin
The WANDERLUST Issue
Creative Director Caitilin McPhillips caitilin.mcphillips@skirt.com Market Manager Ashlee Griggs Duren ashlee.duren@augustamagazine.com
Features
Contributing Editor Gracie Shepherd gracie.shepherd@gmail.com
Walk This Way Ingrid Steffensen.............................................. 10
Sales Director
Lisa Dorn lisa.dorn@skirt.com
On A Whim And A Prayer
Sales Executives
Mary Zalmanek...............................................15
Doressa Hawes doressa.hawes@skirt.com Lisa Taylor lisa.taylor@morris.com Maidi McMurtrie Thompson maidi.thompson@morris.com
In This Issue
Mary Porter Vann mary.vann@morris.com Circulation
Letter from the Editor.................................... 4
Photography
He’s So Original................................................ 9
Doressa Hawes doressa.hawes@morris.com Jon Michael Sullivan Advertising
Sales: 706.823.3702 Fax: 706.823.6061 1.800.622.6358
SKIRT! THIS M O N T H
Skirt of the Month..........................................18 Meet...................................................................30
There’s an unmistakable bond between all world travelers, whether sevencontinent-hopping pros or beginners just getting started. Something skirt! is published monthly and distributed free throughout the greater Augusta, Aiken & Evans area. skirt! reserves the right to refuse to sell space for any advertisement the staff deems inappropriate for the publication. All content of this magazine, including without limitation the design, advertisements, art, photos and editorial content, as well as the selection, coordination and arrangement thereof, is Copyright © 2014, Morris Publishing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this magazine may be copied or reprinted without the express written permission of the publisher. SKIRT!® is a registered trademark of Morris Publishing Group, LLC.
about exploring and breaking out of our personal comfort zones breeds in us not only a desire to share those experiences with others, but also a desire to listen to other people’s stories.When we were putting together this issue, interviews quickly turned into travel story swap meets and I left each one with a renewed commitment to travel more. It’s hard to set aside time and resources to travel purely for pleasure, but I’ve never regretted doing so. So here’s to taking small steps in the direction of traveling more - even if it’s just a keeping a list of places I want to visit, or getting a travel magazine instead of Vogue in the checkout line.
Gracie Shepherd gracie.shepherd@gmail.com
Cover Art: If you’re an artist and would like to submit your work, please send a link or low res artwork to submissions@skirt.com.
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2015 www.skirt.com
Product..............................................................13
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He’s So Original | Walker Posey Between helping to run his family’s business, managing the brands of several professional athletes, traveling the world as a motivational speaker and working to promote local organizations including the Family Y and PressOn, it’s fair to say that Walker has a few irons in the fire. He sees a common thread throughout all of his endeavors, and that’s a desire to help people tell their own stories and celebrate the stories of others.Through his work at his family’s business, Posey Funeral Directors in North Augusta, he has helped to introduce new ways of doing business so that the increasingly mobile society helps and not hinders the human needs of grieving and healing.Whether it’s memorial websites, live funeral webcasting or tribute videos, he’s enabled his family’s business to lead the industry in new ways to serve their customers.“It’s a challenge to get people to slow down enough to make sure those needs are met,” he says.“I like being able to create relevant things that are meaningful to people.”
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May Loves For the Thirsty Traveler In sizes from kiddie cup to 12-22 ounce bottles for grownups, these Lifefactory travel bottles are BPA free—because they’re made from glass protected by an outer shell—and they’re spill proof! The colorful protective silicone sleeve provides protection plus a non-slip grip. LifeFactory.com
Lilly Pulitzer “She She Shells” Tumbler with Straw Cudos 1257 Augusta West Parkway, Augusta 706.737.8383
Scout “Sari Charlie” Pleasure Chest Cooler Caroline’s Boutique 151 Laurens Street SW, Aiken 803.644.5606
Rebecca Minkoff Tassel Key Key Fob Shoes at Surrey 487 Highland Avenue, Augusta 706.504.3532
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On a Whim and a Prayer Mary Zalmanek
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in a darkened room with an angry scorpion. I was screaming louder than a howler monkey; Jim was as still as a church mouse. Always calm in the face of crisis, Jim managed to find the light switch, step on the scorpion, and flush him down the toilet. We saw six more scorpions during our stay. Each encounter had its own high drama. Near the end of our trip when Jim’s parents and siblings were visiting, a scorpion stung my thumb. Jim’s family and the employees were compassionate and helpful. To tell the truth, it was more like a mild bee sting than the excruciating pain I’d imagined. If I would have known early on how mild these scorpion stings were, I could have done that trip with a lot less whooping and hollering. Except for the scorpions, it was like paradise. The creatures of the rainforest were a constant source of enchantment, amusement, and sometimes terror. We admired the brilliantly colored parrots and toucans, and envied the graceful and silent flight of y husband Jim and I vultures. I stood my ground between an uninvited coatimundi, a had never been to Costa Rica until April 2001, but five months furry little four-legged beggar who came for breakfast, and the later we returned as innsitters to allow the owners to take a vaguests eager to feed him. Jim joined forces with the inn employcation. We had no experience as innkeepers. We didn’t speak ees and a neighboring farmer to capture a runaway cow. the language. We weren’t familiar with the country. In spite of It didn’t happen every night, but sometimes the beauty of nathat, Bill and Jeff made us an offer. On a whim, we said yes. ture gave a command performance. I had no choice but to drop For two months in the fall, we would take care of an inn with everything and watch the sunset through Maxfield Parrish four guest rooms in the main building and three private eyes. The white, rose and apricot clouds stood out casitas. The property sat on seven acres overlookagainst a brilliant and constantly changing blue ing Lake Arenal. Costa Rica was a paradise to sky. The lush greens of the grasses and trees us, and we were excited to return. on the rolling hills of the distant shore were Jim and I took a crash course in Spandifferent in each moment as we watched ish so we could converse with the five them. The light on the trees right outside employees who spoke little-to-no Engthe Villa competed for our attention. In lish. Since we would be there during the ten or fifteen minutes the show would off season, we encouraged family and It didn’t happen end and we were released to go on friends to take advantage of the disevery night, but sometimes with the task at hand. counted rates. the beauty of nature gave a During our two-month stay, fifty Eight days before we were due command performance. ...I realized I had no percent of the guests who had booked to leave, high hopes were replaced choice everything the but mantoI drop had married reservations cancelled due to the terby heartbreak. September 11, 2001. and watchme thetosunset through expected start cooking. rorist attack. Some of the guests who Terrorists destroyed the World Trade Maxfield Parrish eyes. This was a role did come were from New York City, Center and attacked the Pentagon. I had somehow failed and were eager to share their stories. Planes were grounded. Our nation grieved. to envision for myself.” Winston had been walking to his office in I prayed. a building next to the World Trade Center After several days of uncertainty, we decided Towers after the first plane hit. When the secto follow through with our commitment. Bill and Jeff ond plane hit, he ran away so fast he lost one gave us a few days of training when we arrived. Our job was shoe. With a catch in his voice, he whispered he had to talk to guests (all of them spoke English), cook breakfast, seen his missing shoe on TV. In his glistening eyes, I saw shop for groceries, make reservations and handle the money. his grief for greater losses, and his gratitude for life. The employees cleaned rooms, washed dishes, and maintained Jim and I often think about what a gift we were given–a gift the grounds. of paradise and time enough to breathe it all in. Even after all Since we were just five months into our Spanish lessons, these years, I still challenge myself to continue to appreciate the we were never far from our dictionary. With our meager ordinary beauty of every day. I now see bears and blue jays that vocabulary, hand signals and sincere smiles, we befriended the frequent my back yard with the same sense of wonder that I had staff. Mainor and Manuel invited Jim to their soccer games, and for the monkeys and toucans. I greet people of different races and Nuria taught me to cook many delicious Costa Rican recipes. customs with the same respect and lack of fear that I have for One night after dinner, I stopped in the bathroom. As I was the Costa Ricans who gather their food with machetes and spear leaving, I noticed an apparently dead scorpion behind the door. guns. I try new things and laugh at my mistakes with the same He was flat, as if someone had stepped on him with a big boot. good humor that I did in paradise. I grabbed my camera and asked Jim to join me. He passed the door over the flattened scorpion a couple of times. It was as Mary Zalmanek is the still as a corpse. Jim asked, “What makes you think it’s dead?” author of The Art of the I said, “Well, of course he’s dead. He’s a flat as a pancake.” travel and lifestyle articles I tapped my camera near his squashed little head to prove it. Spark: 12 Habits to Inspire to Motorhome Magazine. Imagine my surprise when he puffed up his full-body attack Romantic Adventures Mary and her husband armor with stinger fully erect and twitching and ran toward us. (artofthespark.com), and is I jumped back, then flew out of the bathroom in a single leap. Jim live in Colorado. a frequent contributor of I accidentally turned off the light as I fled, leaving Jim alone
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“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING, ANY ROAD WILL GET YOU THERE.” Lewis Carroll
What I wonder while I wander Am I who I’m meant to be? | Is this the right way? Should I stay or should I go? | Do the 7 Wonders of the World have an order? How many footsteps have landed here before mine? |What does this remind me of? How long have I been here? | How far have I gone? |Left or right? | Forward or backward? Am I lost? | Where does the time go? | how soon can I return? where to next?
So much of what you are is where you’ve been.” Jet Set Candy
“Never let your mind tell your heart not to wander.” Unknown
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I dreamed I packed my skirt, my magic wings, and flew off to another life in another land.
Trina Turk “Millan” skirt One. 453 Highland Avenue Augusta 706.869.2254
WHERE Will Your Skirt take you
next?
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Converse with caution. If my eyes are closed, I am asleep. Or meditating. Or trying to block out images of this plane falling out of the sky. Do not take this opportunity to start a conversation with me. Read the social cues. Stay in your own seat. You’re allowed to get up and move about the cabin when the passenger seat belt light is turned off, but when you’re in your seat, be all in your seat. Don’t spill over and wedge half of your body into my bubble. Turn it off. When the flight attendant says to turn off your laptop to prepare for liftoff or landing, do it. What if your device interferes with the plane’s GPS? What if it messes up the radio signals? What if we get rerouted or crash into another aircraft? What if I freak out on you? Discipline. Your child is pummeling the seat in front of him with his feet. This is obnoxious. Don’t make me get involved and raise him myself. Remove your elbow from my armrest. My funny bone was there first, so let’s not fight for that tiny, two-inch space. What are we, barbarians? Use your words. When it’s time for you to climb over me to go to the lavatory, there’s no need for you to caress my leg to get my attention. I can hear just fine. Observe proper eating etiquette. I see that you brought a picnic with you. If you’re not going to give me a heads up before you eat your onion sandwich—so I can avert my nostrils—perhaps you should pick another snack. Do not grab my arm when we hit turbulence. I’m not a flotation device (or a parachute) and have no chance of saving you if this plane goes down. Which it will. Kidding. Still, hands off. Now that we have that out of the way…are you going to eat those biscotti cookies you left on your tray?
I miss those days when you could just push someone into a pool without worrying about their cell phone.” Unknown
“One of the greatest gifts you can give is your undivided attention.” Oprah Winfrey
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Deborah Brooks It would be difficult to find a region of the world that Deborah hasn’t visited. From Cambodia to the Trans Siberia, she loves exploring places that might not be obvious choices. Out of all the places she has visited, Antarctica is the one she believes everyone should experience. “There’s nothing like it,” she says. “The only place in the world that’s absolutely quiet.” This summer, she’s headed to India to travel via the Palace on Wheels, a luxury railway car that travels throughout India overnight and stops for touring during the day. Deborah says she caught the travel bug as a junior in college when she backpacked across Europe for five dollars per day, and has had it ever since. Even with everywhere she’s been, she still has a long list of places left to see. “I think if you’re a true adventurer, you’ll always be up for a new adventure,” she says.
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Hannah Carley
Wrapping up her first year at Georgia Regents University as study abroad advisor, Hannah has been working all year to set up students for study abroad trips this summer.With destinations ranging from Japan to Salamanca, she’s excited about what these students are about to see and learn and experience. As an undergraduate herself, she studied abroad in Switzerland, Scotland and Russia. “You learn you can relate to anyone, even if their worldview isn’t the same,” she says. She encourages students to study abroad because of the way it broadens their perspective, and also how it provides context for what they learn in the classroom. Hannah grew up traveling with her family, visiting more than 15 different countries, and studied travel and tourism at the University of Georgia. As study abroad advisor, she now works to make that kind of global adventure as accessible and unintimidating as possible to current students. “It expands the way you see the world,” she says.
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Patty Font
Patty has seen a lot change in the travel industry during her more than 30 years of experience. When she first started out, one of her jobs every day was to tear apart paper plane tickets to then deliver to customers. Now, all of her business is conducted over the phone or internet. Despite all of these changes, Patty says the important things are still the same – she and her staff working hard to help their customers focus on the actual trip, and not the stress of planning. “Most of our customers are happy customers because they’re doing something they’re really excited about.” Whether it’s planning a business trip for a corporate client or a trip to Antarctica for a frequent traveler, Patty says every day and every trip is different. She herself has traveled all over the world, and loves how she can travel vicariously through her customers. “I love hearing people when they come back, all excited, sharing about their trips,” she says.
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L e t ’s G o o n a R o a d t r i p
“I love a good road trip. And I have been known to sing cheesy '80s songs at the top of my lungs on a windy road when no o n e c a n h e a r. ” Morena Baccarin
“ Pe o p l e d o n ' t take trips—trips take p e o p l e .”
LITTLE KNOWN FACT: One out of eight jobs in the U.S. depends on travel and tourism.
THE HAPPINESS FACTOR: Studies show that money spent on experiences like travel makes you happier than money spent on material goods.
John Steinbeck
“Blessed are the curious, for they s h a l l h a v e a d v e n t u r e s .”
A ROAD TRIP GIVES YOU THE FREEDOM TO CHANGE YOUR MIND AND GO WITH THE FLOW.
Lovelle Drachman
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Destination: The Breakfast Club Tybee Island Georgia
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“order me two Farm Fresh Eggs, Grilled Tomatoes, HOMEMADE sausage, Grits & a pecan waffle.” Tybee Island, GA, has long been known for a
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little out of the way, slightly chaotic great little diner called the Breakfast Club. The portions are absurdly large and the atmosphere is crazy fun. Who knew watching the staff cook
LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Owner/chef is a Culinary Institute of America alum and assisted in the catering of JFK Jr.'s wedding.
breakfast could be so entertaining?
How can you go wrong with a fried chicken breakfast? Make sure you have someone to share it with.
Small, crowded and a cook with a lot o f e n e r g y. Th i s p l a c e rocks from the minute it opens!
WHY IT’S WORTH THE DRIVE: With a motto like “Open daily from 7am 'til about 1pm every day for the rest of my life!” from the chef, how could it not be?
GET THERE EARLY AND HUNGRY.
If you really want a t r e a t , s i t a t t h e c o u n t e r. Wa t ch i n g t h e c o o k s in action is like watching a great r e a l i t y s h o w.
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Georgie Latremouille
2015
february six of my Favorite Things:
six words That Describe Me:
1. Getting lost
1. Dream chaser
2. Watermelon on a summer day
2. Aspiring world traveler
3. Hand-written letters
3. Christ lover
4. Daily adventures
4. Life enthusiast
5. Dandelions
5. Freelance Photographer
6. Walking barefoot
6. Avid thrift shopper
Photo by J.M. Sullivan
Pay attention to life’s small miracles. Always stay positive. Take every chance. Love every moment.
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