At some point, every traveler feels sick, gets a scrape, or rushes to the toilet. Pharmacies around the world stand ready to help, but it’s so much handier to head back to your room and pull out your favorite remedy. No searching at odd hours, no language barrier, no unfamiliar brand.
Lafayette Bakery & Café serves up a fanciful array of French goodies in a casual street-café atmosphere. In sparkling and stuffed-to-overflowing display cases, delicious products — which have traveled about 15 feet from the busy kitchen readily visible from the counter — are proudly displayed. The beauty, textures, and flavors of both sweet and savory entrées evidence many years of old-world French experience, where this team ran a bakery and café. Reasonably-priced perfection for breakfast, brunch, or lunch.
Upon stepping off the cable car at the City Park stop, I immediately saw an expansive park to my left, with towering oak trees, a large lake, and a promenade leading up to the impressive New Orleans Museum of Art, the centerpiece of City Park. Singing the chorus from Hey Jude (inspired by a visit from the Beatles to the park in the 1960s), I made my way to the Singing Tree, a majestic oak near the shore of the lake. Seven chimes of various sizes hang from the Spanish moss covered branches, ringing out with a bravado of choruses, as if the spirits from the nearby cemeteries are unleashing the long pent-up anguish of the dead.
New York City is known for its bustling, fast-paced culture, but that’s not all the city offers. The Met Cloisters, located in northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, is a museum that provides solitude and silence to its visitors.
Harlem in New York City has been jumping with jazz for over 100 years, and it’s still going strong if you know where to find it. Clubs, restaurants, and jazz joints are listed in guidebooks, but I decided to get the real deal on uptown jazz with a tour guide who’s got all the information — and then some! She’s my friend, and she invited me to tag along on one of her Friday night ’Round Midnight Tour jaunts through Harlem.
Wat Mongkolratanaram of Florida, or the “Thai Temple” as locals call it, was established in 1981, and launched its Sunday Market six years later with just two tables. The market has since grown, achieving cult status among area foodies. Today, it features vendors selling everything from Pad Thai and fried bananas to orchids and preserves. Hungry visitors walk along a large wooden wrap-around deck, enticed by the smell of bubbling soup broth, steaming dumplings, and peppery spices emanating from the various food tables. It is the most authentic Thai cuisine you can get in the area — and the cheapest. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better value in Tampa Bay.
The journey begins where Bourbon Street meets Canal. Stepping aboard, the feeling is immediate. Lacquered mahogany seats with brass fittings are original design. No molded plastic seats, no graffiti, and no air conditioning signal that this is the real deal. For air conditioning, simply open one of the large glass windows to get a face full of sultry air.
Opened April 16, 2013, the Tudor Inn, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, fulfills the promise of treating its guests like royalty. Stepping through the front door you are transported back in time and across the ocean to the sumptuous luxury of 15th century England. Henry VIII’s era is the inspiration but the decor which gives the inn its ornate character simply begs you to relax and enjoy.
Covering an expansive 900 square miles of wildlife habitat in northwestern Nevada, the refuge is home to over 270 species including greater sage-grouse, California bighorn sheep, mule deer, pygmy rabbits, and its resident star, the pronghorn antelope. The refuge was established in 1931 through the efforts of the Audubon Society and Boone & Crockett Club primarily to preserve pronghorn populations.
Summer is wrapping up, which means a whole host of exciting things are on the horizon for fall: the kids going back to school, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, pumpkin beers, and, of course, the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival at Disney World. If you’ve been living under a rock and have never heard of this wildly popular Disney event, it’s a food-lover’s siren song: visitors can sample cuisines and beverages from around the world, and attend culinary demonstrations and seminars. It’s held at Disney’s Epcot theme park every year; this year, the event takes place from September 14 through November 14.
