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REI Adventures Across the Globe

Most people know REI as a place to purchase all their outdoor garb and equipment. Few active travelers realize the Seattle-based company also has been offering human-powered outdoor adventures since 1987. Rated on a scale of one (relaxed) to five (strenuous), these guided trips are far more reasonably priced compared to their competition. They just came out with their list of 2011 trips, which include a 10-day jaunt biking around Portugal and Spain to hiking in Utah’s Arches & Canyonlands National Parks to four days of mountain biking in the Sonoran Desert (only $675 including camping equipment, bike rentals, and most meals).
 

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Adventures in Oregon: First Stop, Hood River

The winds on the Columbia River Gorge were far too strong for stand-up paddleboarding when we arrived on its shores. According to friend Kirby Neumann-Rae, Editor of the Hood River News, the winds were “nukin.” That didn’t stop the windsurfers and kiteboarders from hitting the water and the air in this wind tunnel that separates Oregon from Washington. Neumann-Rae soon led my brother and me on a drive away from the river to the fertile valley backed by the snowcapped peaks of Mount Hood and Mount Adams. Called the Fruit Loop, a 35-mile drive leads to pear orchards, fields of lavender, alpaca farms, farm stands, wineries, and an emerging hard cider scene. This is not the cloyingly sweet beverage you’re accustomed to drinking. We made three stop at HR ciderworks, Fox-Tail Cider, and Hood Valley Hard Cider, and were surprised that the drink tasted more like dry sparkling wine than apple juice. It was crisp, refreshing, and could easily be paired with the Chinook salmon and steelhead trout the region is known for. Sample the cider on the back deck picnic tables of the Solera Brewpub in Parkdale and you’ll be mesmerized by the spectacular view of Mount Hood.  

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A Necessary Stop at the Corning Museum of Glass on a College Road Trip

On our drive last week from the campuses of Penn State to Syracuse, we stopped about an hour south of Ithaca in the small town of Corning, New York. Here you’ll find one of my favorite museums in western New York, the Corning Museum of Glass. Founded in 1851, Corning Glass Works was instrumental in helping Thomas Edison create the light bulb on a mass scale, designed the first television screens, invente the first assembly-line bottling plant, and now the company is thriving with the proliferation of fiber optics. You can learn about the inventors and innovation of glass at the museum. Corning also features an exceptional collection of glass art from Egyptian times to the present that will only get bigger with the new $64 million Contemporary Art and Design Wing set to make its debut on March 20th. The 26,000-square-foot art gallery will be the largest space anywhere dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art in glass. It will also house one of the world’s largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions, with 500 seats. Another highlight of the museum is the chance to create your own art, via glassblowing or sandblasting. My wife made a wind chime while my daughter created a glass pendant. 

 
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Chatham Bars Inn Introduces New Fly-Fishing School

Wanna catch stripers on the fly? In comfort, no less! Cape Cod’s Chatham Bars Inn has teamed up with Orvis to open the only saltwater fly-fishing school in Massachusetts. Open to both guests of the resort and the general public, Chatham Bars Inn will offer one-day ($279) and two-day schools ($489) on select dates from May through October 2019. Schools will be led by an endorsed Orvis instructor and go over fly casting techniques, how to tie essential knots, how to choose your gear and tackle, striper feeding habits, proper fly selection, and how to read water, currents, and tides. One-day school dates are May 25, June 1, July 27 and August 3. Two-day school dates are June 15-16, June 29-30, July 13-14, August 19-20, September 13-14 and October 5-6. 

 
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Following in Tom Thomson’s Footsteps at Algonquin Provincial Park

On our first day at Bartlett Lodge, we signed up for a Tom Thomson tour with our guide, Malcolm. Tom Thomson was arguably Canada’s first iconic painter, sketching lone birches and pines swaying in the wind on the shores of Algonquin’s many lakes. While not technically a member of Canada’s Group of Seven artists, he was good friends with many in the group and would have certainly been a member if he had not died under mysterious circumstances at Algonquin in 1917. Thomson would spend a good 5-year span at Algonquin before his untimely death and Malcolm did a thorough job showing us the many sites where his paintings were created. We started at Tea Lake Dam, where Thomson first camped in the area along a babbling brook. Thomson was also known as an accomplished angler and paddler and you can easily see him living happily on the water’s edge here. It helped that Malcolm brought along a laptop to show us the sketches that were created in this exact spot and many other locales we would visit that day. 

The bulk of our time was spent on Canoe Lake, the busiest part of Algonquin, and where they serve a Tom Thomson burger at the Visitor Center. We took “Winnie the Tinnie,” a motorized canoe around the entirety of the lake, passing celebrated Canadian overnight summer camps, like Camp Ahmek, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was both a camper and counselor. At Hayhurst Point, we docked and walked up a small hillside to see a plaque that Group of Seven artist, J.E.H. MacDonald, created in memory of his friend. No one is certain how Thomson died, but his canoe arrived back to the shores first, and soon his body was found in the waters. It was ruled an accident, but there were some unruly characters living in the park in those early years, and many still believe he was murdered. Malcolm showed us the sight where his body was found and the small cemetery where he is now buried (another controversy since some people think his body was taken), before we headed back under heavy rains. The heavyu drops splashed off the water of the lake, creating a pointillist canvas that Thomson would have appreciated. 
 
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A Rejuvenating Stay at Inn by the Sea

Lisa and I recently spent a night on the outskirts of Portland, Maine, at one of our favorite properties in New England, Inn by the Sea. We wanted to check out their new Cove and Beach Suites and were happy we made the effort. Both were very spacious 2-bedroom suites, ideal for families of 4, with full kitchen, fireplace, and large balcony. Even the Cove Suites, which overlook the lawn, had views of the Atlantic from the balcony. Inn by the Sea is located in a glorious spot on Cape Elizabeth, with a sloping lawn and outdoor pool that leads to a small path and the 3-mile stretch of Crescent Beach. It’s become a popular retreat for dog lovers, many of whom adopted dogs from behind the front desk at the resort. The property runs a program with a local dog shelter and a remarkable 117 dogs have been adopted. The real surprise was the food and wine at the resort’s Sea Glass restaurant. Chef Andrew Chadwick was recently asked to create a Maine dinner at the James Beard House in New York and now I understand why. The food was by far the best I’ve ever had at the restaurant. Chadwick, who ran the Chatham Bars restaurant on Cape Cod, knows his way around seafood, especially the sublime lobster tacos. He’s joined by the knowledgeable sommelier Donald Linscott, who paired the dinner with exceptional Oregon pinot noir. A memorable stay!

 
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Top 5 Travel Days of 2015, Sea Kayaking Lobster Bay, Nova Scotia

This past June, I took the Portland ferry to Nova Scotia with my sister, Fawn. This would be my fifth trip to the province and I wanted to focus on the southern half of Nova Scotia, south of Halifax. Over a week, we would stop in the charming seaside community of Lunenburg, one of only two cities in North America chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, go clamming on Digby Flats, oyster farming at Eel Lake, stand-up paddleboard at the White Point Beach Resort, and spend a night at a quintessential Canadian property deep in the woods, Trout Point Lodge. But as I wrote in my original blog, the last day in Nova Scotia was downright dreamy.

 
A mere 30 minutes from where the Portland ferry arrives in Yarmouth is the 6-bedroom Argyler Lodge. The small inn sits on the shores of the vast Lobster Bay with spectacular views of the sea and islands. I would spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the wide open water with my sea kayaking guide, Matt Delong. Paddling a loop around the numerous islands—Nanny, Camp, Birch, Bonds, Potato, Gordons—we spotted ospreys in their nest, a loon plunging into the water, and cormorants drying their wings on their rocks. The most spectacular part of the whole adventure was the fact that there was not one boat in this mammoth-sized bay. Not even another kayaker. Lobster fishermen finish the season in late May so their traps and boats were long gone by the time we arrived in mid-June. 
 
3 hours later, we returned to shore where Chef Jonathan, owner of the inn, was already busy boiling water over an open fire for our night’s lobster bake. A picnic table was set for my sister and I, Nova Scotian wine on ice. Jonathan soon dumped everything into the pot including corn, potatoes, clams, mussels, and lobsters. The sun set behinds Gordons Island as we roasted marshmallows for our s’mores. Then the bright night sky lit up with stars. Yes, dreamy and memorable. 
 

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