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May is the Month to Visit Ottawa

If you never had the chance to visit Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, then you’ve missed out on seeing North America’s only version of the Changing of the Guard ceremony, the morning ritual where dozens of red-coated soldiers with bearskin hats parade down city streets to the lawn of Parliament Hill. The best month to visit the city is in May during the Canadian Tulip Festival. From May 4-21, over three million tulips bloom in Ottawa. Visitors can sample food and entertainment from around the world at the International Pavilion, located near Commissioners Park, where 300,000 tulips bloom alone. Later in the month, Dutch tulips give way to a Dutch painter named Vincent Van Gogh. From May 25 to September 3, the National Gallery of Canada will present Van Gogh: Up Close, which explores the artist’s representation of nature. Visitors can marvel at 45 of Van Gogh’s paintings, including The Iris. Afterwards, reenergize with a BeaverTail. This wholewheat pastry, cooked in canola oil, and topped with a variety of savory toppings like chocolate, jam, pie filling, or cinnamon, is available year-round in Ottawa’s ByWard Market neighborhood. 
 

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Quick Escape: Provincetown, Massachusetts

June and September are our favorite months to visit P’town, before or after the summer crowds arrive. Stay with our friends at the Salt House Inn, smack dab in the center of Provincetown (with parking, no less). Then go whale watching, bike up and down the dunes on the unique Province Lands Bike Path, see the glorious pine warblers swoop from pine to pine just inland of the parking lot at the Province Lands Visitor Center, and, of course stroll the stretch of beach at Race Point surrounded by the sea. For dinner, head to that P’town classic, the Mews, to dine on lobster risotto, pan seared scallops, or almond crusted cod. Remember that you can take the 90-minute high-speed ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Provincetown and avoid an often congested drive. 

 
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Spending a Night in Volcano, Hawaii

On the outskirts of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Volcano is a chilled (and at night, chilly) town of around 2500 people. Most travelers zip by here to spend a day in the park before heading back to their resort in Kona, Kohala, or Hilo. But if you spend at least a night like our family did, you’ll soon realize you that this part of the Big Island has its own distinct allure. We stayed at Volcano Village Lodge, which had the feel of a Costa Rican eco-lodge nestled deep in the forest. The spacious lodge with high ceilings, full kitchen, and front porch came with a full breakfast in the morning. Another nice perk is the hot tub which comes in handy when the temperatures cool at night (close to 4,000 feet elevation). 
 
A 5-minute drive from Volcano Village Lodge is the entrance and Visitors Center of the park. We met a wonderful park ranger who told us exactly what to do that afternoon and evening. We drove to the Kilauea Iki Overlook and took a short hike along the rim of the crater in a rainforest to the Thurston Lava Tube, a well-known tunnel created from the flow of lava. Then we had dinner at a ridiculously good, though expensive Thai restaurant in town simply called Thai Thai Restaurant. When the tour buses left, we returned to the national park at night to the Jaggar Museum parking lot. We walked over to the overlook to see the expansive Kilauea Caldera glowing a vibrant red at night. Definitely worth a night’s stay in Volcano! 
 
 (Photo by Lisa Leavitt)
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Notchview Ski Area Now Offers Rentals, Food from Old Creamery

My favorite place to cross-country ski in Massachusetts, the Notchview Ski Area in the Berkshires, is now offering ski rentals and lunch. Run by the Trustees of Reservations, Notchview is the largest Nordic ski area in the state, with 40 km of trails covering 3,200 acres. Grab your skies and go counter-clockwise on the Circuit Trail, passing meadows and skiing under a tunnel of snowed-under pines. The web of branches keeps you snug within the forest, protecting you from wind. After passing a small shelter, turn onto the Whitestone Trail and enter a winter wonderland of uprooted trees and branches arching over the serpentine path. A downhill run brings you back to the main lodge, invigorated by the fresh smell of pine and the exercise. To top it off, the place I usually head for lunch after visiting Notchview, the Old Creamery in Cummington, is now supplying sandwiches, soups, and hot and cold drinks at the new café. The perfect ending to a perfect outing. 

 
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Italy, Turkey, Lake George, and Favorite All-Inclusive Resorts in our August Newsletter

In this month’s ActiveTravels newsletter, we describe our recent trip with the family to Istanbul and Cappadocia, an outfitter our clients love in Italy, some of our favorite all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, a Quick Escape to my boyhood stomping ground, Bolton Landing, New York, on the shores of Lake George, and how Award Wallet can save all your airline mileage onto one nice app. 
 
Off to Ithaca to drop our son off at college. I’ll be back with a new entry on Tuesday. Enjoy this last glorious month of summer and Happy Travels!
 
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Top 5 Travel Experiences of 2012, A Culinary High in Caraquet, New Brunswick

Last May, I was fortunate to drive New Brunswick’s Acadian Coast for an upcoming Boston Globe story. Stretching 110 miles from Shediac to Caraquet, the northeastern coast of New Brunswick boasts the warmest waters north of Virginia, the sand dunes of Kouchibouguac National Park, lonely lighthouses on Miscou Island, and the largest lobster processing facility on the continent. Yet, the real reason folks go out of their way to venture to the Acadian Coast is to experience the French Canadian culture. Stop at any of the small towns and you’ll notice a distinctive joie de vivre, with foot-stomping fiddle music, down-home French cooking accentuating the local seafood catch, and festivals that celebrate the Acadians’ 400-year-old history in the Atlantic Maritimes.
 
Yet, it was one day in Caraquet where I experienced my greatest culinary pleasure of the year. In the morning, oysterman Gaetan Dugas took me out on the waters of Caraquet Bay to show me firsthand why these oysters are a cherished commodity in high demand from chefs around North America. Especially the petites, small oysters that are both succulent and briny. Dugas’ ancestors include a pirate who commandeered a ship against the British in the 1750s, but it’s his father who taught him how to oyster farm and his grandfather who taught him the traditional ways of the local Mi’kmaq people. 
 
Just as bountiful as the sea are the forests surrounding Caraquet, ripe with morels, chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, and other goodies like the foot of the cattail. Local Jean Patenaude made a name for himself scouring the countryside for edibles, bringing home laundry baskets full of wild mushrooms on ideal days in summer. In the afternoon, he took me foraging for morels. 
 
That evening, I assembled the goodies I had collected that day and brought them to chef Karen Mersereau, the mother of gastronomy in Caraquet. Mersereau was a food marketing rep in Toronto when she met Gerard Paulin, the third-generation hotelier of Hotel Paulin, a Victorian-era gem perched on a hill above the water of Caraquet Bay. A dozen years later, the couple are parents of a boy, Jules, and Karen is firmly entrenched at the helm of the hotel’s kitchen. She has wisely aligned herself with both Dugas and Patenaude. 
 
Mersereau took my day’s bounty and created a memorable wild mushroom oyster bisque. To ensure that every spoonful was chockful of meat, she throws in the native palourdes clam, similar to a quahaug. Her bevy of local supplies would make most chefs weep with joy. In addition to oysters and mushrooms, there’s snow crabs, tuna, Atlantic salmon, shrimp, and halibut right off the boat, goat cheese and spring-fed lamb found in nearby farms, and blueberries and cloudberries that grow wild along the coast, perfect for making a sublime pie. At Hotel Paulin, the locavore movement has reached its crescendo.
 
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Maine Windjammer Week, Special Events

Returning from Acadia National Park one summer with the family, we wisely timed our return drive to coincide with the annual Camden Windjammer Festival the last weekend in August. More than 20 tall ships arrive in the picturesque harbor to take part in the festivities. We enjoyed an all-you-can-eat lobster feast on the deck of a schooner and then watched a talent show as crews sing sea shanties. A firework show tops off the night.
 
This summer, there will be six gatherings of the schooner fleet. It’s a festive time to be aboard one of the schooners:
 
June 9 Schooner Gam 
To kick off the summer season, the entire windjammer fleet ties up together in Penobscot Bay to enjoy live music and take walking tours of each vessel. 
 
The grand sail parade enters picturesque Boothbay Harbor, where you’ll enjoy
concerts, crafts, and fireworks. 
 
July 4 Great Schooner Race
North America’s largest annual gathering of tall ships race from Islesboro to Rockland. After the award ceremony, enjoy live music. 
 
July 11 Maine Windjammer Parade
This time the grand parade of sails heads past the mile-long Rockland Breakwater, providing spectators with stunning, close-up views.
 
Aug 39-31 Camden Windjammer Festival
Festivities include a parade of sail, maritime heritage fair, fireworks, chowder challenge, schooner crew talent show, family scavenger hunt, outdoor movies and more.
 
September 9 Wooden Boat Sail-in
The last gathering of the fleet takes place in Brooklin, Maine, the headquarters
of WoodenBoat Magazine and WoodenBoat School. Expect live music and boat school tours. 
 
I want to thank the Maine Windjammer Association for allowing me to rekindle fond memories of past sails this week. I’m excited to return this summer! 
 

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