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Wine Tasting in Humboldt County

Humboldt County might be best known for its largest cash crop, but if you want to keep it legal, they’re also producing exceptional wine. We realized that over dinner last week at the Victorian Inn in Ferndale when we ordered a 2006 Briceland pinot noir. The fruit was lush with nice hints of cherry and pepper to cut down the tannins. Humboldt Wine Association is now home to 22 vineyards. One of the finest is Fieldbrook Winery, located just outside of Arcata. Owner Bob Hodgson, a former professor of oceanography at nearby Humboldt State University, has been making wine at his glorious country home since 1976. His wines have received their fair share of acclaim throughout the state, especially after winning the “Best of Show” at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. But you won’t find many of the 1000-1500 cases of wine he produces each year outside California. Hodgson wants to keep his merlots, pinot noirs, cabernets, and pinot grigios reasonably priced with more than one third of his wares going to a local wine club. 
 

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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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What’s Doing in Nairobi

First-time visitors to the Kenya have misconceptions that Nairobi will be some dusty backwater where narrow streets are filled with destitute people ready to pounce on your wallet.  Much of this stems from an outbreak of thievery that occurred in the late 90s, earning the city the nickname, “Nairobbery.” Today, especially now that the post-election violence of January 2007 is in the rear view mirror, Nairobi is a relatively safe and cosmopolitan hub of 3.5 million people in East Africa. The poor, who flood out of their shanties every morning to walk to nearby factories, merge with a growing middle and upper class, whose gated estates in the western suburbs of Karen and Langata have far more in common with Boca Raton than Bogota. Travelers are starting to realize that Nairobi is worthy of more than a one-night stopover on the way to safari. At the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, west of the city centre in Langata, baby elephants whose parents have been killed by poachers are raised by workers who actually sleep in their stalls to comfort the young. When they’re old enough, they’ll be brought back to the wild. The suburb of Karen was named after Out of Africa author Karen Blixen, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dineson. Visit the estate she lived in from 1913 to 1931, now home to the Karen Blixen Museum. The grounds, dotted with the prehistoric looking candelabra cacti, overlook the Ngong Hills, and are worth the price of admission alone.
 

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Top 10 Adventures Along the New England Coast

Just in case you don’t live in Boston or read the newspaper, I want to link you to an article I wrote in last Sunday’s Boston Globe on Top 10 Coastal Adventures. Included are some of my favorite jaunts in New England like biking on the Province Lands Bike Trail in P’town, sea kayaking with the osprey and harbor seals in Sheepscot Bay, Maine, and surfcasting for stripers on the Vineyard. Try one of these activities and you won’t regret it.

 

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Winter Carnival Season Begins

If you love Paris in the springtime, then you’ll adore Quebec City in the wintertime, where, for 17 days, the party never stops. Quebec’s Winter Carnival (January 29-February 14) is the largest in the world, attracting more than one million people. I was one of the lucky people to arrive in this fortified city on the first day of the 2015 Winter Carnival. I spent the morning sledding down an ice chute, viewing the impressive ice castle, made from 1600 blocks of ice, eating maple syrup on snow, and playing a human game of foosball. Top DJs from Montreal and Toronto played a mesmerizing mix of hip-hop and electronica, while locals carried cane-like red sticks filled with a potent drink called Caribou, made of whiskey, red wine, and maple syrup, adding to the dancing frenzy. When Bonhomme, the popular snowman and revered host of the festivities started to boogie, the crowd went wild. For those of us who choose to embrace winter in all its snowy charm, there’s no better event than a Winter Carnival. Check out my latest column for Liftopia on "6 Winter Carnivals You Don’t Want to Miss."

 
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Arenal’s Nayara Springs to Open this December

If you have plans to visit Costa Rica this winter and you want a luxurious retreat, consider staying in the Arenal region at the new Nayara Springs. Sister property to the Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens, Nayara Springs boasts a collection of 16 private villas. Built atop a mountain in the rainforest, the new property is surrounded by creeks, natural hot springs, and, of course, exquisite views of Arenal Volcano. The highlight will be the pools fed by mineral hot springs that are built into every villa. In addition to full butler service, all accommodations will feature a private garden with open air shower, as well as indoor and outdoor lounging areas. The villas are located steps away from a spa, yoga pavilion, oversized adult pool, and piano bar. At the poolside restaurant, Amor-Loco, guests can enjoy Latin American inspired sushi, fresh grilled fish and vegetables grown at the hotel’s organic garden. The hotel is approximately a 2 ½-hour drive from San Jose Int’l Airport and transfers are available for an additional cost. 

 
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Don’t Miss the Women Modernists Show at Norton Museum of Art

On our last day in Florida, we made the wise move to drive the convertible to the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach. As luck would have it, a new exhibition had just opened, “Women Modernists in New York,” showcasing the works of four friends from the 1920s and 30s, Marguerite Zorach, Helen Torr, Florine Stettheimer, and the best known of the quartet, Georgia O’Keeffe. I’ve never been a big fan of Zorach’s work, a little too primitive and naïve for me. But the exhibition became intriguing in the next gallery focusing on the works of Helen Torr. Torr was Arthur Dove’s wife, and while the art world was reaping accolades on her adoring husband, they were ridiculing the work of Torr (and, for that matter, most work by women artists at the time). Her charcoals of still lifes are wonderful, but most striking were Torr’s two self-portraits where you can see in those sorrowful eyes the world beating down on her. The next room was a delight, a sampling of works by Florence Stettheimer. On one wall she painted herself and her two sisters wearing garb straight out of a Charleston dance, reclining as if they were sitting on chaise lounge chairs. It’s no wonder one of her works recently sold at auction for $4.5 million. Her joie de vivre and sheer ebullience radiates throughout the room. Thankfully her sister dismissed her request to destroy all her works of art upon her death. 
 
O’Keeffe, of course, is the star of the show. One glance at her vibrant palette in “Red Maple at Lake George” (1926) and I was immediately transported back to my boyhood stomping grounds. But the Norton Museum scored a real coup by getting the National Gallery of Art to part with their series of six Jack-in-the-Pulpit canvases, where O’Keeffe reduces the hyper-sensualized flower down to its abstract parts. I could have stared at this wall for hours, but had to catch a flight back to Boston. If you’re in South Florida at any point until May 15th, do yourself a favor and see this show. If you want to read a manuscript of the story I originally wrote for Art & Antiques Magazine on O’Keeffe’s years in Lake George with her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, please email me at Steve@ActiveTravels.com. 
 

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