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Harbour Island, the Best of the Bahamas

With more than 700 islands (20 of them inhabited) scattered from Florida’s doorstep to the edge of the Caribbean, the balmy Bahamas offers every type of warm-weather lifestyle imaginable. For some, the Bahamas is an afternoon’s port of call in Nassau and Freeport. Others are lured by the massive Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, where the beach life includes large pools, water slides, and a walk-though aquarium. Yet, there’s another side of the Bahamas called the Out Islands that have yet to be discovered. My favorite is Harbour Island, a three-mile-long, half-mile-wide speck off the coast of Eleuthera. With 18th-century clapboard houses edged with picket fences, this tiny island looks as if someone shrank Nantucket and plopped it down in the tropics. Cars are all but forbidden, replaced by golf carts.  Aptly named Pink Sands Beach runs the length of the island, speckled with the perfect blush of flamingo pink. Kids can ride horseback along the shores or don mask and snorkel to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the fishies. Stay at the Coral Sands Hotel, smack dab in the middle of that pink beach.  

 

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Kitesurfing Aruba’s Boca Grandi Beach

Spend a week on Aruba’s Palm or Eagle Beaches, like I just did with my family, and you get used to the steady breeze and the swaying palms. But this is nothing compared to what you witness on the eastern shores of the island, where winds are far more severe and the waves crash ashore, spewing foam into the air. That doesn’t deter the best kitesurfers in the world from descending on Boca Grandi Beach on the southeastern tip of the island. While cruising around Aruba, we stopped at Boca Grandi and were mesmerized by kitesurfers zipping across the bay at incredibly fast speeds, catching air for a good five seconds, and turning their boards around with the slightest of ease, while the choppy sea swirled around them. This is not a place I would learn the sport, but if you already feel comfortable kitesurfing, I would certainly make my way down to Aruba for its consistent wind. Judging from the smiles plastered on these kitesurfers’ faces, they loved every minute of it. 

 
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A Recommended Stay in Delray

Whenever we head to the Delray Beach/Boca Raton section of Florida to visit my father-in-law and his wife, we always stay at the Colony Hotel. Last week, we stopped there again for the final 3 nights of our trip. Smack dab in the heart of Delray Beach on Atlantic Avenue, within easy walking distance to many restaurants, bars, and shops in town, the Colony Hotel was built in 1926 and exudes a feeling of Florida from a bygone era. I love walking into the open-air lounge and its pleasing color palette of reds, pinks, and oranges. Rooms are spacious and affordable, and include a hot breakfast, free parking, and complimentary WiFi. An added bonus is the Colony’s own beach club, 2 miles down the road, which includes chaise lounge chairs and cabanas on a secluded stretch of beach, saltwater pool, and a shaded place for salads and sandwiches at lunch. They often feature live music here during Happy Hour or head back to the hotel, grab a mojito, and relax on an outdoor table. One of our best dining choices this trip was the Mexican restaurant, El Camino, just off Atlantic Avenue. We enjoyed the homemade guacamole, chorizo tacos, achiote chicken burrito, and avocado salad. 

 
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New Brunswick Week—Driving the Acadian Coast

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. One step inside the local boulangerie or patisserie and you’ll realize that this part of New Brunswick is just as French as Quebec, the reason why New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that is officially bilingual. This week, I’ll be driving the Acadian Coast, on assignment for The Boston Globe. I plan to go lobstering, biking, sea kayaking, and more. I’ll fill you in on all the details, so you’ll know exactly what to do on your next trip to the Atlantic Maritimes! 
 
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Adventures in Las Cruces Week—Exploring the Mesilla Valley Wine Trail

Head south from the historic town of Mesilla on Route 28 and you enter the Mesilla Valley, a short section of the historic El Camino Real route. At the end of the 16th-century, Spain created a 1500-mile route from Mexico City to Santa Fe that would bring settlers, horses, and goods to these lands. Old mission churches still remain, sharing the road with large tracts of pecan trees, orchards, and vineyards. Las Cruces has an ideal climate for vines with warm days, cool nights, and mild winters. Thanks to Franciscan monks, New Mexico started creating wine about 150 years before California. Today, New Mexico is home to over 60 wineries and ten of those wineries in the southern part of the state form the Mesilla Valley Wine Trail.
 
My first stop was Rio Grande Vineyards, started in 2009, and now creating 15,000 bottles a year. We tried their signature wine, Queue Tendre, a semi-sweet white wine aged in Hungarian oak barrels, before moving on to my favorites, the dry red zinfandel and the sangiovese. Tastings are done in a classic ranch-style tasting room or outside on the back deck offering glorious views of the Organ Mountains. Back on Route 28, I passed over the Rio Grande River and under an umbrageous tunnel of mature pecan trees, courtesy of Stahmann Farms, the world’s largest family owned pecan orchard. Not surprisingly, the shaded roadway is cherished by road bikers. 
 
Soon I arrived at La Vina Winery, just in time for their annual Harvest Wine Festival. Bands were playing live rock, bluegrass, and country tunes and booths were selling local crafts, and, of course, spiced pecans. But most folks were here to taste the excellent wine. I really enjoyed the sauvignon blanc and the smooth syrah. Glass in hand, I walked over to a tent to listen to the music, looked up at the clear blue sky, and enjoyed the slight breeze. Life is good on the ole El Camino Real. 
 
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Shackleton’s 1914 Adventure in Antarctica Recreated by A Puppet Troupe

Combine marionettes with live music composed by the Kronos Quartet and you get a smaller-than-life reenactment of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 trans-Antarctic expedition. Called 69 Degrees South: The Shackleton Project, the play is created by the puppet theater company, Phantom Limb, and will be shown at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 13 at 8 pm. It will attempt to recreate the true story of Shackleton and his brave men trapped in an ice floe for 497 days, a remarkable story of survival that lends itself well to an intriguing night with puppets.
 

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Favorite Fall Drives, Route 100, Vermont

Mid-September to mid-October, when the summer crowds are gone and the snow has yet to drop, is my favorite time of year to cruise around America. This week, I’m going to delve into some of those blessed routes. First up, a fall foliage drive on Route 100 in Vermont. 
 
Don’t believe the Vermont fall foliage hype? All it takes is one drive on Route 100 from Killington to Stowe to understand the allure. Traveling along the ridgeline of the 4,000-foot Green Mountains radiating with its verdant robe of multi-hued maples, you can’t help but sing its praises. Be sure to stop in the farming community of Rochester for the requisite “cows and meadow” photo and the historic village of Stowe to find one of the numerous freshly painted white steeples. Along the route, you’ll want to visit the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for your jug of cider, out-of-the-oven doughnuts, and genuine maple syrup. Nearby is the Ben & Jerry’s factory, where you can take a tour, sample the wares, and find out how the duo started their celebrated business. Spend the night at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, at the base of Vermont’s tallest peak, Mount Mansfield, and you’ll have the opportunity to take in the fall foliage while playing a round of golf. 
 

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