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Memorable Spring Bike Rides, Vancouver’s Stanley Park

The 9 km ride around the Seawall of Stanley Park can be done in less than an hour. Yet, by the time you stop at the world-class aquarium, see the selection of totem poles, and dine on sablefish (a tender and rich Northwestern whitefish) at the classic Teahouse for lunch, the day is over. Riding under towering Douglas firs and along the rocky shoreline, you’ll also stop numerous times to take pictures of the bay. On our last ride around Stanley Park, my family spent a good chunk of time being entertained by the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium. Less than 15 minutes later, we were watching river otters in the wild dining on crabs along the Seawall. Another unexpected find in a city of unexpected finds, the reason why I return to Vancouver as often as I can. 

 
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Memorable Spring Bike Rides, Biking to Giverny

Next week, I’ll be blogging live from Ontario’s wine country, Niagara-on-the-Lake, on a bike trip organized by Butterfield and Robinson. To get me in the mood, I’m going to devote this week to my favorite spring rides over the years. First up, biking to Giverny.

 
Those of you with a love of art history know Giverny as the home of Claude Monet. Less than an hour by train from Paris, you can make the pilgrimage to Monet’s home and his spectacular Japanese water garden inundated with day lilies, the inspiration for many of the works that hang on the walls of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and other impressive collections of Impressionism around the globe. Fat Tire Bike Tours escorts riders from Paris’ St. Lazare train station to the quaint village of Vernon. Once you arrive, you head to an outdoor market to stock up on picnic food–soft, creamy Reblochon cheese, slices of yummy Rosette de Lyon sausage, duck liver pate, warm baguettes from the neighborhood boulangerie, juicy strawberries and apricots, and a bottle of wine to wash it down. 
 
After passing out bikes, our guide Andrew led us to the banks of the Seine River where we watched a family of swans swim as we dug into our goodies. Then we were off on an easy bike trail that connects Vernon with Giverny. We entered the picturesque hamlet and were soon walking over that Japanese bridge seen in many of Monet’s works. The whole trip took about 8 hours and cost 75 Euros per biker, a perfect day trip from Paris. 
 
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Ocean Edge Resort Unveils New Presidential Bay Collection

Driving along Route 6A in Brewster, it’s hard to miss Boston banker Samuel Nickerson’s turn-of-the-century mansion. Today, it’s the centerpiece of the sprawling Ocean Edge Resort. Nickerson’s beachfront estate is now home to over 400 guest rooms and townhouses. The latest addition is the Presidential Bay Collection, 31 two and three-bedroom villas with full kitchen and easy walking distance to the beach. Add six pools, the 18-hole Jack Nicklaus redesigned golf course, nine tennis courts, and bike paths that connect easily to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, and you understand why Ocean Edge has been the perennial family favorite on the Cape for decades. I’m heading there today to review the new Presidential Bay Collection for The Boston Globe. I’ll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend and stay active!

 
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Lapa Rios Signs 900-Acre Conservation Easement

At the southernmost coast of that ecotourism hub, Costa Rica, a 1040-acre rainforest called the Lapa Rios preserve perches over the Pacific Ocean, offering the best of both worlds. You can spend the morning hiking along the Carbonera River to a pristine waterfall, accompanied by four types of monkeys, macaws, and those rainbow-colored toucans. In the afternoon, sea kayak in the ocean around Matapalo Point or surf the Golfo Dulce. The 16 open-air bungalows and main lodge of the Lapa Rios Ecolodge are no tent-in-the-woods accommodation. Hardwood floors, bamboo walls, and a vaulted thatched roof ceiling provide plenty of space and privacy. Other luxuries include soft mosquito netting over the queen-sized bed and a secluded garden shower.  
 
Former Peace Corp volunteers Karen and John Lewis built the retreat in 1990 as a way to save hundreds of acres of rainforest from farming. The owners have just signed a conservation easement that protects over 900 acres of land surrounding Lapa Rios in perpetuity. It prohibits all extractive activities, such as mining, forestry and hunting, as well as further building expansion, even putting a cap on trail construction. At the same time the easement encourages both scientific and educational activities on the reserve. All those monkeys and birds that wake you up in the morning are a tribute to their brilliant success. 
 
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My Favorite Spring Drives

There’s something about spring that makes many of us want to grab our car keys. Maybe it’s that the season’s longer days mean there’s more sunlight to get out and enjoy; maybe it’s that the drab winter landscapes are newly ablaze with color. Maybe it’s just good old-fashioned spring fever, pushing us to get outside, to get out on the road for a new adventure. Executive Travel has just published my favorite spring drives in America, including cruising the Mississippi Delta from Clarksdale to Natchez, driving from Portland to Cannon Beach and the Oregon Coast, and hitting the Blue Ridge Parkway between Asheville and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where fragrant mountain laurel and colorful rhododendrons line the drive this time of year. Enjoy, and as always, if you have any questions about any of these trips, feel free to ask! 

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Fogo Island Inn Set to Open in June

Nine miles off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland lies Fogo Island, a barren land of marsh and lichen-covered rock where salt houses cling to the shoreline. In early summer, herds of caribou graze while icebergs and whales float by. When cod was king, the island was bursting with activity. But after the moratorium on fishing cod in the 1990s, the population dwindled to 2700, seemingly lost to the world. Then something remarkable, almost Dr. Seuss-like, happened. A woman who grew up on the island, Zita Cobb, created a philanthropy called The Shorefast Foundation with her brother, Tony. Not only would they offer microloans to small local businesses, they were intent on revitalizing the island through the arts. Cobb founded the Fogo Island Arts Corporation in 2008, hiring another former native, architect Todd Saunders, a rising star on the Norwegian architectural scene. Saunders would create ultramodern, angular art studios that would garner attention from numerous publications, including The New York Times. Now the philanthropist and architect have teamed up again to debut a 29-room inn that will open in June. Drive one hour from Gander, Newfoundland, to Farewell and board the 45-minute Fogo Island ferry. Cost is $415 to $720 per room, including breakfast, dinner, afternoon tea, supper, snacks, and all beverages, including premium wines and spirits.

 
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Maine Schooner Mary Day Offers Six-Day Sail for Beer Lovers

Aboard an historic schooner sailing the Penobscot Bay islands of Maine’s mid-coast, modernity slows to a more languid pace. Cruising amidst the anonymous pine-topped islands, stopping at the occasional seaside village, you can’t help but relax aboard these yachts of yesteryear. Dolphins, seals, bald eagles, lighthouses and lobstermen at work are all part of the scenery. Help hoist the sails, read a good thick book, or partake in your hobby of choice. Last summer, I wrote about the popular knitting cruises aboard the circa-1927 J. & E. Riggin for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. Now I’d like to tell you about the Camden schooner Mary Day and its inaugural six-day Maine Craft Beers and Home Brewing Cruise set for June 16-22. Passengers will have complimentary samples of Maine beers, and local brews will be paired with each evening meal (baked haddock, ham dinner, chili, chowder, roast turkey etc.). The Mary Day will make a stop at Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. in Belfast for a tour and tasting. Captain Barry King will brew and bottle a batch of his own nut brown ale during the trip, and passengers will go home with a few bottles. 

 
This will be the first craft beer themed cruise in the 76-year history of windjammer vacations on the Maine coast. The all-inclusive trip includes three galley-cooked meals from the wood-fired stove and snacks daily, an island lobster bake, and cozy accommodations with a skylight, window, heat and running water. The 90-foot Mary Day is a wooden two-masted schooner with berths for 28 passengers. She was launched in 1962 as the first coasting schooner ever designed specifically for windjammer vacations. Cost is $955 per person. 
 
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Follow Cruise Expert Fran Golden On Her New Blog

Working professionally as a travel writer since 1990, I’m fortunate to know the best in the business. If I want to send a client on a European skiing trip with the family, I’m calling Everett Potter for his keen insight. For a golf outing in Scotland, longtime scribe Larry Olmsted is your man. For cruise travel, I’ve always relied on the expertise of Fran Golden. In fact, I’ve quoted her for many of my cruise pieces. Golden has covered the cruise industry for more than 15 years and has personally sailed aboard more than 100 cruise ships. She’s the former travel editor of the Boston Herald and former travel news editor for AOL. Now she’s just been hired by Porthole Cruise Magazine to launch its new blog. If you want to know about the latest cruise ships and their enticing itineraries, it would be worth your while to visit this new blog on a regular basis. 

 
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Maine Island Getaway

Impeccably restored in 2004, Chebeague Island Inn, perched above the shores of Casco Bay’s largest island, never seemed to catch on with mainlanders. That was until the summer of 2010 when Mainer Casey Prentice and his family purchased the circa-1920 estate and instilled the property with a much-needed dose of youthful enthusiasm. Word spread quickly about Chef Justin Rowe, who trained at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, and knows how to create tasty dishes from local catch. Now Portlanders think nothing of taking the 15-minute water taxi or ferry to Chebeague for cocktails on the wraparound porch, dinner, even an overnight stay in one of the 21 rooms found in the three-story home. New this summer is s the Inn’s Farm-to-Table Package where guests can taste the island’s local agriculture. Foodies will also enjoy the Lobster Experience Package that allows guests to join a Maine lobsterman for a two-hour, educational excursion around Casco Bay. Afterwards, the inn will purchase the freshly caught crustaceans and prepare a classic lobster dinner with all the fixings. Rooms start at $180 a night.
 
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Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition Comes to the Hyde Collection this Summer

At first glimpse, Lake George’s narrow width could be mistaken for a long rambling river. It’s not until you veer downhill from the honky-tonk shops and hotels of Route 9N to the docks below that you appreciate the grandeur of this body of water. Step foot into a sailboat, like my family has done for the past 35 summers, and the narrow passage becomes an immense lake dotted with pine-studded islands and shadowed on either side by the verdant mountains of the southern Adirondacks. 

 
The cool waters and green hills that serve as solace and repose for me have been a source of inspiration to many artists over the years including the early American Luminists of the 1850s, sculptor David Smith, and most notably, Alfred Stieglitz and his wife, Georgia O’Keeffe. This June, The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York will unveil a blockbuster summer exhibition featuring 58 paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. “Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George,” organized by The Hyde Collection in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will explore the influence that living and working in Lake George, New York had on the art and life of the famous American painter. 
 
O’Keeffe’s art was introduced to Stieglitz on his fifty-second birthday, January 1, 1916.  By the summer of 1918, they were involved in one of the most sensual and artistically symbiotic relationships in the modern era. For the next 16 years, she would spend a good portion of her summer in Lake George with the man she would eventually marry in 1924.  The romance with Georgia O’Keeffe drove Stieglitz into a picture-taking frenzy.  O’Keeffe’s sexually evocative flowers and leaves filled her canvases while every inch of her body filled the lens of Stieglitz’ camera.