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Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Cheese and Lake Champlain Chocolates on Vermont Route 100

March 25, 2019

Whenever I’m traveling to Burlington Vermont, I always indulge in ice cream, cheese and chocolate along Route 100 in Waterbury. First I hit the Ben & Jerry’s, then Cabot Cheese then Lake Champlain Chocolates.

Before doing the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour I walk up the hill to the Flavor Graveyard where I pay my respects to a de-pinted friend, Dastardly Mash. Each grave is marked with a wooden tombstone with the flavor’s name, when it was produced and when it was de-pinted (killed off the production line). I usually pause at a few other favorites; Fresh Georgia Peach, Rainforest Crunch and Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Swirl, all great in their time. I certainly hope I never see Cherry Garcia in this group.

People in my tour hailed from around the world, Massachusetts (me), Alaska, England, Australia and France. Our guide told us that over 400,000 people visited the factory in 2018. She also said that all the ice cream is made in Vermont; the St. Albans and Waterbury plants combined produce 700,000 pints a day.

We started in the aptly named Over the Moon Theater and a video telling how Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in seventh grade. Yes, there really is a Ben and a Jerry. After taking a $5 business correspondence course they decided that since ice cream was their favorite food, why not make their own. They started concocting and tasting flavors in the basements of their parents’ homes.

In 1978 in a renovated gas station in Burlington Vermont Ben & Jerry opened their first ice cream shop. The rest is history.

Exiting the theater, we watched through glass windows as the flavor of the day was being processed from large stainless-steel vats to cartons to shrink wrapping to freezer. Then it was time for free generous samples of their number one selling flavor, Cherry Garcia. In my next life I want to be a taste tester for Ben & Jerry’s.

From there it was down Route 100 to another Vermont institution, Cabot Cheese. Cabot Creamery was founded in 1919 when 94 dairy farmers pooled their life savings, $3,700, to purchase a creamery building in the tiny town of Cabot in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Today that creamery mixes, slices and packages millions of pounds of cheese a day. Not to mention the hundreds of gallons of cottage cheese, sour cream and butter that are processed there. Just goes to show you what Yankee ingenuity can do. The shop was not lacking in samples, everywhere I turned there were plates of cheeses; Pepperjack, Five Peppercorn, Monterey Jack and Smoky Bacon Cheddar. I munched as I shopped.

My last stop is always Lake Champlain Chocolates. This shop, with its to-die-for hand crafted chocolates, is a chocoholic’s dreams come true. The truffles come in delectable flavors; cappuccino, vanilla malt, raspberry and champagne to name just a few. The company’s Five Star chocolate bars, filled with fruits and nuts, have been named “The ultimate chocolate bar” by Vogue magazine. Of course, I helped myself to samples while choosing treats for the road.

Images courtesy of Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Cheese and Lake Champlain Chocolates

Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular – Museum of Fine Arts Boston

March 22, 2019

Paintings by renowned Mexican born artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is the current exhibit, Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular, February 27 through June 16, 2019, at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. There have been many exhibitions of Frida Kahlo’s art, that being said, this is the very first one that the MFA has held.

Most exhibitions on Kahlo delve into her life; her battle with polio at age six, a bus accident at age 18 that left her with a fractured pelvis, broke her spine in three places and a shattered right leg for which she endured 30 operations, and, in later years her turbulent marriage to artist Diego Riviera. Even with all this Kahlo was not a lonely, tragic figure. She was well traveled, was friends with women artists of her time, collected Arte Popular and chose to wear traditional textiles as a show of solidarity to other Mexican artists.

Curator Layla Bermeo has taken a different slant by making Frida Kahlo’s art the focus of this exhibit. She goes a couple of steps more by including works by 20^th century women artists such as photographer Henrietta Theodora Markovitch’s picture of Kahlo in one of her many Tehuana dresses taken in Paris in 1938.

Kahlo’s personal collection of Mexican folk art – textiles, toys, ceramics, sculptures and pottery – Arte Popular can’t go out of Mexico. Bermeo, to adhere to the exhibits focus, has strategically placed throughout five galleries ceramic and textile pieces reflecting what Kahlo had in her collection.

All total there are eight of Kahlo’s paintings in the exhibit, including her gorgeous Self-Portrait with Hummingbird and Thorn Necklace and 40 objects similar of Arte Popular.

In a gallery behind the exhibit is El Bano de Frida a series of solemn pictures taken by photographer Graciela Iturbide of Kahlo’s bathroom showing her crutches, canes and body braces. On her death in 1954 a grief-stricken Diego Riviera ordered her bathroom not to be touched and closed the door. It remained that way for decades.

Images by Fran Folsom

Image #1 Tehuano dress – Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, ca. 1930 – 1940 – cotton, hand-embroidered

Image #2 Cupboard – artist – Maria Izquierdo – ca. 1947 – oil on canvas

Image #3 Self – Portrait with Hummingbird and Thorn Necklace – Coyoacan, Mexico – ca. 1940 – oil on canvas

Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence Missouri

March 19, 2019

Tucked into a tiny strip mall in Independence Missouri you will find a most unusual place, Leila’s Hair Museum. For almost 60 years Leila Cohoon, a retired hair stylist, has been acquiring strands of hair that belonged to famous people; George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis, to name a few. She also developed a passion for anything with hair; wreaths, jewelry and rare pieces of furniture.

As her collection grew she opened the museum, a showplace housing 600 wreaths and 2,000 pieces of jewelry all made from or decorated with human hair. Her oldest piece is a 17th century brooch with hair inside.

Over a century ago hair wreaths were made to be family keepsakes embroidered with dates of births, weddings and deaths. Women created them by weaving strands of hair around a wire making delicate shapes and embellishing them with seed pears, ribbons, strips of baby clothes and pieces of wedding dresses.

Scenes on some of the pieces of jewelry were painted with hair that was mashed into a powder then mixed with acrylic paint. One brooch, a mourning piece, depicts a man standing by his wife’s grave under a weeping willow tree woven from her hair.

Needless to say many of the pieces are astonishing and poignant. Leila likes to tell visitors that her fondest wish would be if all the people whose hair she has in her museum would return from their graves for a chat.

Pittsburgh, Station Square and the Bessemer Fountain

March 18, 2019

Station Square in Pittsburgh was, in the 1800’s, a major hub for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. The crown jewel of the complex was an other the top opulent passenger terminal and waiting area. Along with this there were freight facilities and warehouses. All of these were set on 52 acres of land at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and the Ohio rivers.

Over the decades planes, cars and trucks imploded the passenger and freight rail business and the area fell into disrepair. In 1976 the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation began redevelopment that eventually led to the transformation of the empty dilapidated railroad buildings into an entertainment district that includes chic hotels, restaurants and shops.

One of the featured attractions of Station Square can be found at the Bessemere courtyard and fountain. There stands a behemoth steel object, shaped like R2-D2 from Star Wars, a Bessemer converter that dates to 1856.

This giant relic came from one of Pittsburgh’s steel mills where it was used to convert molten pig iron into steel. Today the Bessemer serves as a backdrop for a state-of-the-art fountain that shoots plumes of colored water 40 feet into the air. Daily, from April to November, at 20-minute intervals, the fountain performs shows choreographed to the music of Elvis, the Beach Boys, Celine Dion, ABBA and Pittsburgh’s own Christina Aguilera.

For information on more things to see and do in Pittsburgh go to Visit Pittsburgh.

JetBlue offers flights to Pittsburgh www.jetblue.com

Northern Ireland-Belfast, the Causeway Coastal Route and the Giant’s Causeway

March 16, 2019

The city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a museum lover’s dream with a wide variety of galleries including Titanic Belfast, the Irish Linen Center and Lisburn Museum, the Ulster Museum at the Botanical Gardens filled with 15th-century art, and the Crumlin Road Gaol.

As in other large cities, traffic in the center of Belfast is congested and parking is almost nonexistent. Walking and using the Translink public transportation system of buses and trains are the best ways to get around. The hop-on hop-off sightseeing trolleys are another convenient way for visitors to orient themselves to Belfast.

From the Hilton Belfast, centrally located in the middle of the City Center, it’s only a short walk to City Hall, an ornate 19th-century edifice that stretches for blocks. Guides give daily free tours of the stunning interior.

The exterior of the Titanic Belfast, designed to look like the bow of an approaching ship, is awe inspiring. Located on the dry dock where the Titanic was built, the museum’s galleries are stacked the same way the ship’s decks were. Standing in one of the galleries guests get a sensory perception of noises that would have come from the ill-fated liner’s engine room. Exhibits not only tell about the building of Titanic but also show what a boom town Belfast was in the 19th century. Back then Harland and Wolff, the builders of the great ship, employed thousands of people. Belfast’s docks were the largest in Ireland with more than 6,000 men working them at any given time. The most extensive rope works factory in the world was here.

Textile mills spinning flax for linen ran 12 hours a day six days a week. A train ride to nearby Lisburn provides stunning views of the valley along the Lagan River. The Irish Linen Center and Lisburn Museum is housed in a 17th-century market building. The exhibit “Flax to Fabric,” with several types of antique looms on display, shows the step-by-step process of linen making. A hundred years ago 180,000 pounds of linen were shipped yearly from Lisburn.

Another part of Belfast’s history is the Troubles, the 30-year conflict between Republicans and Loyalists that plagued the city from 1968 to 1998. Nowadays bus, walking and taxi tours explore the West Belfast neighborhoods where much of the Troubles took place. The people and events of that time are memorialized in public murals.

Forget anything you have heard about food in Ireland being bland, the fare in Northern Ireland is more than boiled beef and potatoes. Chefs in Belfast have embraced the farm-to-table experience. Pubs, tea houses and restaurants around the city offer interesting and delicious menus. McHugh’s Bar and Restaurant, a neighborhood pub, serves incomparable fish and chips. Although best known for its fresh produce St. George’s Market houses a plethora of restaurants, cafes, and bakeries.

Several bus touring companies offer day trips along the Causeway Coastal Route, but visitors who want to go at their own pace should hire a car. This is the heart of Northern Ireland, the Glens of Antrim dotted with medieval villages. Carrickfergus is home to a stunning 12thcentury Norman castle, Kilroot, where Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels lived, as well as the magnificent gardens of Glenarm Castle, home to the Earls of Antrim for 400 years.

Traveling the Causeway Coastal Route can be a full day trip or a side journey of several days. The village of Bushmills makes a good home base from which tourists can easily take the Translink Causeway Rambler to the Giant’s Causeway and Dunluce Castle. Accommodations in Bushmills range from the large and luxurious Bushmills Inn to the cozy Lismar Bed & Breakfast to small self-catering houses such as Bushmills Thatched Cottage and the Village Cottage.

At Carrick-A-Rede a rope bridge 100 feet above the ocean between two cliffs bids visitors to overcome their fear of heights.

Dunluce Castle is sited close to the edge of a headland, along the North Antrim coast. Surrounded by jaw dropping coastal scenery, this medieval castle stands where an early Irish fort was once built and where its history can be traced back to early Christians and Vikings.

With its 30-foot towers and stark ruins against a backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean, Dunluce Castle is dramatic. Written records show the castle was built in 1513 by the MacQuillian family. As with many other castles in Northern Ireland, it was besieged, going back and forth between owners until the McDonnell clan claimed Dunluce. The family still owns the castle.

Other destinations not to be missed include Ballintoy, where scenes from Game of Thrones have been filmed, and Portrush with its sandy beaches.

Bushmills Distillery has been in operation since 1608 when King James I signed a grant allowing
a distillery on this site. The whiskey is still made the same way it was in King James’ day, with water from the surrounding streams and Irish barley.

Even though Bushmills is a working distillery, tours are given every day, at the end of which guests are offered a drop of Irish whiskey.

The Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to 40,000 basalt polygonal
columns and rolling green hills. Local legend claims that it was carved out by a giant named Finn McCool. Exhibits in the Visitors Centre reveal the real reason: cooling and shrinking of lava flows over 60 million years ago.

The Visitors Centre itself is a thing of beauty rising from the earth and sloping with the hills. Its grass roof affords panoramic views of the Coastal Route. The terrain is rugged and varied with walking trails that the National Trust has graded from easy to challenging.

Belfast is a city reborn. It has an industrial past that is fast becoming its greatest tourist asset. Above all, Belfast has a warmth and hospitality quite unlike anywhere else. Visitors from every continent throng the streets, drawn to a city with heart, where people have time to smile.

For further Information – Discover Northern Ireland

Tourism Ireland

Images courtesy of Discover Northern Ireland

Roanoke Virginia, a town not to be missed

February 17, 2019

People tend to bypass Roanoke when traveling on Interstate 81 to other parts of Virginia. That’s a shame because the city, nestled along the Roanoke River with the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop, is a gem filled with historic and cultural venues.

Years ago, Roanoke was a major stop on the Norfolk & Western railroad line. Many of the city’s cultural venues are in restored early 19th-century railroad buildings. Amtrak makes several stops a day in Roanoke.

Make your first stop the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, housed in a building that in 1905 was the passenger station for the Norfolk & Western. Also here is the O. Winston Link Museum with many of Link’s black and white photographs depicting what local life was like in the railroad’s heyday.

Downtown

From the visitors center it’s an easy walk to the downtown and the Historic Market Square area where upscale shops, galleries and a daily farmer’s market line the streets.

At Chocolate Paper you can indulge in handmade chocolates. Cases are filled with rows of confections of sea salt caramels, cherry cordials and truffles.

Local artist Betty Branch designs unique sculptures in bronze, stone, marble and fiber. To say Branch’s work is larger than life is putting it mildly. Several of her pieces are in local schools, universities and libraries. A visit to Branch’s studio is a must for art lovers.

The city’s icon, the Roanoke Star, is the world’s largest man-made illuminated star. Located in Mill Mountain Park, the structure is surrounded by ten miles of multi-use trails, Mill Mountain Discovery Center with nature exhibits and the Mill Mountain Zoo, home to a variety of species of mammals, birds and reptiles.

Get out and stretch your muscles by walking or biking any of the 26 miles of trails and paths that make up the Roanoke Valley Greenways. Routes meander along the Roanoke River as well as through neighborhoods and small towns.

Culture

The Taubman Museum of Art boasts an impressive collection of works by such artists as Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Thomas Hart Benton and Norman Rockwell and abstract artist Jean Helion.

Center in the Square is a restored 19th-century furniture store that now houses the Mill Mountain Theater and several museums, an aquarium with living reef exhibits, the Harrison Museum of African American Culture and the Science Museum of Western Virginia. The rooftop offers dramatic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Walking the Rail Walk (1/4-mile-long) brings you to the Virginia Museum of Transportation. Its comprehensive exhibits of steam, diesel and electric locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars and cabooses are sure to please anyone who is a railroad enthusiast.

Staying and Dining

The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center with 325 rooms overlooks the downtown. Built in 1882, the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. If an intimate inn is more to your liking you can’t beat the Black Lantern Inn with luxurious rooms, complimentary breakfast, views of the Roanoke Star and easy access to downtown.

Roanoke has no shortage of restaurants serving delicious regional fare. You can’t visit the city and not have a meal at the Roanoker. The word diet does not exist when it comes to their homemade biscuits smothered in country gravy. The same goes for the Homeplace’s baked Virginia ham, fried chicken and all the fixings served family style.

History

Twenty minutes from Roanoke is the tiny village of Salem on the Wilderness Road, Virginia’s Heritage Migration Route that dates to 1600. This was the route used by settlers going west of Appalachia. Worth a visit is the Williams-Brown House, ca. 1845. On the National Register of Historic Places, it has a small but interesting museum detailing the area’s history.

Drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, State Road 651, to the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum at Ferrum College. As the state archive for Blue Ridge history the institute is stocked with exhibits, books and documents explaining the Blue Ridge and Appalachia areas. Take a step back in time to agrarian life in the 19th century with a visit to this living history farm.

Exit the parkway for the Booker T. Washington National Monument. Washington was born a slave here on the Burroughs Plantation in 1856. A replica of the cabin where he lived until he was freed at end of the Civil War sits behind the National Park Service Visitors Center.

National Park rangers give tours telling how Washington went to live in West Virginia when he was nine years old, graduated from the Hampton Institute, was the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute, authored many books, and was friends with noted professors, inventors and United States presidents.

Follow the Booker T. Washington Parkway to Moneta and Smith Mountain Lake, known by locals as the jewel of the Blue Ridge Parkway. One look at the shimmering lake surrounded by the majestic mountains and you will be hooked. The activities are endless; fish for bass, rent a motor boat, sailboat or kayak, dine at a myriad of dockside restaurants or peruse upscale shops and galleries.

Spend time in Roanoke and the surrounding area and you will leave planning your next visit there.

IF YOU GO

Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau

Images courtesy of Roanoke Valley CVB

The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel

February 10, 2019

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All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper’. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right”.

The above quote is from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” April 3, 1968. Dr. King did not know that it would be the last speech that he would give.

A few hours earlier Dr. King had checked into room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The motel was in the seediest of the city’s neighborhoods, but the world-renowned Civil Rights leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize had little choice. Like other southern cities in 1968, Memphis was segregated. African Americans were not permitted by law to stay in “all white” hotels. Segregation, the very thing Dr. King had peacefully and desperately worked to abolish.

He was in Memphis organizing a march in support of the 1,300 African American sanitation workers in their strike with the city for higher wages and better benefits. That night Dr. King told a large crowd at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ “We’ve got some difficult times ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop…And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

At 6 pm on April 4^th, Dr. King stepped onto the balcony of room 306 to speak with colleagues from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who were gathered in the parking lot. At 6:01 pm a shot rang out from a building across the street and Dr. King lay dying. He was thirty-nine years old.

In 1991 the motel became an integral part of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. Exhibits highlight five centuries of African American history from the early days of slavery in the 17^th century, to the Civil War, up to and including the sit-ins, marches, speeches and other protests of the 20^th century.

By following a floor map showing the Americas, Europe and Africa visitors learn about the Atlantic slave trade in A Culture of Resistance-Slavery in America 1619-1861.

The sanitation strike that brought Dr. King to Memphis is detailed in I Am a Man; Memphis Sanitation Strike 1968. On the side of a trash truck from that time period visitors can view a video showing strikers surrounded by Memphis police and National Guardsmen. The most telling part of the exhibit is a grouping of dramatic statues of the strikers with signs around their necks reading “I Am a Man”.

The exhibit Standing up by Sitting Down – Students Sit-ins 1960 pays tribute with life sized sculptures of protesting students sitting at the original lunch counter from F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro North Carolina, the site of the first sit-in on February 1, 1960.

On entering a mock jail cell Dr. King’s voice resonates as he reads from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid”.

The Year They Walked pays tribute with pictures and statues of the women of Montgomery Alabama and the year they boycotted the Montgomery Bus Company – 1955 to 1956. This was triggered by civil rights activist Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her bus seat to a white person. Boarding the bus visitors hear Dr. King giving his speech supporting the boycott.

Is This America? tells the history, through posters and videos, of the Mississippi Summer Project 1964 that was formed to spread the news of how, in the state of Mississippi, African Americans were still, over 100 years post-Civil War, not allowed to vote.

The project was made up of 700 mostly white, northern college students who would distribute literature and voter registration forms in Mississippi cities and towns. That same summer three Civil Rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were kidnapped and murdered in the town of Philadelphia Mississippi.

Across the street from the museum is the Legacy Building, the boarding house from where James Earl Ray fired the shot that killed Dr. King. The walls of the first floor are covered with a timeline detailing a history, up until 1968, of events documented at the museum. The second floor is given over to artifacts pertaining to the investigation of Dr. King’s assignation and James Earl Ray’s trial and conviction.

The exhibit that brings everything full circle is the Lorraine Motel. Rooms 306 and 307 where Dr. King and his staff stayed look like they have been kept in a time warp, with replicas of 1960’s style beds, bureaus, tables, ashtrays, plates, coffee cups, telephones, curtains, sheets, blankets, and bedspreads.

In a telephone interview, the president of the museum Terri Freeman said “The museum is the museum because of the tragedy that happened at the Lorraine Motel. From 1968 to around 1984 the motel fell into total disrepair. The Bailey family, who owned it at the time of Dr. King’s assassination, lost it to bankruptcy. It was auctioned to a group of Memphis businessmen who formed the Save the Lorraine organization raising funds through private and corporate donations and contributions from the city and state to build the museum and restore the motel”.

The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel stands as a memorial to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his cause and belief of desegregation throughout the south and the country and to the American Civil Rights Movement.

Mardi Gras in Lake Charles Louisiana

January 28, 2019

“Hey mister throw me something” is what you hear along the routes of any one of the nine Mardi Gras parades in Lake Charles Louisiana. That “something” is ropes of brightly colored beads that people, dressed in the regalia of their Krewe, toss from their floats.

New Orleans is synonymous with Mardi Gras, true, but there are Mardi Gras celebrations of all sizes across Louisiana. New Orleans has the largest and rowdiest of these (practically adults only), whereas Lake Charles, three hours southwest, has the second largest and Lake Charles’ celebrations are family friendly.

Mardi Gras in Lake Charles dates to 1882 when the first Momus, King of Mardi Gras, docked his yacht at the base of downtown. At that time there were only a few Krewes, groups of men who pay dues to join and have their own rules, parade floats, kings and queens, knights and captains and stunning costumes. Today there are 60 Krewes in Lake Charles.

The name Krewe comes from a secret society organized in 1856 by a group of men in New Orleans that named themselves the Ye Mystic Krewe of Comus after the ancient Greek God of Revelry.

Before attending the parades and other events head over to the Mardi Gras Museum of Imperial Calcasieu in the Central School Arts and Humanities building. Here you will find, on six floors of classrooms, stunning headdresses with plumes and beads and embroidered capes, gowns and kings’ costumes. Along with these are exhibits detailing the history of Mardi Gras and King Cake, why it is drizzled with purple, green and gold icing and has a small plastic doll inside.

Everything kicks off downtown on the Thursday before Fat Tuesday which is March 5^th this year, with the Lighted Boat Parade on the lake. The following day there’s the Merchants’ Parade of floats filled with business people in costume, of course.

A must stop on Saturday is the Lake Charles Civic Center for the Mardi Gras Gumbo Cook-Off. You can sample gumbos of chicken, sausage and seafood prepared 60 different ways.

Another popular parade for children and adults is the Mystical Krewe of Barkus Parade filled with dogs in decorated costumes vying for the title of Mystical Dog.

Saturday and Sunday kids can have fun at the Kids, Tweens & Teens Zone with crafts activities, food and musical entertainment, all of which are free.

Top all this off Monday night at the Royal Gala with a fashion show of kings and queens, dukes and duchesses, knights and captains from all the Krewes courts dressed in their stunning costumes.

The festivities culminate on Fat Tuesday with the Krewe of Krewes’ Parade the largest of the parades with 100 themed floats from 60 Krewes winding through the city.

Go to Lake Charles, enjoy any or all of the parades. Eat some Louisiana gumbo and, don’t forget the King Cake. If you find the tiny plastic doll (baby Jesus) in your slice legend has it that luck and prosperity will come your way.

For further information –

Lake Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau

Stone Mountain Park and the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area

December 19, 2018

Atlanta, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the south, is a great place to visit. It’s alive with theaters, museums, restaurants, cafes, and shops. As a business and commerce hub the downtown is abuzz with people and traffic. When your business is completed or you are museum and shopped out and crave some greenspace, it’s easy to get out of town.

In less than an hours’ drive you can be in DeKalb County with two bucolic nature areas. Stone Mountain Park is 45-minutes from downtown via I-78 East. The other wonderful escape is the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area, 40-minutes from Atlanta on I-20 East to Lithonia.

Stone Mountain Park

At Stone Mountain Park you can choose from 15 miles of walking or hiking trails through the park’s 3,200 acres. For terrific views over Atlanta take the one mile Walk Up Trail to the top of the mountain.

A visit to the Stone Mountain Museum at Memorial Hall will give you the history of how the area developed from 12,000 years ago to present day. On view are artifacts pertaining to the ancient civilizations that lived here through the centuries.

The Summit Sky Ride, a high-speed cable car, whisks you 825 feet above ground giving you panoramic views over the landscape to the Atlanta skyline.

At the farmyard trainers show children how to get a herd of goats to do rodeo tricks such as barrel and fence jumping and weaving in and out of cones.

Stroll the gardens of Historic Square ringed with beautiful houses dating to the 18^th and 19^th centuries (1793 to 1875). The houses, moved here from other parts of Georgia, have been carefully restored and contain furnishings of those periods.

Sit back and enjoy the scenery while a circa 1940 locomotive takes you on a five mile loop offering unobstructed views of Stone Mountain.

At Sky Hike once you strap on your safety belts you will be set to walk over rope bridges and hike the courses through the trees. The quarter mile course is best for young children. The twenty-four or forty foot high trails are sure to please teens and adults.

Stay at the bottom of Geyser Towers or climb the tunnels and bridges to the top platforms, either way you will get wet when the geyser erupts spewing water. Babies and toddlers can join the fun splashing in the creek.

The Dinotorium makes learning about dinosaurs fun. Interactive activities explain how these giants roamed the earth thousands of years ago, what they ate and how they became extinct.

After learning about dinosaurs you can get up close and personal with some large interactive models of prehistoric ones at Dinosaur Explore. In a setting reminiscent of Jurassic Park are a twenty-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, a brachiosaurus, a triceratops, and a allosaurus are just a few of the various species that roam the exhibit.

Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area

Archeologists from all over the world have discovered that this area was 400 million years in the making. It’s geologically famous for having two monadnocks that dominate the surroundings. .

Arabia Mountain, in the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve, is known for the granite that was once quarried here, forests, geocaching trails, wetlands and its flora and fauna. Intertwined through the preserve are miles of hiking trails. The most popular of these is the Arabia Mountain Path a multi-use (bike or walking) trail that starts in the town of Lithonia and runs past countryside and streams.

Monastery of the Holy Spirit

A fifteen minute drive from Lithonia on I-20 brings you to the town of Conyers home to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit a community of thirty-five monks. The monastery was founded in 1944 by a group Trappist monks from Kentucky.

On tours of the monastery visitors hear how the first group of monks designed and built the Abbey Church using granite quarried on the grounds. The church’s beautiful stained glass windows were designed and made by monks in their glass factory. At the Monastic Heritage Center is a boat load of exhibits and artifacts detailing monastic life.

The monks are known for growing and nurturing the beautiful Bonsai plants that are on view at the Abbey Garden Center.

A network of wooded walking, hiking and biking trails crisscross the monastery grounds. This is one of the trailheads for the Arabia Mountain Path.

When it’s Time to Eat

Running through the nearby towns of Chamblee, Brookhaven, Doraville and Norcross is Buford Highway (State Road 13) also known as the DeKalb International Corridor for the many ethnic restaurants lining this three mile strip of road offering Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Mexican cuisine.

For Further Information

Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau

Discover DeKalb Convention & Visitors Bureau

JetBlue has flights to Atlanta www,jetblue.com

Images courtesy of Atlanta Convention Visitors Bureau

Saint Blaisen’s Sweet Little Christmas Market

December 10, 2018

Germany is known for its beautiful, traditional Christmas Markets held each year from November 29^th to December 21st. You find them in big cities such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart where markets have several hundred vendors and in towns and villages where they have smaller markets.

One of my favorites is in the centuries old town of Saint Blasien nestled in the valley of the Alb River. Walking along the Umgheumgstrasse here I was drawn to the Christmas Market in front of the Dom Saint Blasien by the wafting aromas of sizzling sausages, roasting chestnuts, fresh baked pretzels, and evergreens. The air in front of the church was filled with the haunting strains of a soloist singing Amazing Grace in German. With a cup of gluhwein (hot spiced wine) and some Lebkuchen (honey bread) in hand I joined a hearty group gathered around a table joking and having a good time while listening to a choir singing Christmas carols.

St Blaisen, Germany, Weinachtsmarkt, Christmas Market,

To me Saint Blasien’s market, with its forty small wooden chalets, felt more intimate than the big ones I had been to in Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Esslingen. Here I had the opportunity to talk to the crafters and vendors getting descriptions and an up close look at how they created their jewelry, intricately carved paper, wooden and straw designs, hand knitted socks, scarfs, and of course the gluhwein and foods.

St Blaisen, Germany, Weinachtsmarkt, Christmas Market,

The Christmas Market, held on weekends in December, draws crowds of up to 30,000 people from other parts of Germany as well as from Zurich, and Strasbourg France.

Surrounded by the Black Forest Saint Blaisen is a village known for its stunning 9^th century Benedictine monastery, distinctive architecture, and ancient stone bridges crisscrossing the river, and for its skiing and hiking trails. Along with all this are the many health resorts offering Finnish saunas, individualized water treatments and thermal pools that dot the region.

St Blaisen, Germany, Weinachtsmarkt, Christmas Market,

Towering over the town is the Dom Saint Blasien, standing 203 feet in height with a dome that measures 150 feet in width, making it one of the largest in Europe. This is the second church on this site the first one being the abbey church for the monastery, it burned in 1768. Architect Pierre Michel d’lxnard designed the present day church in the Baroque style in 1781.

Throughout the centuries merchants have sold their goods from stalls on the Domplatz in front of the cathedral. That tradition continues today with Saint Blesian’s Christmas Market.

Images courtesy of Stillman Rogers