Credit Card
I actually really appreciate my Capital
One credit card. Their website lets
you choose the card features you want, so I got no foreign-exchange fee plus a
rewards program. I’ve used my rewards
points for airline tickets and for hotels, some quite swanky, and selecting and
booking what I wanted has always been a smooth and easy process, with plenty of
choice. When I checked into the Hilton
Sedona that I’d reserved with my rewards points, and the desk clerk couldn’t
find the reservation, I got a Capital One representative on the phone and she
stuck with that desk clerk until everything was sorted out, faxing over the
reservation information in order to expedite the resolution. I love great service like that.
Places
DETROIT! It’s gritty and funky and elegant and
everything else a city should be. Plus
it needs your help. I’m heading back as
soon as I get a few things sorted here on the east coast, and spending a good
few hours in that art institute, plus maybe a concert in one of the many music
venues.
The South
Dakota prairie is vast and beautiful and oddly mystical for an overgrown
yard.
Spokane is funky and gritty (and possibly elegant in some part I missed), and has a gorgeous river running right through it. It seems to celebrate the arts and outdoors enthusiastically.
The Devil’s Punch Bowl Los
Angeles County Park is a ways outside the city, but has a beautiful view of
its deep ravine and a compact one-mile trail for walkers.
pretty much all beaches, everywhere
Sedona has great trails for
walkers, hikers, runners and bikers of all ability levels, and you should have
a pretty fantastic view regardless of where you stay. The town really caters to tourists; the woman
who colored my hair in Boston went to Sedona for her wedding, and one company
arranged everything for her for a few hundred dollars (small wedding) and no
fuss at all. There’s also supposed to be
some kind of mystical energy in the area because of ley lines. I cannot vouch...
Wichita
Mountains Wildlife Refuge in or near Lawton, Oklahoma has great trails and
an abundance of wildlife, including bison and prairie dogs, plus some longhorn
cattle “to preserve the cultural and historical legacy of this breed.”
Ruby Falls in Chattanooga is
highly commercialized and the guide’s patter might get a bit irksome, but the
cave and underground waterfall are glorious.
Boston is more or less
The World’s Greatest City for ever so many reasons.
New York is exciting and energizing
and noisy and expensive and wonderful.
Kancamagus Highway, New
Hampshire, offers scenic views every millimeter. Drive or bike along it in early autumn, and
you will understand why anyone outside New England who ever talks about fall
foliage is horribly misinformed. Or you
will run amok with a tire iron in overreaction to the volume of tourist
traffic.
Accommodations
way excellent
Hotel Ruby, Spokane,
Washington – funky, inexpensive, convenient
Ah Rose Marie B&B, Fairbanks, Alaska – warm, welcoming, generous, plus a lovely cat
Gold Beach Resort, Gold Beach, Oregon – ocean views from every room; inches to the beach; desk clerk available at 10pm when you really need a place for the night; pool
Forsyth Park Inn,
Savannah, Georgia – gorgeous antique furnishings; beautiful courtyard; charm
and character galore; great breakfast; wonderfully convenient location right on
the park at the edge of ‘downtown’
my godmother’s highrise in Seattle – but you can’t stay unless you know
my godmother or another resident
solid if not revelatory
Hilton Sedona, Sedona,
Arizona – while I was checking in, a man came up to the desk and asked to speak
with the manager. One of the employees
said, “I’m the supervisor on duty; how may I help you?” with restrained
tension. “This place is great,” the
customer answered. “I just want to let
you know I’m going back to Raleigh, North Carolina, and I’m going to tell
everyone I know to come here. This may
be the best golf course I’ve ever played.
I can’t believe those views.” I
liked the views, the restaurant and the big menu of fitness classes available
at the spa, as many as you want, included in the resort fee.
Hyatt Regency
Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – pretty standard
mid-level chain hotel, but they have an indoor pool with outdoor deck
overlooking the Delaware River, and if you’re willing to do a little work, you
can get room service there.
Food (see also the Chocolate page on this
site)
Chuy’s is not just for Austin any
more. Great Tex-Mex with vivid, to say
the least, decor, including an Elvis shrine in each location.
Mack Avenue Grille, Gross
Pointe Woods, Michigan – big, home-cooked-style meals for low dollars.
Dollop, Chicago, Illinois –
creative sandwiches and secure wifi
Fair Grounds Café, Iowa City – yummy waffles made to order with things like corn, cheese and apples in them
Café Flora, Seattle, Washington
– the menu is so creative and robust that you may not realize there’s no meat
on it until you’re eating beer-battered cheese curds and Oaxaca tacos and no
longer care about meat. If you ever did
in the first place.
Flying Star Café,
Bernalillo, New Mexico (near Albuquerque) – great all-day breakfasts, plus
lunch or dinner if you prefer that sort of thing, with gluten-free and all the
other picky-eater options.
Beignet, Kansas City, Missouri –
Sweet or savory beignet or crèpes and they’ll put chicory in the coffee if you
like. Get the owner talking and you’ll
learn a thing or two.
The London Tea Room, St.
Louis, Missouri – Mostly lunch, with a choice of several dozen teas, or coffee
if you prefer. If you want a proper
afternoon tea, with mini-sandwiches and pastries and a tablecloth, you have to
reserve a day in advance.
Veg, Sarasota, Florida – Seafood,
vegetarian and vegan menu with Floridian and South African flourishes in a tiny
space where a reservation might be sensible.
They use tofu and seitan and things, so you’ll know you’re in a
health-food place (they also may have raw-food options), but the seasonings are
so interesting and the recipes so original that you will be happy to be there.
No comments:
Post a Comment