Travel&Vacation

(Tribune Media Services) — Utter Chaos. Could it be otherwise with 10 people, including a 2- and 4-year-old, crowded into a rented four-bedroom condo trying to eat breakfast and get ready to ski at the same time? No family vacation is easy — not even for an expert — and ski trips are especially tough. All that gear to keep track of! All of those people to feed! But in the end, for my gang at least, these trips are well worth the trouble and are some of the best times our extended family has together. (For great early season deals, check out www.coloradoski.com and www.ski.com where you’ll also find deals touting free air, lift tickets and equipment for kids 12 and under.) Here’s my diary of our not-even-close-to-perfect, but-still-lots-of-fun trip last season to Crested Butte
(Read the full post about ‘Diary of a family ski vacation’…)

— Sixty-six passengers and crew were transferred to shore on Coast Guard vessels after their cruise ship was run aground off Virginia on Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard officials and the cruise ship company told CNN. The Spirit of Nantucket hit something in the Intracoastal Waterway around 5:30 a.m. ET and soon began taking on water, according to the law firm representing the cruise ship company, Cruise West. "Once the captain noticed that the vessel was taking on water, he made the decision … to run it aground," Petty Officer Chris Evanson of the Coast Guard said on CNN’s "Newsroom." The ship was on a 10-day cruise from Alexandria, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina, Evanson said. The ship "eased onto a mud shoal at the shoreline" about 25 miles south
(Read the full post about ‘Passengers evacuated from stranded ship’…)

On October 25th, Blogcritics published the first half of an interview with Rob Stewart, the director of the sensational documentary Sharkwater. To recap briefly, Rob Stewart is a photographer and biologist who set out to make a movie that would change public misconceptions about sharks. This turned into a four year project that saw him team up with activist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to expose a black market trade in shark fins, the economic grasp of which is second only to that of the drug trade. Here is the second half of my conversation with Rob Stewart. When I was watching this film, the first thing that popped into my head was that this should be required viewing in schools. I saw on your website that you have teaching aids available. Are there any plans to
(Read the full post about ‘An Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Rob Stewart – Part Two’…)

(Tribune Media Services) — I was in Athens, on a rooftop restaurant under a floodlit Acropolis, marveling at how a Greek salad never gets boring. It was the last day of a trip I enjoyed with my wife Anne. I was reviewing, as I always do after completing an itinerary, how effectively our time was spent. We had kept our focus more on seeing historic sights on the mainland rather than luxuriating on Aegean Islands. Given that focus, here are the top 10 stops — in itinerary order — that make what I consider the best two weeks Greece has to offer: Athens, a big ugly city, has obligatory ancient sights (the hilltop temple of the Acropolis, and the ruined forum of the Agora); an extremely touristy old quarter (the Plaka); and fine museums — the best in the country. Its four million people
(Read the full post about ‘Mainland Greece’s top stops’…)

Gentle reader, consider yourself forewarned; this is not going to be a “where to get the best arroz con pollo in Puerto Rico” or “today’s trendiest restaurant in San Juan” type of article. No, this is more of a personal culinary journey, a way to get in touch with my Puerto Rican roots through the consumption of foods I refused to eat for the first 44 years of my life. You see, my Puerto Rican mother was an omnivore. I used to think she ordered the most disgusting thing on the menu just to embarrass me, but really she was a culinary adventurer. I've visited my mother’s island every year of my life, but now that she is gone I feel I owe it to her to take some gastronomic chances. Besides, I'm an adult. “Eewwww gross" should no longer
(Read the full post about ‘The Reluctant Omnivore’…)

NEW YORK (AP) — I had a bike stolen the other day. It was an ’80s vintage 10-speed that I salvaged off a scrap heap a few years ago for riding around Manhattan. But it’s not the bike I miss. It’s the helmet. The silver helmet with a strange chin strap and a brand name I couldn’t pronounce was my main souvenir from three weeks I spent tooling around Turin, Italy, while covering the 2004 Winter Olympics as a reporter for The Associated Press. It was the second time I had bought a bike while on an Olympic assignment, and then sold it before flying home. I’d done the same thing in Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympic games. Getting the bike in Australia was easy. I spoke the language, looked up the bike shops and scored a sharp-looking green and yellow hybrid with a luggage rack and a lock
(Read the full post about ‘Two-wheel travel: Discovering a place by bike’…)

Not many foodies are lucky enough to experience the $290 tasting menu at Restaurant Guy Savoy (and that’s without tip or tax or wine!). However, I’ve been curious to experience it since S. Irene Virbila gave it a mouthwatering review it in the LA Times a few months back. Hence the problem with Irene being such an excellent food reviewer – no matter how excellent the food and service, the more jaded the diner in terms of similar Michelin-rated restaurants experienced around the globe, the more difficult it will be to “wow.” Then again, you have the Vegas factor: it’s challenging to be wowed at 9:15 pm on a Sunday night for a three and a half hour “Prestige” tasting menu, especially if you’ve been shopping in ancient Rome (the Forum shops at Caesar’s Palace), lunching in Venice by the Grand
(Read the full post about ‘Restaurant Review: Restaurant Guy Savoy, Las Vegas’…)