All sunshine and rainbows

Shira Schoenberg — Sun, 06 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

U.S. Virgin Islands

Life on St. Thomas is an idyllic, relaxing vacation on the beach

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Virgin Islands

On a January afternoon, I looked up from the porch of our rented condo to see a rainbow stretching across the marina - a vibrant array of color stretching in a full arch from one end of the sky to the other. My husband ran back from an afternoon swim on the beach to tell me he too had seen the most beautiful of our "daily rainbows."

Welcome to life on St. Thomas, an idyllic vacation paradise of rainbows, sunshine and beaches. We visited while New England's lakes were still covered with ice, but the U.S. Virgin Islands are a year-round destination, with temperatures averaging in the 70s and 80s. While you can be a beach bum, there is also hiking, boating, shopping, water sports and even a bit of history. You can be as active - or as lazy - as you like!

Cringe-worthy by design

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Michigan

New Jim Crow museum showcases memorabilia from segregation era

The objects displayed in Michigan's newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque - a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That's the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation's largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

The museum in a gleaming new exhibit hall at Ferris State University "is all about teaching, not a shrine to racism," said David Pilgrim, the founder and curator who started building the collection as a teenager.

Pilgrim, who is black, makes no apologies for the provocative exhibits. The goal of the $1.3 million gallery, he explained, is "to get people to think deeply."

Universal plant care

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Netherlands

Once-a-decade horticultural exposition brings 108 acres to life

The sun is shining, trees are budding, and flowers are unfurling their brilliant petals a bit earlier than planned, thanks to an early Dutch spring and the hundreds of gardeners putting finishing touches on Floriade, the once-a-decade world horticultural exposition.

Organizers are reluctant to repeat the expo's historic billing as "the greatest flower show on earth," because, they say, horticulture encompasses the artistic, scientific and economic aspects of plant care rather than just gardening and looking at flowers.

Still, the flowers are bound to be a major draw, and there are a heck of a lot of them to see.

In all, 1.8 million bulbs have been planted across the exposition's 108-acre grounds. That's complementing 190,000 perennial flowering plants, 18,000 shrubs, 15,000 hedge plants and 3,000 trees.

An Asian Buddhist wonderland

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Myanmar

Former isolated dictatorship now a must-see destination for world travelers

Now that Myanmar is opening to the outside world, good luck getting a hotel room. Travelers and eager investors are pouring in to explore one of Asia's most untouched countries, filling hotels to capacity, doubling room rates and spilling flight reservations onto wait lists.

As the country sheds its past as an isolated military dictatorship and taboo travel destination, it is becoming a new global hotspot - topping tourism lists as the must-see place to visit in 2012.

Myanmar is eager for the hard currency that foreigners bring, but is struggling to handle the influx. At the same time, it is wondering how widely to throw open the doors - should it become another well-trodden tourist haven like Thailand or should it aim for fewer, less-transformative numbers of visitors to keep its ancient cultural sights and charm intact?

A Myth-tifying experience

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Illinois

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry opens 'Mythbusters' exhibit

Who gets wetter, someone walking in the rain or running? Is it really possible to hang from a cliff by your fingers until help arrives like they do in the movies? And is Superman the only one who is faster than a speeding bullet?

Those are questions the Discovery Channel's MythBusters has asked for years, and now anybody who's wondered how long it takes to put on a superhero outfit in a phone booth - don't forget the cape - can answer them for themselves at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

"MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition," opened last week, marking the first time the show has taken such questions on the road. The Chicago exhibition, which runs through Sept. 3, is the first of a planned national tour that will include stops at several other U.S. cities.

"This has both the science and also a sense of humor, what we've been doing for a decade," Adam Savage, one of the show's hosts, said this week before the exhibition opened.

A Crystal in the rough

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Arkansas

Open since November, tucked-away art museum has enjoyed wild success, praise

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Travel Trip Crystal Bridges

A visitor arriving at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., sees a curved concrete facade with the museum's name and, behind it, a stand of trees on a hillside.

Where's the museum?

Get closer, then look down.

A series of connected pavilions under curved copper roofs stretch through a tree-lined ravine. Two of the buildings serve as bridges over ponds filled from a spring-fed stream that flows through the site.

To get in, just follow the wave of people going downstairs.

Crystal Bridges is regarded as the most important museum to open in the U.S. in decades, and it has done so in a city of 35,000 in the Ozark Mountains that's served by a single interstate highway that terminates in the middle of town, not far from the headquarters of Walmart.

More than 175,000 people have made their way to the museum in the less than four months since it opened Nov. 11.

Urban tropical paradise

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Philadelphia

International Flower Show brings Hawaii to the City of Brotherly Love

If you are looking for palm trees and white sand to escape the remnants of winter, look no farther than Philadelphia.

Visitors to the city's International Flower Show can wander through a tropical paradise of sorts thanks to this year's theme, "Hawaii: Islands of Aloha." The weeklong horticultural extravaganza opens today.

Exhibits include a fantasy surf shack, a beach wedding, a 25-foot-tall waterfall and a tribute to Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire. Hula dancers and musicians from the Aloha State will perform, and contestants will vie for prizes in daily floral arranging competitions modeled after the Iron Chef TV show.

And, of course, there will be flowers. Thousands upon thousands of orchids, anthurium and other blooms commonly associated with the Hawaiian isles will be spread throughout 10 acres of fragrant displays.

Frequent flier fantasy camp

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Texas

American Airlines's flight attendant academy attracts die-hard aviation buffs

Eric Mueller's vacation started when his plane filled with smoke. Soon, people slid down an emergency chute, inflated life vests and climbed into a raft.

Mueller loved every minute of it.

Most days he runs a book review website. But on this day he was living out a fantasy at American Airlines's flight attendant academy in Fort Worth, Texas, practicing evacuation procedures most people hope to never use.

"I look at the safety card. It's not supposed to be a comic book of things you want to try, but it all just looks cool," said Mueller, 40, of Los Angeles.

There are people who grew up wanting to be Mickey Mantle. They go to Yankees fantasy camp. Others dream of playing Carnegie Hall. They join the summer orchestra at the shore. Then there are aviation geeks like Mueller. People like him - and there are more than you think - charter a commercial airliner and hop across the country visiting the Meccas of the aviation world.

New York hotelis 'coming out'

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A hotel marketed specifically toward gay travelers is opening in the heart of New York City.

The hotel will be called THE OUT NYC. It's being touted as a "straight-friendly" gay boutique resort.

It's set to open March 1 in the Times Square area.

Developer Ian Reisner says it will be a place where gay travelers "can feel 100 percent welcome."

He's hoping gay couples will want to get married there.

Reisner also hopes the 105-room hotel will become a center of gay life in the city.

Spring training fever

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Florida / Arizona

The long wait is over - baseball season is finally on its way

Nothing stirs the blood of baseball fans quite like "pitchers and catchers report."

A harbinger of the coming season, the words mean players are reporting for duty in Florida and Arizona and spring training is about to be in full bloom. The 30 major league teams begin workouts by the end of this week and play games every day in March.

Most die-hard fans dream of making at least one late-winter pilgrimage to Florida or Arizona to watch their favorite players and top prospects.

Spring training is much more popular than it used to be, and that has its drawbacks. Crowds are the norm, it's harder to approach players and the beer is overpriced, just like in the regular season. You might even have to buy tickets from scalpers for exhibition games, for Pete (Rose's) sake.