Chile: Step away from the Candy

Ominous black warning labels are required by law to be slapped onto packages of food in Chile. I snapped this photo at a street vendor’s stand. Looking for an afternoon pick-me-up, I was tempted to pop some chocolate into my mouth. But the three black deterrence icons stopped me. High in Calories. High in Saturated Fat. High in Sugar.  Not one treat was warning-free. Not even the Oreos. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. 

But then, you sit down to lunch and have two Ketchup warnings muscle in on your food options. Saintly mustard only has one (too much salt). 

In my view, Chile is smart in the way it’s going about battling obesity and unhealthy food choices. 

Next step: skull and crossbones?

Hats Off to Avignon

Tourist Tip: You can grab a beer in the cathedral gift shop. 

 

Climb the summit of Avignon to the Cathedral Notre Dame Des Doms. It is situated above the Palace of the Popes, at the top of the stairs. Two popes are entombed there. You can even find their sepulchers if you persist in poking into every side-pocket chapel to read the signs.  

It’s a hot slog climbing those stairs on a sunny day. I could have used some thirst quenching. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took a quick scan of merchandise for sale in the gift shop. Beer. Wine. Lavender sachets. Oh and some religious trinkets are shelved on the side wall. The church showcases what sells well. Hats off to the church. 

About the hats: they are suspended over Rue Des Fourbisseurs, a random walking street in the ancient part of Avignon. Just for fun, apparently. 

Abandoned Quarry Makes for Amazing Art Experience in Les Baux

In Les Baux de Provence, an abandoned quarry is the venue for a surround digital projection. It’s in the same vein as the traveling Van Gogh exhibit shown in large-space venues around the world. Les Baux’s one-hour exhibition has two elements: Yves Klein Infinite Bleu and Venice, La Serenissime. It’s a fantastic experience. 

After the group of time-ticketed visitors enters the space, the entry door is closed, the lights are extinguished and the show begins. 

The first program is Infinite Blue. It’s a series of images, each melting into the subsequent one, accompanied by rousing music. 

The colors are brilliant and move across the pillars in various ways, so that no matter where you position yourself in the cavernous space you will see a thrilling display.

 Infinite Blue lasts for about 10 minutes. After its credits roll, the Venice program begins. It runs for the rest of the hour. It’s a series of paintings and drawings of Venice in its Renaissance heyday, animated so that gondolas seem to detach from the paintings and glide along the water’s surface. The animation is pretty cool. 

Then it becomes a bit repetitive - could be shorter. But overall, it is eye-candy. I felt like I was in an IMAX theater except I wasn’t stuck in a seat. Definitely worth doing.

Cheap Shot in Gordes

Gordes is a gorgeous hill town in Provence. It's classified as one of the "most beautiful villages of France." The buildings are nestled into the rocks and the winding cobblestones streets echo the Middle Ages. The town was decimated by the Germans in World War II and many of the buildings were destroyed.  After the war, artists began to inhabit it. Marc Chagall was a notable. I read that at the end of the 1960s, painter Victor Vasarely bought the hilltop 16th century castle for one franc and restored it, launching a rebirth of the town. In the last decade or so, real estate has been snapped up by well-to-do Parisians and foreigners. It has been fixed up so that every house, stone wall and boutique is tastefully gorgeous. 

We approached the town on the only road in and pulled off onto the wide shoulder for a vista of the town. I noticed an information plaque perched on the wall with a photo of the town’s WWII wreckage.  It explained the bombing on August 22, 1944. Challenging myself in French I read the brief text. A bit shocked by the message, I continued on and read the English translation to make sure that I understood correctly what I was reading. 

Same message in French. Four sentences summarized the town’s fate at the hands of the Germans. The thing I couldn’t believe was that the author used the final sentence to take a cheap shot at one of the victims. She or he (I’m guessing that the author was a he -- taking a cheap shot of my own) wrote: “Most of the inhabitants fled, those who remained protected themselves as well as they could, but a careless man, Francois Brunei, was shot at his window by a German marksman waiting in ambush.”  

Jeepers! The poor guy Brunei was slaughtered by a German soldier, but the author blames the victim. 

Really? In so few words allotted to describe the destruction of the village, that’s what the author decided was most important for the world to know?

How many people worked on that plaque and let it slip through? What did that poor guy Francois Brunei do besides be stupid to look out the window during a war? 

Early bird Catches the Mint

I received a promotional email from Jet Blue announcing the launch of service from Boston to Heathrow. The prices were tantalizingly low. Mint class had fallen below splurge levels. I couldn’t click onto the reservation page fast enough. I snagged two seats in Mint class from Boston to London Heathrow. 

Let me just say that the flight felt too short. I could have put up with the pampering for at least a few more hours. It started with a choice of welcome drink. With my elderberry syrup, did I want champagne or sparkling water? I took the sparkling water on the hunch that there was more to come.  Indeed, the cocktail card included suggestions like old fashioned or dirty martini.  Say no more. The flight attendant arrived, entering my cabin with drink in outstretched hand, jiggling four olives stuffed with blue cheese on a spear. She laid down a cocktail napkin and then placed the drink on one of my tables. She took my dinner order and then oriented me to my digs. The table to my left was a phone charger surface. The control panel for the seat recliner offered lots of comfy options between upright and fully flat bed. While I ate my decent dinner, I watched an excellent movie, “Belfast”. I chose it from the curated list of short movies for short flights. The moment the movie ended and credits started rolling, I pressed the recline setting, then the dimmer on my edgy-styled halogen lamp. I spread the soft comfy comforter over me and fell fast asleep. Before I knew it (probably 3.5 hours later), a cheery flight attendant knocked on the door to my cabin and placed a delicious tray of strawberries with a rich Greek yogurt. I’m betting that it was not the fat free type I often eat. But hey! Starting a vacation by traveling in style. 

Thank you Jet Blue for serving up Mint just when I needed to buy a transatlantic flight. Mint is sweet. 

Bentonville: Out-of-this-World Wonderland in the Ozarks

Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas

Bentonville, Arkansas is best known for headquarters of Walmart. The main building seems as bland in appearance as their retail stores. 

BUT THEN… there’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. This 120-acre park and stunning museum is the brain child of Alice Walton. 

Art Trail through Compton Gardens to Crystal Bridges

An active art collector of American Art, she lamented the fact that there were absolutely no art museums anywhere near Bentonville. The Walton family’s foundation backs it. Always free to enter; committed to education.

Talk about education! Although a group of high school students was being ushered through the gallery ahead of us, I had my own educational experience. A succinct explanation of the different styles of art in the collection is offered on a hallway wall. Artists in their Early American and Modern Art Galleries, it explained, responded to their everyday surroundings. Some painted regal portraits of men with powdered wigs. Others employed colorful, abstract shapes to show city life. Those depictions reveal the experiences of their own times. But Contemporary artists respond to major events, some finding inspiration in controversial issues in our daily lives. 

Lest the lines between the categories be too clear, the poster on the wall goes on, working in the contemporary moment doesn’t mean that artists don’t draw on the past. They do. They build on the work of their predecessors by borrowing and modifying established styles.

There are several deliciously apt examples. Here’s one: a portrait of dancer Martha Graham from a 1922 photo and then echoed in a 1977 sculpture.  

We spent three hours in the museum and grounds. I could have easily done more. It’s beautiful.

End of the Road Trip

 

Birmingham, Alabama

Last day of our road trip. One more state to go: Kentucky. Over the last ten days, my fabulous, good-sport husband has driven 2,500 miles so far. He’s behind the wheel and is my travel partner extraordinaire. He’s indulging me in striving toward my goal of seeing all 50 states in our country. 

Dickinson, North Dakota

From North Dakota down to Alabama and back up to Kentucky. Crazy? Nope. In this short time, we’ve experienced the rich variety of this wonderful nation. We’ve witnessed starkly different landscapes - from endless flat fields of Oklahoma and Kansas, to rock fjords of South Dakota’s Badlands, to forests of Alabama choked with falling-down shacks. We’ve driven through towns with block after block of shuttered businesses in Mississippi and Alabama but we were astonished by the picture-perfect charm of Bentonville, Arkansas. We’ve also delighted in discovering the differences of people across our land. You have to eat, right? We enjoyed seeking out local eateries and bars run by local entrepreneurs, to eat but meet and talk with locals. 

M’s Pub in Omaha, Nebraska

Parts of our country are so different, but parts of it are so much the same. I did a double-take at the sight of Arkansas’ state house in Little Rock. It looks eerily similar to Rhode Island’s state house that I see from my window in Providence. 

State House in Little Rock, Arkansas

It’s been a wonderful trip. And it will also be wonderful to return home to Little Rhody.

State House in Providence, Rhode Island

Lynchings and Honeysuckle

 

Martin Luther King said, “One day the South will recognize its real heroes.” Montgomery, Alabama just might be rising to the task. As loathsome as its history of racism is, the city now offers some outstanding museums and memorials to educate and reflect on racism and civil rights. 

Before I say anything about the wrenching experience of touring Montgomery’s museums and memorials, I have to note the honeysuckle. I have no idea if it’s intentional or not, but the intense sweet aroma of huge hedges of honeysuckle surrounds you when you exit both the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Civil Rights Memorial. Just when you think you are completely spent, the flowers’ perfume is a jolt of joy. 

The outstanding Legacy Museum focuses on lynching and racial segregation. Two hours in there flies by as the exhibits force you to confront hideous cruelty and its institutional protections. The walls are covered with powerful quotes, almost too many to absorb, and so many that they are impossible to remember. Photography is forbidden. I wanted to make mental notes of the particularly poignant ones but by the time I left the building, I could only retain one. It was about how the law doesn’t prosecute the white oppressors, it protects them. It was something like “They trade a white robe (i.e. the Ku Klux Klan) for a black robe (i.e. a judge).”  

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is a sculpture garden of sorts. I entered what seemed like a graveyard of tall gravestones, except that they were affixed to the ceiling instead of being planted in the ground. I felt like I was walking in a forest of uniform brown slabs. Each slab is inscribed with the name of a county and its state, and the names and death dates of people who were lynched there. I searched for the names of counties in Virginia where my family is from. I craned my neck back to read the slabs as I passed by. But as I moved further in to the forest-like thicket, the floor gradually lowered and I had to tilt my head back further to be able to read the inscriptions. Eventually, the floor sloped so low and the tops of the slabs were so high, that the slabs hanging from the ceiling seemed like they were lynched bodies suspended from above. It was a sickening revelation. 

Top Things To Do in Omaha

 

One of the best things to do while visiting Nebraska is to leave it. Walk out and go to Iowa. 

The gorgeous Bob Kerry pedestrian bridge lures you up its stairs and around its curve. We encountered a young woman all decked out in graduation gear as she graduated from nursing school.

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Along the way, we saw a little message from “Bob the Bridge” who told us that what we did —standing in two states at once — is called Bobbing. Okay, Bob, whatever.

We visited the Durham Museum. It’s a museum of the history of Omaha and the region. But for me, the best part about it was that it’s housed in the former train station for the Union Pacific Railroad. The grand art deco structure is restored to its 1940s origin. My favorite part was the sculptures of soldiers and their gals positioned around the waiting room. It propelled me to WWII on the home front.

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I guess you could also say it propelled me from Omaha. But that’s not fair. Definitely worth it to visit Omaha. I’m glad I went. 

Kansas City Esthetic

I sought out the vibe in Kansas City, Kansas. The Kansas side, not the bigger, seemingly more upscale Missouri side. 

We ate lunch at Joe’s Kansas City, a barbecue joint that’s in the actual gas station it first started in. The original pulled pork is featured, but I chose from the Z-man sandwich series with smoked melted cheese and fried onion rings on top. Popularity has driven their success — with framed reviews from Forbes and the Wall Street Journal hanging next to the bathroom door. 

I loved the noisy bustling place. You wait in line to order and then grab a table. And then, the people watching begins. It’s almost as delicious as the food. 

In South Dakota, I fell in love with a State Park

 

We planned two days in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Major attractions are located there — Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Badlands National Park for starters. It seemed logical to stay overnight in Custer State Park. The park contains a whopping 71,000 acres in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. 

With State Game Lodge as our base, we traversed the narrow rock passages on the Needles Highway. It’s a 14 mile wispy road through spiky granite formations and an evergreen forest. 

We also drove the 18 mile winding Iron Mountain Road between Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. Two of the narrow stone tunnels provide keyhole vistas framing the four presidents’ faces on Mount Rushmore. 

We booked a room in the State Game Lodge. Not a gun-rack-toting type affair, it’s a stone and timber inn with an upscale dining room, complete with its own cocktail designer. There are eight guest rooms in the original lodge above the dining room. We declined the opportunity to sleep in the room Calvin Coolidge occupied when he came to inspect Mount Rushmore but extended his visit for the entire three month summer of 1927. 

Creative Cocktails

Bighorn Sheep Lolling About

Catching Air in South Dakota

Huh? Driving along Route 90 in South Dakota, the scenery is flat and monotonous. Until giant motorcycles pop up in the air. The whimsical metal motos are displayed in the parking lot of a joint named Full Throttle Saloon. 

It’s a public service.

Not sure whether the skid marks are supposed to look like part of the sculpture.

Chowing Down on Chislic

We kept seeing this thing called “Chislic” on menus in South Dakota. At lunch in Custer, I asked the waitress about it. “It’s an appetizer made of steak tips marinated in steak sauce. Ours is the best because we don’t deep fry it.”  Sounded good to me. The taste? As far as I could tell, it was steak cut into bite-size pieces, drowned in A-1 steak sauce.

You could wash it down with local “wine” Red Ass Rhubarb. No thanks.

As to COVID protocols, the sign on the wall says it all. “Unless you’re here to rob us, no masks required.”

Another beverage option is local “wine” Rosy Ass. No thank you for that either.