Roadtripping

Theme park round-up

Updates on what’s happening at Florida's theme parks:

Disney World: The 17th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival opens Sept. 28 and runs through Nov. 12, at 46 days, its longest ever. Reservations open August 14 for special events like Party for the Senses, Food & Wine Pairings, Signature Dinners and the popular 3-D Dessert Discovery.

New this year are two additions to the World Showcase: vegan and Florida marketplaces, tasting tours led by festival chefs, and entertaining seminars led by HGTV hosts. Eat to the Beat! concerts return, with performers including Smash Mouth, Javier Colon (winner of “The Voice”), Blues Traveler, Night Ranger and The Pointer Sisters. Click here for information.

Universal Orlando:  Alice Cooper will create one of Universal Orlando's haunted attractions for Halloween Horror Nights.What Universal calls Alice Cooper’s version of a demented and dark subconscious come to life in the haunted maze, “Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare.”  The maze will put guests inside the haunted dreams of “Steven,” a recurring character on Cooper’s first solo album.

Halloween Horror Nights will open Sept. 21. Click here for information.

Kennedy Space Center: Visitors can participate in Mars-themed activities as the Mars Science Laboratory prepares to land on the red planet on Aug. 6. Activities will include the Lego Build the Future play area and two Mars-related exhibits and are scheduled to begin Aug. 3. Click here for information. 

 

Road trip attraction: California museum devoted to author John Steinbeck

A friend who was spending time in the stretch of California between the Silicon Valley and Monterey asked me for sightseeing recommendations. Since he’s an avid reader, I steered him toward sites related to one of my favorite authors, John Steinbeck, who lived in and wrote about that region in Cannery Row, East of Eden and other books. Steinbeck’s boyhood home in Salinas is now a restaurant. Nearby is the National Steinbeck Center, the largest museum dedicated to a single American writer. Now, in an article I wish I’d been able to offer my friend last month, The Associated Press fills us in on the Steinbeck Center; click here to read it. It’s a great stop on a road trip along California’s central coast.

 

Best airports for layovers

As flying has gotten more complicated – more security measures, fewer nonstop flights and more restrictions on what passengers can take into the cabin – the layover airport has played a bigger role in long trips. Now two travel companies have examined what airports in layover cities have to offer. Forbes Travel Guide tells us about five U.S. airports where getting into the city center on a long layover is quick and easy. And CheapFlights.com tells us about 10 airports around the world that have unusual amenities for R&R.  

Among those airport amenities: an art museum in Amsterdam, aquariums in San Francisco and Vancouver, golf courses in South Korea and Hong Kong, a beer garden in Munich, and a butterfly garden with 20-foot waterfall in Singapore. Click here to read the full story.

The domestic airports with easy city access, according to Forbes, are Boston, Washington D.C. (Reagan), Las Vegas, Chicago (O’Hare) and Miami. Keep reading for the Forbes' rundown.

Road trip to Asheville: Horseback tour of the Biltmore

I try to do something different every fall when I make a road trip to Asheville, N.C., and with the help of friends who spend their summers there, so far I have succeeded. We’ve hiked in search of waterfalls, gone wine-tasting around Lake James, bought a picture of a space ship attacking Asheville’s Art Deco city hall,  spent an evening sampling Belgian beer, watched an artist do performance painting – any number of fun activities that would be hard to find here in Miami. Maybe that’s why I was reluctant to set foot on the Biltmore estate -- the house tour was too predictable. But last year I found a different way to see Biltmore, and so I finally visited the property. It was only an hour out of the day I spent there, but a horseback ride through the woods added that new dimension I was looking for. Click here to read my story on a horseback tour of Biltmore.

 

Primer on the English -- and we do mean English -- language

Just because you speak American doesn’t mean you understand English. Try this:

“I was gutted because the team was rubbish but now I’m trollied.” Right, you can only figure out so much from context. 

For those planning a road trip through England, watching the Olympics, or just waiting for Netflix to send Season 2 of Downton Abbey, the Associated Press offers this handy guide to the English language.

If you’re going to England, we offer this bonus guide, also from the Associated Press, to British etiquette.

Brilliant.

 

A guide to Marilyn Monroe sites

The 50^th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death is on Aug. 5. If you want to mark the date by doing something other than watching one of her movies, Lonely Planet offers this guide to key sites, from her crypt in the Westwood area of Los Angeles to the spot in New York where the above photo was shot, to the dry lake bed in Nevada where an important scene from The Misfits was filmed.

Photo credit: Matty Zimmerman/AP

 

Brazilian art exhibit at Miami International Airport

If you have a flight out of Miami International Airport, stop by the South Terminal Gallery and check out a new exhibit, Sem Fronteiras/Without Borders, a collection of work by 23 Brazilian artists. The gallery is on Concourse J in the International Greeter’s Lobby, fourth floor mezzanine. The show, which opened Wednesday, will be on view through December. Above are some works from the exhibition.

 

Bears, bears, bears

I once spent the better part of a day driving on rutted dirt roads in what was reputed to be bear territory in Alaska, determined to see a bear in the wild. Stiff from sitting in one position for so long, sore from being rattled around by the rough roads, bleary-eyed from staring through binoculars for hours on end, I never saw a bear on that trip. Fifteen years later, I am somewhat mollified by explore.org’s new bear cam, which started live-streaming bear play on Tuesday. As long as there’s daylight – which at this time of year in Alaska lasts nearly 20 hours a day – I can watch brown bears looking for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. Don’t tell my boss.

You can find the bear cam here, and the full story here.

Photo credit: Tahatia Hicks/AP/explore.org

 

Rescued manatee gives birth at SeaWorld

Here’s a piece of good news. A rescued manatee has given birth at SeaWorld Orlando while recovering from a severe injury caused by a crab pot line and fishing line. The healthy manatee calf was born last week and has been nursing and bonding with mom in a back area pool at the park.

The adult manatee was rescued about six weeks ago from Sykes Creek in Merritt Island (next to the Kennedy Space Center) with severe injuries to her front right flipper caused by a crab pot line. Fishing line was also wrapped around both of her front flippers. A photo of her rescue is below. Her front right flipper was amputated and bandaged; she is now receiving antibiotics and her health is improving.

The 10-foot manatee weighed nearly 1,380 pounds when she was rescued. Because of her size, SeaWorld’s veterinary team thought she might be pregnant and gave her a sonogram, which confirmed their suspicions.

Mother and baby are doing well.

Photo credit: SeaWorld Orlando

 

5 weekend getaways from Miami

What are you doing next weekend? Fodor’s, publisher of travel guides, has put together a list of weekend getaways within driving distance of  nine big U.S. cities, including Miami. The destinations are not surprising — Key West, Naples, Palm Beaches, Sanibel/Fort Myers (pictured above) and Upper Keys/Everglades — but each comes with an itinerary that includes interesting restaurants, lodgings and activities. Here’s the rundown:

• Key West: The food scene in Key West provides inventive spins on fresh seafood with a growing number of restaurants that understand it takes more than a rum runner to please discerning palettes. The compact nature of Key West's historic Old Town makes it easy to navigate on foot or by bicycle: full itinerary here
• Naples: The downtown dining scene in Naples has seen some inventive new twists in recent years and East Naples is now blossoming into a destination in its own right, anchored by the Botanical Garden. The combination of stylish downtown bars and restaurants with beautiful beaches make this perfect for a girl's getaway: itinerary here
• Palm Beaches: For an artsy weekend with vintage flair that's not overly stuffy, consider our top picks in Palm Beach, its next-door neighbor West Palm Beach, and to the south, Delray Beach, where the downtown area around Atlantic Avenue is popping with new restaurants: here
• Sanibel and Fort Myers: Just twenty miles apart, Fort Myers and Sanibel pair up nicely for a weekend getaway that's all about sun-soaked activities and connecting with nature. Fort Myers has an expansive white-sand beach and some urban buzz, while Sanibel is a sleepy island known for sunsets and seashells: here
• Upper Keys and Everglades: The Upper Keys and Everglades National Park are easily combined into a fun-filled family weekend that won't break the bank. A car helps make the most of this area with a relaxed road trip along some of South Florida's most scenic routes. Pack lightly and soak up the casual vibe of Key Largo, Islamorada, and the Everglades: here

 To check out weekend getaways from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C., Philadelphia or Boston, click here.