Globe Corner Blogs

Cape May Inn--photo by Llalan

Walking amongst the inns, hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts that line several streets in Cape May, New Jersey is like walking through Candy Land. The giant old mansions ramble around the blocks with their wrap-around, plant covered porches, intricate lattice-work, and what one can only describe as outrageous paint jobs. I saw yellow and orange, orange and blue, blue and pink, and pink and pink. The bright colors towered above us on gables and turrets and shown through the trees that lined the narrow streets.

Originally a whaling town, Cape May started to become a resort town in the 1850s. The Moon Handbook to New Jersey says that such “luminaries” as Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, and Franklin Pierce visited the vacation spot. And now it’s one of my favorite spots. I’m guessing none of them got as sunburned as I did…or even body surfed the icy waves. But I do wonder how Abe would fare against me in a game of bocce. Beating people in the game is one of my favorite new Cape May traditions.

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View of the Potomac--photo by Nastia

First woman (very slowly): He called to say that they been in the sun for three hours… He said they’d be like lobsters!
Second woman (in the same manner): Well…Some people like lobsters!
(Overheard on the Potomac River beach)

For those of us who appreciate history, sun, beaches, and wine but aren’t heading to Côte d’Azur, Greece, or Croatia this year, I highly recommend visiting…The Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Southeast of the United States still remains for me a largely unexplored area, and although I have been traveling to the Richmond area of Virginia regularly, there is always something inspiring, curious, and quite often endearing to see and experience.

My latest trip turned out to be a delightful journey, relaxed and peaceful. The good times started in Colonial Beach, and specifically at the Wilkerson’s Seafood Restaurant, where I tried a seasonal dish: soft shell crabs. After the meal my friend and I headed down the Potomac River to find a quiet spot on the beach and watch the waves. The town of Colonial Beach is tiny, so tiny in fact that if you want to get around and do not have your own car, you can rent a golf cart. You are bound to see a lot of those riding around carrying kids, or an occasional older police woman patrolling the area.  Make sure you disembark and take a close look at Alexander Graham Bell’s house (now a small hotel), because it indeed looks like a candy house. I bet staying there for a couple of days is a thrill!

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Raven Map of West Virginia

Why do we, warm-blooded mammals, particularly dislike the winter season? The answers are apparent: it’s dark, it’s cold, and your bus is always twenty minutes late for the sole reason of torturing you and making you turn into an icicle on that desolate street corner.

But on the other hand, why don’t we take a more optimistic look at the upcoming winter? That will come to you easily, especially after a mug of hot chocolate, don’t worry. Yes, winter can be escaped only if you are taking a vacation in the Caribbean. So if it is inescapable, why not to try to have some snowy fun? After all, global warming is coming, you know, and snow is becoming more and more precious.

To catch some of it (or sometimes quite a lot), I would personally recommend West Virginia. Don’t be surprised! They have all the trails open right now with 8 to 16 inches of that white stuff, which we probably won’t get for another month here in Boston! And for those who just started shivering, the experts say – it is never cold when it snows unless it is a serious blizzard. However, there is always a cure for that disaster, like a ski resort cabin with a cozy fireplace, for example. That is certainly something you would appreciate and enjoy when it’s 15 degrees outside.

So, grab your skiing or snowboarding gear, your kids, dogs, friends, and put them all into the car and go. There is more fun to winter than the fear of cold, I assure you.

Cool Parents Guide to NYC by Helen Rogan & Alfred Gingold

My parents had never been to New York City. I am not sure why, I guess that it just seemed too far away from the state of Washington and being small business owners they never had enough time to get away except for a long weekend. However, my parents are now retired and apparently have spent a lot of time discovering the joys of HBO On Demand and catching up on the TV show Sex and the City.  My Mom loves the show so much that her only request for her birthday trip to New York City was to on on the Sex and the City Tour. Well, that and to see the Statue of Liberty.

Since I was put in charge of planning the trip for us,  I started to figure out where we could dispose of my father while we went on the tour and when I discussed the possibilities with Mom the conversations went a little like this:

“So Dad can sit at a cafe and read the newspaper while we go on the tour,” I said.

“Oh no!” said my Mom. “Buy him a ticket too.”

“But Mom, Dad doesn’t want to go on the Sex and the City Tour,” I protested.

“Your Father probably won’t even realize that he is on a Sex and the City Tour,” was the curt reply.

“But Mom, he will be on a bus of women, looking at shoe stores and drinking cosmos. He might figure it out. Did you ask him what he wants to do? ”

“He never asked me if I wanted to spend my time looking at Civil War sites across the South. Or go on a golfing vacation in Florida. (Mom hates golf.) He will be fine. Besides, if we leave him alone for 4 hours he will get lost and we will never see him again. Buy the tickets.”

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Boston BikeMap by Rubel BikeMaps

Each day I bike a very modest distance to work: a straight shot down Mt. Auburn Street – no turns and few stops. Thanks to recently installed city bike racks, nine times out of ten I can “park” directly outside the store’s door, and there’s even a bike lane on our block to ease my transition from street to sidewalk. In short, no fuss, no muss.

So, while I admittedly do not have use for a bike map on a daily basis, I still find Boston’s BikeMap, published by Rubel BikeMaps, to be a useful and remarkably well researched guide to biking in and around Boston (i.e. Brookline, Watertown, Somerville, Lexington, and more).

Here’s a brief list of features I’ve found to be particularly handy:

- All area bike shops are starred in red on the map and then indexed with addresses and phone numbers.

- Contour lines based on USGS topographic maps show hilly areas (aka, areas to avoid when already tired).

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Lake Rescue, Vermont--photo by Jess

For better or worse, I’ve spent a good hunk of time touring the New England region in the past couple months. I’ve taken the train to coastal Connecticut, the commuter rail to the North Shore of Boston, the train to New York City, and I’ve driven to southern Vermont, northern New Jersey, and Hartford, Conn. For lack of more exotic travel dispatches, here is some advice on traveling not-so-far from home:

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101 Baseball Places by Josh Pahigian

In less than two weeks the Boys of Summer will have reached the halfway point of the season. That’s right — you have only about 5,000 more games til the season is over. Or so it may seem to a (seriously un-American) non-enthusiast. But for the rest of us, especially those of us who grew up with and continue to root for one of the worst baseball clubs in the league, it is a time of renewed hope and enthusiasm: hope that we will not continue to mire in last place; enthusiasm at the outside chance of wearing our jerseys and hats well into September or even in the snow.

By now you may have guessed that, although living in Boston, I am actually a fan of the beleaguered Cleveland Indians, my hometown team. When I was young, before they took a wild whiff at greatness in the early 90s, my family and I often took a quick trip up to “The Big City” and bought tickets minutes before the game started.
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Red Map of NYC

Yesterday, my day off, I was lucky enough to take a day trip to New York City. It wasn’t just for fun; on the contrary, I had the task of helping my two foreign friends.

New York City is overwhelming. It comes down on you like a hurricane, like a mighty wave of light, sound, heat, commotion and pure thrill. Its streets are like overflowing rivers and its subway system is a maze that confuses you in a snap. All of it together makes your head spin. Now, multiply the effect of it all by a thousand for two humble guys who haven’t seen anything like that in their entire lives. So, I had no other option than to turn into Ariadne for one day — to help them find their way in this labyrinth called “The City.”

Well, even Ariadne had to use a wool thread. I had a better tool in my hands — two Red Maps of New York City. I presented those to my friends and they immediately let out two sighs of relief. They obviously were not going for a lot of details, so something clear, straight to the point and with a subway map marked right over the streets perfectly served the purpose. I headed back to Boston with a light heart yesterday just because I know there is nothing better than a nice, useful, helpful map to make a brief stay even in the bustle of New York City a breeze.

Explorer's Guide Cape Cod

Most of my trips to Provincetown seem to revolve around the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum. I can usually find $5 parking nearby, it’s good for orienting myself, and I always erroneously think that a public bathroom is located in the museum.

This time, however, I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at it. One of my friends spends the summers performing there and I went down to see his show at the Gifford House. While we were enjoying cocktails on the veranda during one of his breaks he mentioned the “magic of the monument.”

Apparently if you look at the tower at just the right angle, it looks like Donald Duck. Everyone except for me seemed to see Donald’s likeness right away. Even after a few more cocktails, squinting really hard, and having numerous visiting Canadians try to point it out to me, I never saw it. I just saw a really tall tower — the tallest all-granite monument in the entire U.S. at 252 feet and 7.5 inches to be exact, according to An Explorer’s Guide to Cape Cod. Continue Reading »

Pocket Naturalist guide to Cape May Birds

When you leave the city of Cape May on the southern tip of New Jersey and start north on the Garden State Highway, a large green sign greets you: “Welcome to New Jersey!” And that’s exactly how it feels. Cape May is its own entity. Rows of Victorian houses painted like Easter eggs, rambling old hotels wrapped in latticed porches that belong in New Orleans, those weird bike things that five people can pedal along on at once–everything you need for a lovely weekend away from the sweltering city. Everything including nature: I saw dolphins! Dozens of them arcing out of the ocean, blowing spray into the air, and causing general panic among the beach-goers who thought they had spotted a shark. And the birds! Cape May happens to be the home of the World Series of Birding. (Yes, there is such a thing.) Continue Reading »