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From Sea To Shining Sea, Some Of The United States’ Special Spots

From Sea To Shining Sea, Some Of The United States’ Special Spots

By Patti Nickell, Lexington Herald-Leader (TNS)

With the dawn of a new year of travel, I decided to reflect on some past destinations that I especially loved. These five places span the nation, and while they may not be the first spots on a traveler’s itinerary, each is a true American gem.

The East Coast: St. Michaels, Md.

It was the best wake-up call I’ve ever gotten. The sun rose — not timidly — but blazing its way over the coastal marshes lining Chesapeake Bay in this town straight out of a Currier & Ives print. From my bedroom at The Inn at Perry Cabin, I woke to this pyrotechnic display. Who needs an alarm clock?

Stepping onto my deck, I took a deep whiff of the salty air, and wondered if people who get daily doses of this clean, fresh oxygen take it for granted. Maryland’s Eastern Shore is a cornucopia of the good things life has to offer — tangy sea breezes, clear air, as many bicycles and sailboats as there are automobiles, and enough crabs, oysters and clams to make up a bountiful fisherman’s platter.

The Inn at Perry Cabin is a charming base for exploring St. Michaels, a town with only one fast food outlet (Subway), no malls and no traffic light within 11 miles. It does have a first-rate Maritime Museum where you can visit the Hooper Lighthouse, tong for oysters in the harbor or sign on as an apprentice in a boat building class.

You can also spend a day browsing Main Street antique shops and taking a walking tour of the historic district before tucking into a mammoth platter of crabs at St. Michaels Crab and Steak House, where as they like to say, “the only thing we overlook is the water.”

FYI: Tourtalbot.org.

The Midwest: Amana Colonies, Iowa

Spread out in a loop across the fertile central Iowa countryside, the seven villages that make up the Amana Colonies were laid out in the middle of the 19th century and meant to be an ox-cart’s drive apart. Today, the Colonies are a National Historic Landmark, allowing visitors a window to the religious and secular lives of early German settlers.

Driving a rental car rather than an ox-cart, I was able to see a lot over a weekend visit. In the main colony of Amana, I sampled homemade fudge at The Chocolate Haus and dandelion wine at the Grape Vine Winery, and then watched basket weaving demonstrations at the Broom and Basket Shop.

In West Amana, I traipsed around an art gallery that had formerly been the village church. In South Amana, while shopping at Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts, I discovered that it had been the town’s general store when Jesse James and his gang robbed it in 1877. In Middle Amana, I discovered something else: if you want to try the breads and pastries at Hahn’s Hearth Oven Bakery, you better be there by 9:00 a.m. or risk disappointment.

Best Place to stay: The Guest House Motel in Amana. Best Place to eat: The Colony Inn in Amana where bountiful breakfasts will fuel you for the day. Best times to visit: If you’re into German festivals with lots of oom-pah-pah, go in May for the MaiFest or October for Oktoberfest.

FYI: Amanacolonies.com.

The Mountain West: Big Sky, Mont.

Think “A River Runs Through” where rainbow trout practically leap onto fly fishermen’s reels; pack trips through aspen-studded meadows are a daily occurrence, and more than a few High Country guides resemble a long-haired Brad Pitt.

For city-dwellers starved for the great outdoors, this is paradise. For snow bunnies, Big Sky has a ski resort whose major peak, Lone Mountain, is 11,166 feet in altitude, and whose 5,800 skiable acres on three mountains and 400 inches of annual snowfall make it a winter mecca.

Still, it’s a destination for all seasons due to its proximity to Yellowstone, the nation’s oldest national park. Less than an hour’s drive away, the 2.2 million-acre park is a sanctuary for bears (both black and grizzly), wolves, bison, moose and elk. Like most visitors, I headed directly to Old Faithful, the most famous of Yellowstone’s geysers, which erupts every hour-and-a-half, spewing out thousands of gallons of boiling water.

I staked out my spot and was rewarded for my patience, not only with the geyser’s angry antics, but with the appearance of a nonchalant moose, ambling along apparently unmoved by the spectacle going on behind him.

As impressive as Old Faithful is, the park has other not-to-be missed spots such as Black Sand Basin and Emerald Pool where minerals and algae color the mud and water, giving them the look of an Impressionist painting.

Best place to stay: the 112-year-old Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone, a National Historic Landmark.

FYI: Bigskyresort.com.

The South: Austin, Texas

Some cities just seem to have it all — history, beauty and vibrancy. Austin, the capital of the Lone Star State, is one of those. It’s location in the scenic Texas Hill Country, surrounded by a chain of seven highland lakes, makes it heaven for those who love hiking, boating and fishing.

If you’re a history buff like me, you will want to tour the pink granite Capitol Building (the largest state capitol in the country, with murals depicting the fall of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, which garnered Texas its independence from Mexico); the Greek Revival-style Governor’s Mansion, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Texas.

The former president’s widow, known during her tenure as first lady for her beautification projects, has her own memorial, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, showcasing more than 650 native plants. Mother Nature’s abundant handiwork is also on display at the Botanical Garden in Zilker Park and Umlauf Sculpture Garden.

As for vibrancy, anyone who has been watching Austin City Limits for the past four decades can attest to the fact that this city is a music lover’s dream. Sixth Street hasn’t become one of the nation’s most famous tourist destinations for nothing.

Best place to stay: The Driskell Hotel. Built in 1886 by cattle baron Jesse Driskell, it retains its Old West feel. If its columned lobby, marble floors and stained glass dome were good enough for J.R. Ewing, they’re good enough for the rest of us.

Best places to hear music: The Broken Spoke (“the last of the authentic Texas dance halls and damn proud of it!”); Antone’s, Austin’s best blues club; any of the clubs along Sixth Street.

FYI: Austintexas.org.

The West Coast: Marina del Rey, Calif.

I love California’s stunning beach communities, from the glam appeal of Santa Monica and Laguna Beach in the south to the picture postcard charm of Carmel farther north. More off-the-grid than the others, and just a 15-minute taxi ride from Los Angeles International, Marina del Rey may not be as immediately recognizable. But after a weekend (or longer), you may emulate country crooner George Strait and leave your heart here.

As the name implies, it’s all about the marina: the largest man-made marina in the world, with slips for 5,000 boats. A favorite vantage point is Fisherman’s Village, a replica of a New England seaport where shops and restaurants abound and where cobblestoned paths lead to the marina.

Of course, the best way to experience the marina is to get on the water, whether by kayak, canoe, water taxi, sailboat or private launch. One of my favorite experiences was a Saturday night starlight dinner/dance cruise aboard the Hornblower luxury yacht, where I marveled at the waterside buildings draped in a dazzling display of twinkling lights.

Best place to stay: Marina del Rey Hotel is a welcoming oasis with an enviable marina location and a topnotch restaurant, Salt.

(Patti Nickell is a Lexington-based travel writer and restaurant critic. Reach her at pnickell13@hotmail.com.)

©2016 Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: The 1879 Hooper Straight Lighthouse anchors the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels and can be seen from both land and water. (Mark Sandlin)

On Asia Tour, Obama Sees Traces Of His Late Mother’s Work

On Asia Tour, Obama Sees Traces Of His Late Mother’s Work

By Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau

MANILA, Philippines — President Barack Obama sat down here this week with the Asian Development Bank’s American director to review the work product of a contractor who had delivered business financing and leadership training to poor women in Southeast Asia.

The papers showed the lacework of tight, cursive handwriting of Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995 at age 52. A scholar and anthropologist, she had spent her final years as a consultant to U.S. agencies and foundations aiding the world’s poor.

The Asian Development Bank collection reveals new details, if no great surprises, about the career of Obama’s late mother. Among the no-nonsense office memos and notes are signs of the passion that drove her work.

Dunham was the “key ingredient” of a women’s project that was going well, one colleague wrote. Cottage industries were flourishing because of her expertise, said another.

“She was a figure in her own right, respected by the people who worked with her,” said Robert M. Orr, U.S. ambassador and executive director of the Asian Development Bank, who asked the institution’s staff to search the microfiche archives for traces of Dunham’s work. “These records show that so clearly.”

Obama ended a weeklong tour in Asia on Tuesday with remarks to Philippine and American forces. He recalled the heroic defense that their forebears — and a few aging veterans in the audience — put up against Japanese troops at Bataan and Corregidor during the early days of World War II. He praised how they stood “balikatan,” or shoulder-to-shoulder.

Tagalog and Bahasa Malaysia are not languages Obama learned as a child in Indonesia, but he has peppered his toasts and speeches with local phrases in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Manila. When he does, listeners say he speaks their language with an Indonesian accent.

Dunham clearly was on Obama’s mind as he crossed the region. He told one crowd about the colorful dyed batik fabrics she eagerly sought out in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital where she took her young son to live in 1967.

Those handiworks, he said, gave her a window to cultures and people she found fascinating, he said.

Since Obama became president, academics have focused on Dunham’s work. The University of Hawaii held a symposium on her research. An exhibit of her collection of batik textiles from Java has toured the United States. And Duke University Press published a book in 2009 based on her 1992 doctoral dissertation about peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia.

At a town hall meeting with young people in Kuala Lumpur, Obama was asked whether he had any regrets. He grew somber and choked up a bit.

“I regret not having spent more time with my mother,” he said. “She died early. … It happened very fast, in about six months. And I realized that — there was a stretch of time from when I was, let’s say, 20 until I was 30, where I was so busy with my own life that I didn’t always reach out and communicate with her and ask her how she was doing and tell her about things.”

In the documents given to Obama, he’ll find traces of those last days, according to Orr. In February 1995, one staffer wrote to another that Dunham was going back to Hawaii for medical treatment. Records reflect that she continued to write and call about her work for a few months, but they trickled off as she underwent treatment for the uterine cancer that ultimately took her life.

The Asian Development Bank tracked down the documents by finding receipts of paychecks made out to her and then digging up the projects she had worked on based on that information.

As he saw what their search had yielded, Orr said he wanted to share them with the president. Orr, a former Boeing executive and Stanford professor, had advised Obama on foreign policy in the 2008 campaign.

“If I had a book like this of my father’s work, that showed his day-to-day work, I know I would treasure it so much,” Orr said. “I hope the president will too.”

AFP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

Lots Of Pomp But No Trade Deal In Obama’s Visit To Japan

By Lesley Clark, McClatchy Washington Bureau

TOKYO — President Barack Obama spent his first full day of a weeklong Asia trip aimed at renewing U.S. ties to the region with the red-carpeted pomp of a state dinner, a visit to a shrine — where he left a prayer card — and the “full trust” of Japan’s prime minister that the U.S. will back it in a tiff over disputed land with China.

Obama isn’t leaving here with a long-sought agreement on opening up Asia to trade with the United States, but he heads Friday to South Korea with a measure of support from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who repeatedly called him “Barack” during a joint news conference. (The president countered with just one mention of “Shinzo,” otherwise sticking with “Prime Minister Abe.”)

“The United States is and always will be a Pacific nation,” said Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. “America’s security and prosperity is inseparable from the future of this region, and that’s why I’ve made it a priority to renew American leadership in the Asia Pacific.”

He toasted what he said was a strengthened alliance with Japan at a formal state dinner at the Imperial Palace, complete with a dessert course of ice cream in the iconic image of Mount Fuji.

The president’s efforts to convince U.S. allies in Asia that the United States is sincere in its efforts to focus on the region have been complicated in part by other foreign entanglements, including Ukraine, and Obama pledged Thursday to impose new sanctions against Russia if it fails to live up to an agreement to quell violence in embattled Ukraine.

“Assuming that they don’t follow through, we will follow through” on threats to impose a new round of economic sanctions in “days, not weeks,” the president said.

The administration struck an agreement with Russia last week in Geneva to hold off on new sanctions if the country removed outlaw militias and took other steps to restore calm.

But Obama said there was little evidence Russia was abiding by the “spirit or the letter” of the agreement and that the administration had been “preparing for the prospect that we will have to engage in further sanctions.”

The president acknowledged that further sanctions “may not change Mr. Putin’s calculus,” but he said they’d be harder for Putin to ignore if other countries cooperated with enhanced sanctions.

The remarks came as Obama reiterated that the U.S. considers a string of tiny islands in the East China Sea to be under Japan’s rule and would rebuff Chinese efforts to take control of them.

Asian allies who share the region with an increasingly assertive China were said to have been rattled by U.S. reluctance to intervene deeply in Syria and Ukraine, but Abe gave Obama unqualified support.

“I fully trust President Obama” when it comes to the U.S.-Japanese alliance, Abe said, adding that the president “exerted strong leadership” in pulling together a global response to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

Abe called Obama’s visit a testament to the U.S. administration’s efforts to focus on Asia. Some allies in the region have questioned the initiative as the administration has appeared distracted by domestic budget battles and an array of international conflagrations.

“This greatly contributes to regional peace and prosperity, and Japan strongly supports and also certainly welcomes this,” Abe said of the president’s visit. Abe pledged that his administration, which has strained ties with South Korea — the next stop on Obama’s four-nation tour — “intends to contribute to regional peace and prosperity more proactively than ever.”

The two stressed economic cooperation as well, but failed to reach an agreement on the stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, saying only that talks between negotiators would continue.

Obama appeared to gently press Abe on one of the key sticking points: access to Japan’s tightly controlled markets for beef, pork, rice, dairy, sugar and wheat products.

“I’ve been very clear and honest that American manufacturers and farmers need to have meaningful access to markets,” the president said, adding that he “can’t accept anything less.”

Noting that Abe has been pushing to revive the long-stagnant Japanese economy, Obama said he’d told the prime minister that the trade deal was a prime opportunity and had urged “bold steps.”

The visit to the region is aimed at expanding cultural ties, as well, and Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko received Obama at Japan’s Imperial Palace before he met with Abe.

The president wished the royal family well and noted that he had “very fond memories” of his last visit four years ago. Back then, he joked, he didn’t have any gray hair.

“You have a very hard job,” replied the emperor.

While Obama has visited Japan before, it was the first “state” visit by a U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1996. Before returning to the palace Thursday night for the black tie dinner, Obama toured a Tokyo shrine and science museum, saying he was a bit freaked out by the lifelike robots, who kicked around a soccer ball.

“I have to say the robots were a little scary,” the president said. “They were too lifelike.”

To Abe’s relief, Obama made it clear that the United States backs Japan in a long-simmering dispute over a chain of islands in the East China Sea. The islands, which Japan and China both claim, are under Japanese administration, the president said, and thus would be protected by the U.S. military should China strike.

But Obama also said the U.S. wasn’t taking sides in resolving the islands’ sovereignty, and he warned that he wants to see the dispute settled peacefully. He said he’d emphasized to Abe the importance of “not escalating the situation, keeping the rhetoric low, not taking provocative actions and trying to determine how both Japan and China can work cooperatively together.”

Abe has riled China by visiting a controversial shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, raising fears of Japan’s past militarism. But Abe said Thursday that he’d done so to pay respects to the war dead and to prevent more wars.

“I renewed my resolve to create such a society and such a world, and I have renewed my pledge not to engage in war,” Abe said.

Obama used the opportunity in talking about the islands to deliver a rebuke to China — and Russia, saying that while the U.S. wants a strong relationship with China, it has to play by international rules.

The alternative, he warned, “is a situation in which large countries, like the United States or China or Russia or other countries, feel as if whenever they think it’s expedient they can take actions that disadvantage smaller countries. That’s not the kind of world that is going to be stable and prosperous and secure over the long term.”

The Chinese government had earlier taken offense at Obama’s remarks on the disputed islands, saying the U.S. should honor its commitment “not to choose sides.”

China rattled nerves in the region last November when it expanded its airspace to claim control of the air zone over the contested waters between itself and Japan.

Obama also met Thursday with relatives of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and said the U.S. and Japan were united — along with South Korea — in a bid to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

Abe, who spoke through an interpreter, said he and the president had talked “heart to heart.” Obama, he said, had told him that the sushi they ate Wednesday night at one of the city’s top sushi restaurants was the best sushi of his life.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson