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Arizona: the Road to Michigan

Arizona; The road to . . .

The Road to Arizona 4

Departed Grand Rapids; Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at 6:40am

The Road to Arizona

100 miles South of Chicago I stopped for gas …  and beef jerky.  Exiting I-55, WALLY’S edifice loomed like the Disneyworld of gas stops.

A plump-ish guy behind WALLY’s checkout counter, 30-ish, wearing his WALLY’S mask said, “Hi,” as I entered.

“Never been to a WALLY’S,” I said.
“This is our very first WALLY’S, just opened last week

Wally’s is Crate & Barrel shopping-curious to me; I couldn’t stop looking at stuff for sale.  At the Beef Jerky bar, WALLY chefs sorted fresh cooked jerky emerging from the WALLY oven.  WALLY coffee is named after Indonesian islands. I presented my WALLY goods on the check-out counter.

     “Jerky Teriyaki,” the plump WALLY-guy said, “Can’t keep that in stock.”

Back on the road, a train pulling maybe 1,000 cars, double-stacked was railing North alongside I-55 as I drove South.

There is a lot of flat, tilled Ag land in middle America.

I turned West at Litchfield, Illinois – leaving Interstate 55. 

Two-lane country roads lead me 45 miles to Drifter’s Bar, on the river bank where the Illinois River merges with the Mississippi. It was my day; Sierra Nevada was on tap. Out Drifter’s back door, on a raised deck, three old guys, 60-ish, dressed in denim, sipped beer. They ignored the rivers flowing by, while analyzing risk/loss of accepting their employers $10,000 pension cash out offer versus an annuity payment of $1,000 a year for life. 

            One of the analysts asked, “If we die, do our wives get the annuity?” 
            None of fellows had an answer.

My afternoon objective was the Grafton-to-Alton 15-mile Scenic Drive.  The sandstone banks of the Mississippi rise 300 feet along this drive.  Along the route, I followed a sign up a narrow drive to Tara Point.  Fabulous north/south overlook of the Mississippi River.

Overnight in St. Charles, Missouri – embarkation point for Lewis & Clark.  Found Schafly Bankside brewpub!

Lake of the Ozarks tomorrow.

Slept:            Radisson Country Inn, St. Charles (Historic District), Missouri
Dinner:         Schafly Bankside brewpub (take-out)

Day 2 – Thursday, April 8, 2021

Original Route 66 continues to be celebrated on the road to Joplin, Missouri

Gas used to be cheaper. Gary’s Gay Parita Sinclair Gas Station replica, Everton, Missouri


Slept:           Passed on Boots Motel, Carthage, Missouri
                     Alternative #1, Holiday Inn Express, Joplin, Missouri
Dinner:        Outback Steak

Day 3 – Friday, April 9, 2021

Departed Joplin, Missouri at 8 am. Roadside government sign alongside I-44 just West of the Oklahoma state line read ENTERING THE CHEROKEE NATION.  The Cherokee still operate Trading Posts along the interstate.

Cherokee Trading Post, Oklahoma

An I-44 billboard outside Oologah, Oklahoma claims Will Rogers as their native son.

West of Tulsa the speed limit on I-44 changed to 80 MPH.

In Garth Brooks hometown, Oklahoma City, OK, every standing structure claimed Garth.  A section of Interstate 44 is Garth Brooks Parkway.

Garth signage far surpasses Will Rogers signage.





Winds sustained at 60 MPH, per the 6 pm TV news in Amarillo, Texas, blew across western Oklahoma early afternoon.  This Northerly blast lifted Oklahoma topsoil, carrying the dust towards Mexico; apparently leaving the Sooners little hope of a successful planting season. This has happened previously.

Old Route 66, USA highway to the west coast, runs just 100 feet alongside today’s I-40.  I exit I-40, drive Old Route 66 for several miles through the rolling hills of central Oklahoma.

Expect by tomorrow I’ll see hard-luck Okies walking towards Bakersfield, California pulling their goods in wagons.

Slept:           My Place motel, Amarillo, Texas (elevation 3,605’)
Dinner:        Saltgrass Steakhouse

DAY 4 – Saturday, April 10, 2021

Palo Duro Canyon, 2nd largest canyon in USA (Grand Canyon #1) lies 30 miles South of Amarillo, Texas, down I-27.  Texas State Parks charge me $8 to enter and drive the 16-mile loop through the floor of the Palo Duro Canyon.  Cowboy movie scenery.

Texas extends 50 miles West of Amarillo; leading into New Mexico.  On the drive I’m looking north and south until Texas curves over the horizon – seeing endless flat, scrub land.  A cattle watering station fed by a windmill pump, a bunk house at least 5 miles off Interstate 40.

Destination Tucumcari, New Mexico, population 5,000, a Route 66 tribute.  Motel Safari, 1950’s throwback, has spotless rooms.  Larry, the owner, has my in-room, 1950-style radio playing the Route 66 streaming channel.


Billboards featuring Burma Shave and Camel cigarettes line Motel Safari’s terrace.  At Tucumcari Grocery, I restock the cooler in my trunk with Dos Sequis and ice.  My afternoon is set.    


Slept:           Motel Safari, Tucumcari, New Mexico (elevation 4,091’)
Dinner:        Del’s Restaurant (take-out)

Day 5 – Sunday, April 11, 2021

Slept:      Holiday Inn Express Airport, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Dinner:   El Patio de Albuquerque, Margarita wine, Green Chile stew takeout

DAY 6 – Monday, April 12, 2021

20 miles West of Albuquerque the sun is rising behind me.  30 minutes later on the north side of I-40 the sign fronting Dancing Eagle Casino, visible to all drivers, reads,

ONLY NEW MEXICANS ALLOWED

Should make social distancing an easy achievement.

Exiting I-40 at Holbrook, Arizona, just past The Wigwam Motel, State Road 377, a/k/a the Hash Knife Pony Express Trail, offers a two-lane shortcut to Mesa, AZ. No shoulder, no speed limit, no adjacent train tracks, can’t even see a mountain – just the Arizona high desert.

50 miles South along Hash Knife Pony Express Trail, the road begins to rise; up to 7,500 feet into Tonto National Forest – Kemosabe. The temp drops, desert scrub is replaced by Ponderosa Pine, 80 feet tall.  

An official Arizona road sign portrays horses potentially galloping across Hash Knife Trail. Ten miles further, still in the low mountains of Tonto National Forest, 8 wild horses graze just off the highway.

My ears start popping as Mesa and the Phoenix valley come into sight. 

I’m thirsty.

Slept:            Embassy Suites, Scottsdale, 4415 E. Paradise Village Pkwy,
Dinner:         Whole Foods Deli (take-out), preceded by an OHSO beer
Cigar:            Byron, $36 from Ambassador Fine Cigars

Day 7 – Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Heading towards the Mexican border via Tucson, Tombstone.  Hope to see THE WALL.  Maybe spot a Mexican Jumping Bean coming over the top. 

Slept:           Letson Loft Hotel, Bisbee, Arizona (elevation 5,538’)
Dinner:        Contessa’s Cantina (Posole, Margarita)

Day 8 – Wednesday, April 14, 2021

A two-lane road leads past the shuttered Phelps Dodge Copper pit; a strip-mined relic last operated in 1975.  The drive south from Bisbee, Arizona to Naco, a city shared by the USA and Mexico, is 8 miles.

The road into Naco gently down-slopes. From 2 miles north of the Mexican border, THE WALL looms on the horizon.  Black steel rising 40 feet – visible east and west as far as sight allows.

Naco, Arizona is less than a village; streets barely paved with thin, worn asphalt.  Rotting car carcasses decorate the yards of the 80 or so local hovels.  Mexican-looking kids walk the streets between home-and-school. A five-minute sample of Naco, Arizona is enough.

Re-track back through Bisbee; a Cowboy town, a Western movie town.  Low mountains contain Bisbee.  First world refugees that couldn’t locate Alaska, populate Bisbee.  Tequila rules, it is the featured happy hour beverage.  Bisbee lies 20 miles south of Tombstone, Arizona. 

Tucson is 80 miles to the north.  No livestock to be seen along the Bisbee-Tucson route – just parched Arizona high desert stretching to the horizon.

Slept:            Hotel (motel) McCoy, Tucson, Arizona
Dinner:          Guadalajara Grill “Tucson’s Best Guacamole”

Day 9 – Thursday, April 15, 2021

Hotel McCoy is not a hotel, it’s a MOTEL – Tucson in the 1950’s. 

The Hotel/Motel McCoy receptionist slides my room key across her counter, then pushes a chilled, blond lager towards me.

“Free when you check in,” she says.  My kind of place.
“Want to try Arizona white wine,” she asks?

HOTEL McCOY advertises, NO ELEVATORS, FREE ROOM-FRONT PARKING, EXTERIOR CORRIDORS.

Entrance to Hotel McCoy, downtown Tucson

Seen from Interstate-10, downtown Tucson, Arizona.


                                                                                     

Slept:            Hotel McCoy, Tucson, Arizona
Dinner:         Sullivan’s Steakhouse
Cigar:           Anthony’s Cigar Emporium (BYOB), 4419 N Campbell Ave, Tucson

Days 10 – 11, Friday, Saturday, April 16 -17

Slept:           Hilton Airport, Phoenix, AZ
                     Hampton Inn & Suites, N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ

Dinner:       PV Pie & Wine, East Shea Blvd, Scottsdale (An OHSO venue)
                     Capital Grill (take-out)

Beverages:  OHSO N. Tatum Blvd, OHSO N. Hayden Rd.

Day 12 – Sunday, April 18, 2021

The HASSAYAMPA INN, downtown Prescott, AZ, constructed in 1927, is the place to overnight. Named for the nearby HASSAYAMPA RIVER. Legend is that anyone who drinks from the Hassayampa River never again tells the truth.

Those who drink its waters bright
Red man, white man, boor or knight,
Girls or women, boys or men
Never tell the truth again.

Notable guests at Prescott’s HASSAYAMPA Inn include Will Rogers, Clark Gable, Steve McQueen and Tom Lane. 

Whiskey Row, a block of saloons, serves as Prescott’s center point.  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday drank with Wyatt’s brother Virgil (Prescott constable) preferring The Palace Saloon. 

Along Interstate-17 in the Arizona high desert heading North towards Flagstaff, Arizona several “flat-top” mountains rise up.  Tapping the steering wheel to Van Halen’s JUMP, I analyze the young Indian “buffalo runner” leading the bison herd toward and over the high edge.

Was the BUFFALO JUMP launched from a BUTTE, or was it a MESA?

This is a BUTTE

 A BUTTE is taller than wide

 A MESA IS wider than tall. 

This is a MESA

Slept:            Hassayampa Inn, Prescott, Arizona (elevation 5,367’)
Dinner:         Hassayampa Inn bar
Cigar:           Hassayampa Inn terrace feat. propane heat lamps (40 degrees)

DAY 13 – Monday, April 19, 2021

Red Rock Scenic Highway, Arizona 197, leads South from Sedona. Traffic is bumper-to-bumper.  The 35 MPH max speed limits damage.  Vaccinated America is on the road.

I drain my noon Tucson Blond lager at the ShoreBird Bar in Sedona.  I spin off my barstool.  Five Navajo Indians sit at a nearby table; all morose, winkled, scrawny.  Four squaws, one brave, heads bowed, mourning some shared agony. Three squaws pat the shoulder of the 4th.

In my mind, I approach their table with a tear in my eye, 72 years old, wise.

“Wounded Knee,” I say.  But I don’t, I just walk by their table.

Arizona Highway 89A leaving Sedona (4,350 ft elevation) rises up going North through Jerome, Arizona and into Flagstaff (6,909 ft elevation).  No shoulder lines the two-lane asphalt 89A.  At 8,000 feet, just a potential plunge thousands of feet down beautiful red rock cliffs.

In Flagstaff, Majerle’s Bar anchors downtown Route 66.  A real tall guy sits down at a nearby bar stool.

“You an owner?” I ask.
“Family,” he replies, “Jeff Majerle.”
“Did you play basketball for Coach Jon Constant at TC Central”
“Yup,” he says.

Dan Majerle has 3 Arizona bars, down from six when he was playing pro basketball for the Phoenix Suns (by way of Traverse City Central, Central Michigan University).

Slept:            Radisson Country Inn, Flagstaff, Arizona (elevation 6,909’)
Dinner:         Outback Steakhouse

DAY 14 – Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Vaccinated America is lined-up 40 cars deep at the entrance to Grand Canyon.  Processing into the National Park requires 45 minutes: Cover charge; $35/car.

Peering down and across The Canyon from the South Ridge, elevation 7,000 feet; Stunning.

Walking the South Rim path, I’m within feet of cliffs dropping 5,000 feet – lots of the path has no restrictive fencing. 

On the National Park South Rim path, I’m dizzy, clutching a branch on a scrub tree and gauging my pulse.  A guy my age steps off the paved path, to the South Rim edge; peers over.  I grow even dizzier.

On ledges jutting out from the South Rim, extending far off the National Park path, crazy people have found foot-holds – billy-goating out on rock ledges, next step down, the Colorado River (notice guy in red shirt, top of photo).

Highway Arizona 64, heads East from Grand Canyon’s Visitor Center, a 25-mile drive, the entire drive within the National Park, along the Canyon’s South Rim.  In several spots along A-64, the driver’s view of The Canyon is unobstructed; Dizzy.

Desert View Watchtower, the Eastern gate provides a last “stunning” lookout over The Canyon.

     A nearby National Park Guide says, “Some visitors hike all the way to the canyon’s bottom, 6 hours down.”  She continues, “Then they try to hike back to the top, 8 to 12 hours.”
     A voice in her tour calls out, “That hiker is running out of daylight.”
     “We rescue about 6,000 people each year who can’t make it back up before dark.”

Departing Grand Canyon’s East Gate, the 35-mile drive into Cameron, Arizona on Highway 64 is “stunning.”  Grand Canyon tributary canyons carve through Eastern Arizona high desert.  I pull into a clapboard Navajo Co-op.  Sign says, BUFFALO BEEF JERKY.  Navajo’s do not make good beef jerky.

Winslow, Arizona is 2-hour, 30-minute drive SE.

The Grand Canyon alone, was worth this Road Trip.

Slept:          Best Western Plus, Winslow, Arizona (elevation 4,850’)
Dinner:        La Posada

DAY 15 – Wednesday, April 21

Inside La Posada, the Turquoise Room, a first-class restaurant – with an acceptable bar offers excellent Margarita’s.  La Posada’s backyard is the primary rail yard for all East/West rail traffic crossing the Northern Arizona desert.

Winslow, Arizona, was once a hallowed stop on Route 66. Completion of Interstate 40 many years ago relegated Winslow to “almost forgotten.”  Abandoned motels, gas stations, storefronts line old Route 66.  With one exception; La Posada Hotel.

La Posada also serves as the Winslow, Arizona Amtrak Station.  Every other day Amtrak’s Chicago to LA train stops at the rear gate at La Posada at 5:40 am.  On alternative days Amtrak’s’ LA to Chicago train chugs to a stop at 8:50 pm.

Having consumed a La Posada Margarita, the two Best Things to Do in Winslow are:

  1. Take a photo of a tumbleweed rolling down Old Route 66.
  2. Take the exit to Interstate-40 heading either East or West.

Slept:           Inn of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico (elevation 7,199’)
Dinner:        La Choza; #1 New Mex. restaurant, Santa Fe Reporter (take-out)

Day 16 – Thursday, April 22

Slept:            The Brady house, Colorado Springs, CO (elevation 6,035’)

Days 17/18, Friday/Saturday, April 23/24 – 1,240 miles to Grand Rapids

Slept:           Townplace Suites by Marriott, Des Moines, Iowa
Dinner:        Flemings Steakhouse

Categories
Caribbean St. John, USVI; Estate Lindholm

St. John USVI – Estate Lindholm

Boutique Hotel, St. John US Virgin Island

Morning #1, an animated man, eyes focused, addresses a couple at a table

15 feet distant across the 17th century stone patio. The speaker is seated one step outside the Breakfast room entrance at Estate Lindholm.  A pergola canopy shades the man.  I’m arriving late, the conversation concerns recent events on the US Virgin Island of St. John. The narrator concludes, approaches me.

“I’m Brion,” he says, “This is Laney.”  The woman sharing his table nods.
He points towards his guests, “These folks are . . .”

Estate Lindholm Christmas Palm

The proprietor of Estate Lindholm has included me in his morning group. Assessing his concierge responsibilities, Brion Morrisette assumes the role of conductor.  He digests the questions of Estate Lindholm guests, gauges the underlying curiosity of their island inquiries, then provides guidance for their Virgin Island day.

Brion’s census kicks-off around 8 am from a table just outside the “Breakfast” room.  A room that morphs into an Honor Bar at 10 am.

Quote from Owner

30 minutes ago, the sun set.  Seated on terrace of Estate Lindholm, the lights of St. Thomas twinkle. Brion Morrisette (Nicole’s father), steps out of the Caribbean dark, just like the Green Hornet on a night mission.  Brion is bare chested, invigorated.

“Hi, beautiful isn’t it?” Brion (Nicole’s father) says.

I ask, “What have you been doing?”

“Just finished my evening workout,” Brion says, “Ran the Lind Point Trail.” He seats himself, “Mind if I join you?”

Brion Morrisette (Nicole’s father) is the host/proprietor of Estate Lindholm. The hotel was launched by his parents, as a young man Brion was educated as an archeologist, then later as a lawyer.  Both certifications achieved while contributing to Estate Lindholm’s destiny.  Somehow, he found time to train and compete in the 1984 LA Olympics, representing the US Virgin Islands in the pole vault.  At a height of 17 feet, six inches, Brion was challenging the limits of the pole vault ceiling.  

Why this place appeals to me

Arriving in St. John at Cruz Bay ferry dock, I dial Estate Lindholm.

        “Hi, this is Nicole (Brion’s daughter).” Nicole advises me the Dolphin Market, a two-block walk from the ferry dock will satisfy my provisioning needs; beer, rum, wine.
        “Call me when you’re done, I’ll pick you up,” Nicole says.

Nicole Morrissette (Brion’s daughter) waves me towards her SUV. I grunt under the weight of my double-bagged provisions as I test each step leading down, outside Dolphin Market’s front door.  Estate Lindholm is only half a mile away, but the last leg rises 500 feet uphill.

              “Thanks for the ride, Nicole.”

Flamboyant tree at Estate Lindholm

  • Freshwater pool – deep point five and a half feet, 
  • A continuously operating 20-gallon ice machine,  
  • Back-up booze on display at Estate Lindholm’s Honor Bar, 
  • Back-up cold beer, available for the taking by signature,
  • Room deck includes two rocking chairs and a table with two upright chairs,
  • Caribbean roosters to call me awake, advise of Caribbean dawn at 6 am.
  • Children are discouraged. 

The first ferry of each day departs Cruz Bay heading to Red Hook at 6 am.  A single horn blast announces embarkation.  The ferry’s toot ricochets across the still water in Cruz Bay; alerting residents of the harbor town that day has begun.

How Far Down the Block? 

Descending the Delta 757, arriving passengers are led into a gauntlet of greeters wearing white lab coats at St. Thomas airport.  The US Virgin Islands require incoming visitors to demonstrate a negative Covid-19 test and upload the information on the USVI internet web portal.

I had completed all visitor requirements before arrival. 

“We don’t have a record of your information,” the compliance official said, “Nothing has arrived.” 

Cell phones wave with proof of negative Covid-19 tests, lab attendants nod, the incoming VI vacationers are gestured through the Covid checkpoint and herded towards the airport taxi stand. St. John is reached via ferry from the port of Red Hook, St. Thomas – a 30 minute cab ride from the airport.

TO JEEP OR NOT TO JEEP?  An Estate Lindholm dilemma!  Rental vehicles cost $80+/day. Estate Lindholm offers free on-site parking for your rented jeep.  Do you want to stay on property, or to explore St. John?

The short walk from Estate Lindholm into Cruz Bay descends 500 feet down North Shore road. Easy.  Returning to Estate Lindholm on foot, its hot, even minimal baggage grows heavy.  The road has no shoulder.  After dark, an island newbie has, perhaps, a 35% chance of making the Estate Lindholm finish line.  Walk down the hill, taxi up the hill.

Rent a jeep for one day, taxi about the other days.

Why you might be nearby?

St. John has a unique personality.  If you’re visiting St. Thomas, you’ll be tempted to ferry over to St. John.

Lesser Known Facts      

In parts of the Caribbean, male tree frogs entertain when it’s dark.  St. John tree frogs sing to attract females. A few sing when its dry; but lots of frogs sing after a warm tropical shower.  Tree frogs are difficult to spot, less than an inch long and tan, they blend with Estate Lindholm’s tropical camouflage. Tree frog crooning is distinct and respectfully timed.  When a froggy joins his singing mates, he waits courteously until no other frog is vocalizing.

The “joiner” takes over that “unused” music slot – forming a RAT PACK of frogs who bounce musical notes back and forth amongst St. John palm trees; sometimes in harmony, sometimes in challenge, while eye-trolling the night for amused female admirers. They jostle notes in sequence.  Picture Sammy Davis Jr. joining Dean and Frank mid-performance. 

Minimal evidence remains from the back-to-back hurricanes that battered St. John in 2017.

Local Recommendation     

At The Landing, an open-air dining/drinking venue facing the Ferry Dock, an aging, white guy strums a guitar.  His partner, a Black woman, sings.  He wears a baseball cap featuring the old English D of my Detroit Tigers. 

        “Mark,” he tells me his name. We talk Detroit Tigers before he launches his next tune. 
        “Came down to St. John around 1985, kind of stayed.”

He hits a couple of notes, I retreat to listening distance.  Caribbean islands attract folks who sometimes forget to go home. Refugees having escaped the shackles of the first world.

Cruz Bay dining offers, 6-8 great choices.  All casual wear.  For lunch, Cruz Bay has 3 local restaurants along the shore just south of the ferry dock, where you can alternate between sips, bites and plunge in in the waters of the bay.  Absolutely no incoming swells to battle.  Six steps into Cruz Bay the water is chest high.

Cruzan Rum, produced on St. Croix. US Virgin Island; Heineken beer delivered by Dutch traders; Presidente beer compliments of the Dominican Republic.

Something for Nothing    

Breakfast (included) begins around 7 am, served within the first floor “Honor Bar” room.  Coffee is ready even earlier.

Snorkeling from the beach on a Caribbean island requires precise execution.  Bring a beach chair; Estate Lindholm provides Tommy Bahama fold-outs, easily portered by shoulder strap.  The beach chair is essential for post-snorkel CARIBBEAN MEDITATION – thinking about nothing while staring at the horizon.

Bring a four-beer, soft cooler (provided in-room at Estate Lindholm). Pack the cooler with ice from Estate Lindholm’s 20-gallon ice machine, place two soft koozies atop the ice.  Caribbean Meditation cannot be achieved with “salty mouth”. 

Drape your Estate Lindholm beach towel over the cooler; prolonging ice life. Enter the ocean via a sandy shore with a gentle grade, resist the temptation to leap from promising rock ledge down the beach.

Stare at the horizon.

Categories
Miami River, an afternoon

The Miami River

Mouth of the River
The mouth of the Miami River

Draining, barely draining, from within South Florida’s Everglades, the Miami River forms near Miami Airport.  The river trickles east six miles through downtown Miami.  Flowing into Biscayne Bay, the Miami is a natural river, once home-ground to Tequesta Indians.

Shellfish were the Tequesta’s food of choice on date night.  Not clams, oysters or conch – of which there was plenty along the Miami River, rather turtle and snail.

In the 1890’s Florida was invaded by the railroad.  The Miami was dredged, bridged, commercialized and, by the 1950’s, polluted – all the way to its mouth; Biscayne Bay. The Tequesta were history.

Why this place appeals to me

Escape from downtown Miami’s touristy Bayside Market is an easy walk South through Bayfront Park.  Pick up the Miami Riverwalk.  Keep heading South, Miami Riverwalk curves west along the bank of the Miami River.  At the mouth of the Miami commercial ocean-going vessels destined for Caribbean Islands are being towed into Biscayne Bay, then released and trusted to self-navigate

The Miami River serves as the North border to Miami’s “Financial District,” Brickell Avenue.  South Florida wannabee financiers dubbed Brickell Avenue “Wall Street South.”  It’s not.  It is “South America Wealth North.” Spanish is the preferred tongue along Brickell Ave.  Spanish is often the sole language spoken by cabbies and UBER pilots.

Upriver the Miami brushes the North boundary of Little Havana.  From Brickell Ave it’s a 10-minute car trip to the music of Calle Ocho.

How Far Down the Block, or River?  

It’s Saturday 1 pm.  Time-out – Il Gabbiano (the Seagull) at the mouth of the Miami River is a worthy option.  But we’re going local, Down The Block. Or rather, Up The River.

Lunch is an old-school Miami mainstay, Garcia’s Seafood. A 1.5-mile stroll up the Miami River from Biscayne Bay.  After lunch, next door to Garcia’s a relative newcomer to the Miami’s dining scene awaits; Kiki on the River.

Why you might be nearby?

Garcia’s Seafood

A.  Absorbing the all-day music thumping from within Ball & Chain in Little Havana.

B.  Confirming payment on an undisclosed South American business transaction at Banco do Brasil Americas, 1221 Brickell Ave. office.

C.  Gaging behavior at Miami’s new hot spot along the river, Riverside, 120,000-square-feet of hedonism.

D. Brickell City Centre; landlord to SAKS, TED Baker, Coach and their retail cousins has occupied your morning. The North/South sidewalk along S. Miami Avenue, leads you 500 feet north towards the Miami River.

Lesser Known Facts   

The Miami is a River of Exports; 75 percent of the cargo floating downriver is tagged for foreign shores.

The goods are being transported to the Caribbean; the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas. Only shallow draft commercial vessels can navigate the Miami River. Shallow draft is required to slip-in, dock and tie-up in many Caribbean harbors.

Local Recommendation    

Garcia’s Seafood smells a bit fishy.  Comforting since the patio seats are right on the river.

On the deck at Garcia’s Seafood

The seafood market, as you step through the front door, stuns with a selection of shiny claws and colorful creatures with fins.

Former guests and the Garcia Family are celebrated with pictures nearly every wall.

The downstairs/outdoor seating area, just behind the fish market, features wooden picnic tables, properly aged. Upstairs is only slightly more refined.

“My father, when he got here from Cuba, he didn’t know anything other than fishing,” explains the current Garcia overseer.  GOOD START.  The Garcia’s contract their own fleet of fishing boats.  Thus, FRESH is the seafood in both the market and the restaurant.

Garcia’s Seafood on the Miami River

Settle your tab at Garcia’s Seafood.  Out the front door, 200 feet north on the bank of the Miami River lies Kiki on the River.

Kiki On The River

Kiki parties all-day on Sunday – a tribute to the Sunday Soiree at Miami Beach’s Raleigh Hotel back in the day. Kiki’s isn’t priced as a “local hangout” – their signature cocktails cost $17.

Kiki on the River, dining area

Kiki’s allows a lenient outdoor smoking policy, perhaps defined as “South American.”  At the riverside bar, a slick-dressed, russet-skin fellow has a lady on each arm.  All three smoking cigars.

Eight elegant Spanish nymphs, each wearing white, chatter in Spanish around a square table.  Their apparel du jour, head-turning suggestions from the pages of Vogue.  Each top designed with a cleavage-relief plunge.  I wanted to wait their table.  

Next to me, at Kiki’s bar, the woman said, “You’re staring at that table.”
“I’m not staring,” I replied, keeping my focus on the group of eight, “I’m ogling. Ogling is a higher form of observation.”

The woman winks at a 50-ish man seated around the L corner of Kiki’s bar. He dressed French Resistance-style, sporting a European two-day growth. The man speaks sottovoce into his cell phone

Something for Nothing  

   

1.  A Spanish language lesson Spanish with your UBER pilot.

2.  Miami’s free transportation: 1) Metromover, 2) City of Miami Trolley

3.  The pedestrian walking path that circumnavigates Brickell Key. South on Brickell Avenue from the Miami River, turn left (East) onto Brickell Key Drive.  On the east side of the 200-foot causeway bridge over Biscayne Bay, step down to the shoreside footpath.  If a walking loop of Brickell Key (or several) induce thirst, repair to the outdoor deck of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, or the patio at Brasserie Brickell Key.

Categories
Florida St. Pete downtown; Hollander Hotel

Hollander Hotel – downtown St. Pete

A hotel that causes me to smile

Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida – not the beach

421 4th Ave North Street

Why this place appeals to me

“The Hollander is old Florida,” says a guest sitting on the hotel’s front porch.  Old Florida? Maybe: The Hollander is stacked with once-upon-a-time stuff.  STUFF packs the lobby, hallways and rooms of the Hollander.

An 80-year-old wooden phone booth stands a few feet from the hotel’s Check-In desk in the lobby. 

     “Phone doesn’t work, but it generates conversation,” says Will the front desk clerk at The Hollander.”

The Hollander Hotel; hip? Boutique? Hard to classify, The Hollander simply causes me to SMILE as I roam the building and its contents from time past.

Built in 1933, just as Prohibition ended.  The basis for the original name is mystery.  The Hollander went through several reinventions; it was a Travelodge, then the Bond Hotel.  And then sat empty from 1990 until it came back to life in 2013 as downtown St. Pete’s boutique-ish, lodging venue; offering a spa, a coffee shop/bakery and a tap room.

A poster on the wall of The Hollander’s outdoor front deck proclaims,

  1933 prohibition finally ends

FREE NEWSPAPER ANY DAY THE SUN DOESN’T SHINE

I SMILE!

The wall of the stairwell connecting the lobby to the upper 3 floors is hung with images of earlier St. Pete.  Couples in the 1950’s, wearing 1950’s-style bathing suits, sitting in the sand under 1950’s beach umbrellas cause me to SMILE.

How Far Down the Block?   

st pete, pier, florida, tom lane, cigar, hollander, kerouac, vintage, boutique hotel
The Pier, downtown St. Pete in 1950’s

Expressway I-375 routes you onto 4th Avenue leading into downtown St. Pete.  The Hollander is on the corner of 4th Street North and 4th Avenue North; just a few hundred meters from I-375 merge point with 4th Ave.

The Hollander front porch is a magnet for lodging guests. Travelers share weather updates from home-base, almost always somewhere north.  I light a Macanudo cigar . . . and SMILE.

The Hollander is a timepiece of Florida history.  The wide veranda porch features padded, rattan chairs. Half of the porch hosts outdoor diners being catered by the staff from The Hollander Tap Room; the other half of the porch is seated by visitors that are chatting . . . and SMILING.

Hollander Hotel, front porch

Entering the front door of the lobby, the vintage-style front desk is evident. After checking in, I skip the elevator, choosing to walk up the stairs to my 3rd floor room. Hallway flooring is 2.5” maple strips installed during construction in 1933. The slats refinished lacquer-bright, featuring scars acquired over the past 80 years.  The wooden seams creak with every step.  I SMILE.

Creaking hallway

The Coffee Shop just past the Tap Room offers not only traditional French pastries, but Italian cannoli.  Cannoli make me SMILE.

On a Saturday morning, I step into the first floor Tap Room; the Hollander restaurant.  Brunch is featured on weekend mornings.  At the edge of the bar, a sign suggests a do-it-yourself Bloody Mary, almost a brunch itself – I SMILE.

Do-it-yourself

When the Hollander re-opened in 2013, the former glory and the name were both restored. It breaks the mold of the everyday branded chain hotel. How to describe?  Unshackled lodging?

Why you might be nearby?

St. Pete Beach is a 20-minute drive from the Hollander.  Four of Florida’s Top Ten Beach Bars, chosen by an annual vote conducted by FLORIDA Beach Bars web site, lie within walking distance of one-another at St. Pete Beach.  A Florida pub crawl, eminently do-able.

Lesser Known Facts      

The Hollander Hotel drips character, with non-uppity charm.  Rooms feel Florida-warm. I drift back.  Maybe to another era, or maybe just a decade.  The façade of hotel today, remains exactly the same as when constructed in 1933.  The Bonnie & Clyde era look causes me to SMILE

“The City of St. Peter” Florida was named in honor of St. Petersburg, Russia.  The name chosen by Russian-born railroad builder Piotr Dementyev (Peter Demens).

Jack Kerouac authored On The Road, his roaming-about-tale of travel on America’s newly paved highways of the 1950’s.  Kerouac owned a home in downtown St. Pete in the late 1960’s.

Television had highjacked Kerouac’s theme, creating Route 66 (1960–1964).  Weekly episodes followed two untethered young men “on the road” in a Corvette seeking adventure; jumping from temporary job to temporary job.

Town-by-town from Chicago to California the two protagonists, Buzz and Todd, roamed.  They bore a resemblance to Kerouac.  Kerouac, didn’t like TV’s Route 66. He felt the show’s creators had ripped off his On The Road.  Kerouac wanted to sue, but on October 20, 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida he lost his chance.  At 11 am that morning in St. Pete, Kerouac was sitting in his favorite chair drinking whiskey, chasing it with malt liquor, and working on another book.

He began to vomit blood. Blood transfusions later that day, failed.  Kerouac’s liver was failing, due to an untreated abdominal hemorrhage suffered in a bar fight several weeks earlier and aggravated by booze.  He died at 5:15 the following morning. Kerouac drank – a lot.

Local Recommendation   

Stroll downtown Beach Drive SE; the city side of Beach Drive is lined by the shops and watering holes.  Manicured city parks line the bay side of Beach Street. Late model luxury and vintage classic cars maintain an all-day parade.

Parkshore Grill, Beach Street, offers refuge under their sidewalk, tabletop, umbrellas.

Something for Nothing     

The Hollander provides free shuttle from hotel to downtown St. Pete; serving a 10-block area.

Free Shuttle

Parking at the Hollander is free. 

Every Saturday morning from October to May, St. Pete hosts a downtown farmer’s market in the parking lot at Al Lang Stadium, a half-mile walk from The Hollander.  Local vendors sell, fruits, foods, goods while live music plays.

6 pm Sunday evening, sitting on the Hollander’s outdoor front porch, piped-in music plays.  Will, the Hollander desk clerk of long standing, says,

     “In the morning, we play Petula Clark on Pandora throughout our public areas.  Afternoon is Debbie Harry.  Evening music here at The Hollander is Jack Johnson.  Do you like his music?”

I SMILE

Categories
The Streets of Old Havana

The Streets of Old Havana

tom lane, havana, cuba, cigars

Two Options

Walking the streets: two-hours, 3-miles, or
Driving the Streets; in a shiny pre-1960 vintage American car?

Both!

Why the streets of Havana appeal to me

Havana’s well-manicured public parks, line the streets.  History is on display along Caribbean waterfronts.  Spanish architecture dominates Havana, Cuba’s capital is not another “Caribbean town.”  Cuban music jumps out every block along the route.

Where Down the Block do we Start?

First let’s walk. 

Head north from the ferry terminal 200 meters. Pause on the harbor side of the walk at the base of O’Reilly Street, where it joins Ave Del Puerto Desamparados.  Walk away from the port, towards the city to Plaza de Armas.  Cross O’Reilly street into the grounds of Castillo de la Real Furza.

Exit the Castillo grounds on the harbor side. The Malecon walkway follows Havana’s channel.  Continue along the waterfront channel leading into/out of the port of Havana.  At the sea entrance to Havana’s channel, a lighthouse guards the east side of the entrance.

Shake your head, NO.  Wave off the drivers of the 1905 vintage cars as they patrol the boulevard, calling, “Tour of Havana?”  Driving the streets comes later.

Across Ave. Del Puerto Desamparados, on the city-side, is Park Luz Caballero, .35 miles. Next on Park Cespedes, .5 miles.  Ahead lies San Salvador Castle Point, you’ve walked .9 of a mile.

Approaching San Salvador, vintage car riders will be crossing the Entrance Channel via an underground tunnel.  On the NE side of the channel two forts and a lighthouse guard the port of Havana.

Reaching San Salvador Castle Point on foot, turn hard left. Paseo Marti is a marble pedestrian urban park that leads to Park Central, 1.6 miles, and the magnificent Capitolio, 1.8 miles.  Along the Paseo de Marti; the Royal Prison, Cuba’s Revolution Museum, Museum of Art.

Past Parque Central (heading south), continue to Partagas’ (cigar) factory/retail shop, just behind (west of) the Capitolio on Industria Street (Calle Industria), 2.0 miles.  Partagas retail sells all the major cigar brands produced in Cuba. Cigar Price is regulated in Cuba.  There is no advantage is seeking out a discount cigar vendor – they offer knock-off cigar brands.

Walk back to Parque Central (2.2. miles), grab a bench seat in the shade on this fabulous plaza.  Analyze your options; walk, ride.  Confused?  Take a break, enter the Hotel Parque Central. Ride the elevator to floor 8, the pool deck (no food service) for the view. Slake your thirst by repairing to Hotel Parque Central’s lobby bar. 

Outside Parque Central, a row of vintage cars stand ready to serve. Continue walking, or ride – still not certain? 

Head into the lobby of neighboring Gran Hotel Manzano Kempinski. Kempinski’s restaurant/bar on floor 6 overlooks all of Havana – while offering great nibbling/drinking options.  Settle in.  Food is pricy, drinks are not, $4 for Cuban beer.  Kempinski’s  6th floor with its 270-degree view, is not Communist Old Havana, but you can see it from here. Like everywhere in Havana, the 6th floor bar is cigar friendly.

Why you might not leave

My bartender Omar, from behind his altar on Kempinski’s 6th level bar, said, “This might be the best location for an after-dark beverage and cigar in all of Cuba.”  It was 7:30 pm, I was back; smoking a Montecristo #2, sipping a Bucanegra beer.

Omar was insightful.

Lesser Known Facts      

Havana Club Rum is sold in the USA by Bacardi.  In the rest of the world (Cuba), Havana Club is sold by Pernod and the Cuban government in a 50-50 venture.  Bacardi’s recipe differs from Pernod’s. 

The legal fight for rights to Havana Club brand continue

A Ron Collins (rum) cocktail may be a throw-back to your ancestors 1950’s parties, but it is still mixed and served in Havana.

Partagas’ cigar shop, two blocks from Parque Centrale offers all makes of Cuban cigars; Montecristo, Cohiba, Romeo & Julietta.

There are no beaches for swimming in Old Havana.

Local Recommendation    

You’re winding down on two hours embedded at the Gran Hotel Manana Kempinski 6th floor.

How to return to our Start Point walking the streets of Havana?

Slow, slightly downhill, one step at a time. Leaving the Hotel Kempinski, head east towards the port on Obispo Street.  

Skip Bar Floridita, a reputed favorite stop for Ernest Hemingway. Floridita is packed with tourists. The visiting interlopers slurp green, county-fair style, snow-cones the bar staff foists as daiquiris.  Fifty-plus icy, little green melters are lined atop Floridita’s bar in communist mock-tribute to America’s capitalistic production line efficiencies.     

Worthwhile pauses while walking down Obispos street:

Restaurant Europa, Obispo Street, Cuban jazz pulls you to their gate.

La Ruinas del Parque, the music plays all afternoon.

Restaurante 5 Sentidos, San Juan de Dios 67, a Cuban paladar. Found on the corner of Habana and Compostela, two block detour, north, halfway down Obispo.  Sample the octopus appetizer. 

Hotel Ambos Mundos; the caged elevator serving the lobby, delivers you to Ambos Mundos’ rooftop deck.

Something for Nothing 

My ranking

1.  The parks of Havana, well-manicured.

1.  The façade of Havana’s federal building; The CAPITOLIO. Perhaps the Caribbean’s most magnificent building.

1.  Parque Centrale, this plaza features a statue of Jose Marti.  Marti, organized and unified Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain.  The Marti name is a synonym for liberty throughout Latin America.

What about a Vintage Car Tour?

Jubal drove, I rode shotgun.  Inside Jubal’s fluorescent pink convertible, it was 1955.  Outside it was 9:30 am on a January, Monday morning in Old Havana.  The bench seats of Jubal’s Chevrolet Bel Air were covered with sturdy clear plastic, providing a wax-paper slide from steering column to passenger door as Jubal turned a corner.

I avoid bumping the manual gear shift jutting from the right-hand side of the steering column.  Jubal executes a classic 1950 style gear-shift from Reverse, through First, Second and Third;

Depress clutch, pull shift toward driver, yank down, lock, release clutch. Accelerate, clutch-in, lift shift, push forward, up and lock into 2nd gear.  3rd  gear is a straight down-slam, clutch out.  Who could forget learning to drive a stick shift? 

Jubal drove his 55’ Chevy convertible north along Avenue del Porto, leading seaward from Old Havana’s commercial harbor.

Jubal spoke little English, I speak no Spanish.  We were talking cars and politics.

     “Original engine,” Jubal shouted in English.

     “Incredible,” I replied in Italian, confusing Jubal and myself. 

Jubal wore a white, Boston Blacky style, hat.  Both of our heads from eyebrows up were above the blow line pushing over the wind shield.

Jubal turned left, heading down, into the Tunnel del la Habana, crossing the Canal de Entrada. Exiting on the east side of the port of Habana.  The slight centrifugal pull of the Chevy Bel Air’s left turn, slid me against the interior passenger door.

NO DOOR HANDLE!  Perfect, Jubal’s 55’ classic was tricked out for Friday night, Drive-In Movie, dating; no seat belts, lazy-Susan bench seats, no interior escape handle on the passenger side door.

     “Where you wan go?” Jubal asked. 

     “Anywhere,” I said to keep communication simple.  It was 80 degrees, no clouds. Havana streets ran thick with vintage Americana transportation.  Somewhere Cuban Bucanegra beer stood chilling.  So long as our 1955 Chevy Bel Air convertible didn’t lift off the ground and fly towards Florida seeking vehicular asylum, I was smiling and waving.

Jubal honked at the Havana residence of Che Guevara. He pulled his ride to a stop at a nearby park. 

     Jubal pointed, “Missile monument.” In the poster, Fidel pointed back.

     “Fidel say you coming to take our missiles, prepare for fight,” Jubal said. 

I nod, remembering 1963.

     Jubal said, “Biggest news in Cuba summer 1963.  Same in US?”

    “No,” I said, “2nd biggest.  Ed Sullivan announced the Beatles would be on his Sunday night TV show.” 

     Jubal looked sad, “Castro ban Beatle music here in Cuba, he say capitalist trick.”

Beatles music banned in Cuba?  Seemed to me John Lennon and his Beatles were a bit commie at times?

old havana
“Be prepared for battle”

We drove west along the Malecon towards Vedado.  Havana when constructed, was a European city.  The skeleton of the Spanish opulence can be traced, a black and white outline of a once-grand city.  Havana is not a Caribbean city.

Categories
Havana Plaza Vieja

Havana, Cuba – Plaza Vieja


– Quote from Owner

“Start at Plaza Vieja,” Carlos, my AirBnB host, said.  It was already 3 pm, I had just flown to Havana and was checking into my AirBnB room.  I had not even sipped my 3rd beer of the day yet.

“Plaza Vieja is our Old Square, there are several bars,” Carlos advised.

“Gracias Carlos, I’m out of here.”

Carlos called as the apartment door shut behind me, “Do you need anything else?”

Why this place appeals to me

Cigars, music, rum, vintage cars.

Cuban jazz was on my Havana to-do list.  Turning on San Ignacio street, guitars, drums and maracas lured me towards Plaza Vieja.  Music played everywhere

Slow-stepping the uneven cobblestone street fronting the bar Papa Ernesto, a Cuban gentleman with a Cuban-style hat sat with a friend.  The Cuban tipped his rum and coke towards me.  He pointed at the COHIBA cigar extending from my shirt pocket. 

Carlos, my host, told me his previous guest at my AirBnB left behind an entire box of Cohiba cigars.  Help yourself, Carlos said to me.  Carlos’ previous guest left behind a $750 box of Cohiba cigars in an AirBnB room that rented for $55/night?  Fuzzy math; these forgotten COHIBA’s required certification of authenticity.

“You like cigars?” the Cuban man asked me.  He waved his rum drink again.

I handed my gift Cohiba to the drinking man wearing his Cuban hat, “I like real real Cohiba cigars.”

“I sell cigars,” the Cuban man said, accepting my Cohiba.  He inspected the label, “Your cigar is garbage, no good.”

Plaza Vieja, in the heart of Old Havana.  Once upon a time home base for Havana’s wealthiest citizens.  From their balconies Cuban aristocracy looked down on Plaza Vieja executions, cheered fiestas in Havana’s Old Square.

By 5 pm the corner of Plaza Vieja was alive, Café La Vitrola was serving tapas and Cuban jazz to patrons and gawkers.  I paid $2.50 at the Vitrola bar for my Heineken and wandered out the door into Plaza Vieja, gawking.

Plaza Vieja, La Vitrola, Saturday 5 pm

Turning slowly, I absorbed Plaza Vieja.   Cafe El Escorial, legendary coffee bar, offering history with croissants every morning on corner #2.  Café Bohemia; just beer, rum drinks – corner #3. Restaurant Santo Angel, quiet at 5 pm, corner #4.

A much-pondered sculpture centerpieces Plaza Vieja.  A Cuban rooster (COCK) of colossal dimensions, atop of which, a bald and naked lady (SENORITA) straddles, holding a gigantic fork (FORK). Plaza Vieja hums, begging me to return after dark. 

As dusk approaches I walk north on San Ignacio street.

How Far Down the Block? 

Why you might be nearby?

Along my route I turn west, up Obispo street, stopping outside Restaurante Europa, 5 blocks from Plaza Vieja.  Cuban jazz oozes from within Europa.  Me and other street gawkers are in Cuban Jazz Heaven. Surveying the crowd, I conclude Havana has no restrictions on where one can carry a drink.

Obispo street, 4 pm, Restaurante Europa

Step into the lobby at Hotel Ambos Mundos (4 blocks from Plaza Vieja), 153 Obispo street.  Beckon the caged elevator. The elevator attendant speaks perfect English. Ask to be delivered to the rooftop terrace.  Was the Ambos Mundos (translates BOTH WORLDS) really Hemingway’s hideout where he penned For Whom the Bell Tolls? 

The rooftop bar of Ambos Mundos, overlooks the port of Havana.  A Mojito is recommended.

Recommended

Down the block, on the corner of Lamparilla and San Ignacio, the waitress at restaurant San Ignacio 214, smiles me in.  “You can finish your cigar at the table senor.” 

Old Havana restaurants (paladars) are often known by their street number.  From inside 214 (2 blocks from Plaza Vieja), street traffic outside the open door entertains me.  My smiling waitress places a cigar-style ashtray in front of me. 

“Mojito,” I say.  San Ignacio 214 is a Cuban paladar.

Lesser Known Facts    

A Cuban paladar is a private enterprise restaurant, authorized by the Cuban government.  Paladars have a maximum of 12 seats, and a minimum of two employees, both employees must be family members of the homeowner.  Paladars offer Cuban home-cooking. 

AirBnB designated my room Casa Particular; a room in a house.  Similar to a B&B.  I shared an apartment with another couple, although I never encountered my house-mates during my three days in Havana. Carlos was my host.  Carlos arranged for a driver to meet me at the Jose Marti airport, and porter me to Old Havana in a black 1950-ISH Chevrolet for the 20-minute drive.

The US dollar is charged a 10% surtax at all exchange offices; in addition to the buy/sell spread.  The Euro, Canadian dollar are not subject to this 10% surcharge, so bring Euros’ if you have them.

Local Recommendation    

At 9 pm, I’ve returned to Plaza Vieja.  Eight musicians are throbbing Cuban jazz outside restaurant Santo Angel on the NE edge of semi-dark Plaza Vieja. 

Plaza Vieja, Santo Angel, 9 pm

On stage at Plaza Vieja’s Café Bohemio, seven female musicians are singing and playing Cuban.  I wander forth sipping Heineken and tapping my toes.

La Vitrola on the corner of San Ignacio, has a five-piece group swinging; music, food and drink are delivered by rhythmic staff.  Inside décor features memorabilia circa pre-Castro.  A 14” TV spools 1950’s black & white footage of life in Havana.

Havana Club rum is claimed by two producers; Pernad Ricard sells Havana Club worldwide – most of it in Cuba. Bacardí has legal rights to the brand name Havana Club in the US only. These two producers of Havana Club are locked in legal battle for worldwide rights; 60 years after the Havana Club brand name went up for grabs in the 1959 Cuban revolution.  The rum recipes are not the same.

Something for Nothing      

Music, music, music.

Categories
Cedar Key, the island Florida

Cedar Key

cedar key florida, hidden, gulf of mexico
Cedar Key, Dock Street at sunrise

Cedar Key, Florida

at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico

The final 20 mile stretch west on Florida State 24 leading into Cedar Key is constructed six feet above the tidal swamp surrounding each side of road.  There is no shoulder defining the raised road.  Gators, snakes and slithery swamp critters watch my car roll down the two lanes of asphalt; swamp creatures tortured by perpetual hunger.

How Far Down the Block? 

Way down the block.  Over an hour drive West of I-75, Florida’s migratory route from those fleeing winter in Midwest America. 

Why Few People Live in Cedar Key

Cedar Key suffered defeat and humiliation every time the local folk gave progress a try.

The Cedar Key watchtower was erected in 1801. Spanish invaders destroyed the watch tower in 1802.

The U.S army constructed Cedar Key’s fort, hospital and a holding pen for renegade Seminole Indians in 1841. The next year, 1842, a hurricane obliterated the fort and hospital in 1842.  The walls of the holding pen collapsed.  Freed Seminoles made a run for Florida’s interior, never to return to Cedar Key.

In 1861, a train from civilization chugged down the newly laid track into Cedar Key; linking the goods of the Confederate South to the “port” of Cedar key.  Two weeks later America’s Civil War was declared. Cedar Key volunteers boarded the new train, relocating to Jacksonville anticipating a glorious defense against a Union assault.

In early 1862 with the Cedar Key volunteers on guard in Jacksonville, the Union vessel Hatteras sailed around the Southern tip of Florida, drifted into Cedar Key, and torched every ship in harbor.  The Union men bombarded all rolling stock in Cedar Key’s rail yard.  Then the sailors aboard the Hatteras burned down every Cedar Key building.  Before departing, the Northerners destroyed all salt production equipment in Cedar Key.

John Muir, famous American naturalist, before nudist camps were invented, walked into Cedar Key late fall 1867.  Muir walked all the way from Kentucky to Cedar Key.  Why didn’t he take the train?  Maybe the train hadn’t been repaired since the Union’s 1862 destruction of Cedar Key’s railroad yard. 

Muir was a curious guy.  At 42 years of age, John married for the first time – then spent the next 11 years wandering the boondocks of Alaska, without Louise, his wife.

As Muir trudged the last miles through the bog surrounding Cedar Key, a malarial mosquito bit him.  He was dizzy as he walked into town. When Muir gained consciousness some days later, he rolled left and said to his bed-side attendant, “Fuck this place,” 

Later that week Muir boarded a sailing boat out of Cedar Key bound for Cuba … rum, cigars and dark-skin women.

In 1889, 33-year-old William W. Cottrell, a nasty man, was elected mayor of Cedar Key. Cottrell’s margin of victory 101 for, none opposed, may have been due to his threat to have his minions kill any citizen voting against him. Mayor Cottrell appointed himself inspector of Customs, a remunerative position as the gay 90’s launched in Cedar Key.

Mayor Cottrell was inept, as well as violent.  Particularly when drunk.

Cottrell installed his own band as Cedar Key law enforcement.  Personal privacy was disregarded. Drunken revelries by the Cottrell policemen would find townspeople routed from their homes and forced to dance though the streets of Cedar Key at gunpoint. 

In Washington, the Secretary of Treasury dispatched the sailing vessel McLANE to Cedar Key. His orders for the sailors aboard; arrest Mayor Cottrell; if he resists, shoot him.

The crew of the warship McLane arrived in Cedar Key armed. They began searching for the mayor.

Cottrell eluded capture, trekking North along the Suwanee River.  The cutter McLane stayed in Cedar Key; Mayor Billy made it overland to Alabama.

There he resumed his malevolent behavior.  November 5, he was arrested after a bout of drinking that led to a fight with a Montgomery, Alabama restaurateur. Upon release from jail, former mayor Billy Cottrell declared, “I’ll kill that sonofabitch Police Chief.” 

Adolph Gerald was the Chief of Police in Montgomery, Alabama.

At just past 11 a.m. the next morning, Chief Gerald spotted Billy riding his horse-drawn buggy. Billy Cottrell stepped from his carriage. Police Chief Gerald raised his double-barrel shotgun and shot Billy twice.  There Billy died.

“A BLOODY AND GHASTLY SPECTACLE,” reported the Montgomery Advertiser.

Six years after the McLANE sailors shot Cottrell dead, a September hurricane surged head-on into Cedar Key killing 100 people.  All the commercial buildings were knocked to the ground. That same December a fire destroyed all homes of Cedar Key.  By 1909 Cedar Keys oyster beds were exhausted.  The lighthouse on Cedar Key was abandoned in 1952.

I drove into Cedar Key doing 10 miles over the speed limit.  Jimmy Buffett (radio) and I were singing verse three of “Why don’t we get drunk . . . “

Why Cedar Key Appeals To Me

King Neptune Bar inside The Island Hotel has five bar stools, 4 were occupied.  Behind the bar, two celebrity photographs were pinned on the wall. 

Richard Boone, (Palladin, a 1950’s TV western); an ominous-looking man who spent mornings writing poetry in the lounge outside the Neptune Bar. Jimmy Buffett made a 1983 appearance.  Buffett strumming his six string was recalled in detail by our bartender; she was 12 years old in 1983.

The portrait of King Neptune above the bar, looked eerily like the actor Richard Harris, strung out on drugs. The creepy Island House Neptune was fondling three naked teenager girls. Not the sculpted bronze rendering of Neptune that towers above Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy.

A husband/wife drinking team from upstate New York and domiciled in Cedar Key for winter occupied bar stools #4 and #5 to my left.  “If you’re a writer,” he said, “Don’t tell no one about Cedar Key.”  He drained his longneck and said, “Don’t need more people here.”

At last count Cedar Key had a population of 600, down from 900 ten years earlier.

Why you might be nearby?

You were fishing out of the port of Crystal River, Florida, 20 miles south of Cedar Key, when a Gulf of Mexico hurricane capsized your boat.  You had your safety gear on; you blew ashore at Cedar Key.  There is no other reason you would be nearby.

Local Recommendation   

Cedar Key clam and oyster beds eventually came back.  It is the only seafood harvested locally.

On Dock Street, a sandbar reaching into the Gulf, several seafood shacks hang over the water.

“What are you having tonight?” asked Corintha from behind her bar at Steamers on Dock Street.

“What’s best?” I asked.

“Clam chowder and oysters, oysters from right here in Cedar Key.”

Two rooms upstairs, above Sugar Shack candy shop

Across Dock Street, the Sugar Shack candy store has two rooms for rent on the 2nd floor.  Each room has a couple of chairs on landing.  The landing faces west, overlooking the Cedar Key pier.  I brought a bottle of French red wine and didn’t tell anybody where I was.

Categories
Europe Ireland Sligo; Coach Lane, a restaurant

Sligo, Ireland – Coach Lane, a restaurant

Coach Lane, a restaurant
1-2 Lord Edward Street
Sligo, Ireland

Our chubby taxi driver collected us at The Park House B&B in Sligo.  The Irish/American relationship is uniquely intermingled. It seems every Irish person has either traveled to the USA, plans to travel to the USA, or has a family member who lives in the USA.

“Lived in the States, drove a horse carriage in Central Park in New York,” the smiling Irishman taxi-man said, “Trump was a pain, didn’t want any horses around his Plaza Hotel.  Said horses smelled bad.”

Ireland’s stiff drinking/driving regulations translate that one pint of strong beer may put the driver over the legal limit.

Sligo’s climate offers lots of precip and a narrow temperature range. The yearly mean temperature is 49. Rain is most frequent from October through January.  We visited in late October.  The high temp never reached 49.  The skies poured rain, the clouds spewed hail, the wind gusted at force five; gale strength.

Leprechauns, an Irish legend, were fairies of the Tuath Dé Danann, a supernatural tribe of gods.  In fable Leprechauns ruled as Ireland’s deities. The Adventure of Fergus describes leprechauns as mischievous cobblers, possessing great wealth.  If a mortal can capture a Leprechaun, he is rewarded three wishes.

If we could capture a Leprechaun; the rain would cease, the air would warm, the wind would still.

Our nightly quest in Sligo Town for food, drink, music . . . and a Leprechaun, required a taxi.

Quote from Owner

The Head waiter at Coach Lane arrived at our table as we finished the meal.

 “You inquired about traditional Irish music?  Tonight the music is playing at McGlynn’s or Earley’s,” he said.

Sligo lays claim to being the home of traditional Irish music.  The night of the week doesn’t matter – great traditional Irish music is played every night by Sligo musicians.  Often an impromptu band of merry-makers with “join in as you can” style as they pass the lead from one musician to the next.

Sligo pubs alternate which night they offer Trad music.  Sligo pubs featuring traditional Irish tunes nightly include McGarrigles, McGlynns, Shoot the Crows, the Journeyman, Earley’s Bar.

Why Coach Lane appeals to me

Donaghy’s bread arrives at your table first.  The loaf starts with garlic-cheese and progresses through pepper, tomato and olives.  Slather some of the raspberry-chili jam over the bread, drain a Guinness and prep for the main course.

The Donaghy philosophy, “Source ingredients locally, don’t compromise quality”.

Orla Donaghy, owner of Coach Lane, came by our table as the last of our wine was being sipped.  “We moved into the top floor when we purchased the building in 1994,” Orla said.

Orla and Andy Donaghy spent 10+ years in the USA, Andy serving as Executive Chef at Greenwich Country Club, Connecticut. 

Coach Lane, upstairs dining room

The Coach Lane building served as a hotel decades ago.  When Donaghy’s bought the building in 1994, they began stripping the interior.  Room by room renovations were completed.  Slowly the hotel/apartment” morphed. Donaghy’s Bar opened on the first floor – later the upstairs restaurant COACH LANE. Donaghy’s preserved a trickle of cash flow in the early years, only moving tenants as renovation began on each unit.

The mid-90’s transformation continued ten years.  Interior walls were stripped, exposing 19th century brick underneath.  Beautiful old brick, bonded poorly with decayed mortar.

A local Sligo artisan was chosen to restore the decayed mortar and salvage the 19th century brick.  Our group ran our fingers along the finished wall of Coach Lane – perfect.

Coach Lane was the name chosen by the Donaghy’s for the restaurant.  A small lane that runs parallel to the building once served as the carriage stop at the inn.

How Far Down the Block?  

While Coach Lane is centered in the middle of all the action in downtown Sligo, Sligo is 2.5-hour drive from Dublin’s’ airport.

Why you might be nearby?

Golf –links golf- brought us to County Sligo.  Four of golf’s most acclaimed links courses lie within a short drive of Sligo.

Rosses Point Golf Club; where Rory McIlroy won two West Ireland championships in his teen years.

Enniscrone Golf Club; a West Ireland design by Ireland’s revered golf course architect Eddie Hackett was celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2018.

Strandhill Golf Club, Sligo’s “other links course has 270 degree overlook of the North Atlantic Ocean from the clubhouse.

Carne Golf Links; Irish golf course architect Eddie Hackett’s final, dramatic gem.  Opened 1995, yet some links aficionados call it the best of the best. 

sligo, cairn, golf, ireland, county mayo, dining sligo, links, links golf,
The Caddie, an Irish Storyteller

Lesser Known Facts

Sligo in its Gallic form means “a land of shells.”  Maybe, down by the seashore.  But in town, Sligo is a place of traditional Irish music.  Pure Irish music.  Sligo Irish roots run deep.  Common Sligo surnames include; Gallagher, Brennan, MacGowan, Kelly, Gilmartin, Healy, Walsh, Hart, Feeney, MacDonagh, Loughlin, Connor, Conlon.

At last official count, Sligo had a population of 19,452.

Sligo is not the melting pot of Europe. 84% of Sligo residents declared themselves Roman Catholics.  9% admitted to being Prod or something else. 7% of those polled said, ”Bugger off – I’m not anything.”

Perhaps the rude 7% doesn’t believe, but it’s likely they are lapsed Catholics. So if we round-up for accounting purposes, and add-back those lapsed, almost 90% of Sligo’s residents are/were Irish Catholic.

In Sligo town, traditional Irish music is performed by Irish Catholics.

Local Recommendation

Earley’s Bar was our choice for traditional Irish music.

Teresa smiled at me as she unpacked her fiddler bow at Earley’s Bar.

“Hi,” she said with an Irish brogue.  “I’m just a beginner. Been playing at it for three years.”

The session began in a room just off the bar.  Declan was tapping the keys of his accordion, pacing the other eight traditional Irish musicians, when in walked a group of businessmen from the UK.  The tallest of the men unpacked a pipe instrument from his travel bag and took a stool in the midst of the Irish musicians.

One of our group, Larry the Dancing Dentist (video) sprang to his feet.  The visiting businessman started piping in unison and finished as the session’s featured soloist.  Our group banged the tables for more music and another pint of Irish brew.

Something for Nothing

The trails of Sligo.  The Ben Bulben Loop, is a 5 kilometer mountain trail tour.  Benbulben, County Sligo, Ireland, is part of the Dartry Mountains.  The geographic focus in “Yeats Country” is Ben Bulbin, rising 1,700 feet.

Categories
Belize; Limin' at lattitude 18 degrees Caribbean

BELIZE, Limin’ at 18 Degrees Lattitude

San Pedro, the beach, the road

Surviving on ceviche, living on borrowed time at 18 degrees latitude.

Walking the Beach Road

Sun sets at 5:15 pm local time on Ambergris Caye.  At 8 pm Thursday evening a couple hundred drinkers were whoopin’ it up beachside outside Wahoo’s Lounge. I kept walking past my destination restaurant towards the noise on the beach side of Wahoo’s.

Wahoo drinkers surrounded an oversized playpen set-up on the 50 foot stretch of sand that separates Wahoo’s from the sea.  In the middle of the playpen strutted a rooster, prancing atop a mat with squares numbered from 1 to 100.  Drinkers cheered the rooster’s each step, fluffing the side-netting – screaming for the rooster to deliver.

As I approached the ring, the nervous rooster almost chicken-shit right in the spot he stood inside his playpen.  A ringmaster shouted, “No good, mon.  He just take a leak.”  Half the crowd groaned, the other half began calling for the rooster to move; some re-fluffing the side-netting, some enticing the bird forward with a shake of their Belikin beer bottle.

I had stumbled into the famous Thursday Night Chicken Drop on Ambergris Caye.

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge

The rooster broke into a spin move, flapped his clipped wings (a balletic effort, rating a 10 on my CHICKEN DANCE scale) and . . . dumped.

“Number 27,” shouted the Ringmaster, “Please confirm Scoring Judge.” The Ringmaster looked upward at Wahoo’s overhung deck.

“Confirmed, number 27.” Shouted back a huge black man wearing a T-shirt lettered CHICKEN SECURITY.  The Chicken Security man hoisted his beer and said, “$100 dollars to the holder of number 27.”

There wasn’t a Rooster-booster in attendance that didn’t give a shit.

“That’s me,” roared an expat from England. “Next round for the house is on me.”

Couple of hundred beach drinkers erupted into cheer for the rooster and the Expat.

Dining local:  Estelle’s

Thirty minutes after the Chick Drop concluded, the roar again rose beachside at Wahoo’s Lounge.

“Another Drop,” I asked by waiter.  I was seated at the adjacent restaurant to Wahoo’s.

“No mon, that the crazy guy that get the coconut.”  The waiter pointed. A gaunt Rasta man was shimmying straight up a 30 foot royal palm anchored in the sand behind Wahoo’s Lounge.  8:30 pm on Thursday night.

“That Crazy Leo,” said my waiter, “He go for the coconuts. Some day he fall.”

IPhone cameras flickered below the palm tree as Crazy Leo reached the pinnacle and grabbed his coconuts.  I remained seated at my table under the deck at the neighboring Estelle’s Restaurant.  Could be another drop.

9 am Happy Hour.

My gas fueled golf cart chugged over the bridge connecting the South Island to the North Island of Ambergris Caye.  HAPPY HOUR BEGINS AT 9 am read the sign tacked to the utility pole.  Rain’s Rooftop Restaurant began earlier than most.

Then, up the road a half mile, another sign tacked to a utility pole advertised,  John’s Escape Bar, 7 AM Happy HOUR.

Click to enlarge photo

Palapa Bar on the Pier

Step off your bar stool and into the water.

Belikin Beer

Describe as a Euro Pale lager, Beer Advocates 2.98 rating translates as POOR.  Belikin beer’s  tagline is “The Beer of Belize”.  The name “Belikin” comes from the Maya language and means “Route to the East”.  For those counting, the alcohol  content is 4.8%.  Perhaps important if you start your beer day at Rain’s 9 am Happy Hour.

My beer rankings; #1 = Excellent, #2 = Very Good, #3 = Acceptable, #4 = Poor

Ranking upgrades can be earned if the beer is served

a) with a view of the sea and within sound of waves, b) at a beer temperature below 40 degrees and ambient temperature above 80, c) by an attractive woman in a swimsuit who smiles directly at me,   d) with a Jimmy Buffet tune in the background, or e) within 120 seconds from placing my beer request.

Each Belikin beer I sampled in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye rated excellent.  Disregard Beer Advocates 2.9 rating.

Kevin Bowen, is the third generation of a family of Belikin Beer bottlers.  Kevin manages Belize Brewing Company’s modern plant in Ladyville – the producer of Belikin Beer. The plant’s grounds also house Belize’s Coca Cola bottling plant and the Crystal Water bottling facility. Kevin’s grandfather started Crystal Bottling Works.  Kevin’s father,  Sir Barry, began brewing Belikin in 1971. To assure quality, Barry Bowen hired a brew master from Germany and bought  German equipment as well. Reinhard Häpp, brew master at Belize Brewing Company oversees brewing.

Ingredients included 100% high altitude pilsner malt.

My first sip of Belikin Beer reminded me of Stroh’s Beer – a Detroit regional brew that faded from the beer scene along with hippies as the 1960’s became the 1970’s.  Stroh’s was fire-brewed; with a distinct taste.  A taste I liked.  Belikin Beer tastes like it is fire-brewed.

Several years ago, the popular Sir Barry died when his Cessna plane he was piloting crashed on approach to San Pedro Town’s airport on Ambergris Caye.  Barry was only 64 years old.  Sir Barry Mansfield Bowen, 64, a seventh-generation Belizean, the country’s most prominent entrepreneur and one of Belize’s wealthiest men, a former Senator and financier of the People’s United Party, died February 26, 2010, in the crash of a private airplane he was piloting

Grocery Check-out

I thumped my Belikin Beer six-pack in front of the cashier.  He chinged his grocery store cash register – then palmed the bottle opener atop the register,

“Can I open one of those Belikin beers for you to drink,” he asked me.

Mestizo, the ancestry mixture of European and Amerindian is common in Belize. This grocery store Mestizo cashier must have been Irish/Amerindian.  Years of British rule have instilled a civility rarely experienced by visiting American tourists.  The responsible Irish ancestor must have been indentured by the British and released ashore in the British Honduras (Now Belize).

“Of course,” I replied to the cashier, attempting to act natural to a question never posed previously at the check-out counter.

He extended the cold Belikin beer towards me.

Click to enlarge photo

Marbucks

Morning coffee.  Located 1.5 miles north of the Bridge off the main road.  Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat: 7a – 3p, Thurs: 7a – 7:30p, Sun: 8a – 1p.

Marbucks also offers WINE DOWN THURSDAY , 4:30 til 7:30, wines by the glass, LIVE music & complimentary nibbles

Dining local:  Elvi’s Kitchen

Doña Elvia, Mrs. Elvia Staines, owns Elvi’s Kitchen – a distinguished Ambergris Caye dining destination.  Mrs. Staines, born in San Pedro, is an island Octogenarian . Mother of six children, Dona Elvia runs The Kitchen with her daughter Jennie Pinelo.

Elvi’s Kitchen started in the late 1970’s as a  ‘hole in the wall’ takeout.

“I have always loved to cook,” said Doña Elvia. “I decided to open a small takeout restaurant.”

This take-out window she operated underneath her house was tagged Elvi’s Burger Isle. Doña Elvia cooked and managed the kitchen with the help of her husband and three other employees. For five years, it was burgers only, finger-licking burgers. The Doña Elvia added to their menu.

First Belizean rice and beans, then more local dishes. She built two palapas (picture a Tiki Bar) underneath the long-standing flamboyant tree adjacent to her house. People could stop and have a bite to eat underneath the beautiful tree.” Doña Elvia changed the name Elvi’s Kitchen. The area underneath the flamboyant tree was enclosed.

Today, Elvi’s Kitchen has completely changed with a dining area, bar and waiting area. The dining area, underneath the famous flamboyant tree. Elvi’s Kitchen seafood menu which they have specialized in.

Elvi’s Kitchen is recognized for excellent food, distinct service by Sol y Luna Central American Guide Book as one of the best restaurants in Belize.

Flamboyant tree grows through the palm thatch roof of the sand floored dining room that was built three years ago. The same tree that has watched over Elvi’s diners for forty years.

Click to enlarge photo

Reef, Casa Caye’s San Pedro dog, is an aging German Shepherd.  Reef doesn’t care for drug dealers who shuffle their feet in the sand outside Caye Casa.  Reef’s owner says the dog can smell drugs and menacing people.

Ambergris Caye’s airport runway delivers incoming visitors in the center of San Pedro town.

Categories
Michigan Three Rivers, Sauganash Golf Course

Golf in Three Rivers, Michigan

Golf in Three Rivers, Michigan

Sauganash Country Club

61270 Lutz Rd Three Rivers, MI 49093
Web site:    www.golfsauganash.com

In the spring of 1936 Albert Warren Tillinghast, “Tillie” to his friends, stepped aboard the New York Central in New York City’s Grand Central Station.  The train transported Tillie to Detroit. He had been invited to assess a “re-do” of Oakland Hills Golf Course, the site of the next summer’s 1937 U.S. Open Golf Championship. Tillie, 60 years old, had just finished designing and constructing Bethpage, New York’s complex of golf courses – courses that changed public golf.

Tillie, wrapping up a one-hour tour of the Oakland Hills terrain, chugged towards the clubhouse in a chauffeured motorized golf carriage.  Club president Judge John P. O’Hara waited on the clubhouse steps.

“Well,” the Judge said, “We were proud to host the Open in 1924, but we want to show even better next year.”

 Tillie said, “This course needs nothing more to prepare it for next year’s Open.”

 Club president O’Hara said, “You designed Winged Foot, everything can be improved. Give us one great suggestion.”

 Tillie patted the cart twice and his driver motored off. He turned to Judge O’Hara, “What your golf course needs is to be left alone.”

 Judge O’Hara looked away, towards Oakland’s 18th green, “The U.S. Open must be golf’s ultimate test in 1937.”

 Tillie said, “Oakland Hills is one of the world’s finest golf courses, it will take one of the world’s finest golfers to win here.”

 Judge John O’Hara said, “Tillinghast, you’re rejecting a sizable fee for long trip to Michigan.”

 “Not a lost trip, Judge, got a re-do on the other side of your Michigan; little town known as Three Rivers. A nine-holer called Sauganash.  Judge, are the roads to Three Rivers paved all the way?”

 Judge O’Hara replied, “Hell, Tillinghast, I don’t even know where Three Rivers is.”

 – Quote from Owner

In 2016 a new owner group purchased Sauganash Country Club.  The course, a victim of golf’s economic malaise, had fallen into disrepair.  The managing member of the new group, Roger “Rocky” Rathburn led me to the first tee.

“Albert Warren Tillinghast designed the front nine of Sauganash,” Rocky said as he swung, launching his ball off the first tee.

“Who’s he?” I asked.

“Famous designer, U.S. Open courses. Golf Hall of Fame,” Rocky explained, “Wait til you see the course.  I’ll show you how we’ve brought Tillinghast’s nine holes back to life.”

Author Note:  December 26, 2017, Roger “Rocky” Rathburn, age 55 passed away tragically as he worked on course improvements at Sauganash Country Club.

Why this place appeals to me

Rocky Rathburn, Partner, maintenance, engineering
Rocky Rathburn, Partner, maintenance, engineering

Tillie’s front nine at Sauganash plays friendly at 3,001 yards.  Rocky Rathburn,  owner/guide, led our play.  Hole #2 is the single par 3 on Tillie’s front nine. Hole #6, the lone par 5 on Tillinghast’s front nine, is rated the toughest hole on the course.  Three of the par 4’s on the front nine play less than 300 yards. Sauganash was carved from farmland in 1924. Baltrusrol Golf Club, like Sauganash, opened as a 9-hole course built on farm land in 1922.  When Tillie arrived at Sauganash, Baltrusol was just weeks from hosting the 1936 U.S Open.

Sauganash currently charges $28 for 18 holes.

Tillie’s 1935 focus, the year before he came to Sauganash, was the design/construction Bethpage Black; the first public course to host a U.S. Open.  His presence at Sauganash in 1936 in the village of Three Rivers, Michigan was an event.

The river bank of Sauganash CC is where the Prairie River feeds into the St. Joseph River.  Rocky took aim with an imaginary shotgun at the Canadian goose defiling the 2nd tee.

“Bang, tomorrow morning you’re in my smoker,” Rocky said to the goose.

What golf legends teed it up at Sauganash CC? Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, may have been Tillie’s most prestigious design. When they hosted the 1929 U.S. Open,  Bobby Jones won.  Who played Sauganash’s front nine?

How Far Down the Block?
[mappress mapid=”17″]Two miles south of Three Rivers, Michigan. Grand Rapids is the closest airport with significant non-stop service is located 75 miles north.

Why you might be nearby?

If you’re in the Midwest for a fall football weekend, Notre Dame is 45 miles south,  Michigan State is an hour, 40 minute drive north, Western Michigan University is 40 minutes up US-131.

Kellogg produces cereal in Battle Creek, 45 miles north.  Whirlpool has plants and their headquarters all over St Joseph county, home base for Sauganash.

Lesser Known Facts

Sauganash Country Club winds over rolling terrain, hugging the point where the scenic Prairie River tributary joins the St. Joseph River that flows into Lake Michigan.  The new owner group has cleaned up the deadwood and scrub brush that for years hid Sauganash’s fairways from the waterways.

St. Joseph River from #12 fairway
St. Joseph River from #12 fairway

We paused on #13 as Rocky stopped by a pole barn to water twenty plants under his care. He described the resurrection of Sauganash’s greens.

When Tillie was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame, he was credited with designing, re-doing 265 golf courses.

Local Recommendation

The Round Barn Winery is located 48 miles due west towards Chicago, on the back road to Chicago from Sauganash.  They produce wine, craft beer – served with farm food grown on-site.

You’ll find Round Barn Winery at 9185 Union Pier Rd in Union Pier, MI 49129.

Something for Nothing

Wednesday is Stag Day at Sauganash CC; a tapped keg sits just inside the front door of the clubhouse.  A stack of red plastic cups lies within reach.  The Miller Lite is on the house on Wednesday for paying players.

After Labor Day in 2016 the greens fees were lowered to $15 for 18 holes.

Categories
Europe France Nice; Cote d’Azur, Bus #81,

Nice, France – Bus #81

Nice, France; The Cote d’Azur, Bus #81, cost 1 Euro, 50 centessime

Exploring European cities on the HOP ON, HOP OFF bus is great fun at a fair price.  Sometimes a public bus, always featuring the HOP ON/OFF option, expands the adventure.

In Nice, France the city center terminus for Bus #81 is Place Garibaldi, a transportation hub on the north boundary of Nice’s in-city attraction – Old Town (Vieux Ville).  Bus #81 makes thirty+ stops on its route along the Cote d’Azur, looping through Beaulie-Sur–Mer and twisting out the Cap Ferrat peninsula.  The final stop, Terminus de ligne (end of the line in French) is St. Jean Cap-Ferrat; the legendary winter home to characters popular in early cinema.  Palms, eucalyptus and citrus trees define the path of Bus #81.

Once aboard Bus #81, the first stop (Arret de bus) is the Port (Le Port), a square (Place) served by Brasseries and cafes.  Passengers step aboard, clutch the overhead hand rail, Bus #81 departs Le Port. Motoring East, coiling along cliffs to the left, pebble beaches below to the right.

Bus #81 slows to a stop at Arret de bus # 10; the Batterie, Princess Grace.  The doors open.  A few meters from the bus, steps lead down to the Mediterranean; to the Harbor Villefranche.  A voice only I can hear whispers in my left ear, “GET OFF HERE, GO EXPLORE.”  It’s the same voice that poorly advised me in my teenage years; a voice I hadn’t heard for many years. The bus doors silently fold close. On towards Cap Ferrat.

28 minutes since departing Nice; Arret de bus #18.  The sign on Boulevard Napoléon III advises this bus stop is MADONNE NOIRE.  The bus doors draw open, unveiling a descending path down Avenue Clemenceau to the Cote d’Azur promenade.  A uniformed waiter steps from a café delivering a pint of Kronenbourg 1664 blonde lager.  The voice to my left again, “GET OFF HERE.”  I’m still aboard as Bus #81 motors on.

Arret de bus #26, the Baie des Fourmis, a shaded pathway leads from the bus stop down to the beach, the Plage des Fourmis.  Several attractive women are sun bathing topless along the water’s edge.  I want to get off Bus #81, the voice says I should.  But I stay.

Passable means tolerable in French.  Passable is name of Arret de bus #30.  Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild built her palazzo next to Bus Stop #30 in 1905.  David Niven lived around the corner.  Here the Cap Ferrat peninsula is just a quarter mile wide – the Mediterranean is in view out both sides of

April afternoon, Paloma Beach on Cap Ferrat
April afternoon, Paloma Beach on Cap Ferrat

Bus #81.  Bus #81 stops, my inner voice begs me to get off Bus #81.  I stay aboard.

Ten minutes to Port de Saint-Jean, the terminus de ligne for Bus #81.

Quotes from the locals

She sat on the wooden bench at the end of the line, Port de Saint-Jean, waiting for Bus #81 back to Nice.  She could have been the woman Barry Manilow called Lola, “At the Copa, Copacabana.”  Aging, blonde, wrinkled and rouged. She smiled, “Bonjour.”

Courteous introductions exchanged, she said, “My doctorate degree is in sociology with a focus on cinema pre-1950.”  She was originally from Trieste, Italy; an Italian refugee living in Nice for the past twenty years.

“Italians eat better than the French,” she said.  Bus #81 pulled up to the curb, doors unfolded.  The Cap Ferrat crowd climbed aboard. She continued, “The infrastructure of France is much better than Italy because the French pay their taxes.” Bus #81 departed for central Nice, gliding above the Bay des Fourmis, a harbor on Cap-Ferrrat’s eastern Cote d’Azur shoreline.  Stop, bus doors quickly open; the inner voice to my left whispers “COME FORTH.”  I stay on Bus #81.

The rougey, wrinkled woman continued, “The US welcomes all people, here in France immigrants remain separate.”  Bus #81 reached the Saint Aignan stop, she exits while concluding loudly, “I’m leaving France, relocating to LA, that’s my kind of town. Au revoir.”  Bus #81 pulls away.

Why this place appeals to me

The Rose wine of Provence; chilled and served mid-afternoon on a terrace.

The Walk leading to the Prom des Fossettes
The Walk leading to the Prom des Fossettes

A 1.6 kilometer gravel path circles Pointe de Saint-Hospice at the tip of the Port Saint Jean peninsula; the Prom des Fossettes.  The Prom ends at Anse des Fossettes.  The April sun had warmed to 63 degrees, the pebbles of the beach must have been warmer as 20 bodies lay sunning on along the Mediterranean facing west, looking at the Harbor de Villefranche.

To reach the Prom des Fossettes from Saint Jean, walk SE down Ave Jean Mermoz.  Keep the marina on your left.  Trudge up a slight hill past the Hotel D’Or.  Ahead on your left you’ll look down on Paloma beach.  Soon you’ll arrive at the small peninsula of St Hospice; a 5–10 minute walk from the port.

Cap Ferrat is open to visitors in the spring.  Many villages along the Mediterranean in Italy have shuttered their doors, waiting for the throngs to arrive in July and August.  Springtime along the French Riviera lacks of push & shove.  Café hostesses greet you upon entry, wine appears as you are seated.  In April it’s hard to deny yourself the 2nd midafternoon glass of rose.

How Far Down the Block?         [mappress mapid=”16″]

The road from the port of Nice to Cap Ferrat is eight kilometers.  It lies under the shadow of Mont Boron, along the road tracing the harbor of Villefranche sul Mer.

Why you might be nearby?

You are traveling the scenic route from Paris to Italy via the Cote d”Azur.  Leaving Saint Jean the coastal road East leads through the tiny French village of Eze, the country of Monaco and on to Ventimiglia – Italy’s most northern city along the Riviera.

If you’re in Nice, Place Garibaldi, the departure point for Bus #81, is the hub of the city.  Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero of the Italian unification, was born in Nice in 1807.  Nice became part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (an eventual piece of Italy). The square, designated Place Garibaldi in September 1870, was built in the late 18th century marking the entry gate to the Nice and leading to the capital of Piedmont-Sardinia; Turin.

Garibaldi was fiercely in favor of Nice unifying with Italy.  History books report that Nice was given to the French as political settlement.  Niceans (Nice citizens) say that the locals were given a choice – and chose to be French.

Place Garibaldi, open only to pedestrian traffic, is a crossroads between the Vieux Nice (old town) and the town center.

Lesser Known Facts

The Cote D’Azur began as a winter escape for the northern Europeans.  American expatriates created Cap Ferrat’s winter season in the 1920’s.  World War I doomed France’s adherence to the gold standard supporting the French Franc.  The Franc declined through the early 1920’s to 10% of its former value versus the US dollar.  Expatriate Americans, on the smallest allowance, flocked to France

Anse de la Scaletta
Anse de la Scaletta

– declaring themselves writers or artists and living well.  And unrestricted by prohibition denying them alcohol.

Something for Nothing 

It cost 1Euro50 to ride bus #81 to Cap Ferrat.  The ticket is valid for an unusual time of 74 minutes – the one-way bus trip requires 35 minutes, so theoretically your ride back to Place Garibaldi is gratis. But, not to explore Cap Ferrat by foot would be a venial sin; and you would have to confess to your friends back home  and your fellow riders on the return bus #81 to Nice.

Abandon the concept of a free return trip on Bus #81.  While small, Port Saint Jean requires a pause at a seafront café, a glass of something French and conversation with whoever is seated nearby.

Categories
Caribbean Puerto Rico San Juan; La Playa, Pinones

San Juan, Puerto Rico, Soleil Beach Club at Pinones, Local eats on the beach

When you travel to Puerto Rico and decide to stay in San Juan, the capital city, if you venture just 3 miles east from San Juan International Airport you’ll discover the beach village Piñones. Pinones serves perhaps the best local food in Puerto Rico and is rimmed by the Caribbean Sea that crashes across the reef then slowly rolls to shore.

Having arrived at Piñones, bike or walk along the boardwalk, inhale the smoky aroma from the eateries lining the oceanfront and streets.

Why this place appeals to me

Pinones, Soleil, Ocean View
On Pinones boardwalk

Eight-foot waves driven westward by the trade winds rise skyward and crash over the coral reef that stretches outside the NE coast. Salt mist rides the trades ashore. Beachside coral and sand create 4 foot, flat calm, deep tidal pools; safe enough for small kids to splash. The water is always 82 degrees.

Wrap a cold Dominican-brewed Presidente beer in a thermal sleeve and settle into your private corner of a natural salt water pool; relax.

In 1830, at the age of fifteen Don Facundo Bacardí emigrated from Catalonia, Spain to colonial Santiago de Cuba. In 1862 Don Facundo established the Compañía Bacardi. The Bacardí family initially propped up Fidel and his Cuban revolutionaries. Bacardi supported the revolution publicly with advertisements and parties. But their endorsement turned to opposition as the pro-Soviet Che Guevara wing of the revolution movement began to dominate. Barcardi watched Castro turn against capitalism.

The Bacardí family and Company fled Cuba after Castro confiscated the Company’s Cuban assets in October 1960. All private property was nationalized, all bank accounts seized. However, Bacardi had started foreign branches prior to the revolution; the Bahamas hosted ownership of Bacardi trademarks, assets and proprietary formulas by 1960. Rum was being produced in Puerto Rico to avoid US import taxes.

Bacardi Rum survived Castro.

Your last Presidente beer is dry. Drag yourself out of the tidal pool and head for Soleil Beach Club, midway along Pinones boardwalk.  Today’s feature on the terrace of Soleil is Bacardi Pina Coladas . . . and Ceviche.

How Far Down the Block?

OPTION #1 – From the beach at the Ritz Carleton, Isla Verde, the walking route leads east – past the Marriott Courtyard. The next mile takes you along the beach of Pine Grove, perhaps San Juan’s prettiest public beach park. Pine Grove Beach lies parallel to the runway at the International airport. Toes in the sea you stroll into the Caribbean Trade Winds – as you kick through the sea foam. A Jet Blue 737 aircraft lifts and banks North over Pinones.

After a mile and a half the beach ends and a sidewalk leads over a bridge and into Pinones. Take a hard left, another half-mile wandering East along Pinones’ boardwalk delivers you to Beach Club Soleil.  [mappress mapid=”15″]

OPTION #2 – Bus 45 from Avenida Isla Verde travels along route 187 serving San Juan to Pinones, but the bus schedule is hard to time.

OPTION #3 – Rent a tandem bike at Hotel Villa del Sol, Calle Rosa #4, a small hotel located across the street from the Hampton Inn in Isla Verde; the sidewalk leads all the way to Pinones.

Why you might be nearby  

The upscale resort hotels in Isla Verde include; the Ritz Carleton, InterContinental, El San Juan, Ritz Carleton, Marriott Courtyard, Hampton Inn.

If you have a 3 hour plus layover at San Juan’s Munez airport, the taxi ride to Pinones is 10 minutes during the week – a great alternative to the airport bar.

Lesser Known Facts

Piñones is located in the village of Loíza. In the 1600s, Loíza housed runaway slaves from the British colonies.

Arriving Soleil BC
Arriving Soleil BC

African  influences along with local Taíno traditions contribute to the town’s unique style of cooking. As you bite into a crispy alcapurria (beach food made with green banana batter and stuffed with either meat, crab, shrimp or lobster), you may be serenaded by the sound of drums in the distance, an homage to the bomba y plena, an Afro-Puerto Rican style of music that originated in Loíza.

Bomba; the music, rhythm and dance carried by West African slaves to Puerto Rico. Sunday is Bomba (music day) at Pinones.

Local Recommendation

Today's Features
Today’s Features

Today’s chalk board at Soleil Beach Club features Ceviche, Chorizo in anchovies, Langouste stuffed with rice & crab.

Pinones is not fancy; it’s the sights, the smells. Amazing Frituras (fritters) sold at colorful shacks, made with the indigenous cassava, yautia (a root vegetable), malanga (local sweet potato), and plantains. Frituras are stuffed with beef, chicken, pork or shellfish, served with hot sauce and washed down with an ice cold beer.

Donde Olga Restaurant has been whipping up fritters for more than 30 years. There you’ll find Angie Ponce, a cook who uses the a sea grape leaf to help her mold alcapurrias. It’s a technique she learned after many years of experience.

”At first I used to use plastic wrap but the leaf works much better,” Angie says as she drops fritters into hot oil fueled by wood fire.

Something for Nothing

COOL OFF; in the 4 foot deep tidal pool right in front of Soleil Beach Club.

Pina Colada
Pina Colada

STROLL: the wooden boardwalk promenade to Punto Maldonado turnaround.

TRANSPORTATION: A free ride! Soleil Beach Club advertises they will send a comfy, free shuttle to pick you up in San Juan.

Corner table, Soleil BC
Corner table, Soleil BC

Categories
Caribbean Puerto Rico San Juan; La Playa, Pinones

San Juan, Hotel La Playa; a local hotel/restaurant

Isla Verde, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Hotel La Playa, restaurant is known as La Playita
A bar/restaurant/hotel on top of the Caribbean Sea
6 Calle Amapola St., Carolina 00979

As the plane descends into San Juan, palm trees and surf at Isla Verde beach appear out the left window. Exiting San Juan’s airport, there are no hotel shuttles. Taxis in San Juan have sole right to transport arriving vacationers to their hotel. The ride to Isla Verde takes 5 minutes; perfect for snow-belt refugees.

Orchids line the short path leading to the front desk.

“Welcome back,” said Linda, the office manager, as I signed at the front desk of Hotel La Playa.                                                                                                                                                            “Feels like I’m back home.” I said.
“When did you first visit us?” she asked.
“1973.”

Courtyard at dusk
Courtyard at dusk

Why this place appeals to me

The walk through the small courtyard filled with flowering tropical pants leads to a ten seat bar. Fourteen tables serve the open air restaurant. A plank deck hangs over the Caribbean Sea. When the 18 inch tide rises, the Caribbean Sea sprays the feet of imbibers on the deck.

Robert, bartender/waiter/diver, asks, “What to drink?” My choices have narrowed to a chilled Presidente beer, brewed in the Dominican Republic, or the local favorite; a Mojito mashed behind the bar, “Gracias, Don Facundo Bacardí.”

How Far Down the Block?

The tiny peninsula of Isla Verde separates two of San Juan’s great beaches; Isla Verde and Pine Grove – each a 1.5 mile stretch of sand. [mappress mapid=”14″]Hotel La Playa sits equidistant between the San Juan Ritz Carleton Hotel and the El San Juan Hotel – both featuring pricey beach side bars and glitzy casinos. A 400 meter walk to either hotel.

Both hotels can be reached by the beach during the day.

Early Morning

Why you might be nearby?

The airport is a five minute cab ride.
You’ve just witnessed your first cock fight – yes, it’s legal in San Juan; Club Gallistico is just four blocks from La Playa.

Lesser Known Facts

Isla Verde, tiny island 400 north of the peninsula give the area its name. The Isla Verde Marine Reserve lies 25 meters off the hotel deck; easily accessed for snorkels.

Marine Reserve
Marine Reserve

When Fidel Castro marched into Havana in January 1959, millions of Cubans began an exodus towards the U.S. Isla Verde was an important settling point for 1960’s Cuban emigrants. Still based in Isla Verde, Casa Cuba remains a significant Cuban social club. The first Cubans to flee were the wealthiest. Departing Cuba on flights from Varadero Beach, Cuba, the emigrants became known as Varaderos.

Local Recommendation

Pepe Canosa was an early emigrant, he landed Puerto Rico in 1964. Pepe founded Metropole Restaurant in 1965. Metropole is a four block walk from La Playa Hotel. Pepe’s famous Gallinita rellena, Montuno Cubano and Black Bean Soup continue to be served by his descendants. Metropole is the best in local dining, surperb wine list, top-notch service featuring Cuban/Puerto Rico dishes.

Mojitos mixed and served over the bar at La Playita cost half the price of those served at the nearby Ritz Carleton beach bar.

Upgrade to one of the two ocean-front hotel rooms; 209 or 207. Wedge open windows; drift off to crashing waves.

Something for “almost” Nothing

Slip an icy Presidente into a cooler, step out the front entrance of Hotel La Playa and onto the sands of Isla Verde beach. 200 meters down the beach a local guy rents chaise lounges under a palm tree for $4/day.

The deck at La Playa is a primo location in San Juan to observe a full moon rising.

Categories
Europe Italy Siena; dine & dance

Happy in Siena

Siena, Italy, Tuscany, happy, hidden, dancing, wine, Italian food, tom lane, dine, food
"Happy" in Siena

Happy in Siena

Categories
Europe Vienna; 7 Stern Brau beerhall

Vienna, Austria: 7 Stern Brau; a microbrewery and eating place in Spittelberg

Vienna, Austria
7 Stern Brau, a microbrewery and eating place in Spittelberg
Siebensterngasse 19, Vienna, Austria

Microbreweries in Vienna are called Gasthausbrauereien. Gasthausbrau’s feature Zwicklbier; an unfiltered beer, clouded, no preservatives.

The barman stood behind a series of beer taps, drawing a liter. I took a stool at the bar, my preferred dining seat. Nobody else was at the bar, but the dining tables in 7 Stern Brau were filled.

“You speak English?” I asked.
“Of course I do, I’m Alexander,” he stretched his hand across the bar.
“Describe your Wiener Helles beer?”
“Blond, unfiltered, no preservatives,” Alexander said.
Blond, a little dirty and no make-up, my type, “I’ll take one.”

Over Alexander’s head, above the beer taps (bierschenke), stacked upside down and ready to pour, were 10 bottles of Austrian Schnapps; each graded at 35% alcohol. A different fruit appeared on each label.

7 Stern, brau, Vienna, Austria, spittelberg, ratskeller, local, hidden, restaurant, bar, cheap meals, beer, potato, salad, schnapps, price, tom lane, dine, food, microbrewery, garden, purity
“Of course I speak English.”

“Alex,” I asked, “what is the true flavor used for schnapps, real Austrian schnapps.”
“Apple,” he said. The schnapps arrived next, before dinner.

The bar waitress appeared with a Vienna smile; she set a menu on the bar.

“Do you speak English?” I asked.
“Of course I do,” she said.
“I’m Tom, what’s your name?”
“Alexandra,” she said.
“Of course it is,” I replied.

Why this place appeals to me
A food critic once observed that the quality of the food declines as you rise and improves as you descend. I.E. have a drink at the restaurant in the sky, eat in a ratskeller. I descended ten steps to enter 7 Stern Brau.

7 Stern, brau, Vienna, Austria, spittelberg, ratskeller, local, hidden, restaurant, bar, cheap meals, beer, potato, salad, schnapps, price, tom lane, dine, food, microbrewery, garden, purity
Beer Garden at 7 Stern Brau

The sign outside read BIERGARTEN, but the ten steps down? Copper kettles gleamed from behind the bar. Walking through 7 Stern, a rear door led up ten steps to a courtyard with trees, tables and local beer drinkers.

How Far Down the Block?
Spittelberg is a six-block neighborhood just north of Vienna’s inner ring. It is served by the Volkstheater subway stop. The cobblestone streets of Spittelburg will thrill the shopper traveling with you. [mappress mapid=”13″]

7 Stern Brau lies on the edge of Spittlebug. Gasthoff and restaurants, tables set with white linen and flickering candles on outdoor terraces, were mostly empty on a Monday evening in May. 7 Stern Brau was buzzing; filled with Viennese chattering in German. Real Austrian food was being served at prices well below those at the vacant tables of their nearby competitors.

Why you might be nearby? The Museums, the Austrian Folk Theater and Vienna’s English Theater.

Lesser Known Facts
Viennese have great pride in the quality of their water.

7 Stern, brau, Vienna, Austria, spittelberg, ratskeller, local, hidden, restaurant, bar, cheap meals, beer, potato, salad, schnapps, price, tom lane, dine, food, microbrewery, garden, purity
Schnapps, ready to pour, click for a closer look

“You don’t need to order bottle water in Vienna,” Willy, barman at Hansy Gasthoff said. The Hansy is across town from 7 Stern Brau, just outside the Praterstern subway stop.
“I never do when beer is an option,” I said.
“No, I mean when you want water,” Willy said, “Vienna water is pure, from the mountains.”

Water flows into Vienna from springs in the Lower Austrian Alps, reaching the Austrian capital 36 hours later; no pumps and under strict regulations. Vienna has declared their water White Gold and placed it under the protection of the Austrian constitution. In 1998, the Vienna Water Line Hiking Path opened following the water route from the mountains into Vienna! The head of the hiking path can be reached by public transportation for a leisurely walk back into Vienna . . . for a beer.

Local Recommendation
Drink Green; this concept can be overdone. Pesticides have allowed the US to feed the world, but that’s another tale. The Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law, ensures that beer made only from barley, hops, water, and yeast – no preservatives – can be brewed and consumed on site in Vienna

7 Stern, brau, Vienna, Austria, spittelberg, ratskeller, local, hidden, restaurant, bar, cheap meals, beer, potato, salad, schnapps, price, tom lane, dine, food, microbrewery, garden, purity
Alexander drawing an unfiltered beer

Ask for a Weiner Helles; a 4.6% alcohol, unfiltered beer without preservatives. 7 Stern’s head brewer is a Slovak; from the land that gives us Czech Budweiser and Urquell.

Eat local; sample the German Potato Salad (kartoffsalat), Cabbage Salad (krautsalat) and Wiener Schnitzel

Something for Nothing
Roam the cobblestone streets of Spittelberg; potentially a free stroll. The shops, alternative restaurants will keep you busy for hours.

Categories
Europe Florence; Oltrarno enoteca favorites Italy

Florence, Italy: Enoteca Pitti Gola; food and wine in the Oltrarno

Pitti, gola, enoteca, florence, italy, oltrarno, wine, local, hidden, ponte, vecchio, dine, food, meals, tom lane, Italian, tasting
View of Pitti Palace from the terrace of Enoteca Pitti Gola

Florence, Italy
Enoteca Pitti Gola, food and wine in the Oltrarno
Piazza de Pitti 16

“Hey, you’re back,” Zeno called from behind his bar as I entered Pitti Gola.
“Back for a glass of Italian wine,”  I said, “You choose.”
“Ciao, you’re back,” Edoardo, Zeno’s older brother, popped up the stairway leading from the cellar of Pitti Gola.
“You need some of my money,”  I said, “I read the Italian economy struggles.”
Edoardo shrugged, “Maybe some places in Italy are struggling, we are doing OK.”

Why this place appeals to me.
On 2008 New Year’s Eve Edoardo, Manuele and Zeno purchased the Enoteca. In February 2009 I spent three weeks in Florence. The guys were all single then, they are all married now. Edoardo and Zeno are brothers, Manuele is a longtime friend.

The three owners are serious about their wine. I’m half-serious; serious about sipping, preferring wines at half price.

Pitti Gola is not Off The Map. This enoteca has been discovered. The ambience is low key; casual wear works. The wine is delivered in high style. Describe to the guys what you like to sip and let them choose. They pour the wine, describe the grape, the location of the vineyard and what’s happening in Italy.

Pitti, gola, enoteca, florence, italy, oltrarno, wine, local, hidden, ponte, vecchio, dine, food, meals, tom lane, Italian, tasting
The Pitti Gola crew, click here

Pitti Gola serves Tuscan bites and plates. The outdoor patio seats 8-10, inside is seating for 6-8. The small cellar can accommodate a party of 10-12. Zeno loves to talk wine, when he leads dinner conversation in the cellar, time flies.

How Far Down the Block?
Cross the Ponte Vecchio on foot, south into the Oltrarno; leaving the throngs of tourists behind you. It is a direct 250 meter stroll directly south, towards the Pitti Palace. The shops along Via De Gucciardini will thrill those who believe Black Friday is their day. [mappress mapid=”12″]

Bus D, a Florence short bus, stops directly in front of Pitti Palace, and Pitti Gola. Bus D runs from the Santa Maria Novella train station (the main station) along the entire Oltrarno, from Ponte Vespucci to a terminus at Piazza Ravenna.

Why you might be nearby?
Theorem #1 – You’re touring the Vasari Corridor, yawning, looking out an ancient porthole and realize you’ve crossed the Arno and are now free to roam about. Look for a secret escape; Dan Brown in his novel, Dante’s Inferno, described where the hidden escape from the Pitti Palace is located. Brown didn’t reference it, but by my calculations the escape is within 75 meters of Pitti Gola’s wine sanctuary.

Theorem #2 – Your in line at the Pitti Palace; an hour from gaining entrance. Across the street, under the street side awnings of a small enoteca, people are chattering, laughing. You make a choice; wine trumps art.

Lesser Known Facts
Once across the Ponte Vecchio and into the Oltrarno, the two block walk south to Pitti Gola on Via De Gucciardini is a fascinating shopping street. High quality wares, presented with an absence of name brands and absence of name brand prices. If your partner is chirping about shopping time sacrificed while you pursue an afternoon glass of Italian wine, common ground can be achieved in this neighborhood.

Pitti, gola, enoteca, florence, italy, oltrarno, wine, local, hidden, ponte, vecchio, dine, food, meals, tom lane, Italian, tasting
Soil from the vineyard

Within Enoteca Pitti Gola, wine fills the walls. Alongside the wine bottles, small glass vessels hold soil samples from the Tuscan vineyards where the grapes grow. Down the block from Enoteca Pitti Gola, the guys maintain a wine cellar. Zeno ran to his wine cellar to retrieve a special wine.

“You need more space,” I said.
Zeno replied, “I share my space with the wine, the wine is what is important.”

Local Recommendation
The Boboli Gardens, behind the Pitti Palace, directly across the street from Pitti Palace, might be the nicest outdoor meander in Florence.

Pitti, gola, enoteca, florence, italy, oltrarno, wine, local, hidden, ponte, vecchio, dine, food, meals, tom lane, Italian, tasting
Zeno behind the bar at Enoteca Pitti Gola

Something for Nothing
Once inside Boboli Gardens, access the adjacent Bardini Gardens from an unadvertised gate in the high NE Boboli corner. Boboli has the best sculpture and foliage, Bardini has spectacular views over Florence. Take Dante’s Inferno and read the passage where Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks scale the Boboli walls at night, using the garden to avoid their pursuers