September by the Shore: Sea Isle City

by Kelly Amabile on

I promise not to rave about sleepy little beach towns too
frequently here at Gadling, but this Jersey Girl is headed to the shore for the next few weekends and wants to spread
some Garden State love. Jersey gets such a bad rap, so I feel compelled to do my part to try and change that. In my
opinion, as summer winds down, the best time to visit the shore actually begins. Each week this month, I’ll mention one
favorite NJ shore town worth visiting this fall.

First up is Sea Isle City. I spent last weekend relaxing at a
friend’s beach condo two blocks from the water. Sea Isle is a big draw for Philly folk on summer vacation.
Surprisingly, the place was really quiet. College kids are all back at school, so things usually start to empty out in
late August. (This means no lines for ice cream :-) It seemed quieter than usual, but I’m not complaining. We had a
great time listening to live acoustic at the Dead Dog Saloon (Calmer and cleaner than the clubby Ocean Drive and La
Costa), dining on fresh seafood at Braca Cafe (Be sure to try their famous 302
frozen cocktail) and sipping ice coffee at Coffee.Comedy (Bonus: they
have free wireless!) Breakfast at Vince’s and pizza from Angelo’s rounded out the eating activities and kept us more
than nourished all weekend long.

The beach in Sea Isle is very nice, but we headed south slightly to
Avalon, where the sand stretches much farther from the dunes to the ocean.
There are plenty of waverunners, kayacking and parasailing activities available in both towns. Or, you can save the
active water sports for another time and stick to my favorite beach routine: swim, read, sleep, eat, swim again. Oh,
and a few rounds of skee ball at the arcade. Friends of ours also took advantage of the close proximity to
Atlantic City and headed north (about a 40 minute drive) to play the
slots. Sea Isle is only about an hour and a half from downtown Philly and is a great central shore spot for beachgoers
from Maryland to New York. The town’s Fall Family Weekend begins September 16.

Tasty Travels

by Kelly Amabile on

Just like with marmite, the love/hate thing with Rachel
Ray will always exist, but I’m not going to go there. I’m simply here to tell ya about her new show,
Tasty Travels, which our friends at
World Hum alerted me to.

I’ve lived without cable for the past two years, so I’m stuck catching episodes of cooking shows when I’m holed up
in hotels for conferences or visiting friends with 500+ channels. So, I haven’t seen Ray’s show yet, but I would
definitely watch it if I had access to the Food Network. (I’d watch
Bourdain on the Travel Channel too. Frankly, I’d probably
watch so much food/travel related programming that I’d have to beg the
Slashfood folks to let me write for them because I’d stop traveling and never
leave the house.) But I digress…

The latest issue of Budget Travel (all about
where the foodies
eat) features a
Q&A with the
food diva. Rachel is a cool chick who loves food and travel. I can relate to that. Her book,

Best Eats in Town on $40 Dollar A Day, has pointed me to some fantastic affordable dining when I’ve been on the
road. (Like Fiamma at MGM Grand in Vegas.)

Tasty Travels premiered August 26 in New York. It airs on Fridays at 9:30. Tomorrow’s episode takes Ray to
LA and future shows will feature San Fran, NOLA, Atlanta and Trinidad. I hear she’s headed to Africa on her honeymoon,
so I can only assume that might make it into a show eventually too. Stay tuned (only if you are a Rachel lover, of
course), and let me know. In the meantime, I’ll go reconsider cable.

Seattle’s Bumbershoot

by Erik Olsen on

Having lived in Seattle for over five years, I can tell you that Labor Day means one thing to most Seattleites:
Bumbershoot. The weekend-long music/culture fest is the must do
event at the close of summer (that is, unless you hate crowds, loathe funnel cake, and/or find Seattle Center to be a
horrific eyesore that no Seattle native would ever visit except to take the in-laws up the Space Needle). But I
digress.

The fact is Bumbershoot is a pretty cool event, and they usually get some fine talent to participate. This year
actually features some fine headliners. Phish phans will rejoice upon hearing that Trey Anastasio will be playing on
Saturday, so clean out that multi-colored plastic bong and fill it with Evian.
Elvis Costello will also be making an appearance, should his
geriatric walker be in working order (he’s like 60-something, isn’t he?…OK, I confess I’ve never been an Elvis
Costello fan). Barelylegal.com fans will be excited to hear that teen sensation
Smoosh will be making an appearance. And for brainy types
who follow the new, new lit, Dave Eggers and Sarah Vowell will be reading from their newest work and engaging in
full-contact glass blowing (OK, this is just a rumor).

Sadly, two other key headliners have canceled. Both Devo and Ani DiFranco are blowing off the show, citing, well,
better things to do. Seriously, though, it’s a pretty fun event. If you’re in the Emerald City, it’s worth checking
out, if just to push an in-law off the top of the Space Needle.

Kashgar Market

by Erik Olsen on

A nicely written article over at
Gonomad.com talks about the Sunday Animal Market in Kashgar, China, one of those unknown little places that most
tourists will probably never know. I hvae to say I enjoy pieces like this. So off the beaten track, so unusual.

The writer visits the market and finds to her astonishment that the people there do not resemble Chinese (they are
primarily Uighur), and as she wanders among the raw caracasses snapping photos, she ruminates on our own perspectives
on meat…which usually involves a trip to Safeway rather than to an open space where the meat hangs on metal hooks and
is hacked off with machetes. A fun read.

Tranquilo Traveler

by Erik Olsen on

Most travel blog writers are content to visit a place and ruminate on what they see, describing the sights of a
particular location with a certain tourists’ distance. Not so Josh Berman, who’s blog the
Tranquiilo Traveler documents his experiences in Southeast Asia. Berman is
not only writing about the problems he sees, but is trying to do something about them. A true “engaged” traveler to be
sure.

In this entry, for
example, Berman and his new wife, along with two folks named Sarmishta and Debasish, are attempting to “systematically
measure the malnourishment of a sample of tea worker families”, by surveying 160 tea worker families on eight gardens.
They sit with the families and ask them about their diets and health, compiling data on food consumption (or lack
thereof), disease and death. Berman is doing this as a volunteer…needless to say a heck of an interesting way to
travel…and the blog is a fine work of travel writing and activism. There are other entries here on other places they’ve
been so far, and the couple will be traveling for quite some time ahead, so we’ll check back on them occasionally.