Inn by the Sea to cut rates, benefit Habitat for Humanity

by Tom Johansmeyer on
Inn by the Sea, an eco-luxury property in Cape Elizabeth, ME, is dropping prices 50 percent Sunday through Thursday this spring. The goodwill go guests is wrapped in a larger act of conscience – guests taking advantage of this rate will write a $35 check to Habitat for Humanity.

The “Hospitality for Humanity” program is sponsored by the Maine Innkeepers Association (MEIA), which raises cash to help put deserving Maine families in homes. It runs from May 1 – 22, 2009.

For 50 percent off plus a $35 donation, this is a hell of a deal. Inn by the Sea boasts four diamonds, and a recently completed renovation added several amenities, including a full-service spa, fireplace bar and a restaurant with ocean views.

So, you’re saving some cash, supporting a good cause and living it up at a great destination.

More Maine travel: Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography

by Jamie Rhein on

Maine has been on my radar lately. My husband has talked about heading there this summer. A friend who I don’t hear from often emailed me about skiing in Maine which prompted a post on skiing in Maine. The options for Maine skiing will take you right on into April.

Then while researching for a post on maple syrup festivals I found Maine is involved with the maple syrup action as well. Today while drinking my morning cup of coffee and reading the paper, I came across a travel brief on a photography exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art. “Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography” has pulled in a record number of visitors. That info prompted a trip to the museum’s Website for more information.

The collection is a mix of 268 photographs that are privately owned. These are not standard, promotional type photographs, but intimate looks at the lives of the artists. Each give an indication of the relationship between the photographer and the subject whether it be Madonna, the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Hendrix or Elvis Presley.

From the description of the exhibit, it seems to me that part of the appeal of this exhibit is that it triggers off the viewers own memories of different times of one’s life when certain musicians were important to one’s own development. There’s a certain wistfulness I’ve always felt from seeing photos of people that were taken in our pasts. Here’s a link to some of the images in the exhibit.

Although there’s no way I’ll make it to Maine before the last day this exhibit is open on March 22, it does give me the hankering to head to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Maple syrup festivals: Hit one now through May

by Jamie Rhein on

Depending upon where you live, when the temperatures are just right, it’s maple syrup time. In Ohio, maple syrup events are scattered across the state from the beginning of March until May. In Canada and elsewhere, there are maple events a plenty. Each offers something different, although syrup and syrup making is the main highlight. I’ve been to four of them. Each time I go to one of these festivals, thoughts of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House in the Big Woods come to mind.

The last festival I went to was last Saturday when we headed to Malabar Farms, former home of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and environmentalist Louis Bromfield. There we found a draft horse drawn wagon ride up a maple tree-lined-road to the sugar shack and a taste of the good stuff. On the way up the dirt road to Pugh Cabin, the site of the festival, we passed by metal bucket after metal bucket hung from the trees collecting sap–a sign of the season.

The farm, now a state park, is an easy drive about halfway between Cleveland and Cincinnati. This particular festival ties in the history of maple syrup making from Native Americans to modern day. While inside the sugar shack syrup is made with a more modern approach, nearby, set back in the woods along a trail, the sap is cooked down in a hollowed out log by hot rocks continually transferred from a fire to the sap like the Native Americans first cooked it. Down the trail from that station, there’s the pioneer version of maple syrup making using huge cast iron kettles hung over the flames. Wooden signs affixed to trees tell about the history of syrup and provide various facts.

This festival includes a tractor ride to where the draft horses head up the road. For anyone who wants to take maple products home, there’s a shop near the sugar shack, and also in the visitor’s center where other Malabar Farm products are sold and the hop on the tractor location..

We made a feast of the day by eating lunch at the Malabar Farm Restaurant that features food made from the farm’s produce and meats whenever possible. In an ode to maple syrup, I ate the maple syrup crème brûlée for dessert and enjoyed the crunch of the hardened syrup that formed a crust over the creaminess.

Although, most of the maple sap gathering process is explained through signage at Malabar Farms, at Slate Run MetroPark and Slate Run farm near Canal Winchester, Ohio, about thirty minutes from Columbus, park employees dressed in period garb take visitors on a walk through the sugar bush tour to see how a tree is actually tapped.

After the sugar bush, the next stop is Slate Run Farm, a living history working farm set in the 1880s where during maple syrup season, sap is cooked over a fire the way Ohio settlers did it. Inside the kitchen, women dressed in period attire lead visitors–mostly children, through a baking experience where they can taste maple products and be part of making food themselves.

In the southern part of Ohio at Hueston Woods, another Ohio State Park, the Maple Syrup Festival is also happening this weekend. This is a lovely area for hiking as well.

In the northern part of Ohio, Geauga County is one place that goes all out for maple syrup season. In Burton, there’s the pancake breakfast each Saturday in March. The finale is the Maple Festival April 30–May 3. Starting this weekend, there’s the March Maple Madness Driving Tour in Northeast Ohio, a self-driving venture that swings by twenty maple syrup producers in seven counties.

Along with Malabar Farms, there are other Ohio Department of Natural Resources maple festival events.

Here are 10 other maple syrup festivals and maple syrup production sites in other parts of the U.S. and Canada.

New England: dirty, sexy, sweet

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Mud and maple shroud every New England spring. Thanks to an economic climate that is devastating the travel industry, you can indulge for cheaper than ever. Properties in the New England Inns & Resorts Association (NEIRA) are adding maple to mud as the snow melts, and some are throwing in a bit of spice.

Mud & Maple Madness: Inn at Ellis River, Jackson, NH
From March 15 to May 21, pick up two nights at the Inn at Ellis River, and breakfast and lunch daily. The price (which starts at $479) also includes dinner for two and two massages.

Inn the Mood for Mud: Inn by the Sea, Cape Elizabeth, ME
For $679, pick up a night in a room with ocean views and a fireplace! (Hey, that’s a big deal to a city-dweller like me.) Strawberries drizzled with Rich Maine Mud chocolate Sauce™ will be waiting for you in your room, along with two mudslide cocktails and L.L. Bean gum boots (to make walking in the mud easier). The spa treatment for this package? You guessed it … mud mask.

Tap at Trapp: Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT
From March 13 to April 13, $490 will get you two nights at the Trapp Family Lodge, breakfast every day, a sugaring demonstration and a traditional maple sap gathering experience. On Saturdays, you’ll be able to participate in the “sugar on snow” party.

Dirty, Sexy, Sweet: Colonnade Hotel, Boston, MA
A free car wash will remove the mud from your ride, a nice addition to the one-night stay in Boston’s Back Bay. The $279 room rate also includes Chocolate Mud Mousse for two, with sweet maple liquor, delivered to your room. Apparently, you won’t want to go downstairs for dessert.

The United Statements of America

by Annie Scott on

In the Strange Maps blog we trust. “In Mottos We Trust? United Statements of America” is a terrific map which features each state’s motto — translated, where appropriate. Check out what yours says here. Some of our favorites?

  • Wyoming: Equal Rights (because they were the first state to give women the right to vote. Way to go, Wyoming!)
  • Oklahoma: Labor Conquers All Things (that depresses the hell out of us)
  • Alabama: We Dare Defend Our Right (badass!)
  • Virginia: Thus Always to Tyrants (wtf? That’s your motto?)
  • West Virginia: Mountaineers are Always Free (also badass!)

South Dakota gets the Lame Award for stealing Arkanas’ motto and stamping God on it; they changed “The People Rule” to “Under God the People Rule.” I’m gonna go pray in their schools now. Close runner up is Maine, whose motto is “I Direct” because they used to hold their presidential elections before anybody else.

Somebody’s a little full of themselves. I’m looking at you, Maine.

Thanks, Brian O’Neal, for the tip!