In this great carnivorous land of ours, there are steak houses, and then there’s the Hilltop Steakhouse and Butcher Shop north of Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts. The place is a brilliant anachronism, a throwback to traditional Western steakhouses, smack dab in the middle of New England. It’s got dark wood, cowboy boots and hitching posts [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Hilltop Worship, Again and Again
Posted in State-by-State, Tasting America, tagged Boston, Boston Globe, Boston Red Sox, Hilltop Steakhouse, Matt Villano, New York Yankees, Ruth's Chris, Smith & Wollensky on August 31, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Some People Call These Tourist Traps
Posted in Kitsch Factor, tagged Elvis Presley, Graceland, Las Vegas, Liberace, Liberace Museum, Memphis, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South of the Border, Tennessee on August 28, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Is there any travel term as pejorative as “tourist trap”? It disses the attraction and it disses the doofuses (doofi?) who go there. Yeah, well, “tourist trap” is in the eyes of the beholder. We’d like to tell you about some places that others may scorn but we gladly allow to trap us. The signs [...]
Eulogy for a State Park
Posted in Flashbulb Moments, Outdoorsiness, Reading America, State-by-State, tagged Bay Area, California, Matt Villano, Napa, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sonoma on August 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »
On a clear day atop California’s Mount St. Helena, the entire Bay Area comes into view. In the mornings, a shroud of fog enrobes the Napa and Sonoma Valleys like a giant cotton ball, clinging to the green hillsides as the sun threatens to drive it away. In the afternoons, these same hillsides emerge as [...]
B-List Cities: They Try Harder
Posted in News Around the Nation, Uncategorized, tagged Abilene, bluegrass, Cheyenne, cowboy poetry, Frontier Days, National Center for Illustrated Literature, railroad depot, Texas, Wyoming on August 26, 2009 | 9 Comments »
Flyover America has moved! Please join us at www.ReadFlyoverAmerica.com. I love seeing civic pride displayed by B-list towns and cities, the ones that are on nobody’s bucket list. I first noted this in Abilene, Texas, which has both civic pride and cash (black gold, Texas tea) to back it up. Abilene is doing a lovely [...]
Essential Travel Photos: Chicago Edition
Posted in Seeing America, tagged Chicago, Illinois, photography, Sears Tower, Skydeck, travel, united states, Willis Tower on August 24, 2009 | 16 Comments »
Is the 2.5-hour wait to get up to the Skydeck of Chicago’s Sears, er, Willis Tower worth it? (Oh, that name change!) Without hesitation, I say yes yes yes. Stepping out onto one of the new glass box observation decks with my sister-in-law and nieces is my favorite travel memory of the summer.
Even Travel Writers Take Tours
Posted in Listing America, State-by-State, Uncategorized, tagged Brooklyn, California, Champagne, France, Green-wood Cemetery, Matagorda Bay Nature Park, Napa Valley, Schramsberg, Texas, tours on August 21, 2009 | 4 Comments »
We don’t dispute that the best kind of travel is the kind you do on your own—those trips where, upon poking around, you discover things you never would have discovered any other way. That said, sometimes guided tours are pretty fun, too. Every once in a while, we hardened travel scribes put our journeys (and [...]
Paeans of Paul
Posted in American Tunes, tagged Elvis, Fergie, Graceland, Lady GaGa, Matt Villano, Miley Cyrus, New Jersey Turnpike, New Mexico, Paul Simon, Sangre de Christo, Tennessee, Woody Guthrie on August 20, 2009 | 9 Comments »
The rise of “singers” such as Miley Cyrus, Fergie and Lady GaGa make me long for the days when our musical artists were just that—artists. At times like these, I long for singer/songwriter/troubadour Paul Simon. I contend that no musician since Woody Guthrie has done a better job at spinning musical yarns about journeys through [...]
Windmills vs. Wildlife
Posted in Outdoorsiness, State-by-State, Uncategorized, tagged American Wind Power Center, conservation, lesser prairie chicken, Oklahoma, Shattuck, Shattuck Windmill Museum, Texas, Tolar, wildlife, wind power, wind turbines, Windmill Farm B&B, windmills on August 17, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Flyover America has moved! Please join us at www.ReadFlyoverAmerica.com. I’ve always appreciated the sight of a windmill on the horizon but otherwise, gave windmills little thought. That changed after I visited the boring-sounding American Wind Power Center in Lubbock, Texas where the huge collection of vintage windmills can only be described as folk art. First [...]
Leave Time for the Gift Shops!
Posted in American Style, State-by-State, tagged aquarium, Boston, Capitan, Chicago, gift shop, ICA/ Boston, Illinois, Institute of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, museum, New Mexico, Old Faithful, park, Rock City, Shedd Aquarium, Smokey Bear Historical Park, travel, united states on August 14, 2009 | 16 Comments »
Flyover America has moved! Please join us at www.ReadFlyoverAmerica.com. Museums are marvelous. Parks are perfect. Aquariums are A-OK. But, really, can you deny that you heart races just that much more over the thought of the post-attraction gift shop visit? Whether you’re after salt shakers that pay homage to Old Faithful or a birdhouse reminder [...]
