The joys of staying (close to) home and of visiting friends

Regular readers of my travelogues -– the number may be small, but I know you are there and love you for it — may think that I’ve been on hiatus from writing and traveling since returning from our road trip through England this spring. Life’s complications have kept me from writing as regularly as I should, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been mobile. Our trips have been numerous over the past three months, though they have kept us closer to home than our recent European and South America excursions. And most have revolved around visiting friends, the best of all reasons to travel!

Two of our recent close-to-home trips have been long weekends spent in a location that has held an important place in our lives: Charleston. It is where both Allie and I moved as soon as we graduated from college to find our first jobs. That was more than forty years ago, and the changes we see now in the Holy City are just hard to comprehend. What was then a slow, rather desolate town with a provincial and seemingly impenetrable local social scene with a mere handful of decent places to eat, is now a global foodie mecca that is regularly voted travelers’ favorite US city, as well as one of the friendliest.

Over the years we have owned multiple second homes there. Allie loves the beach, and it’s only a three-hour drive for us. Our first was a condo on the Intercoastal Waterway across from Sullivan’s Island. After Hurricane Hugo blew that one away, we decamped to Kiawah Island, a beautiful planned development south of the city. We enjoyed so many great times there as our children grew, learning to love the beach as much as their mother. By the time they reached their late teens, we were able to use our home there very infrequently, so we sold it and decided to re-deploy those now liquid assets into more far-flung travels.

We also had the opportunity to go the more southern part of the South Carolina coast twice this summer, to attend family events. We had wonderful times in Beaufort and nearby Fripp Island, as well as at an old haunt from our college days, Edisto Island. Our many recent stays in Charleston and beyond have rekindled our love of the low-country, prompting discussions about whether we might consider yet another residence there.

Another southern city we have come to love is Nashville. Our daughter Zoe chose to move there after she graduated from college to start her new life. It was a decision we all appreciate. Nashville is one of the hippest, happening-est places we visit. Though we get there several times each year, there is always so much new to discover. Everyone knows Nashville as the center of the music industry. While we enjoy the ever-present music offered there, it is really the food scene that excites us. Nashville has moved way beyond ridiculously hot chicken.

Zoe, who writes for a regional magazine when not in the exercise studio, is always eager to take us to the newest, coolest restaurants and bars. On each trip we want to return to our favorites such as Rolf and Daughters, Henrietta Red and Mas Tacos as well trying out the new. On our most recent visit, we “discovered” a special spot that was neither new nor cool. This spot is called Big Al’s Deli. We drove there directly from the airport after an early morning flight and snagged an open card table set up on the already steaming sidewalk outside the ramshackle building in which Big Al was frying bacon, scrambling eggs and boiling grits. Southern breakfast sublime.

The first exception to our staying close to home over the middle of the year came in summer. In June yet another damn birthday rolled around for me. Allie indulged me for several days in one of my most treasured places, Aspen. Dear friends have owned a slope-side condo in Snowmass for many years. We have shared many great times with them there, most often in the summer when the Rockies are glorious and uncrowded. They were not able to join us there this summer for what has become a Fourth of July tradition. This year we went earlier and by ourselves to spend my birthday quietly, in a truly special place.

We drove early one morning to the access area for the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area and hiked up to Crater Lake. We’ve done this hike many times, and it never gets old. It’s hard to imagine a place where you can get closer to God. The scenery is breath-taking, as is the altitude for us low-landers! Despite being in mid-June, our walk required transiting several fields of snow and ice. Quite a change from the 90-degree-plus weather we had left behind in North Carolina.

The next day I opted for a new adventure to celebrate my advancing years: we rented e-bikes! What a treat — we covered seventy miles in a single day. Traversing hills I would never have made, at least not without great struggle, thanks to the encouraging, gentle push from the electric motor on the crank of my bike. I need to get one of these!

After descending from Snowmass Village via Owl Creek and taking in a bit of Castle Creek Road, we headed north up the Rio Grande trail, passing by the stretch of the Roaring Fork River we had rafted with our friends on a previous visit. We stopped for lunch at the Woody Creek Tavern, a perennial favorite. Refreshed, we pushed onward a far as Basalt where we treated ourselves to ice cream cones.

Maroon Bells — my media company’s namesake

We decided to pedal all the way back to downtown Aspen rather than climb back up to Snowmass Village. By the time we pulled into Aspen it was already cocktail hour. We had earned a reward after nearly eight hours on the bikes. It was on the bus ride back to the condo that it hit us just how exhausted we were. Limping home, we realized that the birthday dinner we had planned at an Italian restaurant we like a lot was simply not going to happen. After a bowl of cereal eaten in a semi-horizontal position, I climbed into bed around 9:30. Happy Birthday, Geezer!

On our last day in Snowmass, we hiked the North Rim trail early, to avoid the heat. This is a great walk with gorgeous views. We spent the afternoon in Aspen. It was opening day for the Aspen Food and Wine festival and things were hopping. We visited the Aspen Art Museum, which has been a wonderful recent addition to the old mining town. After drinks at the Jerome, we headed to Matsuhisa for sushi. By now, I had far over-played the whole birthday celebration thing. Allie declared it officially over.

Rather than return to the summer boil back home, we continued west to visit friends in Montecito, just outside of Santa Barbara. These friends from Charlotte are avid surfers and had fallen in love with the charming beach town of Summerland. They purchased and renovated a beautiful home in the hills above Summerland in Montecito. There are good reasons the neighborhood is populated with celebrities: the weather is wonderful, the setting of mountains to ocean is inspiring and the many charms of Santa Barbara lie just a few miles away. Our pleasant stay with our friends there included beach walks and mountain hikes.

The other more far-flung excursion of our summer was several days as guests of friends who were cruising in their gorgeous boat in the northern Bahamas. En route to join them, we spent a couple of days in Miami Beach, which has a vibrant food scene. We revisited an old favorite Macchialina and tried out a newcomer, the Florida outpost of the NYC restaurant Upland, which has now moved to the top of our South Beach list. Between bike rides along the beach, we also grabbed the chance to spend a few steamy hours walking the Wynwood Arts District, an outing well worth the sweat.

We flew from Miami to Marsh Harbor on Grand Abaco and were driven north to Cooper Town where our friends picked us up in their run-about. The big boat was anchored a few miles away off the coast of Elbow Key. Life on a luxurious boat in the Bahamas is good indeed. We had a wonderful time exploring deserted beaches and island towns, such as Hope Town and New Plymouth. Our friends are consummate hosts. This is relaxation with a capital R. The boat’s owner invited me to write a guest entry for the blog she publishes of their adventures. If you want to read that, be my guest, here.

Sadly, less than a month after we enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Bahamian people, these very places, the beaches, the restaurants, the bars and shops, were blown away by Hurricane Dorian. I mean literally blown away, as in gone. Thank God that each of the people we had interacted with while we were there survived, though they face an incredibly difficult road to recover their former lives. So tragic!

Did I mention that the past few months here in the South have been unbearably hot? Luckily, we have a great escape a short drive away, in the higher altitudes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We made the trek to higher, cooler ground several times this year, to old favorites such as Asheville, Blowing Rock and the Highlands/Cashiers area. It was in the last of these that we enjoyed our most recent outing, a long weekend spent at the mountain home of cherished friends. Three couples who love each other, hiking, drinking wine and eating dinner on the deck watching the sunset. Sheer bliss!

That pretty much brings you up to date. We’re off again in a few days to Portugal, re-visiting Lisbon and exploring for our first time the Algarve. I’ll try to be more diligent in sharing. Many amazing adventures lie ahead. Stay tuned!