LLWorldTour

Wintertime in New Jersey. This year, there seemed to be a crazy amount of snow. But how would I know? It’s not like I’ve spent any winters in New Jersey for twenty years and I’ve been out of the country for three years. So who am I to talk? But, either way, there seemed to be a lot of frickin’ snow.  And it was beautiful.

Despite what many think they know about New Jersey (and believe me, I have heard many a wrong assumption), it has very rural and bucolic areas. I grew up in Randolph, a somewhat standard American suburb, but still with a good share of farmland and forest land as well. So it was no surprise to see this on our front lawn during the recent two-foot snowfall.

Watch the video of my new friends here:

Inching our way over the Molas Summit to Silverton

I made it.

Silverton, Colorado.  Population 566.  No stoplights. No dry cleaners. And no McDonald’s.

This old mining town’s official beginning came in 1874 with the discovery of gold and silver (hence the name). There are still some active mines, although today it has turned into a small tourist stop at the end of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Train Route.    This historic train has been in continuous operation for 126 years, carrying passengers through the stunning vistas of mountain passes and valleys behind a vintage steam locomotive.  The train runs from late Spring through the end of October.

During the summer season, when the train reaches Silverton, at an elevation of 9,300 feet, tourists get off the train for a couple of hours to shop at the tiny Western motif shops and traipse around the charming, yet dusty streets that mostly look the same as they did in the early 1900s. My mom and step-dad moved here 10 years ago and built a ten- room motel—The Canyon View Motel, that they also run themselves; they are the owners, the desk clerks, the maids, and the maintenance staff.

They also built a log cabin home about 6 miles outside of town 20 minutes down an unpaved road farther into the wilderness. Technically, they don’t even live within the city limits of Silverton. They actually are the only year-round residents of Middleton, another mostly abandoned mining town and consider themselves the mayor and the mayor’s wife.

For a slice of pure Americana garnished with a spectacular landscape, one-of-a-kind Silverton in Southwest Colorado may be the answer for an affordable yet spectacular getaway.

This small, mountain town exudes real old-west ‘movie-set’ charm with shops, restaurants, and a Victorian feel of days gone by.  Silverton, where the mayor is also the milkman, is nestled high in the amazingly picturesque, San Juan Mountains. Only about five hundred residents live here year round (in summer it swells to about 2000).

Local Lyn Simon, who runs a coffee shop in town, says, “The heritage, culture, history here is untouched.  It is a simple town, based on a simple quality of life, simple ways, simple needs of the people. ”

It’s a great place to visit, but can be a pretty tough place to live. The winters here are long and the landscape can be unforgiving. A four-wheel-drive truck is pretty compulsory if you want to get around. And sometimes you still can’t leave. The town sits in between two mountain passes on Highway 550 knows for its white-knuckle, switchbacks and s-curves. Even during my four-day visit, one of the passes was closed due to avalanches so you simply could not go north even if you wanted to.   And between the tiny downtown and my mom’s house there are several avalanche chutes.  In fact, one evening we said goodnight (I was sleeping at their motel and she was returning home) and about twenty minutes later, she returned with a big smile on her face.  An avalanche had run right across the only road leading to her house coincidentally stranding her in town for the first time since she moved here more than 10 years ago.  Two good things came out of this: 1. my mom and I hugged and jumped up and down like little girls excited about our ‘unexpected’ girl’s night in and, 2.  she was lucky to arrive at the path of the avalanche just after it ran…not during! Eek.

This is backcountry. This is the land of avalanches.  It’s man against nature…and nature is always the victor. Tragedies around these parts are not uncommon.  In the last few years a local coffee shop owner starved to death while attempting a hike across the state.  Another local woman shot herself inside her home.  And every year several people are killed by avalanches or simply from driving right off the edge of the road and plunging hundreds of feet to their death.   In many spots there are no guardrails, so when snow is plowed it can be pushed right over the cliffs. Often people skid or misjudge the treacherous hairpin turns…or they just decided they can’t deal with this podunk isolation anymore.  Welcome to town!

During the winter, Silverton is famous for its anti-ski ‘resort,’ Silverton Mountain.  It opened just a few years ago and is totally one-of-a-kind.  While the word unique is often overused, it applies to the Silverton concept:  One lift, one big mountain, no grooming, limited reservation-only skiing (for guided season), no apres-ski lodge – a real no-frills operation.  You can pay almost $100 a day for a lift ticket to ski at Vail with 6,000 other skiers, or ski Silverton for as low as $39 a day with around 80 skiers or less most days. The alpine terrain is entirely for advanced and expert skiers and offers amazing, pristine backcountry conditions.

Silverton is so ‘backcountry’ and hardcore, that Olympic gold medal winner, Shaun White, spent several months here last year practicing his snowboard moves in an amazing, specially-built, top-secret half-pipe.  Red Bull built the half pipe completely out of natural snow on the backside of Silverton Mountain.  He rented a house in town and had a Red Bull sponsored helicopter at his disposal to drop him in the wilderness to practice his crazy boarding tricks.

See Vid here:

Since Silverton Mountain is a tad too hardcore for me (read: way out of my league), I enjoyed a laid-back and easy day skiing at the town’s Kendall Mountain Ski Area.  Also equipped with just one lift…it was perfect.  There are just a few runs so if you are looking for an easy day of carefree skiing, this is it.  And also perfect is the price.  Lift tickets are only $15 and rentals are just $20. I enjoyed a few hours of no-pressure, no-crowds skiing for under $40.  And when I got bored (as I often do) I stopped in a couple hours and still got my money’s worth.

Do:

In the Summer:

• Ride the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
• Hike and/or rock climb on several 14,000 ft. Peaks
• Mountain bike the many trails in the area
• Take a mine tour of the Old 100 Mine
• Pan for gold or fish in the Animas River
• Go white-water rafting
• Try 4-Wheeling  on the Alpine Loop

In the Winter:

• Try Snowshoeing
• Rent skis at the ScottyBob Ski Factory and go back country skiing
• Go Snowmobiling
• Extreme Backcountry Skiing at Silverton Mountain
• Easy Skiing and Ice Skating at Kendall Mountain
• Just a one hour drive to Durango Mountain Resort Ski Area
• Ice Climbing at Stairway to Heaven
• Ouray Hot Springs and Ice Park

Eat:

• San Juan Grill—A newer eatery with an American eclectic menu of tasty homemade organic foods
• Handlebars or the Brown Bear – For some more authentic chow.  Think all-American classics like chicken fried steak (is there actually any chicken in this mystery meat dish?) and stick-to-your-ribs meatloaf with gravy.

Drink:

• Mobius Café – a big, airy, loft-like brick and timber café with great coffee, free wifi and a well-worn leather couch where you can take a load off and chat with some locals.
• Silverton Brewery – the local brewery with microbrews, bar food, and the classic circulating electric train.
• Montanya Distillery – a new addition to town, this unique Rum Distillery is Colorado’s first all-rum distillery and, at 9,300 feet, the highest distillery of any kind in the country.  Of course at this altitude, one mojito is all your need.

Shop:

Of course, there are the requisite western motif local souvenir shops…but for something different and locally made try:

• Mountain Boy Sleds- featured in Sundance and L.L. Bean catalogs
• Venture Snowboards—handmade, handcrafted, solar powered business

Sleep:

• Canyon View Motel—Family owned (my family!) motel with a western façade and free treats for four-legged guests.
• Eureka Lodge—looking to really get ‘out there’, then stay at the Eureka Lodge.

Major airline carriers fly into Montrose Airport, one hour north and Durango Airport, one hour south of Silverton.  Of course, if the passes are closed, then you will be staying in those cities anyway.

I was overdue for a visit to see my mom. I can’t believe it had already been nearly a year since my last visit. Time flies. After I returned from my world travels last spring, I flew over to see her…and now it had been a year since I returned the US and that I found even harder to believe.   Over the last year, I’d done some domestic traveling to New England and Los Angeles and spent the summer in Chicago.   But it was a far cry from my recent globetrotting.  I got caught up in some ‘stuff’ back home that made me more stationary than I thought it would.

So I jetted out west to go from one place covered in snow (New Jersey) where it seems most people complain about the weather to another place knee-deep with snow drifts, where the people relish the powder and just go about their day as usual. But since it was snowing up here at these high altitudes, what it did mean for me was that my mom was not able to drive over the mountain pass in order to pick me up and bring me back to Silverton. So, I had a brief reminder/encounter with that independent traveler-girl I once knew just a year ago.  I called from the airport and booked myself into a hotel in downtown Durango and took the hotel’s free shuttle into town.  It was nice to be alone again…not answering to anyone, not needing anyone’s help (or people thinking they need to help me) and just making my own decisions, right or wrong, with only myself to reconcile with.  I settled in to what I thought would be a boring Best Western. To my surprise, my room key let me into a bright room complete with a big, cushy, king size bed, a couch/sitting area, fridge, microwave, and a lovely private balcony overlooking trees and snowdrifts. Plus the middle of the hotel had a wood-beamed atrium with a heated pool and hot tub. Nice. Too bad I didn’t even think of bringing my swim suit in February.

I set out to have a wander and breathe in some of the fresh mountain air. I needed this after the four-hour flight from New Jersey plus the three hour layover in Denver.  It was never easy getting here…and proving even harder since I wasn’t actually at my destination yet.  It was often easier for me to fly abroad than to get to my mom’s little hamlet in the mountains of Colorado.

I walked up and down the charming and lively streets of Durango full of open shops, pubs, and cafes. It’s ski season so the town is alive with folks on vacation enjoying a lot of outdoor winter activities. It has a nice main street lined with old brick buildings with that old west charm.

I settled on a sushi bar and was greeted by the loud “Irashai Mase” from the chefs behind the counter. Perfect for the solo diner. I chowed on some seaweed and noodle soup, sashimi, and a ‘samurai’ roll. Pretty tasty for being in the landlocked Rocky Mountains.

Hopefully tomorrow the roads will be clear and I will actually be able to get to see my mom. It is disconcerting to come all this way and just be an hour away, but possibly not be able to cross that final stretch.

Recently my step-sis, Beth, and I were doing what a lot of people in New Jersey spend a lot of time doing: driving. It was late one night and we were returning from dinner and heading north on the infamous New Jersey Turnpike. We were near Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and a bastion for industry. You’d think growing up in New Jersey as I did, I would have visited here, but nope. It really wasn’t a destination for several reasons…it wasn’t known to be very safe, I didn’t really have my driver’s license until my last year in New Jersey (before I left the state for university) and the fact that New York City is just 8 miles east…so why mess around in Newark?

As we sped passed a large power plant of some kind, all lit up against the night sky, I began to wonder what was really going on there. I caught the name and in modern technology fashion, Beth proceeded to punch it in to Google on her Blackberry and away we went into the world of interesting facts and knowledge (well, for us at least).

According to Wikipedia and various other websites, the gas-fired (natural gas and butane), 940-megawatt Linden Cogeneration Plant was built in 1992. It is owned by El Paso Energy (the nation’s largest natural gas pipeline operator, with more than 43,000 miles of pipe in service) and operated by G.E. Energy Services.

The way in which the facility generates power is intriguing. It burns natural gas, which while not entirely clean is certainly better than a few other sources. But it takes the process one step further.

It uses the heat generated by its five gas turbine generators to pressurize heat recovery steam generators—hence “cogeneration.” The plant is making sure to harness every drop of energy it creates, even heat.

Apparently a percentage of the power produced by the facility is sold into the New York City market in the form of steam.

From a small dry cleaner on Manhattan’s East Side to Rockefeller Center to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the United Nations, along with some 2,000 other customers and 100,000 buildings, from residential low-rises to commercial skyscrapers, the City of New York is one of the largest consumers of steam. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter in lower Manhattan began using steam to warm its sanctuary in 1882, the year the first steam generation plant went into operation in New York. The church has used steam ever since.

Some 30 billion pounds of steam every year flow beneath the streets of Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street. While it is unknown to most New Yorkers (even though years ago David Letterman talked of the ‘radioactive steam’ wafting up from the city streets), Con Edison’s subterranean steam system is the biggest steam district in the world boasting an annual steam production more than double that of Paris, Europe’s largest system.

The New York City steam system carries steam from central power stations under the streets of Manhattan to heat, cool, or supply power to high rise buildings and businesses.  Cogeneration significantly increases the efficiency of fuel usage and thereby reduces the emission of pollutants and particulate matter and reduces the city’s carbon footprint.

So now I know this super steam system is the reason for the steaming manholes we see all over Manhattan. We did learn this is usually caused by external water being boiled because it came in contact with the freakin’ hot steam pipes, rather than leaks in the steam system itself.

A bit of history:

By the early 1900s, regulations emerged across the U.S. to promote rural electrification through the construction of centralized plants managed by regional utilities. These regulations not only promoted electrification throughout the countryside, but they also discouraged decentralized power generation, such as cogeneration.   By 1978, Congress recognized that efficiency at central power plants had stagnated and sought to encourage improved efficiency with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which encouraged utilities to buy power from other energy producers.

Cogeneration plants proliferated, soon producing about 8 percent of all energy in the U.S. However, the bill left implementation and enforcement up to individual states, resulting in little or nothing being done in many parts of the country.

In 2008, Tom Casten, chairman of Recycled Energy Development, said, “We think we could make about 19 to 20 percent of U.S. electricity with heat that is currently thrown away by industry.”

Cogeneration, also called combined heat and power (CHP), is, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “an efficient, clean, and reliable approach to generating electricity and heat energy from a single fuel source.”  Combined heat and power can greatly increase a facility’s operational efficiency and decrease energy costs. And it is said that CHP reduces the emission of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global climate change.

Outside the U.S., energy recycling is more common. Denmark is probably the most active energy recycler, obtaining about 55% of its energy from cogeneration and waste heat recovery. Other large countries, including Germany, Russia, and India, also obtain a much higher share of their energy from decentralized sources.

“If slaughter houses all had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians.”
~Linda McCartney

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. I am not a vegetarian. I have never been. It’s a specific label that I don’t need to define myself with.  I also don’t think it has to be an all-or-nothing mentality.  I think that is what scares off many people who think if they can’t quit cold turkey, literally, then they can’t do anything.  This is simply not true.  There is a whole spectrum in between.   I myself am eating less and less meat (meaning cow, chicken, and pig—notice how even this sounds strange since we have renamed most of these into ‘edible’ names. We don’t eat pig, we eat pork) as time goes on…especially when I am cooking and shopping for myself.

I love food. There’s no question about it. The more I get out and the more I discover, the more foods I enjoy. And I don’t just mean stuffing my face.    I enjoy the story of food and mostly the culture of food and it’s importance to basically every society around the globe.   Through my television producing career (producing a ‘lifestyles’ show ‘weighted’ heavily in the restaurant scene in Chicago) and just my proximity to so many dining options and authentic ethnic eateries, I’ve become quite fascinated with the restaurant and food industry. And throughout my travels I try nearly everything on offer and at the same time have witnessed the closer relationship people in many developing nations have with what they consume. There seems to be a much shorter distance from field to plate and it made me realize how far removed most of us in the Western World (myself wholly included) are from the reality of the food chain. And how industrialized the food supply in the U.S. is, that to answer the above question: ‘where does our food come from,’ most would answer, ‘the supermarket.’  Drumsticks, NY Strip Steaks, and Pork Tenderloin wrapped in plastic or frozen chicken tenders and beanie weenies in a can barely resemble the animals they once were, let alone even share the same name.

I recently saw the documentary,  Food Inc., and read a book that opened my eyes and taught me a lot about the food I eat every day. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, journalist Michael Pollan meticulously and intriguingly breaks down our food industry kernel by kernel and tells us just how ‘industrialized’ it has all become.  From factory farming techniques that reveal the unscrupulously inhumane treatment of animals,  to the use of chemicals, pesticides, and antibiotics to ward off the very diseases that these overcrowded ‘factories’ create by their own design,  Pollan says the chronic diseases that kill most of us can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food over the last several decades.

His fascinating book takes us through the changes our nation has endured over the 20^th century in the processing (and over processing) of what we eat, especially the surplus of government-subsidized corn and how it has found its way into practically everything we ingest (corn fed beef as opposed to natural grass consuming cows, the replacement of natural sugar with addictive high fructose corn syrup in sodas, candy, and even ketchup, mustard, and bread).

High Fructose Corn Syrup is cheaper than sugar and consumers don’t seem to notice the difference, but the true difference has been seen in our belt size – in our nation’s health and overall weight. American’s rising obesity rates have been traced to the 1970s when America’s average daily caloric intake jumped up more than 10%. In simple terms, by human nature, when food is cheap and abundant people will eat more and get fat (relating to our hunter/gatherer roots—stocking up to store fat in case of a famine…which nowadays never comes). And in recent years, mega-companies like McDonald’s began ‘supersizing’ their portions thanks to cheaper ingredients from more subsidized and industrialized practices in turn making us even fatter.  Humans have inherited a sweet tooth and an inclination towards energy-dense foods like sugar and fats, yet in nature we don’t encounter the over-concentrated amounts of these substances like we do now in processed foods—case-in-point—a soda contains way more fructose that any fruit that exists in nature.

Many people in this country get upset when they hear about dogs being killed for food in other countries like I saw firsthand in Vietnam. But we don’t seem at all bothered about what is happening to the animals right here in our own backyard. People know dogs and cats…they are part of the family. But perhaps if they got to know cows and pigs and chickens, they’d be just as upset about the way they are inhumanely treated and then slaughtered. It has been shown that cows have personalities and respond well to human interaction just like any animal does. And according to studies done at Penn State University, pigs can be just as smart and loving as dogs.

With the help of hormones and other treatments, the farming industry has managed to create fast growing cows and chickens that now live for just about 30 days before slaughter. Many of these animals grow so unnaturally fast that their little, young legs can not support the weight of their abnormally large bodies and they can’t even stand up.  Not only do they suffer, many of these animals become sick or diseased and have to be killed and never even used as food anyway.

There are some new organic farms out there trying to do the right thing for the animals and in turn us.   Polyface Farms in Virginia has what they call complete ‘transparent’ practices. They don’t hide their slaughter process; they do it out in the open. In fact, if you buy a chicken from Polyface, you are more than welcome to come to the farm early to pick it up and witness its sad yet humane demise.  Either way, you have to pick it up – they do not ship food anywhere, thus helping to not contribute more environmental problems, pollution, and fuel usage that long-haul shipping causes.  Maybe what I’m writing sounds so ‘in your face’, but I now really can’t believe how in the dark we are (or try to keep ourselves) from what we put in our bodies and where it truly comes from. Many informed consumers in the US are trying to buy locally from farmers’ markets and stores that supply local farmers’ foods. You may have heard this phrase before: Think globally, act locally. By going to the supermarket or better yet a local farmers’ market, and buying your tomatoes from local farmers in your own state and not, say, Costa Rica, you are helping cut back on fuel costs and emissions caused by such long-distance hauling.

Most people also don’t realize that farm animals are the greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. The livestock industry produces more gases than the transportation industry. It’s also one of the top contributors to other problems like land degradation, water degradation and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Next time you are driving through the American “heartland” past all the green farms and rows and rows of corn, it may not seem quite the idyllic ‘mom and pop’ farm picture that it once did…or that the food marketers still try to make it out to be.

The market is really driven by consumers.
So what can we do?

• Be informed. Read and learn more.
• Shop mostly the perimeter of grocery stores where the ‘real’ food is.
• Shop farmers’ markets (find local, sustainable farmers and markets by entering your zipcode here).
• Buy foods that are in season.
• Become a locavore – buy and eat locally produced food.
• Buy free range and organically raised and fed plants, dairy products, and meats.
• Plant your own garden…even a small one.
• Know where your food comes from.

What else can we do? What do you do? Leave your comments here.

Something a lot of cities are doing really well nowadays – taking what’s old and making it new again and in many cases even better. Case in point: New York City’s Highline.

This elevated railway 30 feet above the city’s West Side and Meatpacking district was built in 1934 for freight trains hauling dairy products, produce and meats.  Today it has been transformed into a public park.  Abandoned for nearly 80 years and under the threat of demolition, the Highline was saved by a citizens group with the help from the City Government.  Now this former eyesore, has been turned into something wonderful and the first section opened just a few months ago.

Wood decking and concrete walkways meander through gardens and lovely landscaped areas of wild grasses. There are benches sprinkled all about where you can plop down to read a book in the sun or just enjoy watching the passersby. There is virtually a sundeck with wooden chaise lounges and another section even has a small amphitheater where you can look down on to ‘the stage of life’ – 10^th Avenue below with its stream of taxis, cars, and cyclists whizzing by.
When all sections are complete, the High Line will be a mile-and-a-half-long elevated park, running through the West Side neighborhoods of the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen.

Access points from street level will be located every two to three blocks. Many of these access points will include elevators, and all will include stairs.

It was a beautiful, autumn Sunday in New York when we checked out the highline.  Couples, tourists, and families with kids in tow were all enjoying one of New York’s newest green, open spaces. Way to go New York.

Often when non-locals think of New Jersey, they think Sopranos, they think strip malls, they think of one big suburb of New York City and in some cases they’d be right. But there is much more to the Garden State than meets the uninitiated eye. Just scratch a tiny bit beneath the surface and you will find a beautiful state full of dense woodlands where deer frolic (until they are hit by speeding SUVs), charming, quaint colonial towns centered on greens and mainstreets, and miles and miles of sandy beached coastline.

One of my favorite places in New Jersey has always been the attractive town of Princeton. Originally a stagecoach stop between the equidistant cities of New York and Philadelphia, today’s Princeton is a vibrant small city chock full of historic sites, diverse eateries, lots of green space, and magnificent mansions.

Of course, the most famous thing in town is the eponymous University.  Founded in 1746, Princeton University is one of the eight Ivy League universities in the United States.  A walk around campus will not disappoint – Gothic architecture, arched doorways, stained glass windows, and the apropos ivy-covered buildings abound.  Some notable alums?  James Madison, Aaron Burr, Jr, Ralph Nader, Donald Rumsfeld, Brooke Sheilds, Jimmy Stewart and F. Scott Fitzgerald. And let’s not forget famous Princetonians like good old Albert Einstein, Mary Chapin Carpenter, architect Michael Graves, professor and mathematician John Nash, Jr. (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind), actor Christopher Reeve, and President Woodrow Wilson.

A stroll around the compact downtown is a nice way to pass an afternoon. Shops, cafes, and bars line Nassau street and Palmer Square.  We stopped for a “beer flight” at the local cavernous Triumph Brewing Company. Princeton’s dining scene runs the gamut from independent cafes, the eclectic Asian cuisine to fine dining. We ducked into lively Mediterra which oddly had Mediterranean cuisine. If you ever happen to be around New Jersey, or want to take a break from the hustle and bustle of New York City, don’t miss an afternoon in Princeton, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

The Definition: Leaf peeping is an autumn activity in areas where foliage changes colors. Leaf peepers are those who participate in photographing and viewing the fall foliage.

I have always loved autumn. And autumn and New England go together like peanut butter and jelly or Tom and Jerry or me and oxygen. So, now that I was back on the east coast, I figured I might as well take advantage of the amazing color and light show going on just north of me. It may not be a psychedelic as a Pink Floyd Laser show, but it’s pretty damn cool.

New England is the northeastern most area of the United States and is basically comprised of six states: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. When you think of this region, you think rolling green hills, white clapboard churches, coastal fishing villages, clam chowder and leafy college campuses. It doesn’t disappoint. And the autumn season here couldn’t be a better time to go and enjoy nature’s final fling before the snowy northeast winter sets in (of course that is really pretty too, but damn cold).

Catching fall foliage at its peak can be a challenge as different weather patterns, temperatures, latitude, altitude, and length of daylight can all affect it. Typically the colors are most vibrant from late September to early to mid October – this shifts a bit of course depending on how far north or south you are. If you are far north in Maine…the colors will turn earlier and likewise if you are down in Massachusetts or Connecticut, the best time will be a little later. Go early and see the colors mixed in with greens, go later and see the colorful confetti on back lanes and in streams.

But what exactly causes these flaming reds, bright oranges and golden yellows to come out? Why do leaves change color at all? After a little research, I have found that it has to do with the slow down and eventual cessation of chlorophyll production. In summer, the chlorophyll gives leaves their rich green hue. But as cool temps set in and the daylight hours decrease, less chlorophyll is produced which allows the other ingredients in leaves – carotenoids and anthocyanins (are these real words?) – to get their chance to be unmasked and shine through.

Our route from New Jersey would take us through the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut, the Mohawk Trail (MA 2) in the northern Berkshires of Massachusetts, a lovely stop in Hanover, New Hampshire – the home of Dartmouth University, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and up to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in Maine.

Here are some highlights:

Hanover

This cute, quintessential New England town is most known as the home to Dartmouth College which was established in 1769 and is one of nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. With a total enrollment of 5,848, Dartmouth is the smallest school in the Ivy League. The main street of town is lined with cute cafes and shops and leads right into the wide college ‘green’ where students lie in the grass or pass the time tossing Frisbees about. For lunch, we tried Lou’s, a Darmouth institution since 1947 and Hanover’s oldest establishment, but as still one of the most popular joints, the wait was too long. We ended up at Molly’s, a wood-paneled bar-slash-restaurant adorned with black and white photos and menus inside old LP covers.

The White Mountains

The vast White Mountains cover one quarter of New Hampshire with New England’s most rugged mountains. There is no shortage of activities from camping to hiking to skiing to canoeing. I flew through the air above the tree tops on my second Zipline course with Alpine Adventures since my first one in Costa Rica. We sailed over the red and yellow treetops on five different lines from platforms ranging in height between 15ft and 65 ft. It’s an exhilarating and free feeling that always makes me giddy with laughter.

To come down from our zipline rush, we hiked the easy two-mile Gorge Trail in Franconia Notch State Park. The Flume Gorge is a natural wonder shaped over time by a wild stream that cuts through the granite to form a natural cleft with towering granite walls that rise 90 feet above.

The Kancamagus Scenic Highway (Rt. 112) – During my research, this winding road probably came up the most and is the hardest to pronounce. Locals call it the Kanc. But unlike a bad Canker sore in your mouth, this road was quite pleasant and really a beautiful scene from beginning to end. It wasn’t paved until 1964 and cuts through the White Mountains from west to east. It only takes about an hour or so, even with requisite photo stops.

Acadia National Park – Surprisingly Acadia is the only national park in New England and said to be the nation’s second most visited national park after Yellowstone. The most popular part of Acadia is on Mt Desert Island just outside of Victorian mansion-lined Bar Harbor. Admission to the park is $20 per vehicle. We drove the scenic and serene 20-mile Park Loop Road that circumnavigates the northeastern section of Mt Desert Island including a stop at the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in the park at 1530 feet.

There’s still time…jump in your car and road trip it up to New England! Then stick around for ski season.

Who hasn’t sidled up to a grease truck on a late Saturday night or bought a tasty falafel-filled pita from a New York City food cart?  But there is a new phenomenon under foot.

Taco trucks are actually nothing new to Los Angeles, but lately they seem to be everywhere.  And their customers are no longer just construction workers or other blue collar Joes. Now, thanks to the social media craze, a truck called Kogi BBQ is causing quite a feeding frenzy. Lines of LA hipsters stretch around the block. People show up from all over just to try one of their Korean-slash-Mexican fusion creations. But what caused it to go from a bit of a buzz to an all out taco tizzy? Twitter, of course. Launched in November, Kogi tweets (under @kogibbq) their trucks’ whereabouts throughout the day and their loyal followers come running. If you Tweet it, they will come.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the operation has become a “social networking juggernaut,” drawing between 300 and 800 people at each stop, with waits of up to two hours. Traditional trucks always parked in the same spot. These new trucks give the air of exclusivity because you have to be in the know to find out where to find them any give day.

My friend Mark and I decided to run down the Kogi truck one afternoon. I found their weekly posting of whereabouts on their site. Then I cross-referenced it with updated Tweets they were making every few hours on Twitter.  There was going to be a truck just around the corner at lunch time. Sweet! We were golden.

We walked over and found no less than 5 imitator trucks dishing out slop to the LA citizenry. But where was our Kogi?  Nowhere to be found. And since we are not so connected and didn’t have a Blackberry or iPhone – we were in a social media black-out.  We asked some other Kogi cravers the obvious question and no one knew where the heck it was.  So, we ate some imitation tacos which were good at $2 a pop, but still not the fusion flavor I had heard so much about.

Okay, cut to two days later. This was it. We were going to track down a truck and shove some tacos down our gullets if it was the last thing we did. We drove to a Best Buy parking lot and…there it was. Actually there they were – two gleaming white Kogi trucks churning out the coveted chow and pumping out some reggaeton (kind of a Latino hip-hop/reggae mash-up) to a small lunch mob that had gathered. I asked for the special – the Blackjack Quesadilla. Mmm, crafty Kogi goodness. It was a crunchy well done tortilla filled with some damn yummy caramelized onions, spicy pork, gooey cheese, and topped with a sesame sauce with just enough kick to make my lips tingle.  It was good, but I think it was the whole manufactured ‘coolness’ of the scene that I enjoyed the most.

Or, as my friend Mark put it, “It was good food and everything, but ya know, it was just eatin’ food from a truck.”

If you grew up in the Eighties like I did, there is no doubt that one of your favorite films is a John Hughes flick. Sadly, Hughes died Thursday at the young age of 59 from a heart attack.

For years and years this writer/director brought Hollywood to Chicago.  “I’m going to do all my movies here in Chicago,” he told Roger Ebert years ago. “The Tribune referred to me as a ‘former Chicagoan.’ As if, to do anything, I had to leave Chicago. I never left. I worked until I was 29 at the Leo Burnett advertising agency, and then I quit to do this. This is a working city, where people go to their jobs and raise their kids and live their lives. In Hollywood, I’d be hanging around with a lot of people who don’t have to pay when they go to the movies.”

He is well known for stories of teen angst. “These are just simple truths about people and families. I happen to go for the simplest, most ordinary things. The extraordinary doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested in psychotics. I’m interested in the person you don’t expect to have a story. I like Everyman,” Hughes told the New York Times in 1991.

Hughes spent his teen years in Northbrook, a leafy suburb of Chicago that provided the backdrop for many of his best known films.

Check out this list of movies he wrote and directed in which he turned the City of Chicago or its environs into one of the characters:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

“Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Right on, Ferris, you righteous dude.  It’s a lovefest for Chicago in this fun-filled classic. Ferris, his droopy friend Cameron, and hot gal pal Sloan tear up the city during Ferris’ “sick” day outing. The Art Institute, Wrigley Field, Sears (ahem Willis) Tower, and The Board of Trade get ample screen time. And no one has forgotten the fun musical MTV-like video of Ferris’ rendition of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” during the parade around Daley Plaza.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

“I got you for two weeks Bender,” a great line from one of my favorite movies of all time which gave birth to the infamous brat pack. The Breakfast Club was all character driven and they were all so good. The film, which was shot entirely in sequence, partly takes place inside Glenbrook North High School in Hughes former home of Northbrook, IL. The library in which most of the movie takes place was actually constructed in the gymnasium of Maine North High School specifically for the film. The school closed down in 1982, two years before filming began.  In fact, it is said that Hughes did not allow the actors to leave the high school for their own lunch break…instead they had to have it in the school’s cafeteria. Classic.

Sixteen Candles (1984)

“What’s happenin’ hot stuff?’ says crazy Long Duk Dong in another Hughes classis, Sixteen Candles. Of course the Donger (as he’s affectionately known) is nowhere near as dreamy as teen heartthrob Jake who eventually falls for Sam. According to IMDB, a good part of the movie was filmed at Niles East High School in Skokie, Illinois. Some of the students in the big party scene are wearing Niles East Trojans jackets and shirts. This high school had been closed for more than ten years when the filming started and is now part of Oakton Community College has been completely remodeled. During the dance scene, John Cusack is wearing a WLS t-shirt. Although it currently has a talk-radio format, in 1984, WLS was a top-40 station in Chicago. And of course, I worked at their TV Station counterpart, WLS-TV – ABC7 Chicago.

Some other very famous Hughes flicks:

• Mr. Mom (1983)
• National Lampoon’s Vacation (1984)
• Pretty in Pink (1986)
• Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (1987)
• Home Alone (1990)