Intelligent Travel

Neighborhood Watch: Greensburg Rises from the Rubble

Once-backwater Greensburg, Kansas, is turning a brand-new, bright green leaf. With a population hovering around 1,500, the town has emerged over the past few months as one of the country’s most progressive, environmentally friendly cities.

Rising from the rubble left behind from last May’s devastating 1.7-mile-wide F5 tornado, Greensburg earlier this year became the first city in the United States to mandate that all city building projects be built to LEED platinum level standards. Just under a year after the rural area lost 11 residents and 95 percent of homes and businesses to the storm, new permits have been issued for 126 homes and 41 commercial buildings.

Locals have enthusiastically embraced their new tree-hugging image. “We are talking about a model green community for the world. And we want the world to visit. We could end up having ecotourism here,” Daniel Wallach, a local businessman who formed the Greensburg GreenTown organization to co-ordinate the effort, told the Guardian.

The town's previous claim to fame was an antiquated site called the Big Well—the largest hand-dug well in America—a stark difference from the cutting-edge developments of today. Set to debut in time for the tragedy's year anniversary on May 4th is the brand-new 5.4.7 Arts Center, a community gathering place and art museum-workshop designed by students from the University of Kansas's architecture school—built from a reclaimed munitions depot and complete with three wind turbines.

And already in the works are several innovative demonstration homes that will serve as eco-educational lodgings, where people can spend the night and see what it means to live in, say, a straw bale house. Plus, by September, a space where destroyed businesses can start up again under the same roof to share expenses—including ten retail shops—will open in the fancy new Business Incubator on Main Street.

"Greensburg is a work in progress," Greensburg GreenTown's Catherine Hart told IT. "There’s a lot happening. It’s really interesting because there’s still some debris and a lot of things that haven’t been rebuilt, but also some that has been, so the contrast between the two most find really interesting. The energy of being around rebuilding is really quite palpable."

It certainly doesn’t feel like Kansas. Where’s Toto when you need him?

Photo: New growth in Greensburg, by Stacy Barnes

Cinematic Road Trip: Kansas

John Ur clicks his heels and takes us to Kansas for this week's issue of Cinematic Road Trip.

Think of the words "Kansas" and "movie." What's the immediate thing that comes to mind? If you're like 99.9 percent of Americans, I'd guess that The Wizard of Oz was the first film you thought of. And while the Sunflower State is more than willing to accommodate your instincts for Judy Garland memorabilia, if you’re on the road in Kansas searching for locations from the film, you’re in the wrong spot: The film was shot entirely on set in Culver City, California, and not in Kansas.

Kansas is arguably the symbol of the American Heartland. It contains the geographic center of the lower 48 states and is one of the country’s leaders in agricultural production. This is due to the large amount of flat, arable land in the western two-thirds of the state. The eastern third tends to be a bit more hilly and forested, with more of the big cities located in this trident: Topeka, Wichita, and Lawrence among others.

In Paper Moon, we get to see both areas of the state. In Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Great Depression Era period piece, Ryan O’Neal stars with his real-life daughter, Tatum, as Moses and Addie, an unlikely pair of con artists as entertaining to watch as Newman and Redford in The Sting. A novice actress, Tatum O’Neal became the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award when she took home the Best Supporting Actress statue.

Most of the film was shot in Hays, Kansas, a small town off of I-70 about 200 miles due west of Topeka. But the duo also take a road trip of their own. Moses intends to drive Addie to her only known kin in St. Joseph, Missouri. Along the way, Addie quickly picks up on the scams that Moses is running. Their journey takes them through the north-central plains of Kansas, picking up money and tramps and running from the law. At a certain point, they need to get rid of their car, which is now hotly pursued. They end up at a remote farm in the hilly, forested eastern section of the state where Moses has to wrestle a young Randy Quaid for his vehicle. Only in Kansas.

There's No Place Like Lawrence

After last week's history-making victory in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championships, the University of Kansas Jayhawks—and my alma mater—are at the center of national attention. And so is its location, Lawrence, Kansas: population 81,604. Lawrence is a town obsessed with basketball. Addicted, some might say. The school’s first-ever coach, James Naismith, is credited with inventing modern-day basketball, more than 110 years ago. With the first NCAA title in 20 years, and only its third in school history, the youthful town is going bonkers.

The truth is, though, Lawrence is as multi-layered a city as they come. Beyond the "hoop"-la that the city thrives off of four months out of the year, Lawrence is as diverse a place as you'll find in Middle America. It’s the childhood home of Langston Hughes. Its university campus is consistently rated as one of the most beautiful public universities in the nation. More than 25 percent of KU graduates study abroad during their time as students, and Forbes.com recently rated it the seventh-smartest city in the nation. It proudly carries the nickname “The Liberal Oasis” of the Midwest, a haven for hipsters, hippies, and the highly educated. And the city’s downtown avenue, Massachusetts Street, boasts an incredible assortment of ethnic, locally owned, vegetarian-friendly restaurants and cafés.

And so I present you, IT readers, with my top five Mass Street comfort picks, the spots most dear to my heart. I'm sure you'll find them endearing, as well.

Tour Guide: Biking the Underground Railroad

For history buffs out there (you know who you are), the Adventure Cycling Association has a great tour that combines U.S. history lessons with plenty of exercise.

The 48-day, 2,100-mile Undergound Railroad tour takes 14 cyclists from Mobile, Alabama, through the Deep South and the Tennessee River Valley, across the Ohio River, and up through Buffalo, New York, all the way to Owen Sound, Ontario, just like escaped slaves would have done in the 19th century (minus the bicycle, of course). Along the way, cyclists will stop at historic sites, share cooking responsibilities, and camp.

The Adventure Cycling Association is partners with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health, which helped create the UGRR route. To get an idea of what the tour is like, check out Joan and Mike's entry on the Review the Ride Registry, who also have a very detailed blog with lots of photos from last year's trip.

The Association has heaps of other multiweek tours, like the brand-new, 79-day Great Western Loop, as well as shorter trips, like the 7-day Cycle Montana route.

For more information about the group's self-contained bicycling trips (you carry your own stuff) and supported tours (they transport your luggage for you), check out their website.

Photo: Adventure Cycling Association/Dennis Coello

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Strange Planet: Greening Chicago

We've seen lakes turn green because of algae and mildew, but since the 1960s, Chicago has been greening its river every year for the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Apparently, local plumbers found out they could dye the water green by accident: 

In 1961 [Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local Union business manager] Stephen Bailey was approached by a plumber who was wearing some...coveralls [which] had been mostly stained or dyed a perfect shade of green... [W]hen Stephen Bailey asked how the coveralls got this way, they discovered that the dye used to detect leaks into the river turned green, not just any color green, but the perfect color green.

The men then decided to use the perfect "Irish green" to surprise the public on St. Patrick's Day.

Saddling Up with TrustyPony

While we tend to ignore most of the silly travel swag orbiting the blogosphere, that doesn't mean we don't occasionally go weak in the knees over stylish laptop sleeves, totes that compress into keychains, and tiny pirate spyglasses. To that end, IT's Katie Knorovsky was thrilled to discover fellow Drake University alumna Berit Thorkelson had launched TrustyPony, an independent travel goods blog determined to help inspire people "to get out there and explore the world...in style." Check out daily picks and a Global Eye-type photo feature. But first, Berit divulges TrustyPony's backstory as well as a few highlights of her stomping grounds: the Twin Cities.

Why did you start TrustyPony?

I've been a travel writer for over a decade now, and I'd started doing regular travel-gear roundups for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, my hometown paper's Sunday travel section. While researching gear, it struck me that there wasn't an independent, leisure travel-specific shopping blog on the web. I've always been a compulsive traveler, as well as a compulsive solution-finder, so it really made perfect sense that I fill that void. I went live with TrustyPony in July of 2007.

You mentioned on your website that you're "not about more stuff" but "about finding the right stuff." How do you determine what the right stuff is?

For the site, I'm careful not to select stuff that only I would use. Everyone travels quite differently, has different tastes, and each type of trip requires different necessities. I try to mix it up and to be selective, yet open-minded about items. I envision what style of traveler would see what I've posted and get excited about it, because it fulfills a definite need or just because it's an interesting or cool-looking version of something they'll use on a trip. You only get to bring so many things. Best to make them really count.

How can a traveler determine what the right stuff for them is, especially in a time of shrinking baggage allowances?

I’ve always felt as though less is best. I've done month-long backpacking trips overseas where I loaded up a pack with everything I "needed," then started paring down until the bag was less than half full. In the end, I still ended up overestimating and bringing a t-shirt or two I could have done without. So my best piece of advice is to pack a few days in advance, then take three or more items out. Try to select articles of clothing that mix well, so you can get lots of mileage out of each piece. And try to accumulate double-duty clothes that can go from beach to dinner, or sightseeing to the club. That sort of thing. Beyond clothes, it really depends on your trip and your style. An item that might seem unnecessary to one can end up playing an integral part in another's travels.

What are the goods that you don't leave home without?

It depends on the trip. I'm obsessed with luggage and bags, so that's where my thoughts first turn. There's my trusty Kelty backpack, which I've used for over 15 years. It's seen a couple dozen countries and is still kicking. I love my Hideo Wakamatsu three-way carry-on trolley for more urban travel. It has a padded front laptop pocket, made of black basketball rubber, both sleek and durable. And my Yak Pak Chinook bag is the perfect size to act as a purse or a tote. Plus, it's cloth and washable. And super cute. When my husband and I might be sharing the bag, though, he prefers we go with the Haversack, made of recycled bicycle tires. Unisex. Durable. For international travel, gotta carry the all-in-one universal adapters, which have inputs and outputs for different countries in one compact little device. I have a couple of those. And, of course, Moleskine notebooks for recording road thoughts. They have new artsy versions, plus city-specific styles with little maps and such. I could keep going, and going, and going...

Twin Cities Bars Smoke the Smoking Ban

We knew Minnesota's Twin Cities were pretty serious about their theater (bragging more live theater per capita than anywhere outside New York). Even so, our eyebrows are sufficiently raised at hearing that bars across the metro area there were staging "theater nights" to bypass the statewide smoking ban.

The Star Tribune explains:

Dozens of bars are expected to stage "theater nights'' this weekend in which patrons are dubbed "actors". The law, which went into effect in October, permits performers to smoke during a theatrical production. "Two weeks ago, we had one bar doing this,'' said Mark Benjamin, a criminal defense attorney who launched the theater-night idea. He estimates 50 to 100 bars could be on tap for theater nights this weekend based on phone calls, e-mails and requests for the how-to-stage-a-theater-night packet that he's devised.

Lisa Anderson, owner of Mike's Uptown bar, told the Star that her "theater night" last Saturday drew four times the usual crowd. She plans to continue to host similar themed nights, at least until state health department officials pull the plug on the loophole.

Paintings Below Zero

Any talk of visiting Chicago in February may seem like a cruel joke to travelers, but the Windy City's taking advantage of its chilly weather to present a public art project that wouldn't be possible in, say, the Grenadines.

Canadian artist Gordon Halloran's "Paintings Below Zero" is the centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Ice in downtown's Millenium Park through February 29.

The work is an impressive, 95-foot long, 12-foot-high sheet of ice that constantly changes shape and texture as it melts and refreezes. Known locally as "The Popsicle," Paintings Below Zero was quite a feat to create. The Chicago Tribune reports:

His slabs of ice, which he and his crew created over a month at a Fulton Market cold-storage warehouse, where temperatures hovered around 4 degrees Fahrenheit, carry patterns created by experiments with pigments, crystal structure and embedded shards of different colors.

Halloran envisions the wall as a receding glacier, cracking into shards and melting into the ocean.

In addition to the Tribune' s extensive photo and video coverage, the Museum of Modern Ice has a lot of resources for learning about the art from photo galleries and a schedule of events. Also, check out their blog for inside information from the production crew about how they maintain the sculpture.

The project is based on a similar work originally commissioned for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

And if you're there to see the art but need to keep moving to stay warm, rent a pair of skates and do a triple axel over Halloran's painting, embedded underneath the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink.

Thanks for the tip, AreWeThereYet?!

Photos: Jennifer Wilkinson

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Neighborhood Watch: Dots in Detroit

Welcome to Intelligent Travel's newest column: Neighborhood Watch, in which we highlight what's happening in urban enclaves.

Despite Detroit’s well-publicized urban blight, Heidelberg Street has maintained its place as a bright spot in an otherwise concrete wasteland for the past 22 years. The street's abandoned homes have been cheerfully re-imagined  with thousands of splattered polka dots and vacant lots are plastered with spray-painted doll heads, stuffed animals, and rusty bicycles. 

Once host to more than 300 African-American-owned businesses, the inner-city east side neighborhood was destroyed by the 1967 Detroit race riots. In 1986, local artist Tyree Guyton and his grandfather and wife took paintbrush and broom to the neighborhood, now known as the Heidelberg Project, in the hopes of transforming the urban decay into a public art environment. Cleaning up vacant lots, they collected junk and trash and repurposed it as art to link the concepts of discarded objects and discarded communities and people.

Though the site has drawn myriad supporters and inspired similar art projects, the city council hasn't always been a fan. The square block of street art has twice weathered city demolition (in 1991 and 1999), managing to not only survive but evolve into one of the top tourist attractions of Detroit today.

“The greatest asset in Detroit is the people—they have remarkable survival skills,” says Jenenne Whitfield, executive director of the Heidelberg Project. “Tyree felt his work was so important that some bulldozers could not keep him down. And each time he rebuilt, the project came back stronger.”

Global Eye: Ames, Iowa

Photographer: Suwandi Chandra of West Des Moines, Iowa (originally From Indonesia).

Getting the Shot: The photo was taken on the Friday night of VEISHEA (an annual week long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa) on April 20th, 2007. Using Pentax K10D camera mounted on tripod with shutterspeed 1.5 seconds, and aperture f/3.5.

The Details: The 168-foot-tall "Marston Water Tower" was the first steel water tower west of the Mississippi River when it was erected in 1897. It is named for Anson Marston, Iowa State's first engineering dean, who designed the tower and oversaw its construction. The Marston Water Tower is on the National Register of Historic Places.

I was walking around the campus (Iowa State University) with my camera and tripod and saw a sign board that explained that this water tower was the first water tower in Iowa, so I decided to take a photo for my own collection. And I took this shot from outside of Marston Hall entrance.

IT loves how this photo seems like something out of War of the Worlds. Want your own photo up on Global Eye? Join the Intelligent Travel Flickr Pool.

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Bodacious Breakfast: Jackson Hole

Contributing Writer Cathy Healy is just back from a visit to Wyoming with family, and was ready to dish with us about her favorite breakfast joint.

TETON VILLAGE, Wyo. – Outside the deck of our house at the base of the ski mountain, a mother moose and her calf snuggle in last night’s snow. My family—sibs, spouses, nephews, and wives—are slipping into their third layer of miracle fibers. Not me, I live in D.C. now. I need a fix of politics.

I borrow my brother’s vehicle and head into town for breakfast at Jedediah’s, a snug 1910 log cabin just off the town square where “juice” means more than OJ, and although the thick bacon crunches, you can chew for a long time on what’s happening here and there. As the saying goes: “Everything is political in Wyoming, except politics, which is personal.”

I greet the founder and owner, Mike Gierau, a born host who knows his way around politics as well as he does kitchens – he's chaired the Wyoming Democratic Committee and served on the DNC. As we talk primaries, I tuck into his crepe-thin sourdough pancakes that come loaded with tiny wild Maine blueberries, which don’t make the pancakes soggy like big, fat blueberries do. The sourdough comes from 1870s starter used by ranchers in the Valley, the bacon is ‘specially cut. Mike gets the details.

And it's this attention that'd led Mike to cater to almost all of the private jets that land at Jackson Hole Airport—thousands of them–from his new outpost there. 

But while jets are a 24/7 business, the Jedediah's on the mountain only serves breakfast and lunch. So where does a guy who loves good food and wants great service go for dinner in Jackson Hole?

“Name the top three,” I ask.

Mike hedges. Always the politician, he offers, “You can come here for two weeks and go to a different place every night and get excellent food.” I nudge; Mike votes.

Hotel Central: Seaside Chic

Associate editor Susan O'Keefe rounds up a bunch of news from the hotel beat... 

Gated Community: Guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City not only receive access to a private key to the gated Gramercy Park—the city's only private park—located across from the hotel, but they also are welcome to have brunch, continental breakfast, and evening cocktails on the Private Roof Club and Garden—an indoor/outdoor space exclusive to guests on the hotel's 16th floor.

Seaside Chic: While it continues to be expensive to travel to Europe, we love that the chic, modern Best Western Masqhotel in La Rochelle, France, an architecturally rich city on the Atlantic coast, offers guest rooms starting at $134 on their website. The hotel is bright and airy with interiors that blend large pieces of abstract artwork with contemporary furnishings done in leather, plastic, steel, and chrome. With direct access from Paris on the TGV (under three hours), La Rochelle offers fresh sea air and the charming Vieux Port (Old Harbor) where visitors can check out one of Europe's largest aquarium, walk around the picturesque old city, dine at dozens of seafood restaurants, and promenade along the city walls lit up at night.

Bungalow Bounceback

Better known for its Prairie-style architecture in the heart of Frank Lloyd Wright country, Chicago has long dismissed its endless rows of brick bungalows as humdrum. The basic homes were built for the city’s working class—mostly immigrants—in the 1920s as an urban respite, located just four to eight miles from downtown.

But the current issue of the National Trust’s magazine, Preservation, reports that after decades of quietly subsisting, the so-called “bungalow belt”—some 80,000 homes strong—has benefited from a new boon of popularity.

More than just a question of historic preservation, reviving the bungalows has become a means of providing affordable housing, creating a green housing stock, and revitalizing Chicago's neighborhoods.

"The initiative started with virtually no knowledge on the public front about what a bungalow was—it was an old house that your grandmother used to live in," says Jim Peters, director of preservation planning at Landmarks Illinois. "Now, a bungalow is a desirable thing to have. People have seen the quality of these buildings, have seen how they can be adapted and upgraded. That wasn't the case 15 years ago."

The bungalows have emerged as a model for the convergence of historic preservation and sustainability, not only because of their eco-friendly restorations, but also because they're an alternative to new construction in the sprawling exurbs.

Six of the bungalow neighborhoods were recently added to the National Register, and the renowned Chicago Architecture Foundation added two bungalow tours to its lengthy roster of offerings.

White Winter Wonderland

Looking for a true winter getaway? Art aficionado Anna Heineman recently traveled north to Ironwood, Michigan, for a weekend of snow, skis, and soup.

For a cozy and romantic adventure, take a trek north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In Ironwood, you'll find 600 acres of cross-country ski trails, where you can wind among the birch trees, pines and hemlocks, and glide over rolling hills and along rivers. The trails support classic and skate cross-country skiers, as well as those with novice and advanced skills. 

Lodging ranges from the luxurious Hilltop House, which is has a knotty-pine interior and 18-foot ceilings, to rustic cabins with no electricity. The three-bedroom Hilltop House holds a family or a group of friends comfortably. Cook dinner in the enormous kitchen, or take a Jacuzzi soak after a loop or two around the trails.

Strange Planet: Nebraska

Even Intelligent Travelers get a kick out of the kooky — so as a spin off of our magazine's back page, we're offering up our own Strange Planet selections here on the blog. While researching family-friendly attractions in the U.S., intern Laura Mansho stumbled upon some quirky roadside destinations that will probably never grace the cover of Traveler, but that deserve a mention nonetheless:

Nebraska:

• Can’t make it to England? Find the next best thing at a kitschy version of Stonehenge outside the town of Alliance, where American-manufactured cars have been lovingly shoved into the dirt to create Carhenge — a site where capitalism, culture, and Cadillacs converge in one memorable family photo op.
• Over in Hebron, you can sit back and relax on the (alleged) World’s Largest Porch Swing — it’s long enough to seat 18 adults side by side at one time. However, it’s not actually attached to any kind of porch as far as I can tell.
• If you work up a thirst while you’re swaying on the swing, stick around for August’s Kool-Aid Days festival in Hastings. My favorite thing about this festival (besides the ridiculous amount of sugar water you get to imbibe) is the boat race. You can build your own ship out of Kool-Aid Jammers packets and Bursts bottles and compete for a chance to take home the grand prize — a pair of Nike Air Force Ones with the Kool-Aid Man emblazoned on the front. What else can you expect in the birthplace of Kool-Aid? At the Hastings Museum, you can learn all about its juicy history and glimpse the original Kool-Aid Man’s costume in all its wall-busting glory — Oh, Yeah!

Got more Nebraska nuggets? Send them our way. And stay tuned for more of our funky finds. And if you're on your own Strange Planet, let us know your favorite odd spots, and we'll try to feature them in future posts.

Photo: Barbara Klocko, Friends of Carhenge

Art Lover's Destination Guide

We'd never heard of it until today, but American Style, "the premier arts lifestyle magazine for art lovers, collectors and travelers," has a lot of nifty content for the discerning wanderer. Each issue lists hundreds of arts festivals, gallery openings and museum events nationwide.

We got a sneak peek at their February 2008 issue, in which they've asked readers to vote on the top ten art fairs and festivals in the country. Here's a smattering of our favorites that made the list:

• Scottsdale Arts Festival (Scottsdale, Arizona, March) The civic center in Oldtown Scottsdale comes alive with the wares of 200 artists and live music and roaming performers.
               
• Long’s Park Art & Craft Festival (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May) Each Labor D ay weekend, this 70-acre park is filled with hundreds of artists from around the country. Enjoy live performances and local wine and craft beer tastings.


• Francisco's Farm Arts Festival at Midway College (Midway, Kentucky, June) Head over to the Kentucky Music Stage to hear some bluegrass before shopping for handcrafted items on the rolling campus of the state's only women's college, situated on a 205-acre working farm.

• Des Moines Arts Festival (Des Moines, Iowa, June) Our Des Moines denizen Katie Knorovsky noted in recent (and much commented on) post: "Downtown transforms into an incredible outdoor art gallery" for this three-day party with multiple performance stages, food vendors, and more than 100 visual artists competing for a juried prize.
  

• Bi-annual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands (Asheville, North Carolina, July & October) Folks have been attending this southern craft fair for more than 60 years. Over 200 guild members display and demonstrate their crafts, much of it traditional to the Appalachian highlands.

Baltimore-based American Style also releases an annual list of the Top 25 Arts Destinations. You can cast vote for your favorite fine arts city here. IT is glad we've found a magazine that lets us support the arts, shop, and travel all the same time! For more markets and fairs, check out Traveler's list of Worldwide Markets, part of our online Authentic Shopping Guide.

Hotel Confidential: Sustainable Eats on Vail's Slopes

Traveler's Hotel Central editor Susan O'Keefe whets our appetite for some new meal options at Vail Resorts.

The next time you pull off the slopes for a juicy hamburger served at one of Vail Resorts 40 mountain dining venues, it will feature all natural hormone- and antibiotic-free beef. Rob Katz, chief executive officer of Vail Resorts, has partnered with two neighboring companies, Coleman Natural and Horizon Organic, to bring "Good Food on a Grand Scale" to its five resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone (in Colorado) and Heavenly (in California and Nevada). Starting this season, Vail Resorts is purchasing 90 percent of its fresh meats—beef, poultry, pork, and deli meats—from Coleman Natural, and 87 percent of its fresh dairy (butter, cheese, milk, and yogurt) will be organic, with an increase in organic products planned for the following year. This month, they began serving organic cheeses on sandwiches, pizza, and burgers. Katz adds that the initiative, being called the largest resort undertaking to offer natural meats and organic dairy in North America, is about "the investment we are making in our guests, particularly kids, to ensure that we are doing our part to make our dining experience as healthy, clean and natural as the activities that happen every day on our mountains.”

IT applauds Vail Resorts commitment to sustainable menus, and loves the idea of green skiing being extended from the slopes to the plate.

Photo: Vail Resorts

Hopped Up in Chicago

Chicago was recently named the most caffeinated city in the country. In light of this, we figured they must know a thing or two about coffee. Plus, why should Seattle get all the props? We conferred with the Traveler staff and scoured Citysearch and Urbanspoon for some of the best java joints in the windy city. Here they are, from north to south on the map, starting with a café based on a subject near and dear to us:

Kopi, a Traveler's Cafe (5317 N. Clark St.; +1 773 989 5674) Order a drink at the full espresso bar and have a seat on the plush pillows on the floor. If you've got some extra cash, the boutique in back sells global wares.

Julius Meinl (3601 N. Southport Ave.; +1 773 868 1857) Grab a coconut macaroon mocha or linzer torte latte at this cozy spot, an offshoot of the lauded Viennese coffeehouse founded in 1862.

Intelligentsia (3123 N. Broadway St.; +1 773 348 8058) has been importing raw coffee to its vintage roasters for more than 10 years. Aside from donating time and funds to various community organizations, it's also incredibly hip; the Silver Lake branch just won a design award from the American Institute of Architects.

Bourgeois Pig Cafe (738 W. Fullerton Pkwy; +1 773 883 5282) offers different flavors of drip coffee daily. "There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to what we will pick next," says the owner on his quirky website. Try the Italian Lavazza Grand Espresso, for "a golden sweet coffee liquor, with caramel crema," and, oh yeah, a huge jolt.

Where do you get your favorite cup of joe?

 

Des Moines: Trendy?

I’m fresh from a five-year stint living in Des Moines, Iowa, so needless to say, my attention was piqued by a recent travel article in the New York Times extolling the capital city’s new downtown boom, just in time for the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses. “There was a time when being told that I would be spending New Year’s Eve in Des Moines would have, well, sobered me up in a New York minute,” wrote Adam Nagourney, chief political correspondent for the Times. “…I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that Des Moines has become a vacation destination. But it has most certainly become cool.”

Now, I don’t need someone from New York (especially not a political junkie) telling me my former home is suddenly hip, but I was intrigued to hear his rendition of what I’ve been trying to convince my new East Coast friends since moving to D.C.

And to Nagourney’s credit, he hits many of the highlights of this so-called new, tony Des Moines, from renowned British architect David Chipperfield’s copper mesh and grass-roofed Central Library to upscale 801 Steak and Chop House (“a classic Iowa steakhouse with New York prices”).

Even so, he missed a few killer spots, so if you find yourself in Des Moines—whether it’s for the caucuses or not—be sure to try out a couple of my favorite downtown experiences that just might convince you that the rumors are true: Des Moines is on its way to becoming a real city.

Marilyn's Miscellany

If you aren't already familiar, please give us the chance to introduce Marilyn Terrell, Traveler Chief Researcher, whom we like to call our "human blog." Since it's almost physically impossible for us to get all of Marilyn's suggestions up online, we've asked her to pen a new column, highlighting some fun stuff found on the Web. Welcome to Marilyn's Miscellany.

• The Wall Street Journal had an article last week about the famous beer-brewing Trappist monks at Belgium's St. Sixtus monastery, and how their celestial beer and deliberately limited production provokes covetousness among beer fanciers, who rate their brew called "the 12" as the best in the world. Traveler scooped this story in our May/June 2006 issue, but this one's online.

• Among the 2007 Preserve America Presidential Award winners, I liked knowing about the Downtown St. Louis Revitalization project, where two private companies bought four historic buildings that were slated for demolition and restored them, creating new urban residential space and bringing economic vitality to a previously depressed downtown. And in Louisiana, Preserve America recognized the efforts of the Natchitoches-Cane River Region Heritage Tourism project, which has brought $47 million in private and $1 million in public investment for historic preservation and infrastructure improvements to the Natchitoches National Historic Landmark District, while preserving the history and living traditions of the French, Spanish, African American, American Indian, and Creole people who settled the area.

Natchitoches isn't pronounced the way you'd expect; it's NACK-uh-tish. The town is known for its Festival of Lights and for Natchitoches meat pies, which are traditionally served on Christmas Eve.   

• Lastly, our friends down the hall at NG KIDS magazine are trying to set a Guinness Word Record for the world's longest chain of shoes. You can help them win (and clear your closets at the same time) by sending them your old athletic shoes, which will later be recycled by the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program to make basketball and tennis courts and running tracks, which is better than ending up in a landfill. Postmark deadline January 22, 2008.

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Corncob Pipe and a Button Nose

If you've ever wondered where Frosty the Snowman might have got his corncob pipe, fear not: IT has the answer.

The Missouri Meerschaum Company is the world's largest and oldest manufacturer of corncob pipes. Meerschaum has been making Frosty's famous pipes in Washington, Missouri, since 1869. The company was founded by Dutch immigrant Henry Tibbe. According to legend,

a local farmer whittled a pipe of of corncob and liked it so much he asked Henry Tibbe to try turning some on his lathe. The farmer was well-pleased with his pipes so Henry made a few more and put them for sale in his shop. They proved to be such a fast-selling item that soon Tibbe spent more time making pipes for his customers than working with wood.

By 1925, there were a handful of other corncob pipe manufacturers in Franklin County, but Meerschaum is the only factory that still exists today. The three-story factory is located on the Missouri River on the corner of Front and Cedar Streets, one block from the Amtrak station in downtown Washington. Take a train from St. Louis, or drive 45 minutes west of the city. Check out the museum (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and buy a pipe of your own.

Photo: Missouri Meerschaum Company

Mapping Chicago

If you find yourself in Chicago between now and January 27, be sure to check out the Field Museum's "Finding Our Place in the World," which opened November 2. The exhibit features more than 100 maps of all sorts—from those designed by Leonardo da Vinci and J.R.R. Tolkien, to flight charts and Buddhist cosmology maps. It also has rare maps like the world's oldest surviving road map, Erhard Etzlaub's Das Ist der Rom Weg, from 1500 A.D., and a 3,300-year-old clay map of what is now a part of Iraq.

The Field Museum, along with over 30 other institutions, is part of a larger citywide celebration called "Festival of Maps Chicago." The Brookfield Zoo features archival maps and future plans for the zoo in its Discovery Center Lobby. Check out celestial charts at the Alder Planetarium's Mapping the Universe exhibit, and learn how flat maps are made into globes at the Chicago History Museum's "Mapping Chicago: The Past and the Possible," which also has maps that document events like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The festival's blog showcases different events and exhibits around the city, so be sure to see what's happening before you go. If you can't make it to Chicago this winter, you can also see pictures of some of the maps online. The Field Museum is also co-publishing a book (pictured, above) with the University of Chicago, which features much of the exhibition material. Appropriately, the entire festival is plotted on a cool interactive map on its main website, so you'll never feel lost navigating your way through the varied exhibits.

Cabaraoke: Rocking Out On The Road

For those with the desire to take the karaoke party beyond the bar and onto the road, one Kansas City cab driver has the answer for you: cabaraoke. The force behind this movement is the Yellow Cab driver called Papa Bear, who, for a standard cab fee, gives you a ride and a full-on karaoke session with over 300 songs to choose from. In addition to being equipped with TV screens continuously reeling song lyrics, Papa Bear’s cab contains video cameras to capture customers' performances. The footage from these cameras is uploaded onto Papa Bear’s website as well as onto YouTube, where you can find guys in button-down shirts belting “Sweet Caroline” or twenty-something females singing “Pour Some Sugar on Me” with alarming sincerity. (Esquire has even taken the time to rate them, American Idol-style.) Here's one of the most viewed clips, a singer belting out "I'm So Excited."

Although cabaraoke is exclusive to Kansas City, Papa Bear hopes to expand the business. “My goal is to spread this to cabs in every major city,” he told The Pitch in an interview last month. “I’m hoping to design and develop a cabaraoke machine that is simple for any driver to use, even with no technical knowledge and even if the cabbie doesn’t speak English.”

Best of luck, Papa Bear!

Global Eye: In the Sky

Photographer: Kaitlin Ziesmer, Denver, Colorado

Getting the shot: The shot was taken at the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival at Chatfield Reservoir on August 25th, 2007. I had just moved back to Colorado for school a couple days before, and my parents had just left that morning. I drove to the reservoir at about 5:30 in the morning, perfectly timing the sunrise. After waiting about 30 minutes, the balloons took to the sky all at once.

Senior Editor on the Prairie

Our recent literary roundup dredged up a great memory from Senior Editor Scott Stuckey. He offered up a book selection that helps bring him back:

I went to college in the Midwest and spent some weekends sightseeing in the Flint Hills of Kansas. One November, a friend and I hitched a ride to a lonely back road in the vicinity of Cottonwood Falls, hopped a fence, and started backpacking across the rolling tallgrass prairie, a state highway map our only guide. We saw no one for the next couple of days, crossing the sea of grass like early pioneers. Then, a snowstorm hit, and we got cold and wet. We found a road, made our way to a ranch house, and knocked on the door. The family who lived there, who might easily have taken offense at our trespassing on private ranchland, welcomed us in, dried our clothes, fed us a huge meal, and drove us into town where our parents would pick us up. In the years since, that rolling prairie has become the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, and it’s still worth a visit. But before you go, read William Least Heat-Moon’s PrairyErth, which he calls a “deep map” of Chase County, Kansas, where the preserve lies. Moon spent years getting to know the land and the people of this remote region, where hospitality and unencumbered views endure. The result is a rich, layered profile combining history, geology, geography, and contemporary narrative.

Visit the National Parks System's Tallgrass Preserve website for more information on it's history programs, tours, hiking trails, and historic building visits. Oh, and be sure to check the weather before you go.

Photo: National Park Service

Does This Mean Elvis is Really Dead?

It's been 30 years since "the King" passed away, but that hasn't stopped Elvis enthusiasts from traveling to Graceland to celebrate the life of the crooner; they get over 600,000 visitors a year. But there's bad news for the folks who weren't convinced that Elvis had ever left the building to begin with: The Elvis is Alive Museum is about to close. The bizarre Missouri outpost, just an hour outside of St. Louis, was once a coin-operated laundry, but for the past 17 years it's been the pet project of Baptist minister Billy Beeney. The AP reports that:

[T]he 81-year-old proprietor of The Elvis is Alive Museum... has placed his Elvis Presley memorabilia on eBay in hopes that someone else will take up the cause. His collection includes photographs, books, FBI files, replicas of the Cadillac the King drove and of the casket and gravestone from his 1977 funeral, even a painted Elvis head.

The Tallest Threefoot Building in Town

Our dear friend and contributing editor Andrew Nelson paused his travels for a moment to send us another great postcard from the road (literally this time).

It seems totally incongruous, but travelers barreling down Mississippi's Interstate 20/59 will see a glorious art deco tower rising over the town of Meridian (pop. 40,000). The skyscraper, with its geometric lines and colorful terra cotta tile facade, is worthy of New York or Chicago. How did all this tower of Jazz Age power end up in a sleepy part of deep Dixie? The story's interesting:

The 16-story brick structure is named the Threefoot Building after the Threefoot family, local Jewish-German merchants originally named Dreyfuss - "three feet" in German. The building, planned during the Roaring 20s economic boom, was finished in 1929, shortly before stock market crash. Though the Great Depression savaged the family's business, the Threefoot has stayed the town's tallest building. Plans are now underway for a New Orleans developer to restore the structure as an upscale hotel.

 

A "Growing Trend" in Colorado

Colorado is cultivating a new kind of tourism. Rather than erecting a Disneyland of the Rockies or enticing luxury-seeking tourists to one of the state's hot springs, Colorado is drawing visitors to its many farms.

Tourists spent about $2.2 billion on "agritourism" in 2006, and the new trend is sprouting up all over the Centennial State. The Rocky Mountain News reports:

"It's going to grow, especially if we nurture it a little bit," said Dawn Thilmany, a professor in Colorado State University's Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. "We're not leading-edge in Colorado, but we're ahead of the curve."

...For those in agriculture, it can mean preserving the land for future generations. Outside Colorado Springs, Duke Phillips has been hosting visitors at Chico Basin cattle ranch for the past several years.

Phillips initially was skeptical of having guests at the 87,000-acre ranch, but he found the extra money helps carry him through not only droughts but market downturns. He also was surprised to find that paying customers often like to pitch in and work, even while they are on vacation.

"That's what people want—they don't want to sit on a beach," Phillips said. "They come to contribute."

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'

Irv Gordon breaks a world record every time he gets behind the wheel of his 1966 Volvo P1800. The 67-year-old retired teacher has clocked more than 2 million miles (2,593,831 as of this writing) on the car...and he's still driving it. He's got the Guinness world record for "most miles driven by a single owner in a non-commercial vehicle" and, as one might imagine, a major case of the travel bug. "Some people watch the Travel Channel. Then there's the rest of us," says Gordon. "I'd rather be there and see it in person."

Gordon pulled over to talk to us on Interstate 70, while on his way to Las Vegas for an auto trade show.  We asked him what drives him to, um, keep driving, and for some of his favorite stops along the way:

Gordon's not the type to go to art museums, but the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas, is right up his alley. An ode to that sharpest of American inventions, barbed wire, it used to be a brassiere factory in the 1940s, he says. Best of all, it's free.

The tiny town of Gothenburg, the "Pony Express Capital of Nebraska," is worth a stop for its station museum.

The Henry Ford Museum is another favorite, good for road trippers from Chicago. It's actually in Dearborn, Michigan, nearly 300 miles east, but with Gordon's internal gauge, anything within a few hundred miles is certainly worth a side trip, he says. (We're sure Ford would be proud).

Blue-Collar Brunch

As a recently transplanted Iowan, I couldn’t help but get a bit homesick when I noticed my favorite greasy spoon was featured in the Washington Post’s “At the Diners” series, a part of their Campaign Trail blog.

The Waveland Café, in Des Moines, Iowa, is a diner so unpretentiously authentic it can almost dare to make a lifelong Iowan feel out of place. As a playground for political and media types leading up to the influential Iowa Caucuses, the café serves coffee and hash browns with a side of local politics.

With aptly-chosen