NY's Capital/Saratoga Region: Land of Plenty

William M. Dowd and April L. Dowd photos

THE REPLICA 'HALFMOON' DOCKED BEHIND ALBANY'S UNIVERSITY PLAZA

New York's Capital Region is an unusual place. It is at once slightly cosmopolitan, with its four core cities -- Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs -- as well as typically sprawling suburban, and then very quickly rural and mountainous.

And this time of year, when the thoroughbreds are running at the historic Saratoga Race Course and the Adirondack mountains are in full foliage to shade campers, hikers and boaters, the area is alive with tourists.

Gateway to the vast Adirondack Park "forever wild" area to the north, it also is the center of New York State government which has sent governors Martin Van Buren, Theodor Roosevelt and distant cousin Franklin Roosevelt on to the White House. It also is a center of education with two engineering schools and colleges of medicine, pharmacy and law, creating a college student population of about 60,000.

Albany itself began in 1652 as Beverwyck, a Dutch trading post established shortly after Dutch-financed English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name, as does the valley encasing the waterway. Beverwyck eventually was taken over by the British, who renamed it Fort Orange, and then Albany. It ranks as the oldest chartered city in the nation.

The center of the city is the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, which includes the State Capitol, a line of towers housing state agencies, the 42-story Corning Tower (tallest structure in the state outside Manhattan), the Cultural Education Center that houses -- among other things -- the New York State Museum, The Egg performing arts center, and a host of other state buildings.

In other neighborhoods, such historic structures as the Ten Broeck Mansion, built by Revolutionary War general Abraham Ten Broeck, and Cherry Hill tend to the historic opreservation of the community. And the Albany Institute of History & Science, which is older than The Louvre, is a treasure house of local art and artifacts.

The Hudson River runs north-south through the Capital Region, bisected by the east-west Mohawk River and the historic Eric Canal.

Across the river from Albany is Rensselaer County, with its major city of Troy. It's the home of such American icons as the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," the song "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and the image of Uncle Sam, taken from local meatpacker "Uncle Sam" Wilson who supplied federal troops during the Civil War and is buried in Oakwood Rural Cemetery.

Northwest of Albany is Scenectady, once the world headquarters of General Electric but just now emerging from hard times created when the international conglomerate dispersed its manufacturing facilities. The beautifully restored Proctor's Theatre is the center of an arts complex in the rebuilding downtown, and boating activities are popular on the Mohawk River which skirts the city.

To the north of Albany is Saratoga Springs, a generations-old destination for moneyed vacationers interested in its mineral springs and scenic vistas. Today, it is best known for the annual thoroughbred racing season at the Saratoga Race Course from late July through Labor Day (plus year-round harness racing and video gambling at nearby Saratoga Gaming & Raceway), as well as the attendant social and entertainment events attached to it. An active polo season, and SPAC -- the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (summer home to rock 'n' rollers as well as the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra) -- add sparkle to the region.

BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE AT DUSK IN THE ADIRONDACKS

And, of course, the sprawling Adirondacks themselves are home to such renowned spots as Lake Placid -- home to the 1928 and 1980 Winter Olympics; Lake George, Lake Champlain, and expanses of mountains, trails, streams, and flats where people camp, hike, fish, hunt, raft, canoe, backpack and so on.

Other sports are well represented. The New York Giants' pre-season National Football League camp is at UAlbany. The Albany River Rats of the American Hockey League and the Albany Conquest arena football team of afl2 play at the downtown Times Union Center. UAlbany and Siena play NCAA Division I sports, RPI does likewise in hockey, and the College of Saint Rose is a Division II basketball and baseball powerhouse.

The region is heavy in colleges and universities -- Albany College of Pharmacy, Albany Law School. Albany Medical College, Bryant & Stratton, Maria College, Excelsior College, College of Saint Rose, the Sage Colleges, Siena College, University at Albany, Hudson Valley Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Schenectady County Community College, Union College, Empire State College, Skidmore College, Adirondack Community College, Columbia-Greene Community College, North Country Community College, SUNY Cobleskill.


NEIGHBORHOOD SQUARE IN SCHENECTADY'S HISTORIC STOCKADE DISTRICT


DOWNTOWN TROY LOOMS IN THE BACKGROUND FOR THESE BOAT PASSENGERS


EQUIPMENT BEING SET UP FOR A CONCERT AT ALBANY'S EMPIRE STATE PLAZA


RESTAURANT VIEW OF THE GREEN ISLAND BRIDGE FROM TROY


REVELERS ENJOY THE BREEZE WHILE TOURING LAKE GEORGE

---

ON THE WEB
• Skiing in Upstate NY and New England
• Adirondacks/Lake George recreation
• Saratoga Performing Arts Center
• Albany Institute of History and Art
• New York State Museum
• National Museum of Dance
• Saratoga Auto Museum
• Dowd's Guides

West Virginia: A State of Change

The Mountaineer State is one of America's most misunderstood places. Mention West Virginia and most people flash to visions of coal mines and poverty. However, modern West Virginia is a mecca for outdoors tourists, history buffs, artists and photographers.

From the Panhandle area in the northeast part of the state where Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia come together, to the mountainous center, to the northwestern finger that points up between Pennsylvania and Ohio, the state offers a huge topographic and cultural variety.

Although the state's major cities are Wheeling, Huntington, Charleston and Martinsburg, one of its best-known communities is Harper's Ferry (shown above), on the Potomac River, site of the infamous John Brown incident in 1859.

At the time, West Virginia still was part of Virginia. It broke away and became a separate state rather than side with the Confederacy during the Civil War.

It was at Harper's Ferry that Brown, a participant in the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves flee to the North and a fiery abolitionist who believed in armed action against slavery, and a band of his followers occupied a military aresenal on Oct. 16 and took control of the small town.

Brown hoped to initiate the spread of armed insurrection against slavery throughout the South. However, Col. Robert E. Lee and a group of U.S. Marines arrived that night, retook the town, killed 10 of Brown's 21 men, and took him prisoner. He was tried and found guilty of treason and hanged in nearby Charles Town on Dec. 2.

Today's West Virginia has evolved from a mining-dependent state to a more diversified one. It has used its low cost-of-living, inexpensive energy rates, improving public educational system and low violent-crime rate to attract more industry and commercial transportation. Its long-time senior U.S. senator, Robert Byrd, has been instrumental in moving numerous federal offices and thousands of jobs to the state. And, its varied geography is being used to promote tourism and retirement communities throughout the state.

ON THE WEB

---

• Whitewater activity
• Whitewater rafting
• Hiking, biking, skiing, horseback riding trails
• Golfing around the state
• Mountain Bike Association
• Bicycling the state
• West Virginia Bass Federation
• Trout fishing

Oh Captain, my captain

If you're traveling in the United Kingdom and have a thirst for a little Captain Morgan spiced rum, don't think they're trying to put one over on you by pouring from a bottle without the iconic 17th-century Caribbean privateer from Wales on the label.

Diageo has updated the look of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum with a shapely bottle and a label emphasizing the words "Morgan Spiced" for products it distributes in the UK.

Stateside, Diageo has relabeled the Puerto Rican rum -- infused with vanilla and cassia -- by embossing the glass front and back, and changed the label to portray the captain against a watermarked ocean scene.

ON THE WEB

---

• All About Pubs
• History of the English Pub
• 1,000 Years of Beer & Pubs

From Prohibition port to modern metropolis

William M. Dowd photos

Detroit skyscrapers seen from Windsor, Ontario's Dieppe Gardens.
WINDSOR, Ontario -- At one time Detroiters walked across the frozen Detroit River to get to work at the Hiram Walker distillery in Walkerville. That, however, wasn't the only unusual way people arrived in a town that grew to become part of the sprawling modern metropolis of Windsor.

Walker, born in 1814 in Massachusetts but a Detroiter from the 1830s until his death in 1899, purchased farmland on the Ontario side of the river that lies southeast of Detroit. He eventually created such a viable business he was frequently under scrutiny by governments on both sides of the international border. Liquor distilling leads to such attention.

The Hiram Walker office, modeled after an Italian palace.

After moving his fledgling whisky business from Detroit, where he produced his first barrels in 1854, he had an office complex, modeled on the Pandolfini Palace in Florence, Italy, built on the river bank. He also secretly had a tunnel dug under the river to allow him -- or anyone he wanted to include -- unfettered access to both countries. Decades later when the river was dredged to allow larger shipping, the tunnel was filled in although one entrance remains visible in the Canadian Club Heritage Center open to visitors adjacent to the company's distillery which produces the world's top-selling Canadian whisky.

Walker also founded a flour mill, a railroad, cattle and hog farms, and a wagon factory that became a Ford automotive plant. At one time he employed almost the entire Walkerville population of 600, and housed them in comfortable yet inexpensive Walker-owned cottages and paid them with company money.

This epitome of a company town was the catalyst for the growth of the Windsor metropolitan area from an agricultural area to a multi-faceted one that today is Canada's automotive manufacturing leader, and includes legal gambling, several performing arts centers, miles of pristine riverfront parks, and numerous historic sites.

Casino Windsor was an instant hit when it opened in 1998, with Americans streaming across the Ambassador Bridge or through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel to visit the full-service gambling complex. The 21-story AAA Four-Diamond Award resort was so popular, in fact, that Detroit authorized the building of three casinos to try keeping dollars at home.

Despite that counter measure, Casino Windsor continues to thrive, helped no little by the fact that Canada does not tax casino winnings. The province-owned facility, operated by the Harrah's company, will be renamed Caesars Windsor next year. In addition, Windsor has a string of legal bingo halls offering healthy cash prizes.

Windsor, which in the 20th century grew markedly by a series of annexations, is Canada's southernmost city, lying further down on the globe than such U.S. cities as Albany, New York, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and Boston. It has a metro population of about 335,000. Its growth reached beyond the riverside to the shores of adjacent Lake St. Clair, making today's metro Windsor wider than it is deep.

It began in 1748 as a French agricultural settlement. Thus, it is the oldest continually inhabited settlement in Canada west of Montreal. That also explains the many French place names that permeate the community. In 1749, under British rule, it became known as Sandwich and a short time later was renamed Windsor, after the town in Berkshire, England.

The metro area has been used to a thriving local economy for generations. Today, despite a steady influx of tourists -- including young weekenders from the U.S. attracted by the minimum drinking age of 19 -- Windsorites are antsy about the future. The looming office towers of automotive giants on both sides of the river are reminders that the financial woes of the U.S. and Canadian auto industry are having a trickle down effect on the region, not only in layoffs but in the money that flows to other businesses.

Dan Tullio, an executive with Canadian Club, notes: "It's a bit of a troubling time. The problems with the auto industry certainly are having an effect on the economy and on predictions for the future. Luckily, some other areas, like tourism and distilling, are continuing to be strong components."

Nevertheless, even in the presence of those towers it is easy to forget finances as one strolls along the Dieppe Gardens and other greenbelt areas of the riverside.

A fleet of racing sailboats comes out of Lake St. Clair on the final leg.

Runners, bicyclists, dog walkers and other dot the pathways as a pleasant summer breeze wafts in from the river. Most nights the water is alive with power and sail boats, and on some nights sailing regattas race from the river northeast into Lake St. Clair and back, creating a living seascape painting as the sun glances off the brilliant white of the sails and seabirds dodge the sailboats as they dive for fish.

As if to emphasize its southern location and accompanying hot summers (temperatures in the low 90s are not uncommon), metro Windsor makes much of its boating, beaches and gardens for tourists and residents alike. Colasanti's Tropical Gardens in nearby Kingsville is a year-round operation offering exotic plant gardens, as well as tropical birds and animals, a petting zoo, miniature golf, and lush greenhouses.

And, as benefit its attraction to the nightlife set, a wide variety of venues abound. A few examples: Boom Boom Room and Dante's Dance Bar (open till 5 in the morning Fridays and Saturdays) on Ouellette Avenue, and the upscale Dean Martini's on Pitt Street East; strolling Gypsy musicians at the Blue Danube Hungarian restaurant on Ottawa Street; live Italian and Latin music every night at Brigantino's Italian restaurant on Erie Street East.

Just as it is today, the Windsor area has long been inextricably connected to events in the U.S. It was a prominent part of the Underground Railroad, that celebrated clandestine pathway for escaped slaves from the American South to go north to freedom. Several sites in Windsor and environs are museums to the movement and Windsorites' role in it, particularly the Sandwich First Baptist Church National Historic Site -- built in 1851 to accommodate the growing number of refugee slaves -- and the John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum built and operated by the descendants of escaped slaves from North Carolina.

For a mix of history and current commerce, two local beverage institutions are must-see stops: The Walkerville Brewing Co., a revival of a onetime iconic local brewery that was at its height in the 19th century, and the Canadian Club/Hiram Walker complex. Both offer public tours, the brewery for free, the CC facility for $5.

Prohibition-era Canadian Club whisky knockoffs.
As noted, Hiram Walker had begun making and selling whisky in Detroit, but when temperance groups begain gaining popularity he made his Ontario land purchase and then moved his operations there when Michigan began to go dry in the 1850s. Walker was dead 20 years by the time national Prohibition became the law of the U.S. in 1919, but his descendants had continued the success of the whisky that became known as Canadian Club and weren't interested in letting anti-alcohol law slow them down. Continued success came despite numerous imitators who produced inferior whiskies with knockoff labels bearing such names as Canadian Pub, Canadian Love and Canadian Cove.

Many examples of these wannabes' work are on display at the Canadian Club Brand Heritage Centre on Riverside Drive East, Walker's plush headquarters of intricate carved woods, one-of-a-kind marble fireplaces in each office, period furnishings, artwork and artifacts. It is here that original handwritten records document some of the Walker family's most interesting business activities.

While the company liked to brag that it had provided whisky by appointment to British royalty, it became better known during Prohibition for supplying the likes of Al Capone, the infamous Chicago gangster who was a frequent visitor to the Walker distillery. His name appears regularly in records. His influence, however, extends even further. In addition to legal customers -- still allowed because Canada did not have Prohibition, Canadian Club flowed to American and Canadian whisky runners of all stripes, Capone being the most high-profile of them all.

It is part of local conventional wisdom that one church with a high tower overlooking the river has two different colored stained glass windows which, when lit, acted as "go" or "no go" signals for Capone's men when they showed up to load Canadian Club onto their boats or trucks. Seems only fair since Capone paid for the creation and installation of the windows. It is not known who was responsible for the bullet holes still visible in the brick wall of a downstairs room in the mansion, but daily gunfire was not uncommon in Prohibition-era Windsor.

Eluding the long arm of the law required cunning as well as stealth. An elaborate system of coded writing did the trick, allowing telegrams (as seen here) containing what looked like random letters to be sent between supplier and buyer.

"The public can see a whole series of those coded messages, and the decoding guides, as well as bills of sale with some pretty interesting names and messages," said Leah Peck, a Heritage Center staff member. "It can really give you some insight into the period."

It certainly can. As I took a behind-the-scenes tour of the complex, center manager Tish Harcus couldn't restrain herself from sharing one particular ledger entry:

"Look at this," she said, still as pleased with it as the first time she showed it off. "It says we no longer were pursuing the money owed to the company by Mr. (deleted) because we think he was put in the incinerator. As best we could tell, he owed money to everyone and when the debt collectors couldn't find him, they assumed the worst since that's what often happened."

ON THE WEB

---

• Windsor Social Magazine (monthly)
• Canadian Club tasting notes
• City of Windsor official site
• John Freeman Walls Underground Railroad Site
• Colisanti's Tropical Gardens

Historic Scottish fountain flows again

A 469-year-old fountain believed to have run with wine for Scotland's Bonnie Prince Charlie is being cranked up again.

Linlithgow Fountain, built in the courtyard of Linlithgow Palace by King James V in 1538, has been renovated to reverse the damage by harsh chemicals used in the 1930s to kill algae. The Historic Scotland organization, which undertook the restoration, said water will flow through the fountain each Sunday from July 1 to Aug. 26.

For those whose history is a bit fuzzy, Bonnie Prince Charlie was the icon of 18th-century Jacobites who wanted to put him on the throne of Scotland, freeing the nation from the shackles of the ruling English crown. After all, they reasoned, he was a descendant of the Stuarts, a clan descended from the almost mythical Scottish hero Robert the Bruce. And the English were ... well, they were the hated English.

The movement had a few problems. For one, Charles Edward Stuart Louis John Casimir Silvester Maria Stuart, born in Rome in 1720, was not much of a hands-on guy as uprisings go. He spent only 12 months of his 68 years in Scotland, living a big chunk of the final 20 in Rome as the Duke of Albany. For another, any overt sign of allegiance to him could be punishable by death. Quite a deterrent.

As the BBC describes the fountain, "The Renaissance era structure is shaped like a huge crown. The water runs into the first of three tiers of stone bowls, then flows out of eight spouts set into carved figures of mythical beasts, then out of the second bowl through spouts from carved human heads. ... It is an opportunity to get a little closer to what the palace would have been like when it was a favourite residence of Scottish kings and queens. It is said to have famously run with wine to celebrate the arrival of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Linlithgow in 1745."

The fountain was built to demonstrate the importance of the Scottish monarchy, and to prove to Henry VIII that Scotland's young king was as grand and powerful as any of the crowned heads of Europe. It is nearly a century older than the famous "Diana" fountain at Bolsover Castle in South Yorkshire, which depicts the goddess of hunting.

ON THE WEB

---

• Linlithgow Palace
• Historic Scotland
• The cleaner of the Scottish crown

Storms interrupt postings

To Our Readers:

A series of vicious thunderstorms that killed one person on Wednesday and left tens of thousands of homes and businesses without power affected this site as well.

Postings we planned for Wednesday and Thursday have been delayed while we rebuild part of the database.

We'll get back online with new material as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your patience.

Persian Gulf will be QE2's final berth

If you always wanted to sail on the luxurious Cunard Line ship Queen Elizabeth 2, you missed your opportunity.

However, if you merely wanted to try out the ambiance of the QE2, you can always head for the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai. That's where the famous ship is headed, for use as a luxury hotel.

The ship, purchased for $118 million by the state-owned development company Dubai World, will be anchored at the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island off the coast that is a mind-boggling project.

The ship, which was launched by Queen Elizabeth herself in September 1967, is the longest-serving cruise liner in Cunard's 168-year history and was the line's longest-serving flagship. It has completed 25 round-the-world cruises, has crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and has carried more than 2.5 million passengers.

The Palm Jumeirah, which is 1½ times the size of New York's Central Park, is part of Dubai's plan to become a global tourism and business hub. The QE2 will be refurbished to recreate the original interior and will include a museum celebrating its history.

The QE2 will make its 29th, and final, visit to Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 24 next year, the same day Cunard's newest superliner, the Queen Victoria, will visit Sydney on its maiden world cruise.

ON THE WEB

---

• VIDEO: Watch the QEII set out from Sydney harbor
• Cunard Lines
• The Queen Victoria

Finger Lakes cleaning up tourists' act

With grape power comes grape responsibility.

An increase in boorish behavior on the part of some Finger Lakes winery tourists has led to the Safe Group Wine Tours Initiative.

It's a cooperative effort of the Keuka, Cayuga and Seneca wine trails. Taking a page from the rules of soccer, tour groups who exhibit intoxicated and/or disruptive behavior will get yellow-card warnings. Repeat offenders will get red cards that will deny the company or groups admittance to any of the 50 or so participating wineries.

As tourism increases throughout this slice of New York's wine country, chauffered vehicles have become more popular so visitors can visit more winery tasting rooms without worrying about driving. Conversely, more groups and individuals have overdone that freedom, leading to instances of verbal abuse of tasting room staff, public urination and other raucous behavior.

According to the wineries, overindulgence comes mainly from drinking on commercial vehicles, not from visiting tasting rooms. State law allows open bottles in livery vehicles.

Some tour groups prohibit consumption of any alcoholic beverages in limos or buses. Some even warn customers in advance that disruptive behavior will result in their immediately being dropped off the tour.

---

ON THE WEB

---

• Finger Lakes Wine Tours (private and public)
• Dowd's Guide to American Wine Trails
• Finger Lakes Wine Center at Sonnenberg
• New York Wine & Culinary Center

Chicago bound? Track down pizza-flavored beer

"The greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
-- Dave Barry

Beer and pizza go together as naturally as, well, pizza and beer. That led a creative Illinois real estate broker to try combining the two tastes. And, he succeeded.

Tom Seefurth of Campton Hills, a Chicago suburb, has been a longtime home brewer. In his quest for the perfect pizza-flavored beer, he began adding tomatoes, oregano, garlic and basil to one batch. The result is something he calls Mamma Mia Pizza Beer.

Walter Payton's Roundhouse in nearby Aurora has agreed to serve the pizza beer as long as the supply lasts. No word on what happens when it's gone.

ON THE WEB

---

• Chicago-style pizza
• Chicago cuisine

Act quickly if you want to tour Guinness in Dublin

Take a guided your of Dublin and one of the first things to be pointed out is the historic Guinness Brewery at St. James Gate, where beer has been brewed for 250 years.

If you haven't taken the official interior tour or at least seen the complex yet, better move fast. International conglomerate Diageo, which owns Guinness, is considering closing the brewery, reports the Financial Times of London.

Diageo is engaged in an "assessment of its investment options for its brewing operations in Dublin, Dundalk and Kilkenny to enhance the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the business in Ireland," the article said, quoting the company.

David Gosnell, managing director of Diageo Global Supply, said, "Everything is on the table," including the possible closure of the historic brewery but added no final decision was likely before "well into 2008." The 56-acre Dublin site could be worth between $600 million and $700 million if sold.

ON THE WEB

---

• Doublin Tourism Central
• Dublin Tourism: Kids Go Free

It's getting easier to get a cold one in Montana

It hasn't been a snap to get beer or wine at a restaurant in Montana. There are only 304 cabaret beer and wine licenses available in the entire state.

That, however, is about to change. The state legislature has created 165 new cabaret licenses. They differ from conventional all-beverage and beer and wine licenses by not allowing business owners to put in electronic gambling machines.

How great is consumer demand for such options? Mike Hampton, owner of Bullman's Wood Fired Pizza in Helena, told the Helena Independent Record, "We probably get 20 people a day that ask if we have beer. Some will leave (after learning the restaurant can’t sell beer), some, not a lot of people, will take the pizza home. Some will eat here and grumble.”

To qualify, a restaurant may not have a sit-down bar, and can serve beer and wine only to people eating meals at tables. At least 65% of the restaurant’s income must come from food, and it can be open only from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. People must apply by July 6. If a city has more restaurant applications than available licenses, a lottery will be held in late July.

If you're traveling through Montana, here's a checklist of where the additional licenses will be awarded, according to the Liquor Control Division, Montana Department of Revenue:

Billings: 21 current restaurant beer and wine licenses and will get 21 more after July 1 for a total of 42.
Bozeman: 14 current licenses, 10 new licenses after July 1 for a total of 24.
Butte: 10 current licenses, although only one is being used, 10 new licenses after July 1 for a total of 20.
Great Falls: 16 current licenses, 16 more after July 1 for a total of 32.
Helena: 10 current licenses, eight more after July 1 for a total of 18.
Kalispell: 11 current licenses, 10 more after July 1 for a total of 21.
Missoula: 17 licenses now (although it should be 14), 11 more after July 1 for a total of 28. Missoula has more licenses than it should because the allocations were based on census estimates and have been adjusted for the actual census.
Whitefish: 10 licenses now, eight more after July 1 for a total of 18.

ON THE WEB

---

• The Official Montana Website
• State Travel Information
• Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

At Hyatts, the house is on the wine

The house wine at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts now is the house wine.

Canvas, a new signature wine brand, has been developed in partnership with Folio Fine Wine Partners, a Napa Valley company owned by the Michael Mondavi family. It was unveiled this week at a tasting hosted by Mondavi at the Grand Hyatt New York.

The wine will be offered in cabernet sauvignon 2004, merlot 2005 and chardonnay 2005 styles. The varietals now are available at restaurants, bars and in-room dining at all Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Resorts in the United States. Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites properties will begin serving Canvas wines later this year.

Swiss open world's longest land tunnel

Crowds in rain gear brace weather to cheer on new rail service.

---

Folks who like to visit the shortest, the highest, the deepest or other "est" places will be heading to Switzerland now that the world's longest land tunnel has been opened there.

The Loetschberg Base Tunnel, a 21-mile-long rail link under the Alps, took eight years to build and cost $3.5 billion. The new link is expected to cut the train time between Germany and Italy from 3 1/2 hours to just under two, with speeds up to 150 mph. Freight trains will be able to travel at speeds up to 100 mph.

The new tunnel deposed the 16.4-mile Kahhoda Tunnel in Japan as the world's longest, but it won't hold its title for long. The 36-mile Gotthard Tunnel, which will be the world's longest when completed in 2017, is being dug parallel to the Loetschberg Tunnel.

The longest land-and-underwater tunnels in the world are the 32-mile Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the 31-mile Channel Tunnel connecting France and England.

ON THE WEB

---

• How to Travel by Train in Europe
• European Train fares, Timetables
• Accessible Rail Travel

McDonald's Japan has new pricing scheme

McDonald's of Japan, which runs 3,800 fast-food restaurants there, has come up with a plan U.S. city dwellers probably hope isn't exported to the States.

The company plans to introduce a new pricing policy in the next few weeks that would eliminate uniform pricing and charge higher prices in urban areas rather than in rural ones.

Prices will climb 3 to 5% in Tokyo, Osaks and other large cities because, say company officials, of higher payroll and operating costs.

Conversely, it will reduce prices 2 to 3% in rural area where operating costs are lower.

ON THE WEB

---

• Specialized Japanese restaurants
• Fast Food in Japan
• Bringing Restaurants From Abroad to Japan

Turkish cultural conversion plan makes waves

The European City of Culture program has been around since the late Melina Mercouri, the ex-actress who became Greece's minister of culture, proposed the idea.

Since then, cities given the year-long designation to showcase their culture to the world have used it to improve their cultural institutions and benefit from the economic influx of money from tourists and trade groups. This year is Luxembourg's turn.

Istanbul, which has received the 2010 designation, is preparing in numerous ways, but one in particular was revealed today: turning school buildings into hotels or social facilities.

"The Istanbul Directorate of National Education has initiated action to create an inventory of historical buildings in the city. The goal is to make use of the resources in hand. The most important part of the project is to open the historical buildings to the public in the shape of hotels and social facilities under the build-operate-transfer model. An inventory of 154 historical buildings in Istanbul has been made. Half of these buildings are schools," reported the English-language Turkish Daily News.

"The project consists of a few stages. Resource allocation from cultural funds of municipalities for historical artifacts, education of personnel for restoration of buildings, ground survey of buildings are among these stages,” said Ata Özer, director of national education.

A six-person committee formed by his office made the building inventory which now goes to the Ministry of Education for sign-off. The most prominent is that of Istanbul College (seen here).

Directors of some schools housed in historical buildings are uneasy about the latest development.

“A similar project was undertaken four years ago," said Şahin Yılmaz, chairman of Istanbul College's graduates union. "We publicly announced the project with Kabataş and Vefa high schools and it was stopped because of a lack of financial resources. But we are always on the watch. We know the historical significance of our building and preserve it very well. We won't let it be used for any other purpose.”

ON THE WEB

---

• Istanbul City Guide
• History of Istanbul
• European City of Culture Program

Minnesota State Fair going full strength

If you're planning on visiting the Minnesota State Fair but lamenting it sells only 3.2% "near beer," relax. Things have changed.

Fair officials have announced they will allow full-strength beer at the August event in response to fairgoers' complaints about paying full-beer prices for half-strength beer.

Officials say they don't expect problems with drunkenness, and point out that strong beer is already available at other Minnesota events including Taste of Minnesota, the Basilica Block Party, and at the Metrodome.

ON THE WEB

---

• State Fair Web Site
• North Star: State's Official Web SIte
• Explore Minnesota

Seattle Art Museum has TASTE

The recently revamped Seattle Art Museum is bragging about its good taste.

Not just in its multi-million dollar expansion that increased gallery space by 70%, but also about a new restaurant named TASTE.

The museum, located in the center of downtown near the hsitoric Pike Place Market, now offers a restaurant that operates not only during the facility's normal hours, but after hours as well for the public at large.

Part of the restaurant is the Private Dining Room which houses an installation by local artist Jeffry Mitchell. It is an all-white environment that includes wall painting, decorative shelving, and the artist's ceramic sculptures.

TASTE's menu includes both large and small plates, including something called "Flights & Bites," which pairs wines of the Pacific Northwest with complementary bites of current dishes. When possible, TASTE management notes, "we will be sourcing all meat and poultry from North America. And, being kind to the ocean by adhering to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program and serving species from sustainable fisheries."

ON THE WEB

---

• Seattle Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Seattle.net -- A Guide to the City
• Sight-Seeing Tours
• Side Trips From Seattle

Atlanta gets new World of Coca-Cola

The New World of Coca­Cola is scheduled to open Thursday, May 24, in Atlanta.

The new facility's 62,000 square feet of visitor area makes it approximately twice the size of the original World of Coca-Cola.

It will feature more than 1,200 artifacts from around the world that have never been publicly displayed before. Only about 50 artifacts from the previous World of Coca­Cola will be showcased.

In addition to the displays, the facility has a fully functioning bottling line that produces commemorative 8-ounce bottles of Coke, tastings of more than 70 different products, and a Pop Culture Gallery featuring works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Steve Penley.

ON THE WEB

---

• Atlanta Travel Guide
• Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Scottish distillery going for the green

(Double-click on map to enlarge.)

An Aberdeenshire, Scotland, businessman is entering a very old business in a very new way.

Euan Shand has announced he will construct a US$6.9 million green distillery in Huntley to produce malt and grain whiskies, vodka and gin.

The distillery will be powered by woodchips supplied by local firms who will replace the trees used in the process to give it a carbon neutral rating. It also will also have a "living" grass roof.

The operation, expected to employ about a dozen workers when it opens in 2008, will be on a two-acre site formerly occupied by a dairy farm. Shand, who runs Duncan Taylor & Co., bottler and seller of rare whiskies, also plans to have a visitors center, bottling plant and warehouse on the site.

ON THE WEB

• Official Aberdeenshire Site
• Aberdeen & The Grampian Highlands
• Castles of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

Touring New York City's beer gardens

"Between 1820 and 1860, 1.5 million immigrants arrived in America from Germany, bringing with them their own cultural traditions -- among them outdoor beer gardens.

"Unlike the bars in Irish neighborhoods, the German beer gardens catered to whole families, and public drinking was just one of their attractions. Although many of New York's historic beer gardens have disappeared, this summer you can still enjoy a cold one at any of these authentic beer gardens around the city."

So reads the introduction to Daniel Lehman's story on the am New York.com site.

He takes readers on a tour of authentic beer gardens in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. A quick, informative read.

---

ON THE WEB

• Beer garden history
• NYC's last original beer garden

What do you feed a visiting monarch?

Most of us like to sample the local cuisine when we travel, particularly abroad.

When the crown is on the other head and, say, Queen Elizabeth II and her hubby, Prince Philip, visited the colonies last week, what were the served at the White House?

Here are the menu and wine selections they chose, according to the Office of the First Lady:

Spring Pea Soup with Fernleaf Lavender
Chive Pizzelle with American Caviar

Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered 2004
Dover Sole Almondine
Roasted Artichokes, Pequillo Peppers and Olives

Saddle of Spring Lamb
Chanterelle Sauce
Fricassee of Baby Vegetables

Peter Michael Les Pavots 2003

Arugula, Savannah Mustard and Mint Romaine
Champagne Dressing and Trio of Farmhouse Cheeses

Rose Blossoms
Schramsberg Brut Rosé 2004

Oh, the photo above? Haven't you ever heard of the Queen Mug?

ON THE WEB

• Royal Garden Parties
• Food, glorious food, in Southern England
• Which English kings died after overeating?

The mummies of Guanajuato

William M. Dowd photos (Mummy photos provided)

The view from a hillside overlooking Guanajuato shows the colorful buildings and the triangular park at the center of the city. (See ground-level photo below.)

GUANAJUATO, MEXICO -- Guanajuato is a revered place in Mexico.

The historic central highlands community of 76,000 situated northwest of Mexico City is in the middle of one of the world’s richest silver mining areas, and the region has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the capital city of the state of the same name.

It is the home of former President Vicente Fox Quesada, and the birthplace of the late renowned muralist and cubist painter Diego Rivera who lived here with his wife, the late painter and activist Frida Kahlo whose life was chronicled in the 2002 Selma Hayek film “Frida.”

It has a large and varied arts and culture scene, helped along by the University of Guanajuato, founded in 1732, earlier than six of our eight Ivy League universities and 44 years before the U.S. became an independent nation. It hosts the annual Festival Internacional Cervantino, an event dedicated to the writer of “Don Quixote,” Miguel de Cervantes, that draws visitors from all over the world to attend readings, plays, concerts, dance and art exhibitions and even parades.

And, Guanajuato has mummies.

An unintentional tourist draw, to be sure. But, even though this beautiful city of rainbow-colored buildings and geometrically trimmed trees in the triangular downtown park known as Jardin de la Union is widely regarded as the cultural center of Mexico, it is taking advantage of the bizarre resource.

Fittingly, I first saw the mummies near the end of a long afternoon spent in various cafes and strolling the hilly streets of Guanajuato during the annual Day of the Dead festival, an event that coincides with our Halloween.

There is nothing as quintessentially Mexican as El Dia de los Muertos, a festival honoring the deceased that has been part of the culture since before the Spanish invaders. Originally held in July, but moved closer to All Saint’s Eve in November by Catholic priests brought here by the conquistadors, it is anything but a morbid or frivolous event. Families construct tiny temporary altars, festooned with large, colorful marigolds and chrysanthemums, near the doorways to their homes to welcome back the departed. At least one Guanajuato church has its three levels of steep steps turned into a public altar covered by candles, flowers and framed pictures of the dead.

Crowds stroll throughout this city built in a ravine and sloping up two mountainsides. Vendors line both sides of the cobblestone streets, selling foods, trinkets and crafts. I joined a stream of walkers headed for a large cemetery where they visited the graves of their loved ones, replacing wilted flowers with fresh, often washing down the stone or metal markers with pails of water purchased from entrepreneurial youngsters who set up shop at the cemetery gates.

Artwork for the Day of the Dead features skeletons involved in all sorts of earthly pursuits, playing instruments, dancing, drinking and eating. In Mexican culture there is nothing macabre about this, so it is easy to see why the Mummies of Guanajuato were so quickly accepted.

I was directed to the Panteon catacombs in the western part of the city, a very steep climb up the narrow Esplanada del Panteón that left me puffing for breath in the rarified area of the city’s 6,700-foot elevation. Not as staggering as Mexico City’s 7,350 feet but enough to make Denver’s famed 5,280-foot “mile-high” status seem paltry.

After a short pause to overcome my fears of cardiac arrest, I plunged on to the large, unremarkable concrete building known as El Museo de las Momias, the Museum of the Mummies. After paying a $2 admission fee to a bored but polite teenager who was more interested in her paperback novel than in chatting with a tourist, I was in.

I knew ahead of time that the mummies of Guanajuato were not intentional creations. Nothing of the Egyptian embalming arts about them. Thus, they’re in more of a raw state rather than neatly wrapped in ribbons of once-perfumed cloth and lying in stately repose.

These mummies are the curious product of the interaction of chemicals and gases in the local soil with dry air and erratic embalming techniques. There are more than 100 of them, and they cut across the economic spectrum of the city. Poor immigrants, children, revered community figures, criminals and clergy. All are represented.

They were first dug up between 1896 and 1958 for a simple economic reason. People of financial means paid a one-time grave tax that permanently ensured their departed a resting place. Others who could not afford the annual fee were in danger of having their relatives or friends exhumed and moved to a lesser graveyard to make room for the dead of families able to pay. Some families died out or moved away, leaving no one to pay the duty. Once the exhumations began, the accidental mummies were literally unearthed.

The group I walked through with showed all the reactions one could expect to this bizarre display of human remains frozen in various stages of decay – some dressed only in shoes and stockings, some fully clothed, many with head and body hair still intact, some displayed standing up, some with a limb or a head missing, most of them tiny in stature.

Shock, disgust, awe, black humor, gulps, empathy, smiles. You name it, it was visible. And that was just on the part of the visitors.

The grave tax law was changed in 1958, so no additional mummies have been exhumed, although many probably still are in their original resting places.

Now that I’ve checked that one off my list, I look forward to visiting some other offbeat museums such as the Banana Museum in Auburn, WA, the Toilet Seat Art Museum in Alamo Heights, TX, and the Cheese Museum in Cuba, NY. You’re never too old to learn.

Strollers pass by the maincured trees of the park known as Jardin de la Union.

---

ON THE WEB
• AboutGuanajuato.com
• Mexperience: Guide to Guanajuato
• Language immersion experience
• Dowd's Guides

Cape Cod is a thick chowder of attractions

William M. Dowd photos

Shops and galleries are tightly packed on Provincetown's famous Commercial Street.

PROVINCETOWN, MA -- The man in the bow held one oar out of the water, feathering the other to act as a rudder. His partner in the stern gamely kept pulling with both oars. Slowly, the chunky rowboat turned, its prow now aimed directly at the Provincetown II, the largest Cape Cod Bay scenic cruiser, which was moored to the foot of MacMillan Wharf.

With a little more maneuvering, its crew managed to bring it alongside the cruiser, but it was a precarious spot. The usually calm waters of Provincetown Harbor were churned up by a steady stream of boats making their way to the processional lineup at the other side of the wharf.

"Hey, Father!" called a woman who had been hanging on the rail of the larger vessel, peering down at the rowboat bobbing 20 feet below. "Maybe you better bless 'em early. I don't think they can make it around again."

The priest obligingly shook the aspergillum, and a spray of holy water droplets from the wand went over the side and onto the rowboat and its occupants.

The scene was several years ago at the annual Blessing of the Fleet, a local tradition for more than a half-century. On this particular Sunday, it had begun 15 minutes early because that small interloper jumped the starting line. Each year some such oddity happens, which makes the culminating event of the three-day Portuguese festival so interesting.

This year the festival celebrating P-town’s Portuguese fishing village past is scheduled for June 21-23. For some it is the start of high season on Cape Cod, although some who mark the Fourth of July as the real tourist season regard it as merely an early bird special.

Whatever draws people to the Cape, and there is a stunning scope of activities on this storied 75-mile stretch of sandy soil jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, it has long been a primary domestic vacation spot for many throughout the Northeast as well as tourists from abroad, even in times of high gasoline prices such as the ones we're now enduring.

From Sandwich, the Cape’s oldest town, on the west just across the Cape Cod Canal from the mainland to Provincetown on the eastern end, it is a jumble of villages, art galleries, boat landings, iconic New England architecture and tourist kitsch. And, of course, the beaches, primary among them the protected Cape Cod National Seashore, a 43,600-acre legacy of the Kennedy Administration.

The Cape is a place that continually reinvents itself without throwing out its history. But the reinvention takes on different personae, from raucous P-town to reserved Sandwich.

P-town, for example, once was known primarily as a fishing port. Then it became better known for its art community. Now it’s known as a gay friendly vacation destination with lots of art galleries and a fishing community heritage that helps maintain its maritime atmosphere. A boisterous night life and a bustling Commercial Street shopping walkathon are legendary.

Many of its once-neglected alleys have been transformed into pedestrian pathways between neighborhoods. Buildings have been converted into charming little homes and B&B's with postage-stamp gardens. Some spots have become home to clusters of tiny stores that put less strain for rent and utilities on small-business owners.

The seasonal shops along narrow, bustling Commercial Street that runs the length of town are vying with the year-round businesses for tourist dollars. In a leisurely stroll, you come across everything from a Hallmark store to a drag nightclub, from fine dining to a saltwater taffy shop, from modern home decor offerings to antique finds.

Mid-Cape, Hyannis continues to trade on its history as a home to the Kennedy family, with a Kennedy museum on the main street in town and the famous Kennedy residential compound in adjacent Hyannisport still the target of gawkers and picture-takers. It is the most “typical American” spot on the Cape, with a hospital, radio station, the main office of the daily newspaper, a few shopping centers, a bustling main street, a small airport, loads of condos and hotels.

One of its biggest tourist draws is the annual Father’s Day classic car show that takes up several blocks of downtown and offers a visual feast for those into old Mercs and Fords and Chevys and Packards and more. I’ve visited it for several years, and each June the lineup seems to get longer and more fascinating.

The aforementioned Sandwich, on the west end of the Cape, is the quietest of the three benchmark communities. It is home to the Dexter Grist Mill, a working grist mill built in 1654 on Shawme Pond in the town center, to the Sandwich Glass Museum and to the Heritage Museums & Gardens, a sprawling year-round complex housing the J.K. Lilly III Antique Automobile Museum -– another spot for car buffs although obviously more formal than the Hyannis outdoor event, plus the Art Museum and 1912 carousel, plus various horticultural attractions.

The Cape can be a tough place to negotiate in high season – usually late June to Labor Day Weekend – for the uninitiated.

A view of Provincetown and Cape Cod Bay from the top of the Pilgrim Monument.

Travel is relegated mostly to a trio of main roads, which get backed up during peak hours headed to or from the beaches or to and from the nightlife.

The Cape proper extends from the Cape Cod Canal in the west to Herring Cove Beach in the northeast, shaped like the upraised arm of someone "making a muscle." It is traversed largely on routes 6, 6A and 28. Once you're off them, you'd better know the local layout intimately to avoid being caught hungry in the many cul-de-sacs and roads that dead-end at salt marshes or ponds.

I say “caught hungry” because this is a crowded place at feeding time despite the huge range if dining spots.

Logistically, since Route 6 (the Mid-Cape Highway) is a limited-access thoroughfare until you get past Orleans and head north, the principal dining clusters are mostly on routes 28 and 6A.

A four-mile stretch of Route 28 from the edge of Hyannis east to West Dennis on the Bass River is a prime example of how packed with dining variety the Cape's main roads can be.

At least 40 food-related spots are jammed into that span, from the fairly-new Oinky & Moo's southern barbecue in West Dennis to the self-explanatory old Riverway Lobster House in Yarmouth.

This is a good base of operations for families who like casual, inexpensive food plus proximity to inexpensive motels and elaborate miniature golf layouts, or for couples who need the nightlife. You never have to leave the locale to experience an astounding variety of foods: Irish pub, seafood, Thai, hot dogs and ice cream, soups and salads, Chinese, brunches, Mexican, Polynesian, pizza and the inevitable Dairy Queen, McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts spots and more.

Breakfast is a big deal on the Cape, what with most people wanting to just grab lunch on the run or pack a picnic to take along to the beaches or a trek on the Cape Cod Rail Trail bike pathway.

In West Yarmouth, for example, Molly's offers a traditional Irish breakfast (thick Irish bacon, sausage, black and white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, beans and home fries) for a paltry $8.50. I still think of the tiny slip of a girl I saw easily polish one off while her boyfriend toyed with a regular-sized ham and eggs.

And, Persey's Place, several blocks east of the Kennedy Museum, serves what it boasts is "New England's Largest Breakfast Menu" from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Recommended: such delightful oddities as hash Benedict, or chocolate chip/banana/walnut pancakes.

Once fortified, take a crack at climbing the Pilgrim Monument in P-town. The 252-foot tower was built to commemorate the Pilgrims’ first landing there. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907. Three years later. President William H. Taft dedicated the finished structure. Climbing the interior stone steps is quite an undertaking, but worth it for the views of P-town and the bay from the observation area on top.

For those whose idea of a dream vacation is doing nothing but watch other people doing things, the Cape is a wonderland.

Watching the fishing boats unload a day’s catch at the Chatham pier on the southern tip of the Cape is an eye opener, and can be a nose-closer if you get too close.

Grabbing one of the many whale watching excursion boats heading into the bay or the ocean can be a relaxing experience in fair weather.

If you long for the simpler summer evenings of old, or for those who have seen it in movies but never experienced it, the Cape is a great place for strolling a sidewalk with an ice cream cone in hand. Or taking in a baseball game at any of the 10 fields that are home to teams of college-aged minor leagues in the 114-year-old Cape Cod Baseball League – Bourne, Brewster, Cotuit, Wareham, Chatham, Falmouth, Hyannis, Harwich, Orleans, and Yarmouth-Dennis. Factoid: One in seven major league baseball players get started in the CCBL.

In the final analysis, the words of the 1950s Patti Page hit song "Old Cape Cod" say it simply and precisely:

"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air,
"Quaint little villages here and there,
"You're sure to fall in love with
"Old Cape Cod."

---

ON THE WEB
• Cape Cod Online
• Cape events calendar
• State forests and parks
• Beaches
• Golf Cape Cod
• Insider's Fishing Guide
• Cape Cod recreation guide
• Boating & other watersports
• Cape Cod Bike Guide

Oregon broadens wine country venue

(Double-click on map to enlarge.)

The twice-annual Oregon Wine Country Tour is growing not only in attendance, but in geographic scope.

The Memorial Day Weekend tour set for May 26–28, has been expanded beyond Yamhill County and the Oregon coast range to encompass the entire Willamette Valley, featuring wineries in the Portland, Salem, Polk County and Corvallis areas, as well as rural Yamhill County.

More than 120 member wineries are scheduled to be open between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Some are open to the public only during these events. Some will feature food, music and other interesting events. All host wine tasting, with many charging a tasting fee.

The Willamette Valley is known for producing pinot noirs, but also turns out varietals from pinot gris and pinot blanc to chardonnay, riesling, syrah and merlot. Information on the members of the Willamette Valley Wineries Association is available online or by calling (503) 646-2985.

ON THE WEB

• Dowd's Guide to American Wine Trails
• Wine Northwest
• Willamette Valley Travel Guide

A new gimmick in airline food: quality

For those who complain that even in first class the food on airlines is wretched, Hawaiian Airlines begs to differ.

The airline has been experimenting with offering a tasting menu in first class, comprised of 20 different entrees on a rotation, with five available to choose from on any given flight. For lunch or dinner, customers will choose three of the five, and for breakfast they will select two of three plus will receive a fresh fruit plate.

The dishes have included the likes of Hawaiian crab cake with a pinneapple salsa, rock shrimp and lemon pepper ravioli with creamy sun dried tomato/basil sauce, and chicken tandoori with a tangy makhani sauce and sultana basmati rice pilaf," according to a company press release. In addition, they will be offering a Pomegranate Passion beverage which was created exclusively for the airline.

The tasting menu was introduced in March on the San Francisco-to-Honolulu route, but is being phased in system-wide this month.

ON THE WEB

• Hawaii's Official Tourism Site
• Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
• InfoPlease: All About Hawaii

Washington wine country the place to be

The first winery license in the state of Washington was issued in 1962 when Columbia Winery was founded as Associated Vintners.

Now, just 45 years later, it has its 500th licensed operation, Sweet Valley Wines of Walla Walla. David McDaniels, one of three business partners, said, "We are honored to be a part of the wine industry in Walla Walla. So many others have led the way. What they have done will give us the opportunity to succeed. We look forward to continuing the legacy of producing world class wine for all to enjoy."

Washington, second only to California in U.S. winery rankings by state, had just 20 wineries in 1980 but that number has been on a steady increase since then, hitting the 155 mark by 2000, then adding 350 since then. There are nine American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) throughout the state.

Robin Pollard, executive director of the Washington Wine Commission, said in a statement, "As we pass this milestone, we are thrilled about the future for Washington wines. We aspire to become one of the top wine producing regions in the world, and we believe that our course is solidly set to achieve that goal."

The state's wine industry is not dependent on individuals to begin operations entirely on their own. There is a state-supported winery incubator building at the Walla Walla Regional Airport that is slated for expansion.

The state legislature has approved $500,000 for two more facilities, and the Port of Walla Walla is expected to add another $150,000. The Port's target is for five startup winery facilities designed for embryonic winemakers.

The buildings are designed for bonded wineries that produce about 1,000 cases annually as part of their business models. Tenants are accepted on a six-year residency plan, after which they must leave to make room for more startups.

ON THE WEB

• Dowd's Guide to American Wine Trails
• Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance
• Experience Washington
• Washington State Travel & Tourism

Did your hangout make the top 100?

Of all the gin joints in all the world, or at least in the country, which did the editors of Nightclub & Bar Magazine choose for this year's top 100?

Nightclubs and bars from all over the U.S. were chosen based on a number of criteria, say the editors, "including annual revenues, marketing and advertising effectiveness, promotional expertise, uniqueness to market, food and beverage programs and much more. This list is not a ranking of just the most high-end, of-the-moment nightclubs. Instead, it is a dynamic mixture of clubs, neighborhood bars, sports bars, family-oriented venues and more that for one reason or another deserve notice."

The following bars and clubs, listed in alphabetical order, made the Editors' Choice Top 100 for 2007. The city designated for each is the city in which it is located, or, if the concept has multiple locations, the city of its first location.

230 Fifth - New York, NY
40 Watt - Athens, GA
8150 - Vail, CO.
The Abbey - Hollywood, CA
AJ's Seafood & Oyster Bar - Destin, FL.
Aria - Boston, MA
Avalon/Spider Club - Hollywood, CA.
Beach Bar at the W - San Diego, CA
B.E.D. - Miami, FL
Billy Bob's Texas - Fort Worth, TX
Blue Martini - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
the bosco - Ferndale, MI
Body English - Las Vegas, NV
Bombay Club - New Orleans, LA
Broken Spoke Saloon - Sturgis, SD
Brother's Bar & Grill - Lacross, WI
Butter - San Francisco, CA
Cabo Wabo - Lake Tahoe, NV
Casbah - Atlantic City, NJ
Cherry - Las Vegas, NV
Chilkoot Charlie's - Anchorage, AK
Coyote Cantina - Santa Fe, NM
Coyote Ugly - New York, NY
Crobar - Chicago, IL
The Crocodile Café - Seattle, WA
Diablo's Downtown Lounge - Eugene, OR
e4 - Scottsdale, AZ
Eight 75 - Biloxi, MS
El Gaucho - Seattle, WA
Elements the Lounge - Seabright, NJ
ESPN Zone - Baltimore, MD
Excalibur - Chicago, IL
Fadó Irish Pub - Atlanta, GA
Flatiron Lounge - New York, NY
The Flying Saucer - Memphis, TN
Fox Sports Grill - Scottsdale, AZ
Galapagos Art Space - Brooklyn, NY
ghostbar - Las Vegas, NV
Good Hurt - Los Angeles, CA
The Green Parrot - Key West, FL
The Greene Turtle - Ocean City, MD
Ground Zero Blues Club - Clarksdale, MS
The Helix - Washington, DC
House of Blues - New Orleans, LA
Iguana's Cantina - New York, NY
Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce - Hollywood, CA
JET - Las Vegas, NV
Kahunaville - Las Vegas, NV
Key Club - Hollywood, CA
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - New Orleans, LA
The Library Bar & Grill - Tempe, AZ
Light - Las Vegas, NV
Lotus - New York, NY
Louie's Backyard - South Padre Island, TX
Mango's Tropical Café - Miami, FL
Mantra - Milwaukee, WI
Marquee - New York, NY
McGillin's Olde Ale House - Philadelphia, PA
Mercy Wine Bar - Addison, TX
Midnight Rodeo - San Antonio, TX
Mie N Yu - Washington, DC
MIXX - Atlantic City, NJ
mur.mur - Atlantic City, NJ
The New Crown & Anchor - Providencetown, MA
The New Sheridan - Telluride, CO
Ocean Club - Honolulu, HI
Pangaea - Hollywood, FL
Pat O' Brien's - New Orleans, LA
Pavilion Bar & Café - Charleston, SC
Pin-Up Bowl - St. Louis, MO
Pink Elephant - New York, NY
The Playboy Club - Las Vegas, NV
Pure - Las Vegas, NV
Purple Moon - Flint, MI
Rockit Bar & Grill - Chicago, IL
Ruby Skye - San Francisco, CA
rumjungle - Las Vegas, NV
Sharkeez - Huntington Beach, CA
Sherlock's Baker Street Pub - Houston, TX
Sloppy Joe's - Key West, FL
Snatch/Suite - Miami, FL
Stingaree - San Diego, CA
Stubb's Bar-B-Q - Austin, TX
Studio 54 - Las Vegas, NV
Tabú Ultra Lounge - Las Vegas, NV
Tangerine - Las Vegas, NV
TAO - Las Vegas, NV
Therapy - New York, NY
Tini Bigs - Seattle, WA
Tipitina's - New Orleans, LA
Tongue & Groove - Atlanta, GA
Tryst - Las Vegas, NV
VICCI - Austin, TX
Vine Street Lounge - Hollywood, CA
The Viper Room - Los Angeles, CA
Walnut Room - Philadelphia, PA
Whiskey Blue - Los Angeles, CA
Worship - Atlantic City, NJ
Yard House - Long Beach, CA
Zinc Lounge - Manhattan Beach, CA

Any way you put it, be careful in Mexico

Double-click on map to enlarge

BULLETIN:

EU VETOES TOURISM TO ACAPULCO AND MONTERREY

It for the first time includes to the port and that city

The government of the United States emitted a new alert for the Americans who wish to travel to Mexico, due to the recent acts of violence derived from the drug trafficking.

In this occasion he entered to the port of Acapulco and Monterrey in the list of risk for the residents or American visitors to this country.

In the public warning emitted yesterday by the Department of State reference to the danger in these cities becomes, in addition to the organizations that already had been mentioned in previous announcements, like Tamaulipas (particularly New Laredo), Michoacán and Baja California.

“In the recent months murders have happened type execution of Mexican civil employees in Tamaulipas (specially New Laredo), Michoacán, Baja California, Guerrero (particularly Acapulco), Nuevo Leo'n (specially the zone of Monterrey) and other states”, are indicated.

The text includes a special recommendation for the city of Oaxaca, in which it asks the Americans to review the conditions before traveling to that site, since many of the problems that caused the protests the last year have not been solved.

---

Perhaps that's why you have to pay special attention to the nuances of language. The preceding news story appeared in Spanish in Mexico's El Universal newspaper and was translated into English on its Web site today.

It was based on the following "public announcement" from the U.S. Department of State:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

This information is current as of today, Fri Apr 20 2007 17:15:40 GMT-0400.

This Public Announcement advises U.S. citizens on security situations in Mexico that may affect their activities while in that country. This Public Announcement supersedes previous Public Announcements for Mexico dated January 18, 2007 and September 15, 2006. This Public Announcement expires on October 16, 2007.

Narcotics-Related Violence - U.S. citizens residing and traveling in Mexico should exercise caution when in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times. Violence by criminal elements affects many parts of the country, urban and rural, including border areas. In recent months there have been execution-style murders of Mexican officials in Tamaulipas (particularly Nuevo Laredo), Michoacan, Baja California, Guerrero (particularly Acapulco), Nuevo Leon (especially in and around Monterrey) and other states. Though there is no evidence that U.S. citizens are specifically targeted, Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in some violent attacks demonstrating the heightened risk in public places. In its effort to combat violence, the Government of Mexico has deployed military troops in various parts of the country. U.S. citizens are advised to cooperate with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways.

In recent years dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo with more than two dozen cases still unresolved and new cases of kidnap for ransom continue to be reported. No one can be considered immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Drug cartel members have been known to follow and harass U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles, particularly in border areas including Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. U.S. citizens who believe they are being followed should notify officials as soon as possible. U.S. citizens should make every attempt to travel on main roads during daylight hours, particularly the toll (“cuota”) roads, which are generally more secure. It is preferable for U.S. citizens to stay in well-known tourist destinations and tourist areas of the cities with more adequate security, and provide an itinerary to a friend or family member not traveling with them. U.S. citizens should refrain from displaying expensive-looking jewelry, large amounts of money, or other valuable items.

Oaxaca City - U.S. citizens traveling to Oaxaca City should be aware that from May to November 2006, protests in Oaxaca City became increasingly violent resulting in at least nine deaths. On October 27, 2006, a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Oaxaca City as a result of the violence and disorder caused by ongoing civil unrest in the city. Many of the issues that were the basis for the protests remain unresolved. U.S. Citizens planning to travel to Oaxaca City should check on current conditions before beginning their travel.

Demonstrations - Demonstrations occur frequently throughout Mexico and are usually peaceful. However, even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence unexpectedly. During violent demonstrations or law enforcement operations, U.S. citizens are reminded to remain in their homes or hotels, avoid large crowds, and avoid the downtown and surrounding areas. Since the timing and routes of scheduled marches and demonstrations are always subject to change, U.S. citizens should monitor local media sources for new developments and exercise extreme caution while within the vicinity of any protests. The State Department reminds U.S. citizens to avoid participating in demonstrations and other activities that might be deemed political by Mexican authorities. The Mexican Constitution prohibits political activities by foreigners, and such actions may result in detention and/or deportation.

For more detailed information on staying safe in Mexico, please see the Mexico Consular Information Sheet at: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html. For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department's Internet web site at http://travel.state.gov where the current Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, Travel Warnings and Public Announcements can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the United States, or, for callers from Mexico, a regular toll line at 001-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). American citizens traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department's travel registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov.

For any emergencies involving U.S. citizens in Mexico, please contact the closest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The U.S. Embassy is located in Mexico City at Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, telephone from the United States: 011-52-55-5080-2000; telephone within Mexico City: 5080-2000; telephone long distance within Mexico 01-55-5080-2000. You may also contact the Embassy by e-mail at: ccs@usembassy.net.mx. The Embassy's Internet address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/.