Boldly Go Solo

Farmers markets around the world

The Matador Network wrote a post recently about farmers markets around the world, from Dane County Farmer's Market in Seattle to Mercado Central in Valencia, Spain, and  Rialto Markets in Venice, Italy. 

I'm a fan of food browsing. I love walking up and down every aisle of shops in other countries to check out unfamiliar products, the foreign-language packaging of familiar products and tasty foods that could be gifts to bring home.

Yet I have mixed feelings about visiting farmers markets when traveling. With no kitchen, I can't do anything with the gorgeous fruits and vegetables I spot. 

On the other hand, these markets are places where locals shop, and they often feel less touristy than other places in highly visited cities. And there are often nonfood items for purchase, including handmade items. Knitted scarves. Ceramic mugs. Framed drawings.

Enjoying nature, sunflower photography and camaraderie

A photographer friend invited me out to the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area to capture the fields of sunflowers. They're at their peak this weekend and next. 

I've been meaning for a long time to join Rena on photo shoots. I love her work, and I knew it would be helpful to see the world through her eyes. And to get some photo tips.  

I'd seen her sunflower photos from other years and definitely wanted some of my own. So I met Rena and her friend Amy out at the fields in Poolesville, Maryland. At 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday. We beat the crowds but not the heat. 

This is Paradise: a portrait of modern life on four Hawaiian islands

Aloha.This week I am giving away a book of fiction called "This is Paradise" by Kristiana Kahakauwila. The story is based in Hawaii and from the excerpt I've read, I'm intrigued.

To be eligible to receive the free copy, all you have to do is write a word or phrase related to Hawaii in the comment section below. 

You could write "pineapple" (though that industry has tanked there). "Spam" (I hear they sell spam-related products in McDonald's but I forgot to check while there.) "Sea turtle" (I spent several days on Oahu trying to spot one.)

Even the word "Hawaii."

Whatever. Although it would be fun to hear your word association and what you think of when you hear "Hawaii."

Shave ice? Poi? Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa?

Having visited once, I came to realize that people who grow up on Hawaii truly speak a different language, eat different foods, have a different sensibility about a lot of things.

Art at the Burwell-Morgan Mill in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley

On typical Saturdays in the town of Millwood, Va., volunteers set the 18th-century Burwell-Morgan Mill to work grinding corn, wheat, rye or other grains. They demonstrate the centuries-old method of food production, weighing and bagging the flour, grits or cornmeal for sale, often enlisting visitors to help.

But for three weeks in the spring, and again in the fall, the stones grind to a halt, the water rushing to the water wheel is cut off, and it’s showtime of a different sort.

That’s when Art at the Mill opens.

The show will be open for three weekends, starting April 27 and running through May 12. (Here's the story in The Washington Post on Art at the Mill.) 

For a lovely and relaxing way to spend a day or weekend, take a drive out to the Shenandoahs, wander through the show and picnic on the grass. 

There's something special about buying real art and being in the surroundings that the artist captured.

Mason-Dixon Wine Trail in Pennsylvania. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as Pennsylvania wine

"When tasting wine, connoisseurs hold their glasses up to the light to look at the wine’s color and clarity. I don’t always know what I’m supposed to see, but at Naylor Wine Cellars in Pennsylvania, I held up my white wine and it was crystal . . . No. I have to say that it was most definitely cloudy. Very clearly cloudy."

That's how today's Washington Post story, called A winemaking and tasting tour through Pa. and Md., begins.  

Wine in Pennsylvania? Most certainly. 26 on this particular "wine trail," with several wineries in Maryland included. The trail is rather circular, surrounding York, PA, in every direction.  

I went with a friend during the 8th annual Tour de Tanks event, which is how we got into all the back rooms. It runs until the end of March, every Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., except for Easter Sunday.

Whether the wines compare to California or Italian or New Zealand wines... Who am I to say? I like what I like and I'm no connoisseur. You'd have to taste for yourself. 

My friend "L," a Harrisburg, Pa. resident, says I missed two really good wineries. One is the The Vineyard at Hershey in Middletown, whose wines "have brought Pennsylvania wines to a whole new level," he says.

Happy New Year 2013 from the "animals" at the National Zoo

Two nights before New Year's Eve, I was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., learning (but clearly not perfecting) the art of night photography. 

For the past several years, the National Zoo has strung up a good show and visitors wander through delighted by the spectacle.  

I didn't see any real animals. If I were them, I would have stayed inside too. It was freezing out there. But a handful of us had signed up with PhotoTour DC to learn the basics and we braved the elements to wander through the ZooLights display. (Sorry, it ends today.)

We all had different levels of camera - mine being the least fancy. The minimum requirement was to have manual controls and a tripod. 

In fooling with the shutter speed I discovered this is overexposed (too much blue-light bleeding):

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a little less overexposed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is just too darn cute not to throw in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telephone tours of the Portland Museum of Art's Winslow Homer exhibit

If you call 207-228-0300, you can hear an audio tour of the current exhibition, "Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine at the lovely Portland Museum of Art in Maine.

Not that you should try this at home. Without the paintings in front of you, it could be dull.

It's mainly if you're interested in hearing what the museum's telephone tour is like. Call that number and press #2 for the painting, "The Artist's Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894," #6 for the painting, "The Lifeline." And so on.

But, really, as I said, for this to be worthwhile, you really should be standing in front of the paintings as museum personnel describe them. I just thought that it was interesting that the museum has found a way to bypass audio headsets and fees by having patrons use their own personal tour devices. 

Perhaps other museums do this as well and I'm late to this game?

The exhibition features paintings, etchings and watercolors by Homer, the great American artist who painted many maritime scenes, and lived and painted in Maine in his later years. I continued to call that number for explanations throughout my visit.

Maine lighthouses open to the public in September

Any lighthouse fans out there?

On September 15, lighthouses in Maine will be opening their doors to visitors. You can climb the towers of the state's lighthouses situated on the coast, on islands and along rivers.

The fourth annual Maine Open Lighthouse Day will take place rain or shine. (Like the London Olympics?)

The event is the largest of its kind in the country, according to Maine's tourism office, and is meant to increase awareness of the state's maritime heritage.

Lighthouses always have a mystical feel to me. Ocean waves crashing ashore nearby. Thoughts of ships relying on that strong beam to navigate. The sea smell. Rocky coasts.

Kauai for solo travelers - helicopters, taro farming and the mini Grand Canyon

My lunch companions wore plumeria flowers behind their ears, necklaces strung with black pearls and Ni'ihau shells, and clothing with floral patterns. All signs that they live and work in Hawaii. In this case, Kauai.  

[Quiz of the day. Can you name the eight major Hawaiian islands? Answer at the end.]

We on the East Coast often choose the Caribbean or Mexico over Hawaii because those places are closer. But obviously, they can't offer the unique culture and language of Hawaii, which is why it's worth a visit to the Aloha state.  

Nowhere else in the world are you greeted at retail establishments with "aloha" and thanked with "mahalo." And, where else can you spend a day swimming with sea turtles, watching hula dancing and attending a luau?

It's a long haul for most people. And it can seem daunting for solo travelers to fly a long way, rent a car and spend beach time alone. 

But there are ways to find people to spend time with. For example, snorkel with others on an adventure tour. So many beautiful creatures live in that part of the Pacific, including the humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, Hawaii's state fish. 

The best places in the world

It's time to give away three copies of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die."

Last time, all you had to do was "like" boldlygosolo. You can still do that and *everyone* who is a fan by the end of the month will be entered again to win.*

For the other two copies, all you have to do is name a favorite place you've visited or where you'd love to travel to next. I'm going to see if it's in the book and perhaps blog about it.

It can be as simple as one or two words (Borneo. Hamura Saimin Stand in Lihue on the island of Kauai, Hawaii)

Or it can be a phrase or a sentence or two about why the place you've named is your fave or why you'd like to go there. (Best escargot in the world. I love getting lost on the winding, cobblestone streets)

You want to write several paragraphs? Make my day!

"Places" can be countries, cities, sights, sites, restaurants, hiking paths or wherever else you've been or would like to go. That way everyone who reads your answers gets to learn about places they should possibly consider traveling to.

Your choice does NOT have to be in the book for you to win. Name two places (one per day) and you get two additional chances to win. Max of three chances: one "like" and two "places."

Go to the boldlygosolo facebook page to enter. 

Good luck and happy daydreaming about the best places to travel.  

*Sorry, only U.S. and Canadian residents are eligible.

Photo: Fiji's Coral Coast. By Ellen Perlman