Janelle Nanos: August 2008 Archives

As Labor Day weekend approaches, Traveler staffers are fanning across the country for their end-of-summer getaways. IT editor Janelle Nanos has Georgia on her mind.

I'm meeting up with my extended family in Georgia this weekend, splitting my time between Savannah and Tybee Island, so I'm looking for suggestions on what not to miss. What are the best ways to savor the waning summer days down south? Where are the top dining, shopping, or attractions that stand out? (You know I love your restaurant recommendations.) As always, I'll be bringing my video camera and notebook, and I'm always up for meeting readers, so feel free to email me with your suggestions or leave them in the comments below.

Photo: Walter Bibikow/Getty Images for National Geographic Geographical Information: Georgia

I nearly missed a flight out of Dulles Airport two weeks ago, thanks in part to the tiresome "mobile lounges" straight out of Star Wars (apparently, Jaunted has dubbed them Jawa Sand Crawlers) that shuttle passengers from the main terminal to their gates at a pace that a snail would envy. So I was happy to hear in the Washington Post that Dulles Airport recently announced plans to build an underground AeroTrain that will transport travelers at a much quicker pace (they'll leave every two minutes), and restore the light and airiness that was intended for the terminal's original design. And on an even better, eco-friendly note, the new trains mean that the airport will faze out the diesel-fueled behemoths, which often had to wind between planes as they taxied to the gate. But I'm wondering, what do you frequent fliers think of the switch? Are you Star Wars fans going to miss the chance to feel like Hans Solo before your flight?

Photo: People movers and Sand Crawlers, via Jaunted

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Want all of the perks of cruising but none of the guilt (in the form of high gas prices or that gut that you'll inevitably get from too many trips to the buffet)? We recently came across the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Göynük, Turkey, a 325-room "cruise ship" that is "docked" in the country's Antalya beach region. Completed last year to the price tag of $50 million, the nautical-themed hotel sits among a vast network of pools, allowing for all the pleasure of an ocean-side cabin, but without the seasickness. With its Turkish Bath and an amusement park, we're interested in coming aboard, but a word of warning: since opening, reviews have been mixed, so it seems as if it might be time for the hotel's owners to sink or swim...

Know of other hotels that should be on our Strange Planet radar? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo: via Deputy Dog

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The weekend marks the 50th anniversary of a venerable D.C. institution, Ben's Chili Bowl, which has long been the hub of Washington's U Street Corridor. The slingers of half-smokes and chili dogs are celebrating big this weekend by holding a series of events, including a gala hosted by Bill Cosby tonight at the Lincoln theater (Cosby fell in love with the sausages while serving in the Army - he apparently could once eat six at a time), a block party out in front of the shop on Friday, and a tribute concert at the 9:30 Club on Saturday.

Ben's Chili is run by Ben Ali's two sons Kamal and Nizam (Ben and wife Virginia retired last year), and the storefront has a storied history. Located on the center of "Black Broadway," D.C.'s jazz district, it was one of the few buildings on U Street to survive the race riots that burned out sections of D.C. after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Its role in the community was unique: Local organizer Stokely Charmichael held his meetings at Ben's, and firefighters and police officers would also frequent the shop in the aftermath of the riots. Today the restaurant is in the center of the revitalized U Street Corridor, and a wide cross-section of D.C. comes in to order milkshakes, chili, burgers, cheese grits, and fries. Last year, the self-proclaimed "greasy spoon" even got environmentally savvy, joining a renewable energy collective of local businesses in the D.C. area.

So if you're in D.C. this weekend, order a half-smoke to celebrate five delicious decades of Ben's.

Read More: The Washington Post has a great gallery of photos highlighting the history of Ben's Chili Bowl.

Photo: Karen Ballard, via Traveler's Washington D.C. Places of a Lifetime photo gallery.

I love John Ur's Cinematic Road Trip posts for the way that the films help capture a sense of place—so I was struck by a recent piece in the New York Times which laid out a similar road trip, using Edward Hopper's Cape Cod paintings as a guide. Hopper had a home in Truro, and over the course of 30 years he painted dozens of iconic plein air paintings, often from inside his car. Many of his wide, sun-soaked works were completed at the end of the period in which the heavy tree cover native to the area was cut down to allow settlers to come in. But now the trees grow denser, and so too the developments on the Cape, which causes a continuous struggle between the locals and the vacationing guests. The article both seeks to find places on the Cape which still capture the Hopperesque classic light, and also points out several places from his paintings which still exist.

The Times also has a great series of Then and Now renderings of the paintings alongside contemporary photographs of the lighthouses, church spires, and beach shanties which inspired Hopper. And the Truro Public Library will be showing a collection of works inspired by Hopper all this month.

For more Then and Now glimpses of destinations, visit the gallery available on Traveler's website.

Painting: Methodist Church, Provincetown (1930) Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art, via the NYT

Sometimes, when you're searching for gold, you stumble upon bacon.

It was my first morning in Boulder, Colorado, the city of superlatives, known as the best place in the U.S. for just about...everything. Its residents have been called the smartest, thinnest, and most athletic in the country, and it ranks high on where-to-retire lists, "dream" city lists, and pretty much every other list that's out there. So while I was anticipating a full day of exploring this colony of super-humans, ("we're mutants," one resident ventured), it was early and I was hungry. Which meant one thing: breakfast, and preferably one of champions, which I assume is pretty standard around these parts.

I arrived in Boulder late the night before, so I didn't have time to scope out prime breakfast hubs. I asked the guys at the front desk of my hotel for some nearby recommendations. They suggested a place called "The Golden Pancake," and I was intrigued. The name inspired visions of fluffy stacks of flapjacks, haloed in rings of syrup. I got the directions, and after bypassing an IHOP on the way, I came across an Original Pancake House (I can only imagine the "International" and "Original" houses of pancakes like to rumble on the weekends). Still searching for the elusive Golden Pancake, I wandered on, and into a yarn store, knowing that I can always trust knitters for good advice. Bursting my bubble, they claimed not to have heard of the alleged "Golden Pancake" and directed me back across the street for the "best breakfast in Boulder." Starving and ready to eat, I let my golden dreams subside and walked into the Original Pancake House, where I struck bacon.