Acadia National Park in New England

13 August 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment Reading Time:  13 minutes

© Someone35/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Someone35/cc-by-sa-3.0

Acadia National Park is a United States national park located in the state of Maine in New England, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park reserves much of Mount Desert Island and associated smaller islands along the Atlantic coast. Initially created as the Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, the park was renamed and re-designated Lafayette National Park in 1919, and then renamed once more as Acadia National Park in 1929. Over three million people visited the park in 2016. Acadia is the oldest designated national park in the United States east of the Mississippi River, although two eastern national parks in Ontario are older: Thousand Islands (1904) and Point Pelee (1918). Today, with nearly 2.5 million visitors every year, the park is one of the ten most visited national parks in the United States due to its proximity to the metropolises of the East Coast.   read more…

Kennebunkport in Maine

11 April 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Bush Estate at Walker's Point © flickr.com - John Hoey/cc-by-2.0

Bush Estate at Walker’s Point © flickr.com – John Hoey/cc-by-2.0

Kennebunkport is a town in York County in New England. The population is at 3,500. The town center, the area in and around Dock Square, is located along the Kennebunk River, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the mouth of the river on the Atlantic Ocean. Historically a shipbuilding and fishing village, for well over a century the town has been a popular summer colony and seaside tourist destination. The Dock Square area has a district of souvenir shops, art galleries, seafood restaurants, and bed and breakfasts.   read more…

The Mayflower

1 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Museums, Exhibitions, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  16 minutes

Mayflower replica in Plymouth © flickr.com - Paul Keleher/cc-by-2.0

Mayflower replica in Plymouth © flickr.com – Paul Keleher/cc-by-2.0

The Mayflower was an English ship that famously transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. There was a second ship named Mayflower that made the London to Plymouth, Massachusetts voyage several times.   read more…

The Breakers in Newport

23 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  2 minutes

The Breakers in Newport © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Breakers in Newport © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island on the Atlantic Ocean. The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1994, and is a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District. It is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open for visitation on a year-round basis. The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy . It is built in an architectural style based on the Italian Renaissance. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr., the 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4 m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8 m2) of living area on five floors. The house was constructed between 1893 and 1895. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high (3.7 m) limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately 1 acre (4,000 m2) of the 14 acres (5.7 ha) estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Breakers is one of the most visited house museums in America and in 2016 had 472,700 visitations.   read more…

The United States: Bon appétit!

9 November 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Editorial, Greater Los Angeles Area, Bon appétit, Miami / South Florida, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  53 minutes

© Lipton sale/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Lipton sale/cc-by-sa-3.0

The cuisine of the United States reflects its history. The European colonization of the Americas yielded the introduction of a number of ingredients and cooking styles to the latter. The various styles continued expanding well into the 19th and 20th centuries, proportional to the influx of immigrants from many different nations; such influx developed a rich diversity in food preparation throughout the country. Early Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American Cuisine that have been blended with early European cooking methods to form the basis of American Cuisine. When the colonists came to the colonies, they farmed animals for clothing and meat in a similar fashion to what they had done in Europe. They had cuisine similar to their previous British cuisine. The American colonial diet varied depending on the settled region in which someone lived. Commonly hunted game included deer, bear, buffalo, and wild turkey. A number of fats and oils made from animals served to cook much of the colonial foods. Prior to the American Revolution, New Englanders consumed large quantities of rum and beer, as maritime trade provided them relatively easy access to the goods needed to produce these items: rum was the distilled spirit of choice, as the main ingredient, molasses, was readily available from trade with the West Indies. In comparison to the northern colonies, the southern colonies were quite diverse in their agricultural diet and did not have a central region of culture. During the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) food production and presentation became more industrialized. Major railroads featured upscale cuisine in their dining cars. Restaurant chains emerged with standardized decor and menus, most famously the Fred Harvey restaurants along the route of the Santa Fe Railroad in the Southwest. At the universities, nutritionists and home economists taught a new scientific approach to food. During World War I the Progressives’ moral advice about food conservation was emphasized in large-scale state and federal programs designed to educate housewives. Large-scale foreign aid during and after the war brought American standards to Europe. Newspapers and magazines ran recipe columns, aided by research from corporate kitchens, which were major food manufacturers like General Mills, Campbell’s, and Kraft Foods. One characteristic of American cooking is the fusion of multiple ethnic or regional approaches into completely new cooking styles. For example, spaghetti is Italian, while hot dogs are German; a popular meal, especially among young children, is spaghetti containing slices of hot dogs. Since the 1960s Asian cooking has played a particularly large role in American fusion cuisine. Even if the entire series of articles is titled “Bon appétit!”, the right termin is “enjoy your meal” instead in the USA.   read more…

Marblehead in Massachusetts

23 October 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Marblehead welcome sign © Bkg333/cc-by-sa-4.0

Marblehead welcome sign © Bkg333/cc-by-sa-4.0

Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts. Its population is at 20,000. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Crocker Park, the Marblehead Lighthouse, Fort Sewall, Little Harbor and Devereux Beach. Archibald Willard‘s famous painting The Spirit of ’76 currently resides in Abbot Hall. A town with roots in commercial fishing, whaling and yachting, Marblehead was a major shipyard and is often referred to as the birthplace of the American Navy, a title sometimes disputed with nearby Beverly. It is also the origin of Marine Corps Aviation. A center of recreational boating, it is a popular sailing, kayaking and fishing destination. Several yacht clubs were established here in the late 19th century, which continue to be centers of sailing.   read more…

Theme Week New England – New Hampshire and Maine

25 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  20 minutes

New Hampshire - Berlin © Americanadian 8

New Hampshire – Berlin © Americanadian 8

N E W    H A M P S H I R E

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by land area and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state. Other cities are Nashua, Dover, Rochester, Keene, Portsmouth, Laconia, Lebanon, Berlin, Claremont, and Franklin.   read more…

Theme Week New England – Vermont

24 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Stowe © flickr.com - Patrick/cc-by-2.0

Stowe © flickr.com – Patrick/cc-by-2.0

Vermont borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont’s western border with the state of New York and the Green Mountains run north–south the length of the state. Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U.S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U.S. The most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U.S. to be the most populous within the state. Other cities are Essex, South Burlington, Colchester, Rutland, Bennington, Brattleboro, Milton, Winooski, St. Albans, Vergennes, St. Johnsbury, Shelburne, Hartford, Springfield, Barre, and Williston. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the leading producer of maple syrup in the U.S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016.   read more…

Theme Week New England – Rhode Island

23 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Newport © MVASCO - Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport © MVASCO – Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and the second most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states, following New Jersey. Its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. The state also shares a short maritime border with New York. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and was the fourth among the newly sovereign states to ratify the Articles of Confederation on February 9, 1778. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution and initially refused to ratify it. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution.   read more…

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