Shopping the New York Outlets

Woodbury Commons, WikiMedia

In a car packed with teenagers, my cousin wove in and out of FDR traffic on our way to Century 21.  When the weather is glum, my husband and I take refuge at the Jersey Gardens Outlets.  It's human nature to love a good sale, human nature to want the best price.

But when it comes to outlet shopping, the queen of designer deals remains my sister.  She has mastered the art of kamakaze-shopping.  Dress in layers.  Map out a course of attack.  Scout the line.  Do a lap before commiting.  Take no prisoners and never settle for second quality.  This article's for her, the humid back-to-school days at Woodbury Commons, and the insane deals in and around New York City:  Shopping Holidays at New York City's Premium Outlets

Metropolitan Museum as a Job

Metropolitan Museum.
Photo Melissa Ruttanai

People go to museums to meander, to walk halls and view exhibits at their leisure.  And visitors can enjoy the slow pace that most museums emit.  At the Metropolitan Museum, I spent two days researching a podcast travel guide app for Visual Tourist Travel Tours.

After twenty minutes, I knew that I couldn't just wander like I usually did--from sculpture to sculpture and room to room.  With 5000 years and 2.5 million objects housed in the museum, I was supposed to represent it all in 75 pictures and a slim 3500 words.  How?  How, in all fairness?

Metropolitan Museum.  Indian Dancer.
Photo Melissa Ruttanai

The Met has two floors and a labyrinth of corridors, wings, and interlocking chambers.  The American Wing abuts European Sculptures.  Ancient Greek and Roman Art swings right into Africa Oceania.  Ancient Egypt splits at the Tomb of Perneb and crisscrosses at Horemhab.  And while it all makes sense to the visitor's eye, for me it was a calamity.

Director Phillipe de Montebello said that he had immense difficulty choosing the highlights of the museum for his 470-page guide to the Met's masterpieces.  He wrote about the arduous process of choosing three Vermeers while omitting 2 others.  He had to think more than twice when looking at 30 Monets, knowing he should only include four.  Then there's Arms & Armor, Musical Instruments, and five millenia of Asian art history.

Metropolitan Museum. Dante's Inferno.
Photo Melissa Ruttanai

I've been to the Met several times.  I thought I knew its exhibits and treasures.  Not so.  This trip was the first that I made it through the majority of the halls, spending the most time lost in 19th Century Paintings.  The rooms flow one into the other with a Van Gogh here, two Rembrandts there, and a smattering of Manets throughout.  I'm sure I passed the same guard three times before I asked him how I could find Renoir's Madame Geroges Charpentier and Her Children.  Without thinking twice, he pointed the way, giving precise directions.

Most people would think I was all set.  But now the task was to follow those directions without getting lost again, without passing the same guard watching me with masked amazement as I walked around in circles.

I pressed on, taking notes and angling my shots.  Compiling the pieces for my tour, I stuck close to Montebello's guide.  Home now, my shins still ache from the countless loops I made past the security guard.  But the biggest challenge awaits.  Now that I am about to finalize the images and manuscript for a guide to the Met, I wish I could include more.  I wish I could tell a more fair and complete story.  I feel but a fraction of what Montebello must have felt.  So, sorry.  I tried my best.

Cold Weather Reminiscence of Warm Long Island Wineries

Tasting Room, Bedell Cellars, Long Island Winery

It's been too long.  In this cold weather, I wish it were springtime on a Long Island vineyard: the sun on my face, the perfume of flowers surrounding me, and an uncorked bottle of Chardonnay to share.

I suppose this article is homage to those memories:

Touring the Long Island Wineries

The Latest in Harry Potter News

Harry Potter Theme Park,
Melissa Ruttanai

I lived it.  I loved it.  I want more.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a simple must see.  I was there in November 2010 with my family and I felt steeped in the magic.

I particularly liked how they didn't serve soda and had lots of fruit and veggie snacks!

Much like a Renaissance Fair, the workers help to cast the magical world, dressing in wizarding threads and using faux-UK accents.  I love Olivander's but Hogwarts Castle was just flat out overwhelming.  Inside, holograms of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dumbledore speak to the the crowd as well as a fire breathing dragon and sinister Salizar Slytherin portrait.

Read on:

Experiencing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

On the Lookout...for Wine?

It always amazes me how prolific the internet can be.  My article:  Beyond Napa and Sonoma, Wine Regions of California made top feed for this Switzerland-based newspaper.  Ha!

Follow me there:

http://paper.li/winecntryguide/1295405594/~list?topic=travel

Asia Becoming a Strong Presence in Wine Sales

Grape Creek Winery, Texas

Asia has its liquors, some include Sake, Shoju, and Lao Lao.  People have enjoyed them for centuries without complaint, without a feeling of longing or need.  Asians were content.

Until now.

According to statics for 2010, the US is now exporting more wine to Asia than any other place in the world.  Things look serious.  Young, middle class professionals across Asia are looking for more variety in their libations--and are willing to spend money to get it.

In 2002, when I lived in Japan, a bottle of cheap Sutter Home table wine cost $50 and came in a 500ml bottle.  Wine was expensive and came with temple-throbbing headaches.  During my months traveling, I went without.  So much so that when I returned home after almost two years overseas, I refused to buy any wine except American.  Some people thought it was naive, resigned to beliefs that American wine was somehow inferior.   Please.  I knew what bad wine tasted like and it wasn't in any of the bottles I was getting from Mendocino County.

Now with demand on the rise, China and Hong Kong seem to be at the front of the checkout line, acquiring and consuming massive quantities.  This got me thinking about where all this wine came from.   Of course the answer is not simple.  American wine comes from a myriad of valleys, vistas, and mountain sides.  And I'm not going to lie...some surprised me.

Check out my articles about American wine regions.  

Exploring Virginia's Wine Country

Beyond Napa and Sonoma

Traveling the Texas Wine Trail

Trappist Beer

Football and beer meld together into a season of strong safeties like Troy Polamalu and strong ales like Rochefort 10.  This fall, I've developed a curiosity over Trappist beer.  The long history and strict regulations are fascinating.  To top it off, only six breweries in the world can make Trappist Beer.

Isn't there always a magnetic draw between a consumer and a product hundreds of years old and in limited supply?

My article sums it better:  What is Trappist Beer?

Traveling in Japan on a Budget

Temple View at Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, Japan

If I asked Neil how much a bowl of kishimen soup cost us at a now-closed noodle shop in the small town of Kozoji, under the train station, in 2003, he'd know the answer.  If I asked him how many hours we spent on the slow trains from Nagoya to Nagaski, he'd have the time down to the minute.  My husband is like a crazed ninja-bookkeeper of travel.  If he can't recall a name, date, or menu price, he has it written down in one of his notebooks, stowed carefully in a box on a shelf in the basement.

His mind never ceases to amaze me.  When I'm ready to give up, he says, "Wait.  Let me find my notes."

On our computer, Neil maintains a folder called <NDF> with a subfolder <Travel> and a sub-sub folder called <Japan>.  Logically organized.  In these files, he and I have compiled our memories of Japan, our adventures, mishaps, and lessons learned--sometimes painfully.  

Some files don't mean much to anyone except the two of us.  Other files we've edited and farmed out to people who needed information on Japan.

In the quest to share, the following article accounts for some of our best lessons learned in Nippon.  Click here:  Traveling in Japan on a Budget.

Happy Reading!

On the Whiskey Shelf

The Whiskey Ward, New York City
Photo: Neil Friedman

“What’ll you have?”  The bartender at the Whiskey Ward takes position at the bar, hands pressed against the wood, arms flexed and his face patient.  Behind him, the wall is covered with lovely bottles of whiskey—Bourbon, rye, Scotch, Irish, Japanese.  Like little soldiers, they sit under long menus that list single barrels and malts and batch.  The bartender is probably used to it but I’m taking my time, enjoying the sheer breadth of the options.  There are over 100 bottles alongside the usual lineup of libations.

Whiskey can be a hard sell for women.  The heat and rush of this spirit can overwhelm the senses.  In 2011, people have their choice of drink.  Fruity drinks with crushed ice.  Sparkling drinks in tall flutes.  Dark beers crafted by Belgian monks.  Wines from vineyards centuries old.  So why should anyone consider this distilled delight?

Woodford Reserve, Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Photo: Neil Friedman

Let’s talk Bourbon.  Regulated by law and location, sour mash is made from corn and aged in charred oak barrels that can only be used once.

Bourbon Barrels, Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Photo: Neil Friedman

At the risk of being called vain, I also like whiskey because it's weight friendly: 40 calories. 

It mingles well with others.  Makers and ginger ale is a year round favorite.  Mint Juleps are nice too, extra mint please.  During winter, hot toddies are perfect with lemon and a shot of Blantons.  The citrus tickles my nose.  The tea feathers across my eyelashes.  And the whiskey takes all the warmth straight to my toes.

Maker's Mark, Kentucky Bourbon Trail

It’s indigenous.  Bourbon is American.  Scottish distillers immigrated to America in search of the Great Dream.  They moved to Kentucky for good water to make their libations and bad roads to keep authorities out.

Aging Process, Bourbon Distillery
Photo: Neil Friedman

Kentucky summers make Bourbon unique.  Stored in warehouses, the barrels expand and pull the liquor into its charred staves.  As winter comes, the wood contracts and squeezes the whiskey back into the cask.  The years pass and the process continues until the Bourbon is ready with its caramel spicy flavors and smooth finish. 

So when the bartender asks what I’ll have the first thought is everything.  My answer: How about a flight?

Wands at the Ready

Ollivander's Wand Shop
Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The door creaks open and the witch standing next to it ushers 20 people off the line and into Ollivander’s wandshop.  Inside, a small lantern flickers in a dark room.  Cabinets and shelves reach to the ceiling, filled with long dusty boxes each holding a wand.  Pressed into a corner, I peer through through the solemn shadows to see cupboards half opened and an old bell high up the wall.  When Mr. Ollivander looks at us from over his spectacles, everyone—even the adults—come to full attention, hoping that somehow a wand will choose one of us as its mate.

Hogwarts Castle, Harry Potter Theme Park

Harry Potter purists will grumble that the designers of the Wizarding World spliced Rowling’s magical geography in the name of commercial sensibility.  The newest section of Universal’s theme park, the Wizarding World is organized into Hogwarts and Hogsmeade with the iconic red train, idling at the gates.  The castle stands prominently against the treeline, as it should.  But Hogsmeade holds some shops that belong only in Diagon Alley though I admittedly didn’t realize at first, completely overwhelmed as I was by the feeling of stepping into one of my favorite stories.  As soon as you pass through the gates, the jolly conductor from the Hogwarts Express welcomes you.  Don’t ask him to take a picture with your muggle camera.  He has no idea what it is and managed to take a nice shot of his own nose on ours.  He’s so silly—you just want to hug him.

Hogsmeade Shops, Harry Potter Theme Park

There’s Honeydukes, Zonkos, and the Owl Post.  The Three Broomsticks is a high traffic stop for refreshments.  Seating and service is well organized; and while the menu does not include muggle sodas, you can choose between pumpkin juice, butterbeer, or my favorite, Hogshead Ale.  I got an order of fish and chips to accompany my pint and enjoyed them on the outdoor patio.

Eating in Wizarding World of Harry Potter

But it doesn’t matter what you eat or see or ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Like everyone else, you’re there for the wands. 

Inside Ollivander's Wand Shop

Inside the wandshop, Ollivander chose one little girl to be tested for a wand and the rest of us deflated, stifling our petty jealousies as she picked up a wand made of holly, causing the cupboards and draws to slap open and shut.  We laughed as she then waved one made of oak, causing the bells to chime and echo throughout the store.  Then,  she held the last, made of heather, flexible, 10 ¼ inches.  A breeze kicked up, a light switched on, and I shook my head at the cheesy cheekiness of it.  But the little girl stood where she was, quietly holding the wand that had chosen her.  A small grin pulled at her lips, the satisfied smile of a Harry Potter purist.

Early Morning, Harry Potter Theme Park