TRAVEL BRIEFS: 6/4 to 6/9 Items on Idaho park, San Francisco-Impressionism, New Mexico pass, South America skiing, paperless boarding passes, Beijing hotels, Fonz statue, Maine ferry, Che tributes, seafood-wine festivals. Silver Rapids Indoor Waterpark opens in Idaho KELLOGG, Idaho (AP) — Skiing and surfing overlapped for a weekend at the Silver Mountain Resort, as the ski season ended June 1 and the new Silver Rapids Indoor Waterpark opened May 30. The 42,000-square-foot indoor water park includes a FlowRider Surf Wave surfing machine, a family raft ride with a water slide, two enclosed tube slides, a lazy river, a spray deck for toddlers, an activity pool with basketball hoops, a watery obstacle course, and a multi-level play structure with a giant tipping bucket. For adults, there's a hot tub area with a bar. The ski resort also offers outdoor summer activities, including downhill mountain biking. Concerts scheduled for this summer include Ted Nugent on July 27 and Corbin Blue from "High School Musical" on Aug. 2. The Annual Microbrew Festival takes place Aug. 9. Fly-fishing in nearby lakes is also popular in the region. Details at http://www.silvermt.com or 800-204-6428. ___ Impressionist art by women at San Francisco museum SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Impressionist paintings by four women will be the focus of an exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco this summer. The exhibition, "Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzales, Marie Bracquemond," will run June 21-Sept. 21. The museum says that in the 19th century, these painters were "marginalized because of strict social rules and the artists' gender" and that they were "treated with critical ambivalence." All four women were born in the 1840s, lived in Paris and were members of Impressionist circles. Morisot was married to the brother of painter Edouard Manet and was close friends with Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Cassatt, the only American among the four, was friends with Edgar Degas and is known for her portraits of mothers and children. Gonzales studied with Manet and is known for her portraits. Bracquemond was self-taught and exhibited with other Impressionist painters of the day, but her husband disapproved and she eventually stopped painting. She is also known for her work in porcelain. The Legion of Honor is the only U.S. venue for the show, which comes to San Francisco after its debut at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany. The Legion of Honor is located in Lincoln Park overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, at 34th Avenue and Clement Street. It's open Tuesday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.; adult admission is $10 plus $5 for the "Women Impressionists" exhibit. Details at http://www.legionofhonor.org. ___ New Mexico CulturePass SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The state of New Mexico's Department of Cultural Affairs and Tourism has partnered with Travelocity to produce the New Mexico CulturePass. For $25, the pass provides admission to 14 state-run museums and monuments, a 50 percent savings over what it would cost if you visited them all and paid full-price. The pass is good for a year. The pass covers the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo in the southern part of the state; the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque; the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces; and the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, the Museum of International Folk Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. The monuments included in the pass are Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner, Coronado State Monument, El Camino Real International Heritage Center, Fort Selden State Monument, Jemez State Monument and Lincoln State Monument. Details at http://www.newmexicoculture.org. You can obtain the pass at any of the 14 museums and monuments or online at http://www.newmexicoculture.org. To buy the pass through Travelocity, select "activities" from the Web site home page and enter New Mexico as your destination. Also in New Mexico, ART Santa Fe is scheduled for July 10-13. The contemporary art fair has taken place every other year since it started in 1995, but it's going annual this year after last year's turnout of 5,000 people in four days. Galleries from around the world exhibit at the fair. Details at http://www.artsantafe.com. ___ Summer skiing in South America ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — In the winter, head north to ski. In the summer, head south ... way south, to the Southern Hemisphere, where powderhounds can satisfy their skiing addictions on the slopes of Argentina and Chile. The best-known South American resorts are Bariloche, Argentina, http://bariloche.ski.com/, Portillo, Chile, http://portillo.ski.com/, Valle Nevado, Chile, http://vallenevado.ski.com/, and Termas de Chillan, Chile, http://termasdechillan.ski.com/, where a new casino and volcano-heated spa opened last year. Ski.com can help you plan a trip to any of these destinations. The ski travel Web site also offers an escorted trip this year to Bariloche for individual travelers who would like to meet a larger group of like-minded people and take advantage of group discounts. Details at http://www.ski.com/clubski/escortedtours.aspx (click on the "Argentina-Peru" link). Other deals are also available from the Web site. A sample trip in June with seven nights at the Hotel Portillo, Saturday to Saturday, runs about $1,570 a person based on double occupancy, including transfers from the Santiago, Chile, airport, four meals a day, six days of skiing and access to all fitness and entertainment facilities. (Airfare not included in that price.) At the Edelweiss Hotel in Bariloche, with a seven-night stay beginning any time between June 28 and July 4 is just over $1,500 a person based on double occupancy, including breakfast buffet and six days of skiing. (Airfare additional.) Other deals can be found at http://www.ski.com/specials/special_deals-search.aspx. Ski.com can also customize trips to include cultural tours, from wine tastings to city tours and even side trips to other regional destinations like Easter Island. ___ More airports using Continental paperless boarding passes NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Air travelers whose cell phones get e-mail now have more airports where they can utilize paperless boarding passes for Continental Airlines flights. The program started in Houston last year, and is now available for flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport, Logan International Airport in Boston and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Boarding passes that Continental e-mails to passengers' cell phones and other handheld devices will display an encrypted bar code along with passenger and flight information. Transportation Security Administration officials will use hand-held scanners to validate the passes. Users must be flying alone to a domestic destination. ___ Hotel rooms still available for Beijing Olympics BEIJING (AP) — There are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. Director of Beijing's Tourism Bureau Zhang Huiguang says the crunch that was predicted doesn't seem to be happening. She said that about 500,000 foreigners were expected for the games, a figure Beijing officials have long been predicting. She said only 77 percent of capacity at Beijing's five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games, and the four-star hotel rate is only 44 percent. And it's even lower for three- and two-stars. One reason could be China's crack down on visa procedures, targeting students and others on short-term stays who might be activists intent on protesting during the Olympics. ___ Bronze statue of 'Happy Days' character the Fonz to be dedicated in Milwaukee MILWAUKEE (AP) — Downtown Milwaukee will soon have a permanent reminder of the "Happy Days" television show. The bronze statue of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, played by Henry Winkler, will be dedicated Aug. 19 along the Milwaukee River. "Happy Days" was set in Milwaukee and aired from 1974 to 1984. Most of the show's stars are expected to attend the ceremony, including Winkler, Marion Ross, Tom Bosley and the show's creator, Garry Marshall. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams from "Laverne & Shirley," a spinoff of "Happy Days," also are expected to attend. ___ High-speed ferry The Cat arrives at new digs on Portland, Maine, waterfront PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The high-speed ferry called The Cat has arrived for the first time at its new home on the Portland waterfront. The 320-foot catamaran arrived at the city's $21 million Ocean Gateway terminal, which will serve The Cat as well as cruise ships. The ship's owner, Bay Ferries, has signed a five-year lease with the city. Service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, began at the end of May. Eventually, the city plans to build another $7 million berth at the terminal to accommodate the world's largest cruise ships ___ Memories of Che Guevara on two continents VIENNA, Austria (AP) — A collection of vintage Che Guevara prints are on display in Austria, including the iconic 1960 portrait of him in a beret, and a new statue memorializing the revolutionary has been unveiled in his native Argentina. The tributes on two continents show that Guevara continues to have cult status 40 years after his death. The Austria exhibit — which runs until July 31 in Vienna's WestLicht gallery — includes the famed portrait by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda that shows Guevara, wearing a starred beret, looking seriously and steadfastly off into the distance. This personification of anti-establishment rebellion is frequently featured on T-shirts and posters, and is one of the most widely reproduced portrait photos in the world. Some of the roughly 150 pieces on view portray Guevara alongside Fidel Castro. Others give the viewer unusual glimpses of a trip Guevara took to China in November 1960. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, Guevara's defiant expression has been immortalized in a towering bronze statue. The larger-than-life "Monument to Che" statue weighs three tons and towers 13 feet high, topped off with the revolutionary's famed starred beret. Guevara left the city in 1953 as a young doctor embarking on a trip throughout Latin America, a journey depicted in the 2004 movie "Motorcycle Diaries." ___ Coastal Living mag names top 10 seafood and wine festivals BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Whether it's sushi and sake or crab and chardonnay, fish and wine pair well. Coastal Living Magazine - http://www.coastalliving.com - has a list of the top 10 seafood and wine festivals in its June issue, including festivals taking place in Hawaii and California this summer. -Stone Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival, Longboat Key, Fla., Nov. 13-16, at The Colony resort. Cooking demonstrations, wine offerings, beachfront tasting, gala with wines and a seven-course meal. -Sushi & Sake Festival, Long Beach, Calif., June 14. Sake pavilion with tastings and seminars, presentations from the Sushi Chef Institute, music and dance performances, sumo and martial arts exhibitions. -Kapalua Wine & Food Festival, Maui, Hawaii, June 26-29, at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua. Tastings and pairings, with chefs, winemakers, foodies and food critics among those attending. -Clayoquot Oyster Festival, British Columbia, Canada, usually held the weekend before (U.S.) Thanksgiving. Celebrates the harvest of shellfish farms on Vancouver Island's west coast with oyster-and-wine restaurant dinners, farm tours and seminars from oystemen and scientists. -Crab & Wine Days and Taste Mendocino, Mendocino, Calif., a winter festival held over several weekends in late January/early February celebrating Dungeness crab season. Cooking classes, crab tours, fishing excursions, dinners, and crab cake cook-off and tasting. -Harvest on the Harbor, Portland, Maine, Oct. 23-25. Tastings, seminars, dinners. -Cayman Cookout, Grand Cayman Island, Jan. 16-19 (2009). Wine-pairing demos, tastings and seminars hosted by the chef from the local Ritz-Carlton restaurant, Blue by Eric Ripert. -Newport Seafood & Wine Festival, Oregon, Feb. 20-22 (2009). Local oyster, crab and other seafood with wines. -Taste of the Beach, Outer Banks, N.C., March 5-9 (2009). More than 40 events including wine-pairing demonstrations and dinners, cooking classes, chowder cook-off, tapas crawl tour of local restaurants and Champagne lounge. -Pebble Beach Food & Wine, Pebble Beach, Calif., April 16-19 (2009). Demonstrations by celebrity chefs, rare-wine auction and tastings. |