Travellinbaen’s Top Choices

Maui, Hawaii–Any time, any reason. Be sure to stay long enough to spend a couple of days in or around Hana and several days on the more touristed and dry side of the island. Eat at Mama’s Fish House at the beginning of the Road to Hana.

Glacier National Park, Montana–Summertime mountain trip, beautiful, all day drives and hikes for all abilities. At no other place have I felt the presence of God so certain. Eat huckleberry pie wherever you can find it.

Park City, Utah–I’ve only been skiing three times, but Park City will be hard to top. Great lodging, fantastic dining and awesome skiing. The Mexican joint at the Mountainside Resort area is the best I’ve had.

Cannon Beach, Oregon–Awesome west coast beach town, lots of good local wine and beer. Go to the bakeries to pack your picnic supplies and extra batteries for your digital camera.

Ocoee River, Tennessee–This is the only place I’ve been white water rafting, but second to skiing it’s the most fun I’ve ever had. Site of the Atlanta Olympics white water events.

San Francisco–TB’s top rated city because of the food. Also the gateway to the Pacific Coast Highway, wine country and the Redwoods. The people were friendly, the sights were memorable and Chinatown was much cooler than I expected.

Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas–This just edged out Harbour Island because of the accessibility of deserted islands with your rented Whaler and the authentic, slow pace of the town itself. You can get there only by boat and then cruise the island by foot, bike or golf cart. When I was there the Gully Roosters, the number one band of the Bahamas, played every Wednesday night. Also one of only 10,000 locations claiming to be the originator of the Goombay Smash (or so I guessed).

Niagara Falls, Canada–It is campy, touristy and cliche. And I loved it. A great place for kids or adults, inspiringly beautiful and powerful and a short, scenic ride from a really neat town. A perfect 3 day weekend destination.

Travellinbaen’s List

Beach Towns

• Folly Beach, South Carolina; previously posted about here
• Perdido, Florida–I haven’t been since the last hurricane there, but I know the Flora-Bama is still open, if not quite the same. Nice sand and decent seafood too.
• The entire western side of Maui, Kaanapali, Wailea, Lahaina–classic Hawaiian fantasy.
• Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida–very laid back, few hotels, no chains other than a discreet Holiday Inn, perfect sunset and a nice bar and grill from which to watch it.
• Jekyll Island, Georgia; previously posted about here

Mountains

• Estes Park, Colorado–I was there in the Spring; neat town, awesome hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, lots of wildlife in view from the road
• Breckinridge, Colorado–classic middle class ski destination, crowded, but still plenty of room to ski. 
• Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia–because any place you can ski is great. I’d only recommend this if you are within a six hour drive though. Otherwise, book a flight and go west. Very nice resort town at the top of the lifts though and excellent, affordable accomodations.
• Lake Placid, and the Adirondacks, New York–I went in the early fall and finally understood the hype about New England autumnal colors. They weren’t even peaking AND I’m color blind, so they must really be awesome at the right time and with the ability to see the tones. Plus, if you were alive during the 1980 Miracle On Ice, Lake Placid will always hold a special place in your memory.

Cities

• Chicago, Illinois–Lots of good food, great mass transit, most places for travelers are safe to walk, and Second City is a must see. Navy Pier was cheesy and way overrated. Cubs were out of town, but the Wrigley neighborhood looks like it would be a lot of fun on game day.
• New York–The capital of the world, and pretty friendly in my opinion. You can walk to many places if you’re staying in Manhattan. I’ve only been twice, both times for work, but it was enough to understand the hype.
• Miami, Florida–I liked South Beach in the morning time and the easy access to the Keys and the Glades.
• Charleston, South Carolina–Charleston is really a collection of nice small towns with good beaches and restaurants and an old town area to immerse yourself in colonial and antebellum history. Several colleges give the place a young vibe which clashes perfectly with the Old South setting.

Classic Attractions

• Callaway Gardens, Georgia–Previously posted about here
• Lookout Mountain, Georgia/Tennessee–See Rock City. See Ruby Falls. They’re great fun.
• Ben and Jerry’s, Vermont–It’s an ok stop. You get a free scoop of ice cream if you do the tour, which is boring. But getting there, and going away from there are fun because you are in beautiful, friendly Vermont–it’s like a foreign country to a Mississippi boy.

Adam’s List

Mountains

• Uray–A small town of about 900 people in some mystery country or state
• Crested Butte–A great ski town where I’d love to live.

Cities

• Paris
• London

• The Mansion at Turtle Creek–Dallas, Texas–American
• Mama’s Fish House–Maui, Hawaii–Seafood
• The Rendezvous–Memphis, Tennessee–Barbecue (yes, it’s a bit cliche, but I like it best, and I’ve tried a lot. A LOT.)
• Jacques-Imo’s–New Orleans, Louisiana–Creole/Cajun
• Pizzaria Uno–Chicago, Illinois–Pizza (the original one; and disclaimer, I haven’t had pizza in NYC)

Sweet’s Top Restaurants

• Prejean’s–Lafayette, Louisiana–Creole/Cajun 
• Manhattan Grill–downtown, Ocean Springs, Mississippi
• Four Seasons Pool Room–NYC–“best meal I ever had”
• Little Willie’s–Ridgeland, Mississippi for ribs (TB endorses this selection–best in MS)

Travellinbaen’s Top Books

• “The Old Man and the Sea”, Ernest Hemingway; It’s a great story, it’s easy to understand and you feel like you are in that boat. 
• “The DaVinci Code“, Dan Brown; A great, fast paced mystery peppered with lots of historical fact and a bit of legend. But the legend is a doozy. It will also make you ask yourself some hard questions about the creation of the Bible, whether the Pope or the Christian Coalition like it or not. (disclaimer–I am a Christian, but I don’t believe in the literal translation).
• “The Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis; A book about Christian philosophy for the thinking man. Also quite funny and applicable to a broad array of thought, beyond religion.
• “The Firm”, John Grisham; This is a Mississippi based website, so TB wasn’t leaving him out. And you never want to put this book down once you get started.
• “The Courting of Marcus Dupree”, Willie Morris; Willie is one of my favorite writers, and I really should put his entire set of work on this list. This book is about recruiting one of the greatest high school football players of all time to college and about the ghosts of the town and people surrounding him. 
• “The Moviegoer”, Walker Percy; This book is probably deeper than I appreciate, but it’s mainly about Binx Boling, a New Orleans guy barreling through life and philosophizing about it. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve read it, so that’s about all I can recall. Maybe I should bump it up my queue and revisit it. The same goes for “The Sun Also Rises”, Hemingway, another old and largely forgotten favorite. Lots of drinkin, carousin, and carryin on in this one to offset some really sad characters’ lives.
• The Bolitho novels, Alexander Kent; There are over twenty of these and you will wish there were a hundred. The books are set from around 1770 through 1820 and follow the life of Captain Bolitho of the Royal Navy. True adventure and pathos. Learn some history as viewed by the other side of the American Revolution while you’re at it.
• Paris, 1919, Margaret MacMillan; Historical works can be slow, but this one touches on the genesis of so many of today’s problem areas around the world, you don’t want to put it down. Ok, you’ll put it down after about twenty pages a night, but you’ll pick it back up each night.
• Rising Tide, John M. Barry; The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was worse than Katrina and it changed America and probably ruined Mississippi’s chance to join the modern world.
• My Uncle Oswald, Roald Dahl; Pure decadence.
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson; Gonzo journalism and a look inside the drug addled brain.
• The Three Musketeers, Alexander Dumas; With The Man in the Iron Mask and Twenty Years After, it’s the centerpiece of an adventuresome trilogy that captures what it means to guys to be friends.
• The so-called Leatherstocking Tales, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, and The Prairie, James Fenimore Cooper; Cooper’s statue is the only one in Cooperstown, New York that’s all by itself, and for good reason. Great books set in early America on the ever moving frontier.
• Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien; Learn to communicate with nerds and become a bit of one yourself.
• Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing, Patrick McManus; Set in the Rocky Mountains, this is a funny collection of stories that will incite in you a passion to spend just one summer out west, if you don’t already have that particular dream.
• Charlie Wilson’s War, George Crile; It reads like a suspense novel and educates the reader on Afghanistan, the Russian war there, and how the US was involved, and it shows the seeds of our problems there now.
• The Virginian, Owen Wister; Like John Wayne movies, The Sacketts, or Lonesome Dove? This book was the progenitor of all that, and shaped the American image both here and abroad as the rugged individualist.
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee; true greatness, I can’t sum it up in a few words.