Departures
Issue: March/April 2010
Wine, Dine & Equine
Horse tours offer a gentle pace for Willamette Valley wine tasting
In the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country, rancher Jake Price leads tours on which your ride to the tasting rooms may prove as memorable as the varietals inside. In a region known for producing some of the world’s finest pinot noirs, this is bold praise for Price, whose company provides guided horseback tours past vineyards on Tennessee walkers, horses known for their easy gait and gentle disposition. Stops along the way allow you to sample varietals at such wineries as White Rose, Winter’s Hill and Vista Hills. If horseback is not your style, chill out in a classic horse-drawn carriage with Jake’s son, Don, commanding the reins.
As you savor the vineyard scenery at an equine’s pace, the horsemen-turned-guides fill you in on local lore and wine country trivia—and throw in a few horse tales for good measure. The tours include stops at a handful of tasting rooms and the option to lunch among the vineyards. (503) 864-2336, www.equestrianwinetours.com.
Our World in Numbers
12,000Approximate distance, in miles, that gray whales travel during their migration from the Arctic Ocean to Mexico. Their return brings them past Pacific Northwest beaches each spring.
2,000Weight, in pounds, of a gray whale at birth.
70,000Weight, in pounds, of an adult gray whale.
1,187 Length, in feet, of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. The world’s largest cruise ship went into service last December.
1,463Height, in feet, of the Empire State Building.
425Length, in miles, of the Salmon River, the largest free-flowing river contained entirely within any one state in the contiguous United States.
Fare to remember
Freshness reigns at Victoria’s Devour restaurant
he latest buzz in Victoria, B.C., has little to do with the seaplanes landing in the Inner Harbour. Locals are raving about Devour, a 14-seat, smart bistro just off downtown Victoria’s boutique-lined lanes.
The restaurant specializes in comfort food with a seasonal twist. The menu changes daily, so there’s always something fresh. Summer brings flat-iron steak served with a succotash of local corn, pea shoots and roasted tomatoes. Cool-weather cravings are satisfied by pork chops alongside an apple-yam gratin. The quality of its food and its reasonable prices have helped the restaurant garner a loyal following and lines out the door, despite weekday-only hours. Visitors in the know avoid the lunch rush (11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.). Or they wait. Longingly. (250) 590-3231, www.devour.ca.
Witchy Ways
Prague’s spring rites include fun with sorcery
Forget spring cleaning. When the citizens of Prague celebrate the end of winter, they burn their old brooms—and effigies of witches along with them—in a rite known as Witches’ Night (Paleni carodejnic), held every April 30. The tradition has ancient pagan origins and has evolved into a fun, light-hearted spring rite. Along with a bonfire on Petrin Hill, events around the city typically include a Miss Witch competition, a witches’ "beauty salon," storytelling, live music and barbecues. A display showcasing the preferred means of transport for sorceresses throughout the ages includes a lineup of brooms accompanied by more modern devices—vacuum cleaners. So put away your furniture polish, but don’t forget to pack your pointy hat and Hoover. www.praha.eu
Travel Smarts
Don’t Let Jet Lag Slow You Down
The upside of modern travel is that you can jet to far-off places in less than a day. The downside: you can jet to far-off places but may spend days afflicted by jet lag that leaves you too tired to play. Jet lag happens when your body’s internal clock is out of sync with the local time zone. Symptoms are temporary, but why spend precious vacation time disoriented when everyone else is alert? These tips from expert travelers and the National Sleep Foundation may help keep the fuzziness at bay.
Before You Travel
Try booking a flight arriving early in the evening. Anticipate the time change: Before a trip, start getting up and going to bed earlier for eastward travel and later if you’re heading west. Break up the journey. On long trips, plan an overnight stopover to help your body catch up. If you’ll be taking a prescribed sleeping pill, take it around bedtime at your destination, not during your flight.
During The Flight
Avoid or limit alcohol and caffeine. Stay hydrated with water. If you plan to sleep, limit liquids to avoid frequent trips to the bathroom. If you want to stay awake, move around. Or exercise at your seat.
After You Arrive
Adopt the local schedule. During the day, walk or exercise in the hotel gym. If you must nap, sleep for no more than two hours. Seek out the sun. It resets your body faster and allows you to enjoy a vacation with a clear head.
A Slice of History
Hanford tours reveal Atomic Age secrets
Not only is a remote spot along the Columbia River near Richland one of the most highly contaminated places in the nation, it is also a popular tourist attraction.
"It," of course, is the 586-square-mile Hanford Site, which played a key role in the Manhattan Project and the Cold War, producing plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal into the 1980s.
The curious can get a behind-the-scenes look at noncontaminated areas of the property on guided tours that take place on fixed dates between April and September. Sights on a five-hour tour include physicist Enrico Fermi’s desk, decommissioned nuclear reactors and the vitrification plant where liquid waste will be immobilized in glass. Along the way, you’ll learn about ongoing restoration efforts at one of the world’s largest environmental cleanup projects. A shorter tour to the historic B Reactor, said to be the first full-scale nuclear reactor in the world, lets you see the control room and World War II–era artifacts. Visitors are bused onto the site from a meeting place in Richland. Online reservations are required, and space fills up quickly, so book early. www.hanford .gov.
