https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/relax-for-the-day-in-zihautanejo/
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Year-Round Reasons to Visit Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama
The sun will soon set on peak summer season in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama, and though the destination is known for its pristine beaches and fun in the summertime, we’re excited to share the many reasons why it’s also a great place to visit in all the OTHER seasons. If we listed out all those reasons, we estimate that you’d be reading a short novel … because there’s an incredible array of experiences available outside the summer season. So instead, we’re sharing two big reasons to visit each season. We hope you’ll want to learn more, and we encourage you to connect with us if the idea of hitting the beach outside of June, July and August appeals to you.
Fall: Mild temperatures, fewer crowds, and fantastic festivals give Gulf Shores and Orange Beach autumn appeal.
- Easy Access to Sand & Sustenance: With its colorful sunsets, fall is an amazing time to enjoy 32 miles of sugar-white sandy beaches and the clear – still warm – waters of the Gulf of Mexico without the summer crowds. There’s also less competition for reservations and shorter wait times at the destination’s long list of incredible restaurants. Sure, you could say this about any destination’s “off” season, but it’s especially important here because there are so many fabulous and beloved culinary offerings. One such standout is Jesse’s Restaurant, which opened its second location on Fort Morgan this year. Offering casual fine dining, Jesse’s on the Bay is known for its steaks, fresh local seafood and signature entrees.
- Festivals & Events: While Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are home to great events throughout the year, there are a few standout festivals worthy traveling to each fall.
- The 50th Annual Shrimp Festival, which features 50 local and regional vendors, will be held October 12-15 in Gulf Shores. Festival attendees will find shrimp just about any way you can think of it.
- After a successful launch last year, The Hangout Seafood Festival presented by Murder Point Oysters will be serving up the half shells for a second year on November 3 and 4. This culinary weekend features chef and farm demos, live music, oyster shucking, and samplings of oysters, shrimp, gumbo, jambalaya and more.
- The 39th annual Frank Brown International Songwriters’ Festival takes place November 9-19 this year, and it will draw nearly 200 songwriters from around the country and the world.
Winter: With monthly averages between 50 and 60 degrees, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach offers mild winter temperatures so you can still enjoy the great outdoors.
- Birding: Thanks to its prime location along the Mississippi Flyway migration route, Gulf Shores is a popular destination for birders. During the winter migration, birders might spot bald eagles in Gulf State Park and other sites. As part of a larger statewide birding initiative, the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail features six birding loops totaling 200 miles along the Gulf Coast. With snowbird clubs, events and deals, the destination welcomes flocks of human snowbirds, too!
- Golf on the Gulf: With mild winters and great shoulder-season rates, golfing on the area’s 15 courses is a year-round sport. Course terrain ranges from lush foliage of nature preserves to courses that overlook the Gulf. Among the course designers are such legendary names as Arnold Palmer, Bruce Devlin, Jerry Pate and Earl Stone.
Spring:The temperatures in this season often make it feel like summer, but visitors can beat the summer crowds and prices by going to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach between March and May.
- Spring Break: Planning ahead for spring break, the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach community caters to families in a variety of ways:
- Rules: The destination truly caters to families … so much so that alcohol has been banned on the beach during the spring break schedules of most major colleges and universities for the past seven years.
- Accommodations: The Lodge at Gulf State Park, a Hilton property, is one of the world’s leading eco-friendly hotels. It’s also family-friendly, with one-third of its guestrooms featuring built-in bunk beds.
- Activities: A can’t-miss family activity is Sand Castle University, where families can build a sand castle under expert supervision.
- Explore Gulf State Park: This is one that can (and should!) be explored any time of year, but spring is an especially good time. Each April, in celebration of Earth Day, the park hosts special programs and celebrations to showcase its incredible sustainability efforts. This park is an especially good place to get a handle on this fascinating coastal region that’s home to nine different ecosystems. In the past few years alone, the 6,150-acre park has restored its sand dunes; expanded its Backcountry Trail to 28 miles; and constructed an Interpretive Center.
Live & On-Site: C-SPAN’s Book TV partners with the Library of Congress to bring the 2023 National Book Festival to a national television audience.
As an original supporter of the National Book Festival, C-SPAN’s Book TV is contributing the following for this year’s event – held on Saturday, August 12, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center:
• live coverage of author interviews and panel discussions.
• lengthy live call-in interviews with nonfiction authors on location from the grand lobby.
• 20,000 totes promoting both the Library of Congress and C-SPAN’s Book TV available to Festivalgoers.
• public access to its video coverage via C-SPAN’s online archives at C-SPAN.org.
C-SPAN’s Book TV has been providing live, in-depth, uninterrupted coverage of the National Book Festival – and partnering with the Library of Coverage on promotion – since the event began on September 8, 2001.
Book TV’s LIVE coverage has taken C-SPAN’s audience to the Festival’s various venues – U.S. Capitol grounds (2001), a vast tent city on the National Mall (2002-2013), an expo-style event in the Washington Convention Center (2014-2019), a virtual event during the pandemic (2020-2021), and back to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (2022).
Book TV’s extensive coverage of nonfiction authors appearing at the National Book Festival kicks off the network’s coverage of book fairs held throughout the country in the fall. And the celebration of C-SPAN’s 25 years of Book TV will launch from this year’s festival.
About Book TV:
Book TV – Sundays on C-SPAN2 – is the only television service dedicated to nonfiction books. Book TV features programming on a rich variety of topics, such as history, biography, politics, current events, the media and more. Watch author interviews, book readings and coverage of the nation’s largest book fairs. Every Sunday on C-SPAN2 starting 8 am ET or online anytime at booktv.org. Use that website as well to connect with Book TV via social media and the email newsletter.
About C-SPAN:
C-SPAN, the public affairs network providing Americans with unfiltered access to congressional proceedings, was created in 1979 as a public service by the cable television industry and is now funded through fees paid by cable and satellite companies that provide C-SPAN programming. C-SPAN connects with millions of Americans through its three commercial-free TV networks, C-SPAN Radio, C-SPAN Podcasts, the C-SPAN Now app, C-SPAN.org and various social media platforms.
The network’s video-rich website contains over 270,000 hours of searchable and shareable content. Engage with C-SPAN on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and stay connected through weekly and daily newsletters.
Full 2023 National Book Festival Book TV Coverage Schedule, Saturday Aug. 12
9amET Interview Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
9:30am Authors Panel: Accidental Spies
Authors: John Lisle “The Dirty Tricks Department“;
Janet Wallach “Flirting with Danger“
Moderator: CBS’s Jeff Pegues
10:30am Interview Author R.K. Russell, “The Yards Between Us”
10:45am Authors Panel: Environmental Awakening vs. Climate Change
Authors: Douglas Brinkley “Silent Spring Revolution“;
David Lipsky “The Parrot and the Igloo“
Moderator: Jenn White of NPR
11:45 Interview: Charles “Cully” Stimson, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation
“Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities.”
12pm Author Talk: Sports and Culture
Author: R.K. Russell, “Yards Between Us“
Moderator: LZ Granderson of the LA Times
12:45pm Interview, David Rubenstein
1pm Author Panel: Escaping Genocide and Human Trafficking
Authors: Tahir Hamut Izgil, “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night“;
Saket Soni, “The Great Escape“
Moderator: Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian
2:20pm Interview Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
3:15pm Interview with Chasten Buttigieg, “I Have Something to Tell You “
3:30pm Author Panel – Behind the Scenes with Black Writers
Authors Camille Dungy and Tiphanie Yanique
Moderator: Author Jericho Brown
4:30pm Joan Biskupic, “Nine Black Robes“
4:45pm Author Panel – Dig In: What Food Says About Us
Authors Cheuk Kwan and Anya von Bremzen
Moderator: Wash. Post Food Writer Daniela Galarza
For more information c-span.org/booktv
National Book Festival Presents
The Library of Congress National Book Festival now includes the year-round series of events – National Book Festival Presents – featuring high-caliber authors, their books and corresponding Library treasures. For more literary programs and book-related events, visit the poetry and literature events calendar.
On the road to Lincoln-related sites
From Hoosier History Live the Award Winning Show by Nelson Price; Produced by Molly Head.
“I love that there are still inns where Lincoln stayed,” says travel writer Jane Ammeson, who has been a popular Roadtrip correspondent on Hoosier History Live for several years.
Although her radio reports, magazine articles and books cover a range of historic topics, Jane has narrowed her focus in her newest book, Lincoln Road Trip: The Back-Roads Guide to America’s Favorite President (Red Lightning Books).As most Hoosiers know, Abraham Lincoln grew up in southern Indiana. As a 7-year-old, he and his family moved from Kentucky to the wilderness area that became Spencer County; the Lincolns arrived in 1816, the same year Indiana achieved statehood.We will reach beyond the boundaries of Indiana when Jane joins Nelson as a studio guest to explore some of the inns, homes, mills and recreated historic sites with a connection to Lincoln (1809-1865), his extended family and the historical events associated with his life.
Our itinerary for the show will include traveling to Kentucky to explore the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, which opened as an inn in 1779. Abe Lincoln was about five when he stayed at the inn; according to Lincoln Road Trip, it is considered “one of the oldest taverns in continuous operation in the United States and the oldest stagecoach stop west of the Allegheny Mountains.”
Guests at an inn in Corydon, Indiana’s first state capital, included Josiah Lincoln, Abe’s uncle. Josiah (the brother of Thomas Lincoln, father of the future president) visited the Kintner Tavern after he moved to Harrison County to establish a 160-acre farm near Corydon in the early 1800s, according to Lincoln Road Trip. Although the original tavern was destroyed by a fire, its owner, Jacob Kintner, later opened the Kintner House Inn, which still stands.
And here’s another Lincoln-connected bit of trivia about Harrison County: Because there are no direct descendants remaining of Abraham Lincoln – the last, his great-grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died in 1985 – descendants of Josiah Lincoln are considered, as Jane puts it, “among the closest living kin of the greatest American president.”
Many of Josiah Lincoln’s descendants continue to live in Harrison County or nearby.Thousands of visitors from across the country have seen the burial sites of Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and his older sister, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Spencer County. The site includes a recreation of the log cabin the Lincolns built when they moved to the Little Pigeon Creek settlement in the wilderness.
“It was a region with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods,” Lincoln recalled later in life. “There I grew up.”Our guest Jane Ammeson notes that the Lincoln family was related through marriage to the extended family of frontier explorer Daniel Boone. So Lincoln Road Trip highlights historic sites associated with the Boones, which we also will explore during our show.
These sites include Squire Boone Caverns in Harrison County, which Jane describes as a “magical and mystical” cave system with an underground waterfall. Squire Boone, Daniel’s younger brother, lived near the caverns in southeastern Indiana for the final 11 years of his life. When he died in 1815 at age 71, Squire Boone asked his children to bury him in one of the passageways of the cave system.
Today, Squire Boone Caverns is a popular tourist attraction, and visitors often stop in the area that includes his casket.Also during our show, we will explore the Colonel William Jones State Historic Site near the town of Gentryville in southwestern Indiana. Jones ran a general store during Abe Lincoln’s teenage years, employing him as a clerk and discussing political issues with him. After the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, Abe Lincoln spent the night at Jones’ house during a return visit to Indiana.During the Civil War, Jones was killed at the Battle of Atlanta in 1864, his former clerk serving as commander-in-chief. The house in Gentryville, which Jones designed in the Federal style, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mortuary Museum, Miniatures, Mothman, and Exquisite Cuisine on American Countess Adventure
A special post from guest blogger and cruise specialist Kathy Witt takes us aboard for a most unique cruise experience.
An embalmer’s technical reference handbook—and the machine that accompanies it. The exquisitely sculpted ballerina from “Black Swan” standing en pointe. And a mythical harbinger of doom that evolved into the centerpiece of an annual festival attended by 20,000 people from around the world.
One of the biggest draws of a river excursion with American Queen Voyages (besides the luxury-level experience, genuinely friendly crew and outstanding cuisine) are all the unexpected surprises on the itinerary. As the vessel calls at one charming river town after another, a mix of highlights—museums, bustling markets, scenic parks, historic homes, Main Street shopping—offer variety and allure. The specific attractions of a given destination are detailed during a daily port review, and all are included as part of the line’s guided hop-on hop-off tours.
Especially intriguing are discoveries aboard the American Countess’ Ohio River voyage between Louisville, KY, and Pittsburg, PA, that include a taboo topic, a creature from the paranormal realm and one of the world’s finest collections of miniatures.
IT’S A SMALL WORLD
No matter your age, your inner child will be hooked upon seeing the world-class fine art collection, numbering more than 15,000 pieces and in 1/12-scale, in Maysville, KY, a picture-postcard river town whose downtown is lined with yesteryear architecture punctuated by church steeples. The Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center is an extraordinary sight to behold.
Wander through the Palladian-style gallery filled with miniature houses, room boxes and vignettes—each showcasing exquisite and historically accurate re-creations right down to the tiny accessories, like a pair of vintage roller skates and a key to tighten them; building materials such as bricks on the Russell Theater’s exterior; and authentic carpets made on real looms.
In the “Lincoln Herndon Law Office,” the artisan room box replicates the office Abraham Lincoln shared with his partner, right down to the miniscule handwritten documents scattered across the desktop. The necklaces, bracelets and baubles in the “Savage & Sons Jewelers” room box are made with authentic gold, gems and crystals. Tiny copper pots and pans hang from the wall in the kitchen of “Le Plaisir De Venice” and itty-bitty puppets dance at the end of strings held by the toymaker in “McTavish Toys & Fairy Garden.”
The collection’s pièce de résistance is the re-creation of Spencer House, the magnificent eighteenth-century aristocratic palace and ancestral home of Princess Diana. Three floors showcase the fine furnishings and decorative arts objects that are true to the mid-1700s era and the exterior replicates the home’s neo-classical architecture.
RUN, DON’T WALK: IT’S MOTHMAN!
“What stands six feet tall, has wings, two big red eyes six inches apart and glides along behind an auto at 100 miles an hour?” asked reporter Mary Hyre in a November 1966 newspaper article. Hyre was covering the spectral sighting of a creature that became known as the Mothman, first seen hovering over an abandoned government WWII ammunition manufacturing facility—dubbed the TNT area—north of Point Pleasant, WVA, and later dubbed a harbinger of doom.
Coverage of Mothman sightings held the nation in its grip for more than a year. Every time the winged creature was spotted, tragedy seemed to follow in its wake, including the Silver Bridge collapse 10 days before Christmas in 1967, which resulted in the deaths of 46 people. The sightings spawned dozens of newspaper articles; a New York Times bestselling book, The Mothman Prophecies, written by journalist and UFOlogist John A. Keel; the 2002 movie of the same name, starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney; and a 2017 documentary, “The Mothman of Point Pleasant.”
The legend of the Mothman is recounted at the world’s only Mothman Museum. Memorabilia includes a recreation of Harris Steakhouse—considered a time capsule of 1960s Point Pleasant—which would eventually become known as the Mothman Diner. The museum’s small theater runs the documentary on a loop.
Outside, a 12-foot-tall, polished steel sculpture of Mothman standing atop a landscaped pedestal shows off his claws and glowing red eyes. And every third week in September, 20,000-plus visitors from around the world converge on Point Pleasant for the Mothman Festival (www.mothmanfestival.com).
‘KEEP EXERCISING. WE CAN WAIT.’
A little gallows humor framed and hanging on the wall of the garage greets those arriving at the Peoples Mortuary Museum. Tucked in a residential neighborhood in Marietta, Ohio, it was one of the most unexpected stops on American Countess’ itinerary—and a real eye-opener for those who braved a visit.
The museum began as a place for William Peoples, current owner of and a funeral director at Cawley & Peoples Funeral Home, to store his antique car collection. Peoples had a particular interest in hearses and several of them are parked in the museum among the caskets, funeral equipment and clothing, mourning jewelry and other artifacts.
The collection dates back to the late 1800s, when funerals were typically held in private homes and the collection’s ice box coffin would have been the casket of choice. (Embalming wasn’t yet the customary practice.) An infant’s coffin illustrates the design—narrow at the feet and wider at the shoulders—that got it dubbed the “toe pincher.” It is fitted with a small removable cover for viewing and fancy hardware, including ornamental screws and handles, to allow a more personal touch to the coffin.
Also in the collection are a Sayers & Scovill Horse-Drawn Hearse from 1895, a 1934 Studebaker Presidential Hearse and a 1927 Henney Hearse called “Miss Henney” that has appeared in several Hollywood movies, including Woody Allen’s “Radio Days,” Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Get Low,” a 2009 movie with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray.
SEE THE TREASURES OF SMALL-TOWN AMERICA
American Queen Voyages’ 245-passenger American Countess is a paddlewheel boat with contemporary design. Photo: Karan Kiser
Book an American Queen Voyage (AQV) to find the unexpected in America’s river towns. Besides including unlimited guided tours/shore excursions, AQV cruise fares include unlimited beverages, including wine, spirits, local craft beers and specialty coffees; open bars and lounges, including a morning juice bar; locally sourced and regionally inspired cuisine; and live, daily onboard entertainment—which is among the very best on any body of water anywhere—plus enrichment programming
AQV also now includes pre-paid gratuities and port taxes and fees in its fares. Additionally, a one-night pre-cruise hotel stay with free transfers between hotel and vessel is part of the cruise package.
Voyages are on authentic paddlewheel riverboats, boutique exploration vessels and expedition ships on America’s inland waterways and Great Lakes and shores from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to the Yucatán Peninsula and Alaska.
Information: www.aqvoyages.com.
Award-winning writer Kathy Witt is a monthly cruise, travel columnist and the author of several books, including Cincinnati Scavenger: The Ultimate Guide to Cincinnati’s Hidden Treasures and Secret Cincinnati: Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure.
See what Salem, Massachusetts was like during 1692 Witch Trials
Special Guest Blogger Kathy Witt, an award winning author and journalist, takes us on a trip to historic Salem, Massachusetts in the following post:
Enter the rustic kitchen at Daniels House and step through a portal into late 1600s Salem, known then as Salem Town. Ritual protection marks are etched into the wood of the heavy door—the double V for Blessed Virgin Mary and the Blessed B—to protect the house and those who lived within its walls from evil spirits.
The fire in the massive open-hearth fireplace would have burned round the clock, licking at heavy cookpots and kettles. The house, built 350 years ago by a sea captain, sheltered its occupants from sun and rain, but it was sweltering in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. When night fell, the room was plunged into darkness, the only light source the flames of the candles burning down in their candlestands.
“If you want to know what it was like to live in Salem during the Witch Trials of 1692, this room is it,” said Vijay Joyce, whose background is in architectural history and historic preservation.
Joyce developed and conducts the tours and events that take place at Daniels House, www.danielshousesalem.com, including the new interactive “Inside the Daniels House” tour where visitors are treated to a full sensory experience: seeing the conditions in which the home’s former occupants worked, lived, played and prayed; hearing the stories of neighbor turning on neighbor; touching the China, sitting on the furniture, stepping into an abyss of darkness on the root cellar’s stacked granite stairs; smelling peppercorns—a highly prized seasoning proudly displayed on front parlor table; tasting strong and smoky Souchong black tea, a favorite brew among New England seamen.
Play:
Salem’s story is best enjoyed on tours like “Inside the Daniels House.” From candlelight, kid and trolley tours to movie sites, foodie and ghost tours, there is no shortage of ways to walk into Salem’s past—and no two experiences are alike.
On Witch City Walking Tours, www.witchcitywalkingtours.com, see what is considered Salem’s most haunted building. It sits on the site of the jail, where Sheriff George Corwin once interrogated, tortured and carried out the death sentence for those accused of witchcraft.
Stop by Witch House, former home of Witch Trial Judge Jonathan Corwin (the sheriff’s uncle), one of the few structures in Salem with direct ties to the trials. Hear the story of the tween and teenage girls who set in motion one of America’s darkest chapters, where 19 innocent people were hanged at the gallows and one (Giles Corey) was pressed to death.
“Twelve-year-old Ann Putnam accused 60 people herself,” said tour guide Jeremiah Hakundy.
On Spellbound Tours, www.spellboundtours.com, founder, guide and professional paranormal investigator Dr. Vitka takes visitors through the streets at night to share the supernatural side of Salem—tales of vampirism and paranormal activity, of hauntings and horrors related to one of the cruelest of Witch Trial judges, John Hathorne, and a young girl who may have been buried alive. Pray you don’t see the specter of Giles Corey at the very site he was pressed to death at the age of 81.
“Legend says that when his ghost walks, tragedy follows close behind,” warned Vitka.
Stay:
Salem’s newest hotel is the Hampton Inn Salem Boston, www.hilton.com, featuring a bright, modern feel and an ideal location within walking distance of all Salem’s restaurants, shops and attractions. Among amenities are an indoor pool, fitness center and attached heated garage with valet parking. The third-floor breakfast area is clean and well maintained and has individual booth seating, each with its own flatscreen television.
Besides presenting a number of outstanding tours—including “Terror Next Door,” which takes place through August and focuses specifically on the Salem Witch Trials—the Daniels House, www.danielshousesalem.com, is also a bed and breakfast inn. In fact, it is America’s oldest bed and breakfast inn, offering four individually decorated guestrooms—each expressing a different facet of the house’s history. A Continental breakfast is served in the atmospheric settings of the antique-laden front parlor and the ancient kitchen, the oldest parts of the home.
Eat:
Drop by Turner’s Seafood, www.turners-seafood.com, for a crabcake appetizer and a Smoked Old Fashioned. The restaurant, famous for seafood entrées like Wild Atlantic Haddock Piccata, Hake Marsala Dinner, made with local Gloucester hake, a mild white fish, and a seafood medley featuring local haddock and sea scallops, is located in historic Lyceum Hall. This coveted piece of land is presumed to have once belonged to Bridget Bishop—until she was accused of being a witch.
Witch City’s Walking Tours’ Hakundy summed up the plight for those accused: “Half the village accused the other half—that is, the half who had land. A couple days after you were accused, all your property would be sold at auction, while you were sitting in jail awaiting trial.”
Other fun foodie stops: Lulu’s Bakery and Pantry, www.lulusbakeryandpantry.com, for chocolate croissants and lattes; Red Line Café , www.redlinecafesalem.com, for ham and cheese crepes; and American Flatbread, www.americanflatbread.com, spread out in a former Goodyear tire repair shop and offering candle pin bowling alley and monster flatbreads with flavor combos like maple fennel sausage, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and caramelized onions topped with mozzarella and parmesan, garlic oil and herbs.
Treat: Grab a table at artisanal chocolate shop, Kakawa Chocolate House, www.kakawachocolates.com, for a flight of chocolate elixirs and a tasting that is velvety-smooth exquisiteness. Drawing on chocolate’s long history, Kakawa’s chocolatiers recreate original Mesoamerican, European and Colonial chocolate elixir recipes: Tzul, a rich mix of dark chocolate and caramelized milk chocolate; French lavender, highly scented, exotic and semisweet; Zapoteca, complex, unspiced, bittersweet—less and less sweet as the elixirs move toward 100 percent real chocolate.
The elixirs are paired with house-made whipped cream, light, fluffy and delicious. All the historic elixirs as well as the artisan chocolates, ice cream, milkshakes and other sweet treats are handmade onsite, and exclusively in small batches.
Part of the fun of being in Salem is immersing yourself in its history through its many tours as well as museums, including the Salem Witch Museum, www.salemwitchmuseum.com, where illuminated dioramas draw visitors into Salem’s dark period, and the Witch Dungeon Museum, www.witchdungeon.com/witchdungeon.html, with its dramatic live performance of a witch trial adapted and created from historical transcripts from 1692.
Equally enthralling are attractions like Court Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery, a wax museum of filmdom’s monsters—Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, Halloween villain Michael Myers, Bette Midler’s Winifred Sanderson of Hocus Pocus, parts of which were filmed in Salem—and indie bookstores like Wicked Good Books, www.wickedgoodbookstore.com.
Read:
Located on the Pedestrian Mall (Essex Street), this shop is fun to poke around in for books relating to the most notorious chapter in Salem’s history, like Marilynne K. Roach’s book, Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. One of the women profiled is Bridget Bishop—one of the 19 people hanged for witchcraft and who supposedly owned the land on which Turner’s Seafood is located today.
“Especially with history, knowing something about what you hope to see and experience before you go makes the reality more understandable once you get there,” said Roach, currently working on Six Men of Salem. “In reading about these women, I hope readers will see the characters as real people rather than stereotypes or symbols, individual human personalities. I also hope the setting makes more sense to the readers, that the difficult circumstances of their times make better sense of their different reactions both wrong and right.”
No matter how the narrative unfolds, Salem bewitches with its blend of mystery and magic, myth and the macabre.
Plan:
Stop by the new Visitor Information Center at 245 Derby Street in downtown Salem.
A favorite app on Turner’s menu is the crab cake made with local Jonah crab and blended with seasoned crumbs and a hint of Dijon and served with crunchy Napa slaw and house-made remoulade sauce.
Instructions
Combine all ingredients except the crabmeat and saltines.
Whisk together to make a loose batter. Fold in the crushed saltines and crabmeat. Mix well.
Let sit refrigerated for 30-45 minutes minimum. (Can hold for 3 days refrigerated.)
Separate into 4-oz portions (recommended) or the size portions desired.
Place the cakes on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 375-degree oven for approximately 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the top.
Leave the cakes in a rustic scoop.
Serve with tartar sauce or favorite mustard and lemon.
Kakawa Chocolate House’s Historic Chocolate Elixir
Kakawa Chocolate House, a specialty chocolate company located in the beautiful high desert town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, describes their passion is authentic and historic drinking chocolates elixirs. Historic drinking chocolate elixirs include traditional Pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican, Mayan and Aztec drinking chocolate elixirs; 1600’s European drinking chocolate elixirs, Colonial American and Colonial Mexican drinking chocolate elixirs. Kakawa Chocolate House drinking chocolate elixirs are representative of these historic recipes and span the time period 1000 BC to the mid-1900s AD.
“If you were visiting friends in Mexico you might be served a frothy concoction like the recipe below which has been made in one version or another for, literally hundreds of years,” said Kakawa Chocolate House owner Bonnie Bennett. “Feel free to tweak for your tastes; that is part of the fun, and each family will make it slightly different.” Makes four servings.
Ingredients
- 3.5 cups of whole milk – If you prefer dairy-free, substitute unsweetened Almond milk.
- 6 oz of rough chopped dark chocolate, at least 65%, and 70% is ideal or up to 80%. Buy the highest quality cacao you can as this will dramatically change the taste and texture.
- 2.5 TBSP of finely chopped or ground Piloncillo sugar, a traditional Mexican brown sugar often found in cone shapes, or substitute coconut sugar or honey (3 TBSP).
- 2 TBSP Canela (Mexican cinnamon)
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 1/3 tsp ancho chili powder – You can also use traditional Guajillo, which is milder, or reduce amount. If you prefer more heat, use cayenne chili powder.
Instructions
Warm the milk slowly on the stovetop. Do not boil. Once very warm, add sugar, Canela and chili. With a whisk, mix and blend these into the milk mixture, continue blending until sugar is incorporated. Allow mixture to continue to warm further, until steam begins to come off the surface but just before a boil.
Turn the stove off and add chocolate and vanilla, blend until chocolate has melted and all ingredients are mixed.
Create a froth with vigorous whisking, either with a traditional Molinillo or a conventional whisk. The froth is a delicious part of a traditional Mexican hot chocolate.
Divide into cups and serve. Fresh whipped cream or even 1 oz of Kahlua coffee liqueur (for an adult-only version) can be added at this stage if you like.
Kathy Witt
Writer/Author
SATW Society of American Travel Writers│Authors Guild
Author of Cincinnati Scavenger; Secret Cincinnati: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful & Obscure;
The Secret of the Belles; Atlanta, Georgia: A Photographic Portrait
Arriving Spring 2024: Perfect Day Kentucky: Daily Itineraries for the Discerning Traveler
What Lies Beneath: Exploring the Caves of the Midwest
This Summer Discover 12 Great Chicago’s Exhibitions
The Art Institute of Chicago has a full slate of spring/summer programming. (Neighborhood: The Loop)
- The Arranged Flower: Ikebana and Flora in Japanese Prints (until July 9, 2023) – Ikebana is considered a form of Japanese high art, reflecting the principles of minimalism, asymmetry, and the appreciation of space. The arrangements are designed to create a sense of balance and harmony between the flowers and the environment in which they are displayed. Today, Ikebana is practiced by people of all ages and backgrounds in Japan and around the world. There are many different schools and styles of ikebana, each with its own unique techniques and aesthetic principles. Several works on display are surimono—privately commissioned prints circulated among members of poetry circles on special occasions—featuring representations of this practice.
- Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape (May 14 – September 4, 2023) – Between 1882 and 1890, five artists—Vincent van Gogh, along with Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand—flocked to villages on the fringes of Paris. Each artist explored the use of discrete brushstrokes and strong colors in innovative ways, and in turn developed novel styles of painting: Divisionism, Pointillism, and Cloisonnism. More than 75 paintings and drawings from this intensely creative period—many from private collections and rarely publicly displayed—come together for this insightful presentation.
- Ellsworth Kelly: Portrait Drawings (July 1 – October 23, 2023) – It is not surprising that an artist’s work reflects their artistic influences and friendships. In the case of Ellsworth Kelly, his drawings show the impact of the artists he encountered during his travels to Europe in the 1940s, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. This exhibition spans most of Kelly’s 70-year career, showcasing his evolving and wide-ranging approach to both portraiture and drawing.
- Remedios Varo: Science Fictions (July 29 – November 27, 2023) – The exhibition brings together more than 20 paintings created by Varo during her time in Mexico from 1955 until her death in 1963. These paintings offer a glimpse into Varo’s distinct and diverse practice and are supplemented by additional materials from the artist’s archive, including large-scale cartoons, notebooks, sketches, detailed studies, ephemera, and personal possessions. Varo was a key figure in the Surrealist movement, and her work reflects many of the movement’s core values and beliefs. Furthermore, the exhibition marks a milestone in the museum’s efforts to expand the borders of the global Surrealist movement, as it is the Art Institute’s first solo exhibition dedicated to a woman Surrealist painter and to a woman artist working in Mexico.
Chicago History Museum’s exhibit Millions of Moments: The Chicago Sun-Times Photo Collection (until December 31, 2023) features 150 images from the Chicago History Museum’s Chicago Sun-Times. It is a first look at highlights from five million negatives spanning the 1940s-early 2000s, one of the largest newspaper photograph collections ever acquired by an American museum. As the Museum continues to process negatives from this extraordinary collection, new images will be shared through their online portal, CHM Images. (Neighborhood: Lincoln Park)
- Back Home: Polish Chicago – Opening May 20, 2023, the exhibition features more than 90 artifacts and documents as well as more than 100 reproduced photographs to help tell the story of the Chicago area’s vibrant Polish communities from the mid-1800s to today. Explore personal narratives, music, community involvement, as well as art installations from five local Polish artists. Guided tours are available for groups of 10 or more.
Cleve Carney Museum of Art and the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at the College of DuPage will present Warhol: Featuring Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop / Works from the Bank of America from June 3 – September 10, 2023. The Warhol exhibition will feature 94 works from “Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop / Works from the Bank of America Collection” on loan through Bank of America’s Art in our Communities® program. Aside from the Bank of America collection, which will be on display in a dedicated space in the exhibition, there will also be over 100 works from the College of DuPage Permanent Art Collection. Educational and interactive elements will include a biographical exhibition highlighting key points in Warhol’s life and career, video installation, a Children’s Print Factory area, Studio 54 and Silver Cloud Room experiences, and Central Park-inspired outdoor space, creating an immersive, multifaceted exhibition focused on the life and work of one of the most influential artists of the past century. (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)
The Field Museum’s newest exhibition First Kings of Europe (open through January 28, 2024) explores how ancient farming villages led to the earliest tribal kingdoms in Europe, gathering together more than 700 exquisite objects from the Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages. The countries represented (and collaborating in this exhibition) include Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. Highlights include some of the oldest gold treasures in the world from the cemetery of Varna, the gold crown of a Thracian prince, masterpieces of swordmaking and armor, weapons, jewelry, and more. (Neighborhood: South Loop / Museum Campus)
Harry Potter: Magic At Play extends its worldwide debut run in Chicago through September 4, 2023 at Chicago’s iconic Water Tower Place. The first-of-its-kind experience allows fans of all ages to engage with the Wizarding World like never before through 30,000 square feet of hands-on magical interactivity including games, exploration, sensory activations, and more that celebrate Harry’s own journey in discovering the wizarding world. Guests can explore the Dursley’s living room, step onto a boat and prepare to cross the Great Lake, attend some of Hogwarts’ most beloved classes, practice Quidditch fundamentals, and more. (Neighborhood: Magnificent Mile)
The Hyde Park Art Center’s new exhibit, Destination/El Destino: a decade of GRAFT, the largest exhibition to date of the Puerto Rican artist, educator, and community organizer Edra Soto, will be on display through August 6, 2023. The exhibition features a new large-scale commission of the artist’s GRAFT series with porous sculptures, documentary photographs, drawings, and games that activate the Art Center’s indoor/outdoor main gallery. (Neighborhood: Hyde Park)
The Illinois Holocaust Museum presents The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Łódz Ghetto (May 18 – September 24, 2023). In I945, a diary was discovered in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp written by Rywka Lipszyc, a 14-year-old Jewish girl documenting her life in the Łódz Ghetto between October 1943 and April 1944. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated to English, supplemented with commentaries, and published. Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a moving memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódz Ghetto, is the focal point of this exhibition. Selected excerpts of the diary are supplemented by expert commentary from historians, doctors, psychologists, and rabbis. Blended with original artifacts and fleeting candid photographs of others’ lives in the ghetto, these commentaries help us understand the experiences Rywka describes in her diary. Through historical artifacts and documents, interactive touch screens, documentary videos, and exceptionally rare photographs, The Girl in the Diary explores the story of a young girl’s fight for survival in the Łódz Ghetto and reconstructs what might have happened to Rywka after her deportation to Auschwitz and beyond. There are no known photographs of Rywka. She exists for us only through words she wrote. (Skokie, Illinois)
Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago’s current exhibition Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius (running through the end of May 2023), has Massimiliano Siccardi, immersive art installation pioneer, using state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence as inspiration to craft astonishing visuals inspired by the 18th-century destinations of Mozart’s world. With video direction by Vittorio Guidotti, legendary dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov’s tortured portrayal of Leopold, Mozart’s father, will enthrall audiences. Luca Longobardi re-arranged and recomposed 17 selected works from Mozart’s repertoire for the eclectic soundtrack, which also features exclusive music from the Italian composer and was recorded by a 45-piece symphonic orchestra and conducted by four-time Grammy®-nominated Constantine Orbelian. (Neighborhood: Lincoln Park)
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) welcomes Gary Simmons: Public Enemy (June 13 – October 1, 2023), the first comprehensive career survey of the work of multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons. Since the late 1980s Simmons has played a key role in situating questions of race, class, and gender identity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Notable for his early application of conceptual artistic strategies, Simmons exposes and analyzes histories of racism inscribed in U.S. visual culture. This exhibition covers thirty years of the artist’s career, encompassing approximately seventy works. (Neighborhood: Streeterville)
- This summer, visitors can also enjoy “Tuesdays on the Terrace” when it returns from June 13 – August 29, 2023. This annual, free summer concert series on the MCA’s Anne and John Kern Terrace Garden highlights artists from Chicago’s internationally renowned music community. For the first time, this year’s roster of performers extends beyond a purely jazz focus to include more diverse genres and styles that have unique Chicago roots, incorporating hip-hop, house, blues, bomba, and more.
The Museum of Science and Industry is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a series of exciting events including the museum’s first Meet Her! (Katya Echazarreta) event on May 13, 2023, which celebrates the first Mexican-born woman to go to space. Katya Echazarreta is featured in “Mission Unstoppable” on CBS, hosted the YouTube series “Netflix IRL,” and recently was honored with her own Barbie. She’s also an accomplished electrical engineer who worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Neighborhood: Hyde Park)
Stage 773’s new immersive walk-thru experience, WHIM, blends carefully curated cocktails and a world where every art form comes together – paintings, music, sculpture, street art, and live performance – all by Chicago artists. The experience includes the “Lobby of Second Chances,” the “Second Shots Bar,” and the “Enchanted Forest,” featuring a live performance stage and a giant enchanted tree towering over it all. (Neighborhood: Lakeview)
WNDR Museum, Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience will, starting May 12, 2023, debut a three story immersive infinity installation by the globally iconic Yayoi Kusam. Featuring a series of floating yellow and black polka dots alongside walk-in and peep-in installations, Dots Obsession will fill WNDR’s atrium and transport visitors into Kusama’s obsession with polka dots, repetition, celestial bodies, and the experience of the infinite. (Neighborhood: West Loop / Fulton Market)
About Choose Chicago
Choose Chicago is the official sales and marketing organization responsible for promoting Chicago as a global visitor and meetings destination, leveraging the city’s unmatched assets to ensure the economic vitality of the city and its member business community. Follow @choosechicago on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok and tag #ChicaGOandKNOW. For more information, visit choosechicago.com.
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A new barbecue restaurant in Canaryville, Bell Heir’s BBQ opened its doors in January 2023. Located at 704 W. 47th St., this casual spot offers diners brisket, ribs, burgers, and more. (Neighborhood: South Side)
Bistro Monadnock, a French bistro from the owners of Victor Bar and Love Street, will open in Spring 2023. Located inside the 130-year-old Monadnock Building at 325 S. Federal St., the menu will feature classic French dishes prepared by executive chef Johnny Besch. (Neighborhood: The Loop)
The Cauldron, a magic and wizard-themed restaurant and bar that brings fantasy to life through food and beverage spaces around the world, is pleased to announce the grand opening date of its third location in the U.S. in Wicker Park (1612 W Division St.) on May 4, 2023. As the brand’s largest U.S. location yet, The Cauldron Chicago fills the space of a 10,000-square foot former bank that will boast a ticketed and ever-evolving Potion-Making Experience, a walk-in restaurant and bar with weekly programming, and more. (Neighborhood: Wicker Park)
Dawn, a new brunch spot from the owner of Caribbean bar and restaurant 14 Parish, will open Summer 2023 at 1642 E. 56th St. at the former home of Piccolo Mondo. Restaurateur Racquel Fields, a South Side native, is planning to offer a combination of new American fare and Southern staples like fried green tomatoes. (Neighborhood: Hyde Park)
Vegan cuisine is on the menu at Don Bucio’s Taqueria in Logan Square. James Beard Award-nominated chef Rodolfo Cuadros opened the plant-based restaurant at 2763 N. Milwaukee Ave. in early 2023. (Neighborhood: Logan Square)
West Loop Mexican restaurant and bar Federales will open a second Chicago location in Logan Square at 2471 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Spring 2023. Four Corners, the hospitality group behind Federales, Ranalli’s, Benchmark, and Kirkwood, will transform the former Marcello’s Father & Son restaurant space into Federales’s Logan Square outpost. (Neighborhood: Logan Square)
Fioretta is a new steakhouse from the team behind Siena Tavern and Prime & Provisions set to open in Spring 2023. The menu at the 318 N. Sangamon St. location features Italian-American fare. (Neighborhood: Fulton Market)
After debuting Gordon Ramsay Burger in December 2021, celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay plans to pay homage to one of his most popular TV shows with Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen. Set to open in River North in 2023, the 18,000-square-foot two-story restaurant will be one of only a handful locations in the U.S. and will include a few unique-to-Chicago, to-be-determined menu items. (Neighborhood: River North)
Kindling | Downtown Cookout & Cocktails, a new concept from The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group, opened January 2023 inside the Catalog at Willis Tower. The 17,000-square-foot live fire show kitchen restaurant is helmed by James Beard Award winner Jonathon Sawyer, formerly of the Four Seasons Hotel’s Adorn Restaurant & Bar. (Neighborhood: The Loop)
New York City restaurant Kohoku-Ku Ramen is opening its first Chicago location in Spring 2023. The shop at 1136 W. Thorndale Ave. offers diners 12 different types of ramen with a variety of broths. (Neighborhood: Edgewater)
Michelin-star Chef Daniel Rose returned home after years in New York and abroad to open a French restaurant Le Select in Chicago with the industrious Boka Restaurant Group in January 2023. The menu features traditional French brasserie fare, showcasing the best ingredients and classic French techniques. (Neighborhood: River North)
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises will open two new Ramen-san and Sushi-san restaurants in Lincoln Park later this year at 1962 N. Halsted St. and 1948 N. Halsted St., respectively. The Lincoln Park Ramen-san will open in early 2023, while the Sushi-san will open in late 2023.
Ramen-san’s Lincoln Park outpost will mark the fourth location of the noodle shop. Sushi-san’s debut will signal the sushi restaurant’s third location. (Neighborhood: Lincoln Park)
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has announced the following two restaurants that will open at the highly anticipated St. Regis Chicago hotel. (Neighborhood: The Loop)
- The first restaurant, Miru (pronounced mē-rōō), from Executive Chef Hisanobu Osaka will open Spring 2023 in tandem with the hotel. Miru, Japanese for “view,” will showcase Chef Osaka’s unique take on Japanese cuisine and boast two terraces and a dining room that overlooks the Chicago River and Navy Pier. The Japanese restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The menu will include sushi, sashimi, and raw selections from the sushi bar, complimented by a selection of Izakaya-style dishes like hand-made dumplings, skewers, fried rice, and hot pots, as well as a robust wagyu and seafood section.
- The second restaurant, Tre Dita (pronounced trā dē-tä), Italian for three fingers, is a nod to the thickness of a properly cut bistecca Fiorentina that the restaurant will be serving from its open-hearth wood fired grill. The Tuscan Steakhouse is in collaboration with award-winning Chef Evan Funke (Felix, Mother Wolf) and will open later in 2023.
- Netflix’s School of Chocolate winner and Jean Banchet Award nominee Juan Gutierrez has been named Executive Pastry Chef, while
- will oversee the restaurants’ beverage programs as Beverage Director.
Little Goat Diner, the newest location from James Beard Award-winning chef Stephanie Izard, will open its doors at 3325 N. Southport Ave. in Spring 2023. The menu features new takes on classic diner dishes like burgers, French toast, and chicken and dumplings. (Neighborhood: Lakeview)
The Oakville Grill & Cellar, another new restaurant from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, designed to evoke the effortless ease of Napa Valley dining, opened April 2023 at 163 North Green St. (Neighborhood: Fulton Market)
About Choose Chicago
Choose Chicago is the official sales and marketing organization responsible for promoting Chicago as a global visitor and meetings destination, leveraging the city’s unmatched assets to ensure the economic vitality of the city and its member business community. Follow @choosechicago on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok and tag #ChicaGOandKNOW. For more information, visit choosechicago.com.
