Someone left the cake out in the rain, I don’t think that I can take it, ‘Cause it took so long to bake it. And I’ll never have that recipe again – Donna Summer
And today as we mark a historic milestone, the coming of the Messiah of Travel 55 years ago, a word on cakes, songs and one particular song, MacArthur Park.
My own party piece for a family birthday is to leave the cake outside on the patio table before cranking up the song and then bringing it inside.
But what of the location of Donna Summer’s disco masterpiece cover.
The story goes that composer Jimmy Webb wrote it about the break-up of his relationship with Susie Horton.
That they would meet regularly for lunch in the park opposite Susie’s insurance office near Downtown LA where I’ve seen first hand its cultural snd historic growth.
And that he did see a cake left out in the rain and the old men playing checkers by the trees.
Wings over Los Angeles
It’s a thing in the States, outdoors chess and checkers.
And on a family trip to New York the Son and Heir played with a dude who claimed to have played with Bobby Fischer.
And just saying in the passing Mrs M will surely find the recipe again…
And a confession here. I didn’t take to American beer when I first visited the country back when I was 17.
Probably because I was below the legal drinking age, although it helps when your Auntie runs a bar, and a Queens institution at that.
And your cousin is a wild one.
But it’s just that Bud Lite or Miller Lite didn’t do it for me, too Lite, really.
I don’t have time to get my hair cut
But when I returned a few years later, for a summer working in Boston after university I discovered Sam Adams and that was it.
Now since I’ve become a regular visitor, and observer of America and all things American in recent years, I’ve made it a personal mission to sample more beer.
So here are my United Tastes of America.
Virginia blonde
This year’s blonde: in Virginia
Virginia: Now I love a beautiful blonde as much as the next man, I married one after all who is gooder than any.
So who was I to turn down a tour which incorporated two of my favourite things, Beer and Battlefields?
Happen the Union and the Confederate soldiers partook of some corn beer themselves before or after they took to the Manassas battlefield.
They deserved it.
And here am I at an old schoolhouse in Ben Lomond doing a tasting. Every day is a schoolday!
Mississippi sippy
And something worth singing about: Mississippi
Deep South; I swear I enjoyed an Ole Miss but maybe that’s just the beer talking.
Although there was a Sinister Minister (insert gag here).
This being the Deep South you want a good ole ranch-type bar where you can grab something (everything) deep fried with grits.
And whether it was just our party (or a thing) but cash in your vouchers for your beers… surely the answer in our Covid times.
Anyhoos in Memphis, Tennessee, Cleveland and Jackson, Mississippi I partook…. and I still think I’ve got a couple vouchers left in a drawer.
Beers to make you goofy
And drink it on the Big Bang set
Anaheim, California: And there’s always one… and usually two, three, four or five who take up the invitation to ask a question.
I mean do you really want to know about the mashing process when you could be drinking the best pale ale?
If you’re from the Orange County you’ve probably just be coming off the Socially Distanced Anaheim Oktoberfest.
But you will be interested in Anaheim Brewery‘s Beer to Go offers, Tuesdays through to Sundays.
In bottles (by the six-pack or case) with Anaheim 1888, Anaheim Gold, Anaheim Red, Anaheim Hefeweizen, Coast to Coast IPA and Oktoberfest IPA.
Or in growlers which are demi-packs – 150th Anniversary Ale, Fruity Wheat Anaheim 1888, Anaheim Gold, Anaheim Red, Anaheim Hefeweizen, Oktoberfest Lager and Coast to Coast IPA.
Colorado, the Golden Nirvana
And the Rockies water is the secret
Colorado: You’ve got to be able to back it up if you claim to be the beer capital of the States, but Denver can.
While Colorado boasts more than 425 breweries and counting.
High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, Lae Ee Od Lay Ee Od Lay Hee Hoo – The Sound of Music
And who hasn’t yodelled when they’ve found themselves in the foothills of the Alps? I know I hodelay-hodelay-hodelayhee-have.
Although we couldn’t get superstar septuagenarian and amateur yodeller Brigitte to clear her throat when she took us walking above Interlaken in Switzerland.
Yodel eh? In Austria
We did though get awesome octogenarian Arthut, or Ehrwald Presley as I coined him, doing his verbal gymnastics last year on our Top Flight for Schools trip.
Before the night ascended into an Irish wedding-type hooley.
Now your favourite music on our travels column has been over yodelling before in this series.
But on the occasion of 60 years of the Irish Austrian Society which we’ll celebrate tonight let’s explore how yodelling was carried on the wind around the world.
Gene genie
Gene’s gaffe: The Angels at Anaheim
If you’re of a certain age, or if you’re versed in cowboy movies, you’ll know all about Gene Autry.
The Singing Cowboy, who hit the heights from the Thirties through to the Sixties.
And became such a big star that he even bought himself a baseball team in 1961, the Angels, who in their current iteration are the LA Angels.
Playing for the jersey: Gene Autry, the Angel
Gene may be 22 years gone (an angel for ever now) this month.
But not, nor will he ever be forgotten, in Anaheim
There is a shrine to him at Angels stadium which you can visit ahead of a game.
The Angels held Gene in such high regard that they added him to the roster and then retired the No.26 number.
Next up Kalyra Winery is where we first meet vivacious Aussie wine pourer Stephanie whom Jack falls for.
Now I’ll need to dig out the film again to see Ostrich Land which you’ll also visit.
While our two heroes lunched at Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant with Stephanie and Maya. You too can choose from the Sideways menu.
Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard is where a pent-up Miles guzzles from the slop bucket after the pourer refuses to give him a full glass..m
We’d opt for a glass of Pinot Noir.
Your table, sir?
Firestone Winery offers tours and a guide, and it is from here that our fab four sneak out of a lecture tour for a romantic walk through the Barrel Room.
The Hitching Post II is, of course, where Maya waits tables and their Santa Maria Style barbecue is to be recommended.
The definitive wine road trip tour… And, of course it’s your call on the Merlot!
Two Glasses In
Wine-tasting for our times
Vino California: And a toast to the Golden State.
Two Glasses In is a nine-episode podcast and video series that celebrates SB’s grapes over two glasses.
You’d think you’d get splendid isolation at the top of the most cycled climb, Le Col du Tourmalet, but you don’t. It’s the Tour de Friends!
I have a chequered history of cycling which shouldn’t qualify me to join my fellow Scot Robert Millar in that chequered shirt as King of the Mountains.
Hiring bikes with the-then Miss F in Cabanas in the Algarve I was eating dust yards into our ride.
There’s always another mountain
While I also took a turn too sharply in the Ria Formosa in Quinta Do Lago and almost ended up in the lake.
But that didn’t put me off when I started working nights and opted to cycle in and, out of Edinburgh, through Holyrood Park to the office.
And I’ve got the lead
Never mind the Tour de France, the Tour d’Edinburgh is the real endurance test!
I’ve had lads party spray paint me when I was on my bike, been waterbombed and been knocked off my bike.
And I even had time to drop off for a bier
But I got there in the end… ‘on top of the world, Ma.’
With a little help from my friends.
I’ll let you into a secret here. I only borrowed a real rider’s bike at the top of the Pyrenees… don’t tell.
Mind you this is the Tour where the rules are there to be bent.
Whaddya mean? This is refuelling
The Tour started this weekend and I’m thinking they’ll have a devil of a time stopping the public come out to cheer.
Vive Le Tour!
And newsflash here from A Queer in Provence who has sent me his vlog on Le Grand Depart from Nice…. https://youtu.be/XQ2Udd7rcLg
Paralympic heroes
Prize guy: Ireland’s Paralympic hero Mark Rohan
As a young lad running around the UK’s boggy fields and dirty streets I always envisaged that I would get my hands on Olympic gold.
The Olympics’ loss was Newspapers’ gain.
But destiny was calling when I met Irish Paralympian hero Brian Rohan at The Campus in Quinta do Lago.
I’d thought of running off with his medal but he’d have hunted me down in that dream machine.
The Paralympics were due to have started this weekend… but it will be back in Japan next year. Don’t miss it!
Chuck me a hot dog
Fan-tastic… the Angels in Anaheim
With two thousand fans being allowed in at Brighton’s ground for their friendly with Chelsea.
And Scottish rugby bringing back a sprinkling of supporters into Murrayfield for the Glasgow v Edinburgh match.
It beggars the question… how do we get fed?
Well, here’s something we could take from American sport… the chucked hot dog.
Where’s the mustard?
As I lapped up (including the mustard) at the California Angels game in Anaheim.
We’re on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the First Thanksgiving Dinner in Plymouth, New England next year.
When the Pilgrims and the Natives shared harvest.
And that alas, if it happened like that at all, is when the sharing stopped and the newcomers took their land and sent them packing.
The pipes of peace
Which is probably where the Choctaw Indians and the Irish were sent to Hell or Connaught by the same British forged their links.
The Choctaw sent money to the starving Irish during the Famine and the Irish reciprocated during these COVID times.
And that’s the subject that remains hanging in the air from the last AIATA webinar.
I’ll return to it and my Native American friends whom I first met in Washington DC and then again in Denver and LA
Wigwam Jim
When I’ll get me the American Travel fair that COVID robbed me of in Vegas.
AIANTA’s will come from Albuquerque next month and will reach us all virtually with the organisers waiving the registration fees.
I’ll be there to bring you all the news.
And it’s gentle cruising
Aran Islands
The sea oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide. Long may it stay between England and me. It’s a sure guarantee that some day we’ll be free. Oh thank God we’re surrounded by nothing. – The Dubliners
And for the uninitiated those strange Irish words mean ‘sweet love of my heart’.
The song is a celebration of Irish waters.
Including my favourite Meeting of the Waters in my erstwhile County Wicklow home which was immortalised by poet Thomas Moore.
My old friends at Travel Department are used to taking us to exotic places near and far.
Connemara’s old sod
And now in Ireland too.
Galway, Connemara and the Aran Islands is from €599pp for three nights including 3* B&B hotel, transfers, excursions and local guide.
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave
If only! Whether it is the steel pan band at Sunday Service on Tobago or the soft rock house band on the Maldives.
It’s how we would want every holiday to end… not ending that is.
The epic Hotel California by the Eagles with its riff which was voted the greatest of all time by Guitarist magazine has spawned an industry in itself.
Around what the lyrics actually mean, where the hotel is that inspires the song, and the hotel that was used for the cover.
The band credit the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel, the hang-out for party people, as being the vibe for the song.
Turn left out of your WH billet, the Kimpton La Peer Hotel, and you’ll be going in the general direction.
You’ll know you”re in Beverly Hills when you pass the arty sign.
The Beverly Hills Hotel, which predated the town’s existence, was the place to be under vice-president of Bank of America Hernando Courtright.
Galaxy of stars
And Fred Astaire, Cesar Romero, Carole Lombard, the Rat Pack, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich were all regular visitors.
Santa Monica
Amazon Marlene even got the Polo Lounge to change its policy on women having to wear a skirt.
I picture Marlene wearing a trouser suit and dominating the room in her husky cigarette drawl.
A day in the life
I’m taken here by CNN’s description of life in the hotel…
Back in the days when celebrity was worn with the elegance and grace of diamonds and mink the Beverly Hills was where the stars played. Humphrey Bogart and the Rat Pack tippled at the bar, Katharine Hepburn did a back flip into the tennis pool in her tennis clothes and Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned in the bungalows out back – six times.
I belong here!
The biggest star of them all
And perhaps the greatest star of them all, Marilyn Monroe, left her mark, staying at the hotel during the shooting of Let’s Make Love.
Marilyn’s back yard
Her favourite bungalow being No.7.
You’ll be surprised though where and who Marilyn is spending eternity with!
Listen here to The Eagles’ definitive version of Hotel California.
And get out your guitar and practise the riff.
And live like a star
Your Ultimate Staycation Offer at the Beverly Hills Hotel will give you a Superior King Room from €575, or the Stanhope Suite from €860.
When they’re back and open.
I might have to bring my own tennis clothes though!
Who’d have thought it? The Fourth of July today is as big a cause for celebration (if not more) here in the UK than it is in America.
I did, of course, tell you months ago that today would be the exact day that we would be coming out of lockdown in the UK (except for Scotland, doh!).
And not just in the last couple of weeks but as long ago as April 21 Wuhoo Wuhan.
Still, when all is said and done I would still prefer to be in the Oo Es of Eh today than anywhere else.
As big an Americanophile as I am I have never managed to time it so that I am there on the Fourth of July, nor for Thanksgiving either but I aim to put that right as soon as I can.
My Travel professional friends are projecting 2021 as the year when travel to America will have begun… and see what I’m doing there giving them the slogan…. We’ve Begun in ’21.
So have a nice day and my gift to you is these American dreams courtesy of our pals, the Travel providers:
American Holidays http://www.americanholidays.com has instilled some much needed confidence with their ‘Book with Confidence’ and ‘Travel with Confidence’ initiatives.
And they have backed that up with an expanded portfolio of itineraries to the West Coast, Deep South, Canada, Road Trips and Mexico.
And you can make a great Road Trip out of either and any number of zig-zags across the continent.
Canada has been in full flow all week as they celebrated July 1 with a virtual Canada Day and Irish landmarks went red in unison. And don’t think they’ve stopped because it’s now the American national holiday.
Miami and Mexico, February 2021: Spend three nights in hip Miami, taking in Little Havana, South Beach and Miami Beach before kicking back and enjoying seven nights all-inclusive in Mexico. From €1849pp.
For glitz-seekers America is all about New York www.nycvb.com and Las Vegas www.lvcva.com and Tour America know it. As well as all the other great offers they have they can give you.
Hit The Strip in Vegas, from Sunday, January 31-February 4 is from €435pp, based on two adults for four nights sharing one room at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino.
While they’re confident that they can get you over to New York before the year is out.
The Carvi Hotel is from €546pp, based on four adults for four nights, Tuesday, December 1-4.
This year’s blonde: in Virginia
And something worth singing about: Mississippi
And the Rockies water is the secret
Yodel eh? In Austria
And I’ve got the lead
Woooah, we’re going to Barbados
And I’m channeling the good guys
The pipes of peace
Wigwam Jim
The biggest star of them all
The Granite City
You’re the man: Vegas
