Mwww.star-telegram.com Sunday, August 14, 2011 13E

TRAVEL Dianna Hunt817-390-7084

dhunt@star-telegram.com

THE ITINERARYCompiled by Dianna Hunt

Military gets special rateat The Shores resort

The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona BeachShores, Fla., wants to help members of themilitary and their families enjoy a Florida beachvacation. The Central Florida resort is offering aspecial rate starting at $99 for active militarymembers through the end of 2011. Andthrough Sept. 30, military guests can also senda free care package to military men and womenabroad. The resort includes private poolsidecabanas, oceanside fire pits, a spa and a year-round kids’ club. Use promotion code MILTSHto book. 866-934-7467; www.ShoresResort-.com.

Poolside cabanas await at The Shores. Shores Resort & Spa

Book details long walk on the beach, life lessons

In 2009, Battle Creek, Mich., writer LoreenNiewenhuis walked 1,000 miles — all the way

around Lake Michigan.It took seven months,with breaks every 60-to 100-mile stretch. Itcost her about $4,500.She recounts her trip inthe new book A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach:One Woman’s Trek ofthe Perimeter of LakeMichigan (CrickhollowBooks, $16.95). It’s a

tale of sand and beauty — and grim things, too.In fact, the most harrowing part is her accountof walking the first 125 miles between Chicagoand South Haven. She walked past pollution, oilrefineries, a nuclear plant and Gary, Ind., allwith a pack on her back and her feet in blisters.See more details at www.laketrek.com.— Ellen Creager, Detroit Free Press

‘Avatar’ exhibit in SeattleA music and pop culture museum in Seattle

is banking on fans of the Oscar-winning filmAvatar to take in a new exhibit detailing howdirector James Cameron brought Pandora andits inhabitants to the big screen. The exhibit atthe Experience Music Project and ScienceFiction Museum and Hall of Fame openedrecently, the first of its kind to showcase art-work and props from the film. Forty artifactsare on display, including the skeletal robotweapon or “Amplified Mobility Platform,” andthe motion-capture suit worn for filming byone of the actors. Also included are the originalsketches and models of the Na’vi people andcreatures that guided the animators, frommodels of the heads of the main characters tointricate headpieces and necklaces. The exhibitis expected to travel to other museums in theUnited States and Canada after it finishes itsrun in Seattle in late 2012. Museum admissionis $18; there’s no extra charge for the exhibit.Open daily 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 206-770-2700;www.empmuseum.org. — The Associated Press

The characters of Jake and Neytiri in Avatar AP

Cleanliness is next to...Cleanliness trumps personal safety, at least

from hotel guests’ perspective. According to asurvey conducted on behalf of the ChubbGroup of Insurance Cos.:� 43 percent of Americans said cleanliness wasa top priority when choosing a hotel� 23 percent picked price � 19 percent ranked location first� 11 percent chose security as one of the mostimportant factors

“Travelers should take safety precautionsmore seriously, and hotel security should behigher on their checklist than cleanliness,” saidJim Villa, a Chubb senior vice president. “Itseems that more people are concerned aboutbedbugs than security.”

The survey contacted 1,000 Americans bytelephone in June.— Los Angeles Times

FUN FACT

ST. THOMAS, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS— As we climbed into our taxi outsidethe Cyril E. King Airport on the island ofSt. Thomas, we saw an American flagwaving in the breeze.

We had landed in St. Thomas, morethan 1,100 miles south of Miami and themost popular destination in the U.S.Virgin Islands.

The island and its sisters, St. Johnand St. Croix, are territories of the U.S.,and are known for duty-free shopping,world-class beaches and Danish histo-ry.

It was a tropical destination madeeasy — no passport required.

Island timeAfter my husband and I checked into abeachfront room at Bolongo Bay BeachResort, our St. Thomas hideaway for thenext five nights, my eyes settled on thehammock near our patio, stretched be-tween two extra-tall palms.

I made a silent vow to spend sometime “limin’,” as the islanders call it.Chilling out. Being on “island time.”

I sank my toes into the fine, goldensand, and felt the stresses of life fadingfast. A few feet away, a large iguanabasked in the sun, one of several thatbecame like pets during our stay. I couldtell I was going to like this place.

Nearly everyone we met who lives onSt. Thomas is from the States and hadan interesting story to tell about how heor she ended up here. Bolongo Bay’snow-retired owners, Dick and JoyceDoumeng, are New York natives whofirst visited as vacationers before decid-ing to purchase the resort, re-opening itin 1974 with 36 rooms. Family-ownedever since, it is now in its second gener-ation, with the third generation in train-ing.

Bolongo Bay was the first resort onSt. Thomas to offer an all-inclusive op-tion, and it has been included on thebest all-inclusive lists in recent years byTravel & Life, Sherman’s Travel andAbout.com. Those who wish to dine anddrink to their heart’s content may do sowithout leaving the resort. Two sailingexcursions are included in the plan.

Although we did not go the all-inclu-

sive route, we enjoyed meals at its tworestaurants — the open-air LobsterGrille restaurant, and Iggie’s beach bar,a favorite nightspot with guests and lo-cals. Carnival Night on Wednesdaysfeatures an all-you-can-eat West Indi-an buffet, live Calypso music, stiltdancers and a limbo show. Mim’s Sea-food Bistro, another excellent diningchoice, is a short walk down the beach.

Touring St. ThomasWe left our cozy beachside retreat oneday to explore the island, beginningwith a historical walking tour of Char-lotte Amalie. Although it is one of themost heavily visited cruise ports in theCaribbean and is known for having thebest duty-free shopping, there is an-other side to be discovered in the narrowstreets and alleyways of the downtownshopping areas. Our Danish tour guide,Simon Larsen, was the perfect person tohelp shed light on the history and cul-ture surrounding us.

As we strolled through the Danish-named streets, called gades (guh-DUZ),we learned from Simon that the U.S.

paid Denmark $25 million in gold in 1917for what had been known as the DanishWest Indies since that country’s occu-pation in 1733. Danish settlements hadfirst cropped up nearly a century earlier,and much of the architecture and rem-nants of St. Thomas’ Danish past re-main.

One such landmark is the 99 steps.There are actually 103, one of severalstep-streets built by the Danes. Thebricks were brought from Denmark asballast in the holds of trade ships. Weclimbed to the top (with a bit of difficul-ty), rewarded ourselves with a cold gin-ger ale, then went on to view the stoneremains of an old tower said to be usedby Blackbeard the pirate as a lookoutand actually used by the Danes as a van-tage point to spot enemy ships. It is nowa small hotel, the Inn at Blackbeard’sCastle.

We met up with our taxi driver, whocontinued our tour of St. Thomas’mountainous interior with brief stops atvarious overlooks until we reached thehighest point on the island, at 1,542 feetabove sea level. Mountain Top, the sum-mit of St. Peter Mountain, overlooksMagens Bay, included among the top 10most beautiful beaches in the world byNational Geographic magazine, andseveral of the British Virgin Islands inthe distance. After capturing the view,we walked through the large gift shopand bar, which claims to have the origi-nal and best banana daiquiris on the is-land.

By late afternoon we arrived at the St.Thomas Skyride, across the street fromHavensight Mall. Three continuouslyrunning trams make the 7-minute, 700-foot ascent to the top of Flag Hill’s Para-dise Point, where tourists can take inunparalleled views of Charlotte Ama-lie’s harbor. Visitors can stay to walk na-ture trails, grab a bite and drink in theview with a beverage at the restaurant/bar, open daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Manycongregate here for drinks at sunset.

Water, water everywhereWe checked in at the on-site dive shop,St. Thomas Diving Club, one morningfor a half day of diving at the nearbyreefs. Most exciting was our dive at Cow

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort is on the island of St. Thomas, a popular destination in the Caribbean. Gary Felton

Island easeThe only passport you’ll need to visit St. Thomas and St. John, two Caribbean beauties with American ties, is a plane ticketBy Debbra Dunning BrouilletteSpecial to the Star-Telegram

Make time for “limin’ ” in the hammock at Bo-longo Bay.

Special to the S-T/Debbra Dunning Brouillette

More on CARIBBEAN, 14E

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nash-ville has no theme park, nobeach and no casinos.

But it has music. Lots of it.The National Folk Festival,

which arrives in Nashvilleover Labor Day weekend,caps off several months ofmajor events held in the citythat validate Nashville’s self-proclaimed moniker “MusicCity USA.”

The free folk festival Sept.

2-4 is to feature more than250 of the country’s finesttraditional performers andcraftsmen, with simulta-neous performances on sixstages throughout the Bicen-tennial Capitol Mall StatePark. An estimated 60,000 to80,000 attendees are expect-ed.

Audiences will be treatedto authentic blues, gospel,jazz, cowboy, bluegrass,klezmer, Cajun, rhythm andblues, mariachi, Westernswing, zydeco, and more.Even polka. Yes, in Nashville,the city famed for fiddles andfringe.

7 The three-day event willfeature lessons in cultureand history through songand dance.

By Joe EdwardsThe Associated Press

While at the music and arts festival, visitors can also check out exhibitsat the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. AP/Mark HumphreyMore on NASHVILLE, 15E

Festival packs more melodies into Music City

M14E Sunday, August 14, 2011 www.star-telegram.com

Rock, known for its swim-through maze that in-cludes the “champagnecork” at the end, providingan exhilarating underwaterhigh as the diver islaunched up through thehole. The cost of scubadiving is extra, but guestshave unlimited use of non-motorized water craft, in-cluding paddleboards, Ho-bie Cats, kayaks, wind-surfing rigs and aqua tricy-cles, as well as snorkel gear.

On another day, weboarded Bolongo’s 53-footcatamaran, Heavenly Days,for an excursion to nearbyBuck Island. Swimmingand snorkeling with seaturtles was the main at-traction, and we weren’tdisappointed; we lostcount at 20. On the returnsail, we chatted with thecrew, including a hand-some young guy namedMatt Holland from the FortWorth area, who hasworked as a deckhand forthe past year.

Limin’ timeFinally, it was time for li-min’ in the hammock. Af-ter three active days spentsnorkeling, island touring

and scuba diving, we wereready to hit the beach.

Chairs with umbrellasare strung along the sand,just steps from our room.Access to tropical drinks isless than a minute’s walk ineither direction. While werelaxed, happy to observethe activity around us,others pedaled the aquatrikes or tried the newestwatersport trend, stand-up paddleboarding.

At the recommendationof Bolongo’s concierge, wesavored French-influencedcuisine on our last eveningthere, at the historic Ocea-na restaurant on the tip ofthe Frenchtown peninsula,just outside CharlotteAmalie. It was the perfectway to say au revoir to St.Thomas.

St. John and CaneelBayAfter five days on St.Thomas, we taxied to RedHook for a 15-minute ferryride to the smaller, moresecluded island of St. John,a popular hideaway for ce-lebrities and our stop forthe next two days.

Passenger ferries oper-ate between St. Thomasand St. John every hourfrom Red Hook, on the eastend, and from CharlotteAmalie. Car barge serviceis also available for thosewho have rented a car on

St. Thomas and want tospend the day on St. John.

Our destination wasCaneel Bay, a resort thathas become synonymouswith St. John since itsopening in 1956. LauranceRockefeller, son of John D.Rockefeller, sailed into Ca-neel Bay four years earlierand was utterly smitten,not only with the prettycove but with the entire is-land of St. John. He pur-chased the property thathas become the 170-acreresort of today — originallya sugar mill plantation —and also ended up buyingclose to two-thirds of theisland, which he donatedto the U.S. government forthe establishment of VirginIslands National Park.

As we approached Ca-neel Bay, I immediatelynoticed how its naturalsetting had not been ob-scured by the resort,thanks to Rockefeller’s de-sire that guest accommo-dations and other struc-tures blend into the land-scape. As he once said,“The artwork is outside thewindow.”

Rubbing elbows

A golf cart tour of thesprawling resort allowed usto see the rooms and suitesavailable, and to view itsseven secluded beaches.Cottage 7, originally builtas the Rockefeller familyresidence, is six spacioussuites, often reserved byfamous guests.

Over the years, theguest list has been a “who’swho” of the rich and fa-mous, including PresidentNixon, Carol Burnett andthe Aga Khan. We learnedVice President Joe Bidenhad visited two weeks ear-lier, and celebrity names inthe entertainment andsports world are also fre-quent Caneel guests, withBrad Pitt and Angelina Jo-lie among them.

We were fascinated tosee feral donkeys andwhitetail deer roaming thegrounds, while mongoos-es, introduced centuriesago by the Danes to controlthe rat population, skit-tered across the paths.

American styleOn our first evening, wedined at the historic Equa-tor restaurant, formerly asugar mill. I couldn’t resistordering Anegada lobster,a prime specimen of theCaribbean spiny lobstersthat are caught in pots offAnegada, the northern-most of the British Virgin

Islands. After a shortmoonlit walk, we wereback at our room, wherewe slept soundly, ready forthe next day’s scuba ad-venture.

Caneel’s on-site scubaoperation, Patagon DiveCenter, was our host forthe morning’s dives. Bothwere shallow reef dives offLovango Cay, wherehealthy coral, sponges andan abundance of fish andreef creatures thrive. Ourdive guide and his assis-tant took care of ourequipment and navigatedthe reefs for us so that wemerely had to take in thescenery.

An afternoon islandtour let us see firsthandhow unspoiled and unde-veloped St. John truly is.Hairpin turns up themountain led us to spec-tacular views of nearby is-lands, Annenberg Planta-tion ruins (once an activesugar-producing factory)and St. John’s most fa-mous beach, Trunk Bay,known for its underwatersnorkeling trail.

We ventured off the re-sort property that eveningto nearby Cruz Bay, themain town and port of St.John, for a bit of browsingin the shops before dinnerat the highly recom-mended La Tapa restau-rant. Strolling past theU.S. Post Office on theway was a reminder thatyes, indeed, we were, inmany ways, still in theUnited States.

Geographically Carib-bean, officially American:I’d say it is the best of bothworlds.

Trams make the 7-minute, 700-foot ascent to the top of FlagHill’s Paradise Point on the St. Thomas Skyride, where touristscan take in views of Charlotte Amalie’s harbor. Paradise Point

CaribbeanContinued from 13E Trunk Bay Beach on St. John is known for its underwater snorkeling trail.

Special to the Star-Telegram/Debbra Dunning Brouillette

Wedding bellsThe bamboo arch was being decorated with tropical flowers aswe walked to lunch. There was going to be a wedding! We were about to witness from afar a midday wedding onBolongo Bay’s beach on the island of St. Thomas, one of themost popular wedding destinations in the Caribbean. As a U.S.territory, St. Thomas does not require passports for the weddingparty or guests, and the prices start at $1,000 (half-off foractive-duty military personnel). It makes for an easy, hassle-freedestination wedding.Lorena Leonard,Bolongo’s ro-mance director(yes, that’s hertitle), told melater that the16-memberwedding partyhad been trans-ported to Bo-longo Bay fromtheir cruise shipfor the nuptials,then returned tothe ship for thereception. Leon-ard frequentlyarranges this typeof ship-to-beachwedding, coordi-nating detailswith the ship’swedding plan-ners. Most couples,however, bookdirectly withBolongo Bay.“We average 12 to 15 weddings a month, but never more thantwo a day,” Leonard said. “From a barefoot-on-the-beach wed-ding to saying ‘I do’ at sunset aboard our catamaran, HeavenlyDays, we customize everything. Every bride becomes like myown daughter. There is no cookie-cutter approach.” According to Leonard, it takes eight days to get the paperworkto the courthouse, with no blood test or waiting period re-quired. Most preferences can be met, from a nondenomination-al Christian minister to a Jewish rabbi. Vow renewals are also on the rise. “One couple honeymooned here 30 years ago, their daughterlater married here, and the whole family recently returned for avow renewal ceremony,” Leonard recalled. The five-night “For-ever Again” vow renewal package is $1,446 per couple, availablefor travel through Dec. 22.For more information, visit www.bolongobay.com, send ane-mail to lleonard@bolongobay.com or call 800-449-1577. — Debbra Dunning Brouillette

St. Thomas has become one of the most has-sle-free Caribbean wedding destinations.

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort

If you goSt. Thomas/U.S. VirginIslands� Duty-free: Each U.S. resi-dent (including children) cantake home $1,600 worth ofduty-free goods, double the$800 limit from other islands.Five cartons of cigarettes andfive liters of liquor, such asVirgin Islands produced Cru-zan Rum, are also allowed. Ifyour Caribbean travel includesthe U.S. Virgin Islands andanother country, the $1,600allowance still applies, but atleast $800 worth of goodsmust be from the U.S. VirginIslands.� Passport policies: If youare among the majority of U.S.citizens (about 63 percent)who do not have a passport,you may travel to the U.S.Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St.John and St. Croix) withoutone by showing an officialgovernment-issued photo ID,such as a driver’s license orstate ID card, plus proof ofcitizenship, such as a certifiedbirth certificate. Many visitorsto the U.S. Virgin Islands alsolike to visit the neighboringBritish Virgin Islands, whichrequires a passport. Anytimeyou leave U.S. soil, you willneed a passport. � Cellphone-friendly: Noroaming charges apply whencalling to, from or within theU.S. Virgin Islands using anAT&T, Sprint or T-Mobilecellphone with nationwidecalling. Verizon users mustcurrently pay roaming charg-es.� Postcards home: Mailing apostcard home will require a29-cent stamp, the same asmailing it from within the U.S.

Travel details� Resorts: Bolongo BayBeach Resort, St. Thomas,USVI, www.bolongobay.com;Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI,www.caneelbay.com. Checkwebsites for special offers.� Dive Operators: St. Thom-as Diving Club, USVI,www.stthomasdivingclub-.com; Patagon Dive Center,USVI, www.patagondivecen-ter.com.� More info: www.visitus-vi.com

Other optionsIn addition to the U.S. VirginIslands, U.S. citizens maytravel without a passport toother U.S. territories, includingPuerto Rico, Guam, Palau,American Samoa, NorthernMariana Islands and severalother Micronesian islands.— Debbra Dunning Brouillette

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