Wayne's World of Travel

Trinidad and Tobago: Hummingbirds and highways

2015-11-22T12:58:00.000-05:00

After a hectic fall travel schedule, publication dates are beginning to flow. Today, the Toronto Sun has my piece about Trinidad and Tobago as its Travel section centrespread.
These are fascinating islands with a wealth of history and, on Trinidad especially, a surprising diversity of dining choices including spectacular Chinese restaurants. Trinidad and Tobago is also a surprisingly large beachhead for Kentucky Fried Chicken and home to a locally-grown knockoff of Starbucks.
I didn't have the space to write in detail about all the islands have to offer. Attractions range from several festivals to the best zip line I've ever been on and the expected beach activities such as standup paddleboarding.
My most important recommendation, especially for first time visitors, is to hire a reputable local guide to take you around the islands. Their knowledge and enthusiasm for their Caribbean homes will make a world of difference, helping to ensure your visit is a spectacular and safe one.

En route to great beer.

2015-08-04T23:39:00.002-04:00

Craft beer is big, perhaps nowhere more so than Southern Ontario.
My column this week checks out a trio of craft beer/farmers markets exploration tours. Here's a link to The London Free Press.

Taste of the Danforth all Greek to me

2015-08-02T10:42:00.004-04:00

Wayne Newton photo

Publication day for my advance piece on one of the world's biggest street festivals, Taste of the Danforth in Toronto. It's in The London Free Press.
I've never been in such a crush of people as at this event, so it's not for those with crowd phobias. It is a festival for those who love all things multicultural.
While Taste of the Danforth's core is celebrating all things Greek, focused on food from the many great eateries along this Toronto avenue, it rightly now bills itself as a multicultural event.
It happens the second weekend of August and, as I'm so fond of saying, it's an event every traveller should attend at least once.

Iconic Cape Cod should be on every traveller's list

2015-07-19T10:40:00.000-04:00

Provincetown from atop Pilgrim Monument. (Wayne Newton photo)

It's publication weekend for a piece travel editor Barbara Taylor and I collaborated on, Cape Cod and the Islands.
Published Saturday in The London Free Press travel section, where Barbara is the editor, and Sunday in the Toronto Sun and its affiliated websites, it's a multi-platform celebration of one of America's iconic destinations, albeit it a sometimes crowded one and pretty much always pricey.
It's no wonder famous Americans such as the Kennedys (Hyannis) and John Belushi (Martha's Vineyard) were captivated by the region's beauty.
There's a Storify capturing Barbara's tweets from our pre-Memorial Day week in the region.
We drove the entire region, to the tip at Provincetown to both the islands, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and, while its hard to choose a favourite spot, we narrowed it down to five star communities. OK, we cheated a bit and lumped all the communities of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket together as must-see-in-your-lifetime places.
Our biggest tip for Canadians: Visit in the offseason, ideally May before Memorial Day.

Packers: Cheeseheads win every time

2015-07-13T09:10:00.001-04:00

It's publication time for my piece from Green Bay, where all things Packers echos through the community.
While game tickets are hard to come by, the NFL experience percolates throughout Green Bay. Next to being at a game against a hated rival such as the Minnesota Vikings or Chicago Bears, training camp is the best time to be in the city. That's coming up at the end of July.
My story has run on platforms of various daily newspapers across Canada, including the Toronto Sun.

Movers and Shakers in Kentucky

2015-07-05T12:05:00.001-04:00

I've been to this Shaker Village in Kentucky twice, and another near Boston. Fascinating story of deeply religious group of which only three remain. My story from Kentucky is in the Toronto Sun today.
Ever since visiting and staying overnight, I can't get two Shaker song earworms out of my head, Simple Gifts and the reworked lyrics, Lord of the Dance. That's not a bad thing.

Brewers challenged by toilet to tap contest

2015-05-06T09:06:00.002-04:00

Travel equals enlightenment, but I missed my chance on a flight back from Texas last month.
My seatmate was also returning to London from San Antonio. I had been checking out Texas Hill Country, the Lyndon Baines Johnson ranch and the oldest brew pub in the state. He had been at a clean water conference.
A few days after returning home, I noticed a story (and a topic) for my weekly beer column about a contest in Oregon where treated waste water is used by brewers in a contest to create new beers and demonstrate why the increasingly thirsty world needs to think of water for what it is, not where it's been.
While no micro, craft, or macro brewer would touch the concept commercially, the notion one can create a decent beer from toilet water piques the interest of experimenters and home brewers. The treated water - emphasis on treated - is closer to distilled water than the municipal water most brewers use. It makes a difference as all beer is at least 90% water.
Had I known about the contest, I would've quizzed my seatmate, who worked for one of the leading water filtration companies in the world, based in London, Canada.

Kentucky, Mad Men style

2015-05-03T09:36:00.000-04:00

Bourbon flight, Bardstown, KY. (Wayne Newton photo)

It's publication day for my piece from a recent visit to Kentucky, where I explored the state's bourbon culture.
As part of my tour, I discovered a working bar inside a bourbon museum which looks like a scene straight out of the popular TV show, Mad Men.
Bourbon, a stiff beverage choice to be sure, is not for everyone, but Kentucky certainly is. Thousands of kilometres of brown wooden fences define the hundreds of thoroughbred horse farms in the Bluegrass State. (They use mostly brown fences now instead of white because horses won't chew on the top boards of brown planks like they do on the white ones. Go figure.)
Later this summer, I'll publish a second Kentucky story looking at a very different aspect of the state.

Shunpiker 2015 The ABCs

2015-05-02T10:33:00.001-04:00

Blog readers have been asking how the London Free Press Shunpiker works on Mother's Day. Here's the rundown:

The Free Press distributes a special supplement in its Saturday edition the day before Mother's Day. (Last year's is still live on its website, lfpress.com.)
The supplement contains a map to follow, a turn-by-turn description of the route, and photos and information about the hosts. There are also addresses if you wish to program your GPS.
Shunpikers can follow the complete route (recommended!), which will make for a very full Sunday, or pick and choose host attractions which pique your interest.
The route is calculated for scenic drives in the countryside around London and for as many safe right turns as possible. Many people purposely do it in reverse, or join it part way through depending where they live.
I have included variety to capture the imagination and provide enjoyment for all age groups. Many Shunpikers span three generations.
Stops include fantastic food and beverage discoveries.
Please bring your smartphone and share using #Shunpiker2015.
This is the 46th edition of Shunpiker, best described as a sample tour of day trip destinations from London (Ontario). I've met some people who have done almost every one.
Hosts who normally charge admission waive it for Shunpikers.

Shunpiker 2015: How London spends Mother's Day

2015-04-26T19:32:00.001-04:00

It's a wrap for my part in planning the Shunpiker Mother's Day Mystery Tour for The London Free Press.
This year's hosts have been lined up, stories written and photos taken. The map and description will be in The Free Press on Saturday, May 9, 2015. The event date is Sunday, May 10.
Enjoy!
Update: Here is the link to Shunpiker 2015.
Note: Suggest starting at Banting House at 9 am if you want to cover the whole route. What time and which attraction you start at depends on where you live or what your personal interests and schedules are. Railway City Brewing opens later in the morning due to licensing rules.
Updates
Storify from Shunpiker 2015
SUNtravelgal on Twitter
Your thoughts and feedback on this year's event are welcome - it helps in the planning of future Shunpikers. Thank you for taking part in this year's tour.

Door County: Lighthouse nirvana

2015-04-04T21:04:00.002-04:00

It's publication day in The London Free Press for my story and photos from a visit to Wisconsin's Door County.
The mainland and islands dividing Green Bay from Lake Michigan provided terrible navigation challenges for ships back in the day, resulting in a series of lighthouses being built to aid safe navigation.
I know how suddenly rough it can get. We had a choppy and spray-filled boat ride back from the islands.
Those lighthouses have been automated for decades, with the lighthouse keepers and their families giving way to tourists and volunteer attendants. Door County has 11 lighthouses, most of which can be visited or viewed, albeit sometimes with considerable effort in terms of boating and walking.
Door County has one of the largest collections of lighthouses in the world, but that's not all it's famous for. Cherries, Door County Coffee, boating, fishing, and diving are all in the mix, along with some great casual dining.
The county has a very Canadian feel to it - that's a compliment, folks - and I look forward to returning one day.

Apostle Islands ice caves open for second straight year

2015-02-27T17:19:00.002-05:00

Apostle Island sea caves. (Wayne Newton photo)

Update: Here's a Washington Post story,2015.
The stories were legendary when I was in Wisconsin's Apostle Islands on the south shore of Lake Superior last fall.
They locals - from park officials to outfitters to the owners of the legendary Big Water Coffee Roasters in Bayfield, were still talking about the social media driven invasion to see the ice caves.
The Apostle Islands and the mainland near Bayfield and Cornucopia northeast of the city of Superior are dotted with caves. Throughout most of the year, they are called sea caves and explored in detail by flotillas of kayakers. Every winter, ice and ice cycles form to create spectacular Frozen-style rooms.
Trouble is, the way the strong winds blow, most winters the ice conditions mean people can't access the caves safety.
It's left up to the experts at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore to determine when it is safe for the public to walk or snowmobile out on the ice to access the caves.
Last winter, for the first time since 2009, it became possible and photos posted on social media soon turned a trickle to visitors into an almost unmanageable wave for the Wisconsin tourist area which pretty much closes up shop in the off-season.
People were being called to open restaurants and shops and, in the case of a kayak outfitter, to start providing transportation with his truck from parking areas to the lake.
Trouble was, many of the visitors who arrived based on the social media buzz came woefully underdressed, prompting kind locals to start distributing basic warm outerwear such as mitts and toques.
Stories were common of people who arrived wearing sneakers and summer socks, thinking they'd be warm enough walking on the frozen Lake Superior. They were wrong.
In the warm months, the Apostle Islands are a special nook of one of America's friendliest states. Communities such as Cornucopia were settled by Russians and places like Bayfield are well-served by high-quality, reasonably priced restaurants.
Any time of the year, Lake Superior can be unpredictable. When I stayed there, we were on an idyllic nearly day-long cruise to see most of the islands. The next day, it was too chopping for the ferry to run the short distance from Bayfield to Madeline Island.
I'd love to see the ice caves, and remarkably they are accessible beginning Saturday for the second straight winter.
If you go, dress warmly, especially your feet and head. If you're arriving at the Apostle Islands in sneakers, best wait until May through October.

Boom Clap, it's the girls from Nashville.

2015-02-05T17:51:00.000-05:00

Last time I heard these two girls sing, they were with their mom and dad at Puckett's Grocery in Leiper's Fork, Tenn. Listen to Lennon and Maisy now. Boom Clap!
The family is originally from Whitby, Ont., and Lennon and Maisy star in the TV series Nashville.
Nashville is a must-visit destination and getting a few miles out of the city to places like Leiper's Fork pays dividends.
Here's a piece I wrote for the Toronto Sun.

McAllen something to crow about

2015-01-31T16:08:00.004-05:00

My piece about McAllen, Texas, was featured on the section front of The London Free Press today. It's also appeared in different layouts in newspapers such as the Toronto Sun, Kingston Whig-Standard, St. Catharines Standard, Sudbury Star, and Welland Tribune. Another version is online at canoe.ca and various other websites.

The more the merrier!

Ohio's Hocking Hills delicious

2015-01-24T10:09:00.000-05:00

It may be cold outside, but it's deliciously warm inside some of the most legendary local restaurants in Ohio's scenic Hocking Hills.
The area's mom and pop restaurants highlight the second annual Comfort Food Cruise, a tour which highlights some places tourists will easily gravitate to, and others one wouldn't likely choose unless you knew it was good.
I checked out the Comfort Food Cruise during its inaugural year in 2014 as part of media fam of the Hocking Hills. My favourite spot, which is also part of this year's tour, was the character-filled M&M Family Diner in Logan, down the street from the local washboard factory.
Logan's pretty real and seeing it for the first time in the middle of winter does it no favours. Step inside the M&M, with a decor that is both spartan and intriguing, and you know in a nanosecond you're among friends. A clutch of local retirees, one equipped with an SLR camera to snap a photo of visiting travel writers, a staff so sincere in their friendliness you never want to leave, and food that defines middle America comfort ... M&M is exactly the type of place visitors should seek out.
I'm not a food writer and I'm certain other stops on the cruise - especially the exceptional Inn and Spa at Cedar Falls - score higher among those who know cuisine and shouldn't be missed on any excursion to the Hocking Hills at any time of year, M&M is my kinds of place. Reminds me of home in Clifford, Ont.
If I were in Columbus this weekend for the NHL all-star game, I'd be heading down to Hocking Hills before heading home.

Eastern State Penitentiary honours Martin Luther King

2015-01-17T15:37:00.003-05:00

Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. (Wayne Newton photo(

Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia has been "home" to thousands of inmates including gangster Al Capone who may or may not have orchestrated his incarceration to hide during the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Today it's the gothic complex is a partially restored tourist attraction in the City of Brotherly Love and one of the must-see destinations for first time visitors to Philadelphia.
It's paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King this weekend in a novel way, conducting readings of King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, written in 1963 when the civil rights leader was incarcerated in Alabama.
Eastern State, as guides will tell you, was actually trying to be innovative when it opened in 1829. Its cell and private courtyard design was intended in part to help keep inmates (and the general population when inmates were released) safe from disease. Turned out to be a bad idea as it essentially put every inmate into solidarity confinement. Sane people jailed for minor offenses became mentally ill as a result.
The place is scary enough to visit anytime, but the truly brave go in October when the facility becomes a giant Halloween haunted house. Not for the faint of heart.

Snowbirds flock to McAllen

2015-01-14T18:21:00.000-05:00

I've heard stories about McAllen, Texas, since I was a kid for the most unlikely of reasons.
It starts in my hometown, tiny Clifford in Midwestern Ontario, Canada, maybe 50 years ago. Two prominent families, one who owned the village's beauty salon and and the other a majestic farm on the edge of town, woke up one day and decided to decamp together.
Not just around the corner, but 3,000 kilometres south to McAllen, on the Texas-Mexico border.
Kids in tow, they opened a motel called the Pen-Ann next door to McAllen in Pharr and kept it going until retirement.
In the 1990s, a group of retiree friends of my parents from Clifford began spending winters at an RV camp in McAllen-Mission. Announcements of so-and-so leaving for McAllen were a rite of winter.
When a chance to explore McAllen for myself as a travel writer arose, I grabbed it.
My story, published in The Toronto Sun and other outlets, captures McAllen as both a premiere birding destination, a place for foodies, and a popular destination for frugal Canadian snowbirds (or, as they call them in McAllen, Winter Texans).

While the area's RV parks are maple leaf villages, the pulse of the region comes from its Mexican influences, in things like cuisine and art. Among locals, Spanglish is a common was to communicate.
I'm not an experienced birder and don't tote a tripod and 1000 mm lens on travel trips, but I was both gobsmacked and able to get close enough for a good shot with a short lens on one of my first sightings of a green jay, the official bird of McAllen, while exploring the 290-hectare Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
For Mexicans, McAllen is a major shopping destination for not only American designer labels and Walmart-style bargains, but for traditional Mexican merchandise in the downtown core.
For the rest of us, it's for the birds (in a good way).

Shania Twain Centre demolished in Timmins

2014-12-05T12:05:00.000-05:00

One always hopes the connection to a megastar will help lift a community to great heights. Sometimes it works, but more often to be successful, museums and star-branded stores have to be located in places like Nashville where fans can find them.
I've been to Springhill, Nova Scotia, and it still has its museum tribute to Canada's snowbird, Anne Murray, even though she's lived in Toronto most of her life.
Finding and getting to Springhill tough but is a little easier than Timmins, Ontario, where another of Canada's biggest stars was raised. Fifteen years ago when she was at the height of her popularity, Timmins tried to capitalize on the fame of Shania Twain with a museum created to tell the story of her rise to fame.
I never saw it, nor did enough other people, and now it's too late. The Shania Twain Centre is now a pile of rubble in a town weary of its annual deficits despite a consultant's report outlining that tourists generate $3 worth of economic activity for every $1 spent to attract them.
Maybe it was up to Twain, who I believe still lives in Switzerland, to do more for the centre and her hometown in the way Johnny Carson did for his little hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska.
There, the Carson brand is strong, albeit not with a dedicated museum. Instead, the local Elkhorn Valley Museum has a spectacular Johnny Carson gallery featuring a treasure trove of Carson memorabilia. We're talking Emmy Awards, costumes and the like. Across town, the auditorium at the high school bears Carson's name in honour of a sizable donation. And his boyhood home, owned privately, is under restoration/renovation.
Johnny Cash, when he was alive, found success with his House of Cash in Henderson, Tennessee, where he lived, not in rural Arkansas, where he was born. Now, Cash's estate has replaced the House of Cash with a museum off Broadway in an old industrial building in Nashville. The Johnny Cash Museum is one of Music City's most hip attractions. Maybe on the heels of that success, Arkansas has stepped up by making Cash's boyhood home a tourist attraction.
Several trips to Tennessee have never found me in Hendersonville, but I have seen the Cash museum in Nashville.
Maybe Twain should've done more to support Timmins and its tourist attraction. Or maybe Canadian country music icons should be honoured in more tourist-accessible cities. If it were me, I'd create a Canadian version of Nashville's County Music Hall of Fame in a city like Calgary, Winnipeg, or Toronto and watch the fans arrive.

East Tennessee: Sweet and quirky

2014-11-22T14:37:00.000-05:00

Museum of Appalachia. (Wayne Newton photo)

Snowbirds making the run from Ontario down I-75 to Florida are usually in a rush to get to the beach or Disney World.
But slowing down and taking a day or two explore some interesting places along the way can be richly rewarding.
Top of the list would have to be Knoxville and the surrounding countryside.
East Tennessee is rich with Civil War history which history buffs could spent days probing. Knoxville was split in its loyalties between North and South, making it a curious place indeed.
For those with a day to spend and a curiosity about local rural life of bygone days, there is no better stop than the Smithsonian-recognized Museum of Appalachia, located on a country road about a half hour from Knoxville. Among their holdings is an old log cabin where it's likely Mark Twain was conceived - just one example of a collection which seems so quirky yet fascinating and clever to those not from the region.

Gay St., downtown Knoxville.
(Wayne Newton photo)

Downtown Knoxville, the cradle of country music, holds a bevy of attractions, from a huge, historic general store famous for its rows and rows of candy barrels, to a performing arts theatre which looks routine at street level, but inside might be one of the most jaw-dropping performance spaces on the continent.
My piece on Knoxville and East Tennessee is published today in The London Free Press. While the web version differs from the print, the gist is there: East Tennessee is a sweet spot.

Nebraska village traces decades of invention and innovation

2014-10-14T11:22:00.000-04:00

A pioneer wagon mounted on the roof is an eye-catching way
to lure tourists to Harold Warp Pioneer Village
in rural Nebraska. (Wayne Newton photo)

There’s a sense of melancholy to this place, until you spot someone like Haylee Timmons.

The eight-year-old from Missouri is on a school break and made the four-hour drive with her mom to Nebraska. Not for the Cornhuskers or even corn dogs, but to examine intricate needlepoint and to share in the legacy of a dirt poor Nebraska kid who went on to become an American millionaire with what some might argue was a fixation on hoarding.

Haylee and mom Derrine Frazee are among the handful of visitors on a chilly spring day to Harold Warp Pioneer Village in Minden which, in its heyday, in the 1970s drew 100,000 visitors a day, many staying in the adjacent RV park or 60-unit motel so they could spend two or more days in the sprawling, multi-building, award-winning complex which could be called a Prairie Smithsonian.

Haylee Timmons of Missouri checks out a pioneer
needlepoint display.

Thanks to rising gasoline prices which put the crimp on RVs cruising the open spaces of the U.S. Midwest and changing interest of families in driving vacations, paid admissions now are less than half of what they once were and the displays a little dustier and crowded.

But general manager Marshall Nelson, with help from enthusiastic young visitors such as Haylee, believes that can change as the village taps into the memories and stories of people who grew up in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

“When the village first opened, it was all first person with a grandfather or grandmother stopping at an exhibit and explaining it to his or her family,” says Nelson, a great nephew of the village’s founder. “Now it’s, ‘I remember dad had something like this or grandpa told me about it, but I don’t know how it works.’ There’s no first person connection.

“It’s all about memories and conversations with the next generation.”

There’s no shortage of things to talk about in the village from kitsch like 1970s digital wristwatches

Words of advice from the late Harold Warp
are tacked up throughout the village,
which is now run by a foundation and sustained by admissions
and profit from the adjacent restaurant, motel and campground.
It accepts no government funding. (Wayne Newton photo)

to 350 classic cars including a building dedicated to Chevrolets, and hundreds of musical instruments.

Somewhere in between are a life-size re-creation of a Nebraskan senator’s office, dozens of vintage snowmobiles from defunct manufacturers such as Sno-Prince and Homelite, home slide and movie projectors, and early computers.

“We collect ‘firsts’ of technological advances that made life easier for everyday American families,” Nelson says.

The privately owned village was opened by Warp, who made his fortune in the plastics industry, in 1953 as a way to save local buildings from demolition, including the first church in Minden. It’s also a tribute to his Norwegian immigrant parents who homesteaded in a sod hut nearby.

Snowmobiles, many by defunct manufacturers,
line one of the 26 buildings
on site. (Wayne Newton photo)

From there it grew into a collection of 26 buildings and more than 50,000 items from giant Prairie farm machinery to a display of thousands of ballpoint pens. It continues to grow by collecting items which “show man’s progress since 1830.”

Warp died in 1993 and the village is now operated by a non-profit foundation which relies on admissions to maintain the collection.

IF YOU GO

Harold Warp Pioneer Village is open 364 days a year (closed on Christmas). On Interstate 80, take exit 279 drive 18 km south on Harold Warp Memorial Drive (Hwy. 10). Admission is $13 for adults.

Johnny Cash: The man in black is back

2014-09-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

Cash through the ages, inside the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville.
(Wayne Newton photo)

It's publication day for my Nashville/Mashville piece in the Toronto Sun, in which the rebirth of Johnny Cash, particularly among the 20-something set, is my lede.
Cash's career was filled with peaks and valleys. When I was in my 20s, he was definitely at a low point and the most unhip of performers, even among those who loved country music. The Cash many people enjoyed most were parodies of I Walk the Line ("I keep my pants tied up all the time ... ").

Johnny Cash's personal Bible.

Not so anymore. Cash is rightfully entrenched as a hip, thanks to his American series of recordings starting in the 1990s and the biopic I Walk the Line.

London, Ont., arena where Cash is believed to have proposed
to June Carter.

The strong connection with Cash in Southwestern Ontario is twofold. His manager Saul Holiff was from London, Ont., and Cash proposed to June Carter at a show in London, Ont. - I believe at the now-demolished London arena.
Later, London-based Canada Trust used Cash to promote what was then a new technology - automated bank machines.
In Tennessee, the old House of Cash museum in Hendersonville has been replaced by the impressive Johnny Cash Museum, located in a former industrial area just off Broadway in Nashville. Conde Nest, an influential travel magazine has named it a must-see music museum.
In the state of his birth, Arkansas, Cash's tiny boyhood home is now open to the public.
Cash died Sept. 12, 2003.

Grabbing a weekend in Toronto

2014-09-17T10:43:00.002-04:00

It's publication day in the Toronto Sun for the piece my wife, Barbara, and I did about our weekend in downtown Toronto - Ontario's capital, Canada's biggest city, and a must-see destination.
We loved staying downtown and, arriving by train, the cozy Le Germaine Maple Leaf Square could not have been more convenient. It's literally at the back door of Union Station.
We packed in a lot, but the highlights were the new Ripley's Aquarium, a graffiti tour of trendy Queen Street West and dinner atop the CN Tower. Of course a craft beer festival across the street from the CN Tower and the massive Taste of the Danforth Greek festival weren't too shabby. We'll write about both of those in advance of next year's events.
When I'm travelling the U.S., hosts and fellow travel writers almost always ask about Toronto. Today's article and photos are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to answering their questions about how great this city is.

Labour Day at Crystal Bridges

2014-08-31T19:59:00.002-04:00

If I were back in Bentonville, Arkansas, at the impressive Crystal Bridges, on Labour Day weekend ... I think I'd be looking at this Norman Rockwell classic.

Albino animals cool sights

2014-08-23T15:30:00.000-04:00

Albino alligator, NEW Zoo, Green Bay, Wisc.
(Wayne Newton photo)

Toronto lost its rare albino squirrel this summer, prompting the website Loop to create a cool slideshow of albino creatures from turtles to gators.
White squirrels are a famous attraction in the Southwestern Ontario town of Exeter and were featured in the London Free Press Shunpiker tour I organized this past Mother's Day.
And just two weeks ago, I was taken aback by a white alligator on display at the NEW Zoo near Green Bay, Wisc.
While white squirrels can thrive in the wild, not so albino gators. This one was born in captivity and if they are born in the wild, they have little chance of survival because their colour gives them away to predators.

Nashup: Music City goes for variety in attracting 20-somethings

2014-08-23T10:42:00.000-04:00

It's publication day in The London Free Press for my piece about Nashville, one of the world's hottest cities for the 20-something crowd.
Little wonder. Its famous live country music bars are just the beginning. Beyond Broadway, the downtown strip that's home to places such as Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, this city and the surrounding countryside offer an exhausting array of things to do that rank highly among young people.
And it's not all stuff that drains the wallet. Free things such as the Bell Towers of Centennial Park or the unwrapped mummy of the no-charge Tennessee State Museum provide needed pauses.
Stir in the NFL Titans, NHL Predators and Vanderbilt University basketball and you've got an impossible list of options.
This place is the most American of cities - as reported in USA Today.
And, of course, the man is back. The late Johnny Cash has his life story told in a new Nashville museum that's drawing raves.
Two of the coolest things I saw on my most recent visit - I've been to Nashville three times now - are outside the city limits. Short Mountain Distillery is where an heir to the Samsonite luggage fortune makes legal moonshine - an illegal still is on display near the spot where it was once hidden from revenuers. Leiper's Fork, where I apparently almost bumped into Justin Timberland while waiting to get into a live show at Puckett's\Grocery, has a character and is filled with characters not to be missed.
In your 20s? Join the Nashville pilgrimage.
Check out this the New York Times video on Nashville.