Motoring About & Around Muscle Shoals

Before leaving Alabama, check out what Muscle Shoals has to offer.

Muscle Shoals (www.cityofmuscleshoals.com) is located in Northwest Alabama along the Tennessee River in a two county region known as the Shoals. Founded just in 1923, Muscle Shoals became known worldwide for its music recording industry and as the birthplace of W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues. It is also the birthplace of Helen Keller, and the home of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Music and more are drawing a growing number of tourist to Muscle Shoals, with thousands visiting each year. And why not, Muscle Shoals is less than a day's drive from anywhere in the mid-South and the lower mid-West. And there is plenty to see--local attractions include the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Ivy Green-Home of Helen Keller, Natchez Trace Parkway, Wilson Lock and Dam, Indian Mound, the Birthplace of W.C. Handy, and Coon Dog Cemetery, only to name a few (see past blogs).

In addition, there are a number of interesting annual events in the Muscle Shoals area--the Trail of Tears Motorcycle Ride, Recall LaGrange, Helen Keller Festival, W.C. Handy Music Festival, Alabama Renaissance Fair, and many holiday season events.

The Shoals is an outdoor lover's dream as well. Golfers have their pick from a variety of public and private courses. The river and its system of lakes offers a variety of recreational activities and some of the best fishing around. Nature lovers and bird watchers find much to enjoy in the area's public parks, camping areas, and walking trails.

Some highlights in the area include: FAME Recording Studios (www.fame2.com), the first successful professional recording studio in Alabama. Established in 1959, it is world renowned for creating Southern Rock, Southern Soul and Country Soul, an almagamation known as "the Muscle Shoals Sound." FAME has worked with such artists as Aretha Franklin Etta James, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, and Solomon Burke. Also check out Wilson Lock & Dam. Completed in the early 1920's, the massive Wilson Dam was once used as a power supply center for munitions plants in World War l. If the family's along, make a stop at the Children's Museum of the Shoals (www.shoalschildrensmuseum.org).

Enjoy Muscle Shoals!


TRAVEL TIPS...The St. Kitts Marriott Resort & Royal Beach Casino is offering Escape! Inclusive Package, which includes--hold on to your hats!--deluxe accommodations; a disposable camera; a welcome drink; afternoon snacks; unlimited premium brand liquor, local beer, house brand wines and non-alcoholic beverages by the glass; breakfast-lunch-dinner daily and Sunday brunch; non-motorized water sports; $25.00 match play coupon for the Royal Beach Casino; comp use of tennis courts, kids club and health club; 20% golf and spa shop; 50% discount on an individuals second massage at the Emerald Mist Spa; and all room taxes, gratuities and service charges. A five-night minimum stay is required. Through May 31 rates begin at $515 per night, while from June 1 through August 31 rates begin at $335 per night, double occupancy. Kids 12 and under stay free with an adult and eat free from the children's menu. For info, call 888-PARADISE or visit www.stkittsmarriott.com or www.paradisebymarriott.com....Dominica has opened the Kalinago Barana Aute, a unique Caribbean facility that will help visitors learn about the Kalinago culture. You can try traditional basket weaving, catch crayfish using traditional methods and learn how the Kalinago Indians used the trunk of the gigantic Gommier tree to construct the canoe. The center will also host cultural performances, calabash art story telling, face painting and Kalinago lectures. For info, call (767) 445-7979....EL AL, Israel'’s national airline, announces its vacation specials for passengers flying from the United States to Israel now through October. Having partnered with hotels in Israel, EL AL is offering air/land specials. From New York (JFK/Newark), for example, passengers can fly nonstop on EL AL to Israel and stay at the Dan Panorama Hotels in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa for $1,419; Regency Jerusalem Hotel (with two 45 min. spa treatments) for $1,459; Holiday Inn Hotels (Crowne Plaza) in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat, the Dead Sea and the Holiday Inn in Haifa for $1,499; Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv for $1,549; Sheraton Plaza Jerusalem and Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv and Tiberias for $1,579; and the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem for $1,599...Buju Banton is set to headline the 20th anniversary of UCLA's prestigious Jazz & Reggae Festival, Memorial Day Weekend on the UCLA campus. The two-day festival features top names in both Jazz and Reggae, and attracts over 30,000 fans each year. This year the artists include such greats as Dianne Reeves, Floetry, Gerald Wilson and His Big Band Orchestra, Kenny Burrell and Donnie, Bushman, Macka Diamond, Tami Chynn. Banton will close out the festivities. Banton has finished his first pure dancehall collection in over a decade, Too Bad. The CD is presently scheduled for release later this summer on his own Gargamel Music label...Looking for a great travel agent? Check out Chris Cooper for the best prices around. Reach her at: sunshine2202un@yahoo.com; (310) 348-8573; www.sunshine247travel.com.

Going Back In Time At The Rosenbaum House

The home looks just as it was. It's kinda spooky in a way, but the Rosenbaum House (http://www.wrightinalabama.com/rosenbaum.html) is must-see for any visitor to Florence, Alabama. After all, how often do you get to see a Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) home.

Here's the background: In 1939, Stanley Rosenbaum commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design his first home as a gift for his bride, Mildred. He also had Wright design all of the interior--including the furniture, which they kept until they moved out of the home. The usonian-style house, on Riverview Drive, is now a National Historic Property. And in fact is the only Frank Lloyd Wright structure in the state of Alabama and one of 26 pre-World War II Usonian houses in the U.S. The original owners lived in the house until 1999 when the city of Florence purchased it from the family.

Now, the Rosenbaum House is opened for tours, has been since 2002. It is a fascinating house--an L-shaped house constructed of all-natural materials such as cypress, brick and glass. This house incorporated the first carport, use of under floor heating, curtain walls, and a multi-level, canti-levered roof. The outdoors can be accessed from almost every room. According to Wright, his houses were not only homes, but also works of art. Wright’s Usonian style (named for the United State of America) was a low-cost home for middle income families. The Usonian style house originally contained 1,540 square feet, but when the Rosenbaum household grew, the family called Wright to design an addition. In 1948, 1,084 square feet was added, with a larger kitchen, a guest bedroom, storage space and a dormitory for the kids.

Wright wasn't shy about setting his own style and architectural agenda. He experimented with forms and materials. His forward-thinking career began in Oak Park, Illinois, and he became one of the most influential architects ever. Perhaps his most recognized masterpieces is the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, which took him 16 years to complete.

The Rosenbaum House was fixed up by the city and is now a tourist attraction--and an interesting bit of Americana.

TRAVEL TIPS...Mark your calendars: May 25-28 is the Bonaire Jazz Festival, featuring three main sessions at beach locations, sunset jazz times, late night jazz and jam sessions in cafes and restaurants and a jazz brunch. Bands from the ABC Islands, The Netherlands and the U.S. will participate. For more information, visit www.bonairejazz.com. ..It's "I Do" time at Breezes Runaway Bay Resort & Golf Club (www.breezes.com) in Jamaica and the resort is offering the “Beautiful Beginnings” promotion. Throughout the month of June, wedding parties booking a minimum of five rooms, will receive complimentary room-upgrades, a group farewell dinner, and a private candlelight dinner for the bride and groom in the resort’s delicious Italian restaurant, Pastafari. In addition to the complimentary wedding--complete with non-denominational marriage officer, wedding cake, bridal bouquet and groom’s boutonnière, and musical serenade--couples are also treated to a fairytale horse and buggy ride, topped off with a bottle of champagne, following the ceremony. The resort’s onsite wedding planner takes care of all the details. Sounds like stress-free wedding planning. Show, get married and have an island party. The “Beautiful Beginnings” package starts at $1,690 per couple, for a five night stay, based on groups of 10 or more people (or five double-occupancy rooms), and includes all meals, snacks, premium brand alcoholic beverages, land and water sports (including equipment and instruction); entertainment; hotel taxes; airport transfers and tips...A restaurant named Poison? Well, sort of. The Cosmopolitan Hotel (http://www.cosmotoronto.com in Toronto has opened Doku 15 (www.doku15.com) "doku" means poison in Japanese. But don't be afraid--the cuisine is divine, the atmosphere fabulous, and the decor trendy and sleek. Try the innovative dim-sum and Asian tapas traditions...Fore! Anguilla has opened Play-A-Round (www.anguilla-vacation.com), a family-oriented entertainment venue that takes the American concept of miniature golf and implements it with a comprehensive yet consciously local approach. Located on Rendezvous Bay West, the professional standard 18-hole miniature golf course features attractive pathways and rock and stream elements. The entertainment complex also features a bumper boat pond, an outdoor boat bar, a 24-foot high climbing wall and a snack bar clubhouse. An inflatable obstacle course safely challenges children aged 5 to 12 years. The par 43, 196-yard course is tricky enough for adults and features a stream that constitutes a tricky skip shot on the fourth hole; a large lagoon that meanders around and contains the bumper boats; and an illuminated fountain that sends the water back to the pump to feed the lagoon. Floodlights surround the complex to assure perfect visibility for night play. And it's not only fund and games--the venue is educational, too. The course incorporates lessons in local history and flora & fauna with lush paths of indigenous plants tagged with their native and scientific names.