Boston’s Omni Parker House HotelWritten by Kriss Hammond
Boston’s Omni Parker House HotelRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/hotels/omni/parker/house.html Founded by Henry D. Parker in 1855, Omni Parker House (then known as simply The Parker House) has been a Boston resident for over 150 years, located at junction of Tremont and School Streets, and one of oldest of Boston's elegant inns. and longest continuously operating hotel in United States. It was here that brightest lights of America's Golden Age of Literature—writers like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Longfellow, regularly met for conversation in legendary nineteenth century Saturday Club. Baseball greats like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams wined, dined, and unwound at Parker House. And it was here too, where generations of local and national politicians, including Ulysses S. Grant, James Michael Curley (Boston's Mayor of poor), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and William Jefferson Clinton, assembled for private meetings, press conferences, and power breakfasts. The Omni Parker House is close to Boston's Theater District, and it has played an important role for thespians. Many of finest actors from nineteenth century made hotel their home away from home, including Charlotte Cushman, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, brother of matinee-idol, John Wilkes Booth, who was seen pistol practicing nearby only eight days before assassination of Abraham Lincoln; wouldn't you know it would be an actor jumping onto a stage in his last great performance at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. During twentieth century, stage, screen, and television stars, from Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and William ("Hopalong Cassidy") Boyd, to Adam "Batman" West, Kelsey Grammer (Cheers was started in Boston as a local pub.), David Shiner and cast of "Seussical, Musical", made hotel their home. The kitchens of Parker House made Americana culinary culture a mainstay, with talented bakers who invented famed Parker House roll. Parker's has also been training ground for internationally known chefs. The Omni Parker House is located on today's Boston Freedom Trail, and it is a museum of its own in a way. Even though it has twenty-first century amenities, it still retains its nineteenth century charm and history. The lobby, bar-lounges, and restaurant are still armored with dark wood hues, elevators are freshly burnished bronze, while walls are vintage American oak. When walking to my room I had to stop and view numerous paintings on hallways, a living museum, indeed. Crystal chandeliers glow in lobby as a bus group was checking out. The lobby is a vibrant living landmark, more like a private clubroom, with many more exquisite paintings surrounding museum goers—I mean guests. The corner of Tremont and School is as old as Boston itself. In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop and Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony first settled in area, naming peninsula Trimount, after three hills—Beacon, Premberton, and Mount Vernon—dominating landscape. The name was changed to Boston to honor Lincolnshire town that many of pilgrims had departed,. After three mountains were leveled Tremont Street was laid out at base of hills and Boston Common. The location and name of School Street originated in Puritan times, as well. From 1635-1636, British colonists established a college in nearby Cambridge (Harvard). By 1645 prep school, America's first public school, was housed in a cabin on what would be know as School Street. The school was later known as Boston Latin, and it educated a host of Boston's elite, including Sam Adams, John Hancock, Charles Bullfinch, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ben Franklin was a dropout. Parker's Bar now sits where old cabin was located.
| | Cozumel’s Garden Resort - VillablancaWritten by Bobbi Buchanan
Cozumel’s Garden Resort - VillablancaRead Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/hotels/mexico/cozumel/villa/blanca.html Flying into Cozumel always feels like coming home. I am a long way and another lifetime from place I call home, so this is a special feeling. This particular trip I was discovering that home of my childhood was reaching out again. My friend, Lena, and I are traveling alone together, minus family. The first time it is excruciatingly painful to leave kids. This time it is proving to be a wise choice. We are reconnecting to a part of us that is not wife, mother, businesswoman, or teacher. We are simply women. We can sleep in or stay out late with no one to worry about. My friend is a runner and heads out early to see sunrise. I am a reader and watch sunset from my lounge chair. We both like to write and dance and see all sights from top-of-the-line restaurants to hole-in-the-wall hot dog stand, from big yacht to tiny canoes, and from developed beaches with ever-ready cabana boys, to wild rocky shores splashing with rough seas. We remember past, cherish present, and plan future. We challenge each other to greater things, cry and heal together over great hurts, and generally help each other make life changes we have been avoiding. Then, we go home to be better at all roles we hold. We are heading down to Cozumel for a few days lounging around Villa Blanca, so we are naturally excited. Despite several trips to Cozumel, I could not recall that particular hotel. I asked my teenage daughter (also my computer guru) to do a little on-line research for me. As soon as she heard name she exclaimed, “Mom, that's hotel with shark! You, know, one you always want to stay in every time we drive by." Villa Blanca is on road about a mile south from San Miguel. It is just across road from sea and not too far from a public swimming beach and lighthouse. You notice first lush tropical hibiscus hedges surrounding gleaming white walls that front it. There's a huge white shark watching over reception area. Every time I drove by I murmured a wish to stay there. And since we drove by about a hundred times over several trips to Cozumel, children just rolled their eyes when I said it. Yet more than just beauty of hotel, there is something calling me, making me feel I had been there before. We drive up on a glorious Caribbean day. The white of pillars reflect bright sunshine; a mild breeze blows off sea carrying with it hint of far away places. There are places you go that are nice and then you leave and it becomes just a vague pleasant memory. There are places where you walk in and you know immediately you have come home — a place you would come home to if you could live in a soothing, elegant space in which your every need is attended to. We step into cool of reception area, check in quickly, then we are given our room number. Juan carries our luggage and in numerous other ways rescues two ladies in distress; he is there with a smile that never wavers despite vast quantities of luggage. While we explore our room, lean over our balcony, and make ourselves at home, Juan sees to our bags and makes sure all was in order. Being copious drinkers, of water that is, we are delighted by large five gallon water jug in our room. Many hotels on Cozumel provide a two-liter bottle each day and charge dearly for any extras. We are cheap at heart with habit of stopping at Chedraui’s (the local grocery) to pick up gallons of water — not much fun to haul around town (we generally walked everywhere). So this is a delightful introduction to our home away from home — an annoying, time consuming and expensive detail avoided.
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