New stories posted on travelife.ca

The Panama Canal is a symbol of pride for Panamanians.

My goodness, it's been a busy travel period for me.

Arizona one week. Dallas the next. Then on to Malaysia and Panama.

Along the way, though, I came across some wonderful stories that I'm now able to share with you at www.travelife.ca

Just posted this morning are stories on:

- Panama's legendary canal, which connects two oceans and is the greatest contributor to Panama's economy. But the canal is more than just a waterway - it's a symbol of pride to the proud Panamanian people who proved to the world they can run the world's most important canal better than anyone else.

- Arizona's great golf courses, many of which are bunched together in Scottsdale, the desert retreat that is home to one of the greatest courses in the world - TPC Scottsdale, where normally staid golf fans turn into college football rowdies when PGA stars arrive at one hole.

- Malaysia's treasured island known as Langkawi, where the local mangrove is the lifeblood of this island of mountains and myths. A trip through the mangrove brought me up close to monkeys, snakes, the world's largest crabs and giant eagles. It's a Garden of Eden experience that ranks among my best travel thrills ever!

- Dallas' famed Sixth Floor Museum, formerly known as the city's infamous Book Depository Building from where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots that killed president John F. Kennedy and ended one of the most promising political periods in American history. Looking through the Sixth Floor window from where the shots were fired was for me like looking back on my boyhood memories.

It's great sharing these stories with you - I hope you enjoy!

Arizona has red rocks and red wine

aDuring a recent visit to Arizona I discovered the state's fastest-growing industry isn't solar panel farms - they harvest the sun and produce a lot of clean energy - but wine.

Yes Virginia, they can grow grapes and produce wine in the desert.

Seems the state's higher elevations around Tucson in the south and Sedona in the north produce the perfect growing conditions - hot air during the day and cool desert air at night to go along with the area's red clay soil which apparently is similar to that found in Burgundy, France where they've been known to produce some pretty good vintages over the centuries.

Not being much of a wine snob - it all tastes good to me - I thought the Sedona branch of the Arizona wine industry produces some pretty good bottles - lots of fruity taste but a bit too much alcholol. Apparently my wine snob friends tell me that's because the vines are too young.

They are flabbergasted to learn, as I did on this trip, that Arizona's wine industry dates back to the 17th century when missionaries from Mexico and South America planted vines so they could have wine for religious ceremonies. The latest crop of wineries began sprouting up in the 1970s.

Sedona - I always get that place named mixed up with California's Sanoma - is where hippies and healers dropped out in the '70s amidst some of the most beautiful mountain scenery anywhere. Most have turned into old hippies with money - thanks to the cottage "healing" and bead industries they started and got rich off. And now they're using their new found wealth to start up
vineyards.

The small town of Cottonwood - sounds like a town out of an old John Wayne western (many of the Duke's movies were actually filmed in this area) - is where most of the best Sedona wineries are located. The town is a throughback to the U.S. Prohibition period and according to townfolk, there's lots of tunnels crisscrossing under main street where illegal booze was once stored.

Pillsbury - the winery, not the doughboy - and Stronghold were my favorite Arizona vintages.

A restaurant in Scottsdale called FnB - the food is excellent and the owners are even better - serves only Arizona wines and they turn people away at the door most nights - if that's not a good endorsement for the state's wines, nothing is.

FnB held a wine tasting event a few years ago and Arizona wines topped the competition, beating out French, Italian and California vintages to take top spot in both the red and white catagories.

"Must have been a blind taste test," grumbled a fellow journalist and wine snob from Vancouver who wasn't much of an Arizona wine fan.

Well, like I said, it tastes pretty good to me so if you get a chance to sample I'd love to know what you think of Arizona wines. Please leave a comment.