The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (20 page)

Among her private owners was Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monahan. When Monahan decided to sell the
Chimes
in the late 1990s, the most likely buyer was Japanese. Then the ship’s captain, Kip Files, put together a plan to purchase the ship with fellow captain Paul DeGaeta to maintain the
Chimes
’ American heritage.

The 132-foot wooden ship—designated a national historic landmark—carries a maximum of 40 passengers. Most pitch in to help the crew with the sails at the beginning of each day—after fortification with fresh-brewed coffee, fruit, hearty eggs, and biscuits baked in the snug galley—and again at day’s end. Between, you’ll go where the winds take you. Cappy—yes, the crew really calls him that—plots the daily course based on weather and the length of the trip. Most days begin with a ride via the yawl boat into the town at the previous night’s anchorage, where you might walk to a century-old lighthouse, visit a general store, or stroll through a small artists gallery.

But the best part of the day is spent on board—reading, chatting with fellow passengers, scanning for porpoises and whales, and watching the craggy coast roll by. Even on a foggy day, the trip takes on an air of romance, and you may well believe that you’ve slipped into the maritime past. Until the next meal, that is, when the cheery crew serves up homemade soup, fresh salads, lobster, corn on the cob, or a heaping tray of pork in barbecue sauce. Just don’t count the calories; you’re on vacation, after all.

MAINE WINDJAMMER FLEET

A dozen classic sailing ships called wind-jammers compose the Maine Windjammer Association; a few additional ships sail the waters as well. Most are based in the towns of Rockport, Rockland, and Camden.

Each ship is individually owned. Some date from the 1800s; a few were built as windjammer cruisers. Each has her own character and hosts occasional specialty cruises for families, photographers, lighthouse enthusiasts, and more; the historic
Stephen Taber,
for instance, features wine weekends.

Each season the fleet gathers for parades, races, and holiday celebrations; dates vary by year.
Maine Windjammer Association, 800-807-9463,
www.sailmainecoast.com
.

The
Victory Chimes
sails from Rockland, in Maine’s mid-coast region, from June through late September. Three-day sails start at $450 per person and include three generous family-style meals daily plus hors d’oeuvres each evening; guests bring their own sodas and alcoholic beverages that can be iced in the cooler. Veterans and their families and those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries get a discount. Dress is extremely casual; anything fancier than jeans is overkill. Because this is a historic vessel, there are no accommodations for those with disabilities.

Children are allowed, though the trip may not be suitable for very young children who can’t navigate the stairs, or those who go stir-crazy without TV.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

Victory Chimes,
800-745-5651,
www.victorychimes.com
.

MidCoast Chamber Council,
800-787-4284,
www.mainesmidcoast.com
.

honor the struggle for civil rights

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.

—
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., “LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL” (1963)

21 |
Key events in the civil rights movement occurred throughout the South, but perhaps none with such notoriety as those that unfolded in Birmingham, Alabama. “The most segregated city in America,” that’s what Birmingham was dubbed in the 1950s. Bathrooms, water fountains, restaurants, movies, and streetcars all had separate sections for blacks and whites—if blacks were allowed at all. Ku Klux Klan cross burnings and bombings were common. When the U.S. Supreme Court banned school segregation in 1954, Alabama simply ignored the ruling.

The
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
(520 16th St. N, 205-328-9696 ext. 203,
www.bcri.org
, $12, free on Sun.) focuses on the struggle for civil rights…and forms the centerpiece of a getaway to this friendly (and affordable) Southern city. The photos, personal testaments, and news accounts memorialized in the institute are painful to read, hear, and watch—but a critical part of U.S. history. Here are the bars of the jail cell from which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and a blackened carcass of a bus replicating one ridden by Freedom Riders firebombed in 1961. Most chilling, perhaps, are exhibits recalling the 1963 rally by thousands of schoolchildren—a peaceful protest turned ugly when Police Chief Bull Connor turned water cannon and attack dogs on the crowd. Images of the conflict were shown around the world, and within days, segregation in Birmingham officially ended.

The institute is the centerpiece of Birmingham’s Civil Rights District. Across the street lies both the
Kelly Ingram Park
(6th Ave. N & 16th St.), where Connor attacked the protesters, and the
16th Street Baptist Church
(1530 6th Ave. N, 205-251-9402), where a Sunday morning bombing in 1963 killed four young girls. Entry to both is free; an audio tour of Kelly Ingram Park, available at the Civil Rights Institute, runs $5.

Found within walking distance of the institute are both the
Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
(1631 4th Ave. N, 205-254-2731,
www.jazzhall.com
, self-guided tours $2), in the historic Carver Theatre, and the
Fourth Avenue Business District
(4th Ave. N bet. 15th & 18th Sts.), once the hub of black commerce.

MORE CIVIL RIGHTS SITES BEYOND BIRMINGHAM

CivilRightsTravel.com (created by co-author Larry Bleiberg) notes the following as must-see civil rights sites:

 
Central High School
. Three years after the Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools, nine brave students in 1957 tried to enroll in Little Rock, Arkansas’ white public high school. An angry mob fought them, so President Eisenhower sent in federal troops. The story is told at a moving National Park Service site. Call ahead for a tour of the high school, which is still operating.
Central High School, 2120 Daisy Bates Dr., Little Rock, 501-374-1957,
www.nps.gov/chsc
.

 
International Civil Rights Center & Museum
. Four freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University sat down at a “Whites’ Only” Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960. Their sit-in sparked similar protests throughout the region, and six months later, Woolworth’s backed down. This new museum occupies the former store and documents the students’ pivotal role in history.
International Civil Rights Center
&
Museum, 134 S. Elm St., Greensboro, 336-274-9199,
www.sitinmovement.org
, $8.

 
Lowndes County Interpretive Center
. The nation was shocked on March 7, 1965, when lawmen attacked voting rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a day that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Two weeks later, a federal judged cleared the way for the protest march to Montgomery. This National Park Service visitor center, located along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, tells the story of the march, which led to passage of the National Voting Rights Act.
Lowndes County Interpretive Center, 7001 U.S. 80W, Hayneville, 334-877-1984,
www.nps.gov/semo
.

 
Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site.
Martin Luther King, Jr., personified the civil rights movement through the 1950s and ’60s. Discover his story in the preserved Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, which was the center of African-American life. Admission is free, but you will need to register to tour his birth home.
Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site, 450 Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta, 404-331-5190,
www.nps.gov/malu
.

 
National Civil Rights Museum.
Dr. King’s life came to an end at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The assassination site is carefully preserved at this ambitious museum, including King’s motel room, number 306, and the adjacent guesthouse, where James Earl Ray allegedly shot Dr. King from a bathroom window.
National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry St., Memphis, 901-521-9699,
www.civilrightsmuseum.org
, $13.