Getting the flavor of...Augusta, after the Masters

Augusta, after the Masters

Hurrying is a concept that’s anathema in Augusta, Ga., said Andrea Sachs in The Washington Post. During any week that Georgia’s second-largest city isn’t hosting April’s annual Masters golf championship, the pace is decidedly leisurely. I learned that during a languid stroll on the city’s pretty, multitiered Riverwalk. Popping into the Morris Museum of Art, I had almost an hour to admire the hyper-realist watercolors of a South Carolina artist, but a friendly guard invited me to return for free on another day so I wouldn’t have to rush. Another “lazy, lazy afternoon” was spent on the Augusta Canal in an electric-powered replica of a 19th-century mule-drawn vessel. Only a privileged few ever wrangle tee times at the famous Augusta National Golf Club, but locals who’ve made disk golf a popular pastime are far more inclusive. To get in a match, just head to one of several courses “and look for the folks chasing rainbow-colored saucers through the trees.”

Puget Sound’s hippie island

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Washington’s Vashon Island possesses a unique “Mayberry meets Burning Man” character, said Ethan Todras-Whitehill in The New York Times. “In the island’s main town, shopkeepers greet their patrons by name,” while the nearby hills are home to a dozen small family farms—“the kind that in most places were swallowed up by big agribusiness decades ago.” Viewed another way, though, Vashon is also “an enclave of hippies,” complete with a vegan café, a “fair-trade” gift shop, and several art galleries. Located just 22 minutes from Seattle by ferry, it’s a great place to live but also “a popular destination” for day-trippers, including Seattle-area cyclists and kayakers. The island is home to an opera company, and a $16.5 million performing arts center is opening soon. Nowhere captures the island’s spirit quite like the Burton Coffee Stand, though. Everyone from writers to farmers fill the Adirondack chairs outside to share stories and gossip. Outsiders are always welcome.