Only a few more hours until summer’s last long weekend commences! Whether you’ll be lounging on the beach or vegging in front of a Law and Order: SVU, perhaps give a thought to how much working conditions have improved in this country. Labor Day came about in 1894, after the Pullman Strike drew attention to unfair practices. At its peak, the strike involved 250,000 workers. After it was over, President Cleveland made labor and union related issues top priority; the first Labor Day was celebrated 6 days after the strike ended.

OK, history lesson over! Where are you headed this weekend? Let us know in the comments section! If you’re not going anywhere, soak in some dreamy pictures of destination, close your eyes and imagine yourself there for a minute. Give yourself a special treat this weekend, like a massage, or some me time to catch up on your favorite trashy novel.

Get your beachside pool lounging going on at The Blue Diamond Riviera Maya in Cancun, Mexico

Now that’s what I call glamping! These luxury tends are at the Hintok River Camp at Hellfire Pass, Thailand (along the River Kwai)

Perhaps a preppy New England in and some wild dunes on Block Island are more your speed? Photo from The Inn at Old Harbor

The Sea Ranch Lodge in California is very high up on my bucket list; I’m not sure why I haven’t made it there yet! Could this room be any groovier?

Well my friends, I’ll be sweatin’ it out in Atlanta over the long weekend, so please share your dream destinations with me, I could use a little pick-me-up!

Decades before the likes of Jonathan Adler were bedecking chic hotels with their designer touches, there was Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971). Jacobsen was a pioneering Danish architect who designed every last detail of the S.A.S. Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. He even designed two chairs that went onto become modern icons, the Swan Chair and the Egg Chair for the lobby in 1958.

While many hotels tend to update and remodel periodically, the remodel of the S.A.S. Royal Copenhagen that occurred in the early 1980s was especially tragic. Well, not tragic for those who scored the original Swan and Egg chairs, which were not yet coveted by people the way they are today. Apparently, the hotel gave them away for a song. Fortunately, they did preserve one room, room 606. You have a good chance of scoring this room or at least getting a peek inside if you ask ahead of time (the hotel is now a Radisson). Flickr member Niquinho posted this great shot of room 606. How great is that aqua? It’s all very Don Draper-esque. Well, if Don Draper was Danish.

A more recent renovation honors Jacobsen’ legacy in a fresh way, with smart, contemporary spaces that give Danish modern style a big nod and incorporate the Jacobsen classics. In fact, I read somewhere that they spent about $500,000 snapping up a slew of licensed Swan and Egg chairs for this much-improved remodel. Here two Swan Chairs prove their versatility, serving as versatile occasional/office/dining chairs in a hotel room:

Two inviting Egg Chairs and ottomans in moss green provide great perches for reading the paper, catching a catnap or chatting with a colleague:

The new grand lobby enchants as its predecessor did during it’s grand debut over fifty years ago:

Planning a trip? Book a room here.

I took a quick trip to Cape Cod for the Fourth of July and managed to get a day in at one of my favorite places – Provincetown. This vibrant town right at the tip of the Cape is chock full of galleries mixed with schlocky tourist stores, fun destinations like John Derian’s little outpost store behind his P-town home and of course Varla Jean Merman, my personal favorite drag queen.

It’s never boring in Provincetown. While other towns are perfectly Cape Cod picturesque (think: Kennedy compound, rose-filled trellises, perfect paint jobs), P-town is a bit rusty peely and shabby in a good way. It’s full of surprises that way. I passed the lovely facade above when cutting down a cruddy alley.

It’s an authentic seaside look; these shingles and trimwork earned their weathering and they proudly hold onto it.

A peek down another alley led us right down to The Heller Gallery, which is well-curated and full of amazing works of art. It’s such a fun surprise to enter a beach shack with no idea the delights that awaited us inside!

Homes are not all meticulously maintained, but they sure pay attention to keeping their flowers in top form:

Of course, I can’t show you the texture and character of P-town without mentioning that it happened to be Bear Week:

The Cape has extensive bike trails. Just be sure yours has a bell if you cruise down Commercial Street; on the weekends it is chock full of pedestrians.

Victorian and Gothic architecture mix with typical Cape Cods along the charming streets of Provincetown. You can see why artists and writers have been so drawn to the area for so many years.
If you haven’t made it to this fun spot, I highly recommend a visit. You can ferry over from Boston for a day trip or shell out some bucks for public parking. Provincetown is a very popular summer destination, so make sure you have a reservation if you want to spend the night during the summertime.

I promised you a few more pictures of my wonderful trip to France’s Ruby Coast. We stayed at a wonderful apartment in Collioure, a town so beautiful that it inspired artists like Matisse and Derain to be incredibly prolific when they summered there, and inspired them to create Fauvism. The area continues to inspire artists, who flock there and sell their work in the many galleries and on the streets.

The town is on the Mediterranean Sea and has the usual history of being visited by the Greeks and Romans and having a fort and all that good crazy Euro seaside stuff. This is the Eglise Notre Dame des Anges and you can see it in many paintings, like this Matisse:

There are reproductions of paintings by famous artists right at the vistas that inspired them so many years ago all over the village.

One of the most fun things about this village are unexpected architectural details like this ceramic drainpipe …

… colorful pot attached to a wall …

… and amazing hand-painted ceramic tile details.

You can see here how the amazing colors of this town have always inspired artists.

Also colorful are the locals. One of the coolest things about Collioure is that American visitors are a rarity, so the locals were friendly and somewhat fascinated by us. This street musician sat right down, serenaded us with his friends, then looked into his bag of tricks and gave us each crazy instruments like thumb cymbals so we could join in the music making.

When my friend Heather needed a screwdriver, she popped into a bar (a bar where Picasso used to hang out) and asked if there was somewhere to buy one. One of the patrons ran home to apartment and gave her one to borrow.

A gallery announces itself with bright mosaic pots, petunias and a painted door. While you can drive into the village, most of its narrow streets are pedestrian only.

You can walk the rocky coast along this amazing path.

One end of the bay is the perfect spot for a hotel.

One of the most amazing things about this village is that its a microclimate. Tropical plants thrive, yet you can see the snow-covered mountains of the Pyrenees off in the distance beyond the palm trees. The hillsides leading down to the village are vineyards, best known for Banyuls, a sweet wine.

Collioure is about a 2 hour drive from the Barcelona airport on the highway, about 2.5 to three hours if you opt for the incredible coastline route for the last half of the trip. We visited in late April and while it was windy and we weren’t inspired to jump in the ocean, there were very few crowds. I hear that in the summer it can get more crowded than Edgartown, so I recommend going in the just-off season. Also, prices are lower then. If you have any more questions about a visit, please ask them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to find out the answers for you.

Well guys, I am on a sort-of vacation in Maine – that is to say that I am working but from one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s the kind of work week when you have no idea what day of the week it is. Thus, I don’t really have much in terms of links for you this week, because I’m staring out at lobster boats rather than staring out at the internet. However, being up here always makes me want to simplify and opens my eyes to the beauty of simple vernacular architecture. For example, this little dock shack in Port Clyde:

It’s a little hard to see, but the dock was built around a lovely rock that now sticks right up through it.

Then from the side, the simple adornment of a fishing net adds even more charm to the weathered siding and bright white trim. I dream of having blogging to you from  little shack like this.

Speaking of dreaming, my friend Kitty Sheehan posted a photo from The Dartbrook Lodge today that also had me drooling over its rustic simplicity:

The lodge is located in the Adirondacks about 4.5 hours from New York City.

For some reason, this had me thinking about A-frame houses, and wondering if you could rent them. Turns out, you can, all over the place. For example, this place in the Hocking Hills of Ohio, called Old Man’s Caves Chalets. This actually looks like a super-fun place, especially since there aren’t that many destinations in southeast Ohio:

Where are you headed for a little getaway this summer? Are you roughing it with a tent or in a rustic cabin or have you saved for a more luxurious trip? Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments section!