George Clooney Slept Here

When KLRN, the PBS station in San Antonio, produced a documentary on the recent expansion of its famous River Walk, Tommy Lee Jones provided the narration.

Why? Because he’s a proud native. Not only does the Oscar-winner live in Terrill Hills, a San Antonio suburb, but he owns a nearby cattle ranch and sits ringside at most San Antonio Spurs games.

And it’s not unusual to spot the famous actor strolling along the Paseo del Rio (or River Walk, as we English speakers call it). Twenty feet below street level, the San Antonio landmark with its outdoor cafes and charming boutiques has surpassed even the Alamo as the city’s most-visited attraction.

The 30-minute PBS documentary that Tommy Lee proudly voiced describes the expansion of the River Walk that provides access to two historic Texas breweries that have been given hip new lives.

The “Museum Reach” section of the River Walk, unlike the busy commercial section, has native landscaping, lots of public artwork and bicycle and dog-friendly paths. While you might, as my river guide shrewdly pointed out, “spot a few tourists in their native habitat,” you’re more likely to see ducks or herons stealthily stalking lunch.

Thanks to an innovative lock and dam system, you can now ride a river boat all the way to San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) that, not too long ago, used to be the Lone Star Brewery. Built in 1884 by beer baron Adolphus Busch, the iconic landmark was turned into the award-winning art museum in 1981. Since then, it has won many architectural awards and been expanded three times including a 30,000-square foot Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art.

The River Walk’s “Museum Reach” also gives access to the repurposed Pearl Brewery that was shuttered in 2001 after more than 100 years of beer-making. Thanks to the far-sightedness of Kit Goldsbury, the Pace Salsa billionaire, the 22-acre complex has roared back to life as an edgy foodie destination.

The post-industrial riverfront complex hosts several of San Antonio’s best restaurants (La Gloria that riffs on the Mexican street vendor scene and Il Sogno Osteria, an always crowded Italian restaurant with an open kitchen and a wood-burning oven, to name a few), a twice-weekly farmer’s market (featuring everything from lavender soap, watercress and free range eggs to heritage pork, grass-fed bison and sour cream pecan muffins), a kitchenware store owned by famed cookbook author, Melissa Guerra, (look for such hard-to-find items as authentic Mexican molcajetes, hand-embroidered dish towels and mesquite rolling pins) and a 30,000-square foot Culinary Institute of America cooking school.

As the third location for the prestigious C.I.A., the San Antonio version specializes in Latin American cuisine and offers a 30-week certification program and a just-opened bakery and cafe where customers can view students working in the test kitchens. Although plans are afoot to eventually offer associate degrees in culinary arts management just like the other campuses in Hyde Park, NY and St. Helena, CA, for now, day-long, two-day and weeklong culinary boot camps attract tall hats and apron-clad wanna-be’s mastering such chile-fueled recipes as Andean harvest pot roast in a clay pot.

Perhaps most commendable is the Pearl Complex solid commitment to sustainability from its 200-kilowatt solar installation, the largest in Texas, to drought-resistant xeriscaping. The Full Goods Building, once the brewery’s distribution center, is LEED-certified and brewery leftovers have been repurposed from chandeliers made from beer filters to flower beds made from old CO2 tanks.

The former Pearl Brewery complex also has a yoga studio, bicycle rental, an Aveda Institute, living space and an eclectic mix of businesses and nonprofit organizations such as The Nature Conservancy of Texas and the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture.

Don’t miss the hour-long Saturday tours where you’ll learn everything from the enticing history of The Pearl (including an homage to Emma Koehler who successfully helmed the brewery after her husband, Otto, was murdered by his mistress) to an insiders looks at the recycled brewery stable, bottling warehouse and distribution center.

200 East Grayson Street; 210.212.7260; www.atpearl.com

In his home outside Geneva, Switzerland, Phil Collins has pictures of himself with Nelson Mandela, the Prince of Wales and Robert Plant. But the one he values most is the painting of himself standing next to the ill-fated defenders of the Alamo.

Painted by Gary Zaboly, a noted historian and author who is co-writing a book about the Alamo with the seven-time Grammy award-winner, its called “Travis’s Line” and it hangs in Collins’ basement/museum. In it, an imagined depiction of the Alamo’s American garrison in 1836, immediately before the famous battle, Collins is wearing a military uniform alongside 184 19th-century American frontiersman.

Collins, who says he has been obsessed by Davy Crocket and the Alamo since he was a young boy, has one of the world’s largest collections of Alamo memorabilia including hundreds of cannonballs, a pouch once owned by Davy Crocket, a certificate proclaiming him an honorary member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and a receipt signed by Alamo commander William Barrett Travis for 32 head of cattle to be used to feed the Alamo defenders.

Collins has served on Alamo history panels alongside professors and other notable experts and regularly shows up in San Antonio to hobnob with Alamo groupies, one of whom told him he was one of the defenders in a previous life. Carolyn Raine, a documentary producer, lecturer and Native American cookbook writer, took it upon herself to let Collins know that he was the reincarnated Alamo messenger, John W. Smith, the red-headed horse courier whose nickname was El Colorado and who later became San Antonio’s mayor.

Although he has gotten a lot of flack about it, Collins, like most kids of his generation, watched Fess Parker playing Davy Crockett on TV and pestered his parents for coonskin caps and toy rifles. The former Genesis’ drummer’s first solo performance, in fact, when he was barely 5 was of the famous theme tune “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.”

This year, during the 175th anniversary of the battle made famous by John Wayne and, yes, Pee-Wee Herman, Collins agreed to play a free concert, but city red tape prevented it from happening in time for the March 6 commemoration, a yearly reenactment honoring the Texas heroes.

With or without Phil Collins, it’s a great year to visit San Antonio and the 18th-century mission church where Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and 188 others waged their famous last stand against the Santa Anna’s Mexican army. The most famous historical site in Texas, the mission has been restored to its original glory and offers tours, relics of the past and a gift shop with such memorabilia as John Wayne beach towels, chocolate Alamos and serious history books.

And while you’re there, don’t miss the San Antonio River Walk with its cypress-lined paths that wind past boutiques, galleries, outdoor restaurants and now, with the addition of the Museum Reach, a new 1.3 mile stretch of river walk, several of San Antonio’s best museums including the San Antonio Museum of Art, housed in the old Lone Star brewery. Unusual art installations, native plants and waterfalls line the Museum Reach which culminates at the former Pearl Brewery that has been turned into a culinary wonderland with a weekly Farmer’s Market, unique restaurants and the opening of the third branch of the Culinary Institute of America.

Colonial Spanish days comes alive at San Antonio’s five 18th-century missions and, after snapping a photo of yourself in front of the Rose window, you can wander La Villita, San Antonio’s first neighborhood that has been converted into boutiques, jewelry shops and restaurants.

For more on this city that has captured Phil Collins’ heart, click here. Or contact the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800.447.3372.

And if you don’t see Phil in person, you can hear his narration on a 13-minute “Alamo Diorama Light and Sound Show” at the History Shop near the former mission at 713 E. Houston St.

Hanging out at the spa with Jennifer Aniston isn’t as much fun as you might think. For one thing, there’s the autograph issue. Instead of relaxing, enjoying the soothing New Age music, your mind is spinning, wondering, “Should I ask or shouldn’t I?”

Even though you’re at the spa to completely forget about your crazy life, you’re suddenly overly self-conscious, worrying about your unshaved legs, the middle left toenail you forgot to repaint. Instead of getting in the spa frame of mind, you’re obsessed with trying to remember if she’s still with John Mayer or is it Gerard Butler? Believe me, it’s much too stressful sitting next to a celebrity.

Which is why spas now have VIP spa suites, private rooms where the stars (and others who can afford it) can sneak in, get royally pampered and leave without the white-robed plebes in the waiting lounge being ever the wiser.

Desert Springs Resort in Palm Springs has two spa suites or sanctuaries as they call them. As the largest spa in southern California, it’s a good thing. Not only does it spare the A-list from having to deal with admiring fans, but it gives other customers the space to truly focus on their own bodies and needs.

Although no one’s admitting it, I have it on good authority that the largest of the two spa suites, ringing in at a massive 600-square-feet, is a favorite of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony and has been rented by Oprah and the stars of the Housewives of Orange County.

It’s also perfect for girlfriend getaways, bachelorette parties and couple’s retreats. I recently spent the day at Spa Desert Springs in the very same suite. Staffed by a personal butler, the Sanctuary not only has a private entrance (a flag on the wooden double door indicated that no one else was allowed to disturb my party of nine girlfriends), but it has a private courtyard (allowing Howard Hughes-types unnoticed access to the resort’s two award-winning golf courses) and a tastefully decorated sitting room where we were served a luscious low-cal lunch. It has two adjoining (and private) treatment rooms, digitally programmable overhead rain showers, an indoor/outdoor fireplace, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, a wet bar and a flat-screen, high def TV. While no one’s about to ask for my autograph, I definitely felt like a star.

The spa itself, recently named to Conde Nast Traveler’s “Hot List,” rings in at 38,000-square feet with a whopping 47 treatment rooms. Part of Desert Springs recent $30 million renovation, the spa incorporates limestone and Brazilian walnut throughout. It has a gorgeous 10-foot waterfall adjacent to the check-in desk, Turkish-inspired hammams and uses products and treatments from the surrounding Sonoran Desert. Their signature treatment, the Desert Journey, is inspired by the scents of the desert in bloom.

Click here for more information on the spa and the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort, located in the heart of California’s Coachella Valley.

When Buddy Bombard was 12, his mom sat him down for a serious talk. “Buddy,” she said, “life is short. Seek out towering adventures.”

The young lad took his mom at her word, leaving the next day for a solo eight-mile bike ride to the nearest ocean where he hitched his first ride on a sailboat. For the next 20 years—from the age of 14 to 34–he crewed on many sailboats, eventually helping captain three America’s Cup yachts.

But by 1968, at the ripe old age of 35, Buddy began to fear life was passing him by. Sure, he’d seen many ports of the world, but he longed to see what was beneath the sea, what was beyond the port. His Dartmouth economics degree and his job as an insurance executive just wasn’t cutting it.

He offered to takeover the reins of the Chalet Club, a club of wealthy skiers who had bought a rail car, outfitted it with a player piano and stewardesses and used it to take them to the slopes of Stowe, Vermont each weekend. Buddy reckoned if these club members liked barreling down snow-capped mountains, they might be talked into jumping out of airplanes and rafting down untamed rapids. Soon the Chalet Club, under Buddy’s leadership, became what he called “a ski club gone berserk.” His members were pushing themselves further and further afield. One of the early trips even involved scouting the Loch Ness monster. Buddy’s Chalet Club became for all practical purpose the world’s first adventure travel company.

Today, Buddy, an Air Force jet pilot, skier, scuba instructor, honored balloon pilot, gourmet and renowned raconteur, helms his own company, one he has been running since 1977. Buddy Bombard’s Europe specializes in ballooning adventures in Europe.

Buddy still personally escorts each trip. Thanks to his longstanding friendships with some of Europe’s most colorful nobility (Princess Manni Wittengenstein of Salzburg and Prince Girolamo and Princess Irinia Strozzi of Florence, to drop just a few names), Buddy’s guests often receive private invitations to ancestral estates. They dine in centuries old castles, in private villas, in posh French restaurants and even on-board the balloon.

Every January during the Chateau d’Oex International Alpine Balloon Festival, Buddy extends his normal “Highlights of the Alps” trip to take in the world famous festival that includes the best balloons from all over Europe. On this nine-day excursion through the Swiss Alps, three of Buddy’s nine 8-story, baby blue balloons catch the dawn thermals and compete in precision events with more than 100 balloons ranging from a huge winged cow to giant frog to a hot air balloon cell phone. You’ll float with this stellar fleet through quaint mountain villages, over herds of black chamois mountains goats, by walled medieval castles.

Many of Buddy’s guests combine the trip with a ski vacation in Gstaad, where the likes of Julie Andrews and Roger Moore have homes.

Buddy currently offers eight ballooning itineraries in six European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey) ranging from five to ten days in length. Buddy’s guests stay at luxury hotels chosen for their local charm and historical significance. When he’s not working, Buddy splits his time between a home in West Palm Beach, Florida and an estate, Château de Laborde, in Beaune, France.

Here’s the short list of customers you may have heard of: Julia Child, Joan Rivers, Mary Tyler Moore, Kirk Douglas, Helen Gurley Brown, Malcolm Forbes.

Click here for more info on plying the skies with Buddy.

Just weeks before their much-publicized breakup, Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal had one last romantic interlude at Post Ranch Inn, the serene, seductive getaway atop the cliffs of Big Sur, California.

This breathtaking inn with endless views of the Pacific Ocean has won permanent spots on everybody’s “green list” thanks to its organic architecture that curves around old-growth trees and makes use of reclaimed wood, glass, stone and steel. A few of the 40 rooms are even built on nine-foot stilts to protect delicate root balls below. Protected habitats, using only drought-resistant native plants, provide refuge for endangered Smith’s Blue Butterfly, California Red-Legged Frog, Western Pond Turtle and California Condor. Needless to say, the intimate inn is powered by a solar array and its limo is a Lexus Hybrid convertible which guests can take for free into nearby Carmel and Monterey.

Not only does this one-of-a-kind eco-inn sing harmony with nature, but it has daily yoga classes, nightly star-gazing sessions and outdoor pools and hot tubs from which guests can watch migrating whales. The spiraling Pacific Suites with their floor-to-ceiling windows offer stars like Swift and Gyllenhaal commanding views without forsaking privacy.

Post Ranch Inn’s acclaimed Sierra Mar restaurant has one of North America’s most extensive wine cellars with bottles from both well-known wine producers and from rare boutique vineyards. Executive Chef Craig von Foerster’s four-course, prix fixe organic menu changes daily depending on what’s in season.

Although Post Ranch Inn didn’t open until 1992, it has been in the Post family for more than 150 years. In fact, the boutique inn’s logo is the ranch’s cattle brand. Explorer and entrepreneur William Brainard Post married a local Costanoan Indian and became one of the first to homestead Big Sur’s wild beauty. W.B.’s New England-style house that sits on Highway 1 across from the entrance to Post Ranch Inn is a registered historic landmark.

All 40 guests rooms at Post Ranch Inn, paneled with redwood salvaged from old wine barrels, come with king-size beds, wood-burning fireplaces, either indoor or outdoor hot tubs and free mini-bar.

As for Taylor, who tends to write songs that reflect her life, she’s busy looking for words that rhyme with Gyllenhaal.

Post Ranch Inn: Highway 1, Big Sur, California, 831.667.2200, http://www.postranchinn.com.

Sean Young, the American actress who played the love interest of Harrison Ford (Blade Runner) and Kevin Costner (No Way Out) wasn’t much of a skater on this year’s debut season of “Skating with the Stars.” But she introduced TV viewers to an important new fashion trend: repurposing old clothes.

The whimsical, colorful cloche hats and fingerless gloves that Young wore as she tripped around on the ice with Russian skater Denis Petukhov are one-of-a-kind art pieces made out of those ugly old Christmas sweaters we so love to poke fun of.

Baabaazuzu, a wildly creative design shop in Lake Leelanau, Michigan, handcrafts vests, sweaters, scarfs, gloves and purses out of recycled wool sweaters and blankets. Every two weeks, a 1500-pound bale of discarded wool garments arrives and owner Sue Burns and her team wash the old sweaters, shrink them down into felt and stitch them into gorgeous, one-of-a-kind warm woolies.

It all started when Burns’ husband offered to do the wash. Not savvy in the details of laundry, he threw Sue’s favorite wool sweaters in with the underwear shrinking them to peewee size. Unable to part with her long-time favs, she made lemonade out of lemons by cutting them up and stitching them into matching hats and jackets for her then young kids. Other mothers at their grade school went ga-ga over the hats and jackets and before she knew it, her Sears-Kenmore sewing machine couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Today, 18 years later, baabaazuzu employs 24 artisans who turn old woolens into Sue’s funky, creative hats, mittens and bags. Sold at more than 900 retailers around the world, each baabaazuzu piece is like no other. Even a pair of mittens has two unique hands.

“We never know what fabrics, garments, colors and textures will show up,” says Burns, who runs the company with husband Kevin.

Baabaazuzu’s growing fan base looks mighty snazzy in their custom wool apparel, but even more satisfying is knowing they kept one more thing out of the landfill.

Just don’t expect the hats and glove to help you skate better.

Click here for more on baabaazuzu, 231.256.7176, 1006 S. Sawmill Road, Lake Leelanau, Michigan.

Next Monday’s episode (2/7/11) of “The Bachelor” is guaranteed to set off some seismic eruptions. Not because Brad Womack is planning a repeat performance of his 2007 refusal to marry either of the final two contestants, but because the episode is shot in entirety in Costa Rica at the base of one of the world’s ten most active volcanoes.

Although Volcan Arenal hasn’t seriously erupted since 1968 when it buried three small villages and killed 87 people, it still rumbles every day with showy smoke, ash columns and glowing orange lava. Every room and suite at the five-star Springs Resort and Spa where Womack and the six remaining beauties were filmed in October 2010 has stunning, floor to ceiling views of the volcano’s nightly fireworks show.

Nestled on 165 acres of its own rainforest reserve, Springs Resort and Spa was a match made in heaven for the popular reality show. With 18 natural hot springs, spectacular mountaintop views and lushly-landscaped grounds, the resort is a regular Cupid at inspiring romance. No wonder it won TripAdvisor 2011 Traveler’s Choice Award as best spa resort in Central or South America.

The spectacular La Fortuna region, where the resort is located, draws tens of thousands of tourists each year who come to not only gawk at the volcano’s nightly light spectacle, but to swim and fish in Costa Rica’s largest fresh water lake and to soak in the region’s many heavenly hot springs.

Womack and his dates were no exception as they rappelled down waterfalls, explored caves and ziplined through the jungle compliments of Pure Trek Costa Rica, an outdoor expedition company that has also been known to arrange horseback riding, kayaking, fishing, bird watching and other romantic adventures.

Springs Resort and Spa, in conjunction with Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy, operates a wildlife rescue preserve with 25 jungle cats and monkeys. It also has a magnificent 14,000 square foot spa, four restaurants and five bars.

For more about this romantic getaway, click here.

Although Jennifer Aniston sightings were rampant in the Atlanta press when the famous actress was filming “Wanderlast” last fall, it was actually a couple sightings reported over and over again. Most inadvertent public appearances were avoided thanks to the private Bentley owned by the St. Regis where she stayed.

This limo, one of many indulgences in this stellar property in exclusive Buckhead, is used to secretively whisk its clients from the hotel to the various restaurants and shops that they frequent. Atlanta’s new St. Regis also offers such jaw-droppers as a $40,000 bottle of Dom Perignon’s White Gold Jeroboam, 24-hour butler service and enough white-gloved, “yes, maaming” that you’ll feel like Scarlet O’Hara before the war.

The hotel’s Empire Suite, 2800 square feet of posh, has a fireplace, a piano, original art and its own private Techno gym. You didn’t think Jen looks like that without an effort, did you? The three-bedroom suite that rings in at $6000 a night stays pretty busy. Dennis Quaid, Josh Duhamel and Cindy Crawford are a few other well-knowns who have enjoyed the suite’s handcrafted chandeliers, macasser ebony furnishings and deep soaking white marble tub.

Perhaps most beloved by Atlantans is the hotel’s glamorous, white, tent-topped skating rink. Located on the seventh floor terrace, next to the pool, the billiard table, the fireplace and the waterfall, the Astor Holiday Rink, as it’s called, is open to the public.

Of course, so is the famous bar with the top-shelf cocktails, but with Owen Wilson hogging one of the tables (at least when he was in town filming the upcoming “Hall Pass’) and cocktails going for $10-plus, the Atlanta St. Regis is usually reserved for cushy once-a-year occasions.

Click here for more about this resort dubbed the “Beverly Hills of the South.”

Brad and Angie made headlines early this month when they donated $2 million to the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary after spending Christmas with Marlice and Rudie van Vuuren, owners of the 10,000-hectare Namibian sanctuary.

It wasn’t the first time Angelina has come to the aid of Marlice who she met in 2002 while filming “Beyond Borders.” Marlice, a staunch wildlife conservationist, provided the vultures for the 2003 thriller co-starring Clive Owens.

Marlice, a beauty just like Angelina, has supplied animals for more than 30 films and ads. After becoming fast friends with Marlice and Goeters, Marlice’s domesticated cheetah, Angelina asked to help in her wildlife rehabilitation.

The Harnas Wildlife Foundation where Marlice grew up (it was started on her parents’ farm in 1978 after a maltreated vervet monkey took up refuge, the first of a long line of orphaned and abused animals) needed $200,000 for fencing that would help turn the cattle ranch into a nature preserve.

At that time, the Pitt-Jolie’s spent several days on the sanctuary, falling in love with the stark landscape, the wide open spaces and the noble work the Vuurens were doing. They even decided to give birth to Shiloh in Swakopmund, Namibia, a move scoffed by some critics.

Christmas 2010 was chosen as the perfect time for a return visit, not only so Shiloh could stay in touch with her birthplace, but so the family could enjoy some down time at the sanctuary’s beautifully-designed lodge with floor to ceiling plate glass windows.

The kids spent several days hanging out with a three-legged cheetah named Lucky (Lucky rides in Marlice’s VW Golf and starred in ad for the German car manufacturer in 2009), and a menagerie of big cats, baboons and wild dogs. They helped Marlice and five-year-old son, Zacheo, feed orphaned baby baboons and foxes, watched Rudie stitch up a wild dog, visited the San school on the farm and even watched a leopard released back into the wild.

Marlice and Rudie, a rugby star turned doctor, started N/a’an ku sê, which means “God Will Protect Us” both to preserve African wildlife and to provide a “safe home” and livelihood for the San people, Namibia’s original inhabitants. Marlice grew up with the local Bush people (she’s fluent in their language) and, together with Rudie, maintains a school and free health clinic. Lifeline Clinic at Epukiro provide healthcare to more than 3500 patients.

To find out more on N/a’an ku sê, click here.

Normal people throw secret bachelorette parties in their downstairs den or the local Holiday Inn. But when Cameron Diaz threw a bachelorette party for her BFF Gucci Westman, she rented a whole resort in Eleuthera, a 110-mile strip of beautiful in the Bahamas.

Thanks to a little “white lie” from Westman’s agent, Diaz even managed to keep the whole thing top secret until the very moment Westman’s blindfold came off.

Why did Diaz pick Eleuthera? It’s surely not the same reason most people go to the Bahamas—namely casinos and ritzy boutiques. She picked it because of what it isn’t. Eluethera isn’t commercial or crowded or jammed with tourists. This laidback island where Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey both have homes has one 100-mile pot-holed road, dozens of deserted beaches, quaint clapboard homes and laidback friendly people.

First discovered in 1648 by English pilgrims, Eleuthera (it means freedom in Greek) was known mainly for its pineapple plantations and Henry Sands’ homemade bread (Prince Charles and Princess Diana served it at their royal wedding). For a while in the 60’s Juan Trippe, founder of Pan Am Airlines, used it as a remote playground for his wealthy friends. That is until Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc.

Although Travel+Leisure recently picked Eleuthera as “most likely to succeed” and developers have been coming up with resort blueprints, it and its spectacular cliffs and pink sand beaches (50 beaches in all) are, for now, still undeveloped and a perfect place to just “chill.”

Which is what Diaz and Westman did at the surprise bachelorette party before Westman’s 2006 wedding to Rag & Bone Designer David Neville. Diaz, who served as maid of honor, met Westman in 1999 when the now-celebrated makeup designer turned the blond beauty into an unrecognizable hausfrau in “Becoming John Malkovich.”