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Your GPS is ringing

AAA has entered the GPS navigation market. But the beauty of this deal is that you don’t have to buy a GPS device. If you have a GPS-enabled Sprint, Verizon or Alltel wireless phone, you can push a few buttons, download some software, and your phone becomes a GPS navigation device that includes AAA travel-guide services, such as restaurant and hotels ratings. In our testing, the AAA Mobile service worked as well as the more expensive GPS devices on the market but with two drawbacks: The program draws down on the cellphone battery very fast, and we found nowhere to put the cellphone so we could see the screen while driving. Price: $9.99 per month plus usage fees. Check your cellphone to upload the program or go to www.aaa -calif.com/gpsapps for more information.

-- Hugo Martin

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Color of cold

Artist Gordon Halloran, as befitting his Canadian roots, works in ice. His bold abstract paintings will be part of a celebration of winter at Chicago’s Millennium Park from Friday to Feb. 29. The installation will incorporate a brilliantly colored, 95-foot-long ice wall into the park’s art and architecture. The program is free and will include an ice rink, games, art projects and dancing. Info: (877) 244-2246, www.museumofmodernice.com.

-- Chris Erskine

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It’s show time

It’s high time you began planning your vacation, and the Los Angeles Times Travel & Adventure Show may give you some ideas. The show will be held Feb. 9 and 10 at the Long Beach convention center, at 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Headliners include travel experts Rick Steves, Arthur and Pauline Frommer, and Phil Keoghan of the “Amazing Race.” The show will have more than 500 exhibitors, trip giveaways and entertainment. Admission is $8 for adults, free for children 16 and younger. Hours for the public are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For info: latimes.com/extras/travelshow.

-- Vani Rangachar

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Culinary tastes

Think of it as a giant tapas party featuring the best of the culinary world. Thomas Keller (above), Jacques Pepin, Gary Danko, Todd English and Michael Mina are among top chefs who will be cooking at the first Pebble Beach Food & Wine event March 27 to 30. The four-day epicurean festival, which brings together more than 50 chefs and over 200 wineries, includes encounters with the chefs and vintners, cooking demonstrations, wine-pairing dinners and two Grand Tastings in a 30,000-foot tent. A single-day pass is $165; packages go up to $12,400 per person, double occupancy, for three nights in one of the Pebble Beach resorts, hobnobbing with celebrity chefs, all events and after-hours parties. Info: (866) 907-3663, www.pebblebeach foodandwine.com.

-- V.R.